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He said vengeance was the "will of the nation" in a written statement read out on state TV. It was his first public message since his father's funeral ceremonies began this week.

Khamenei senior, 86, was killed in an air strike on 28 February, the first day of the US-Israeli war against Iran.

Meanwhile US President Donald Trump has warned any Iranian plans to kill him would see the US "decimate and destroy all areas" of Iran in response.

The threats came after an exchange of strikes between the US and Iran earlier this week, sparked by attacks on three commercial tankers, purportedly by Iran.

The exchanges have raised tensions between the two sides, prompting Trump to declare the ceasefire over, though he said talks aimed at ending the war would continue.

Ali Khamenei was buried in his home city of Mashhad on Friday after nearly a week of funeral ceremonies.

His son has not been seen in public since before the war, and is rumoured to have been disfigured in the strike which killed his father.

But his statement on Saturday was uncompromising.

"We pledge to avenge the blood of the martyred leader and all the martyrs of these two wars from the criminal and disgraced killers," he was quoted as saying.

"Vengeance is the will of our nation and must inevitably be carried out.

"The matter depends neither on my personal existence nor on that of other officials. Whether we are present or not, it will come to pass."

Those responsible "will take the wish for a peaceful death in their beds to their graves", he added.

There have been open calls for Trump's assassination at the funeral.

In the early hours of Saturday, Trump responded to reports that Iran had plans to assassinate him.

The US would "completely decimate and destroy all areas" of the country in retaliation to such an attack, he said.

The Wall Street Journal and other US media reported this week that Israel had shared intelligence with Washington that Iran had recently devised a plan to assassinate the US president.

However, Trump denied that Tehran had made a fresh plan or that Israel was the source of any intelligence. He told the New York Post in an interview that he had been "No. 1 [on Iran's kill list] for a long time".

Despite the threats being traded, mediators are still working to revive talks, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is currently in Oman for discussions.

US officials say they have conveyed through mediators the demand that Iran publicly state that the Strait of Hormuz, a vital international shipping route, is open and pledge to stop firing on commercial ships.

According to US media, Iran told American officials the attacks on tankers were a mistake and blamed a rogue internal group.

The incident prompted a series of US strikes on around 90 targets across Iran. On Saturday Iran's Health Ministry said 17 people were killed in the strikes and 115 injured. Iran responded with strikes on US allies in the Gulf.

The war began with US and Israeli attacks on 28 February, prompting Iran to attack Israel and US targets and allies in the Gulf.

In June, the US and Iran signed a ceasefire agreement where Iran would, in part, give safe passage to commercial ships.

Nothing to suggest Widdecombe killing was politically motivated, police say

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8628q3eqdeo, today

Police investigating the alleged murder of Ann Widdecombe say there is "nothing to suggest it was politically motivated".

Devon and Cornwall Police added they are not looking for anyone else in connection with her death, following the arrest of a 28-year-old white British man in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, on Saturday.

The former MP and MEP, 78, was found dead at her home in Haytor, Devon, on Thursday, having sustained serious injuries. Police believe she had been attacked almost 24 hours earlier.

Assistant Chief Constable Matt Longman said officers remained "open-minded" about a potential motive and that there was not thought to be any threat to the wider public.

The arrest was carried out shortly after 21:00 BST by officers at Counter Terrorism Police North East and South Yorkshire Police, on behalf of the force.

There is no information to suggest the attack on Widdecombe was terrorism-related, Longman told reporters on Sunday.

The family of the former Conservative minister, and later Reform UK spokesperson, have been informed of the updates and are being supported by specialist officers.

Devon and Cornwall Police has received more than 120 reports of information after making a public appeal, and Longman asked anyone who had not yet come forward to do so "as a priority".

He reiterated calls asking people not to speculate, especially about a potential motive, saying this was "unhelpful" for the investigation and "distressing" to Widdecombe's relatives.

Chief Constable James Vaughan said Devon and Cornwall Police had "mounted an extraordinary response to a horrific murder of a very prominent public figure" and shown "British policing at its very best".

He said the investigation had been running at "lightning pace" over the past 48 hours, adding: "I am really pleased that we have a suspect firmly in custody."

Widdecombe served as the Conservative MP for Maidstone for 23 years, holding ministerial roles in John Major's government between 1994 and1997.

Following her departure from the Commons in 2010, Widdecombe appeared on BBC's Strictly Come Dancing that year, and was a runner-up on Celebrity Big Brother eight years later.

She joined the Brexit Party in 2019 where she represented South West England as its MEP from 2019 to 2020.

Badly burned British couple rescued from ravine during Spain wildfires

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2x7441762o, today

A British couple have been found down a ravine, badly burned and semi-conscious, after being caught up in the deadly wildfires that tore through Spain's Almeria province, according to local media.

The pair are thought to have been out hiking when they were caught up in the blaze, which spread rapidly through the province on Thursday. They were evacuated and taken to hospital where they are in intensive care.

Hundreds of firefighters have been battling the fires, which have claimed the lives of 12 people including 4 Britons, and burned through 6,600 hectares (16,300 acres).

The identities of those killed have not yet been officially confirmed.

The couple were discovered by Civil Guard officers searching for survivors near the worst-hit village of Bedar in the early hours of Friday morning.

One of the rescuers, Sergeant Pedro Barre, said they heard distant cries for help.

"As you gain more experience, something inside you tells you, 'Look again, try one more time,'" he told Spain's TVE state broadcaster.

The rescue team followed the sound and climbed down a hillside. They found the couple in critical condition, semi-conscious and with severe burns covering 40% of their bodies.

"Being able to call out in the condition they were in was a titanic effort," said Rafael Zea, another of the officers involved in the operation.

"We'll never forget that look of surprise and emotion on their faces," Barre added.

On Saturday the authorities said firefighters had made significant progress in getting the fires under control.

Calmer winds and higher air humidity were expected to help the firefighters tackle the blaze.

About 600 of the nearly 1,500 people evacuated from the fire zone in Almería province were told they could return, regional emergency chief Antonio Sanz said.

A sustained heatwave with temperatures of around 40C (104F) has caused wildfires across Southern Europe this summer, particularly in France, Portugal and Spain.

On Friday, Los Gallardos mayor Francisco Miguel Reyes told Spanish radio station Cadena SER said "it feels like a bomb has fallen" on the area.

"This is the first time we've faced a fire as devastating as this."

Hundreds of firefighters, military and law enforcement personnel, and 30 aircraft, continued responding to the blaze.

Forensic scientists in Madrid are using samples from the bodies of the victims and DNA samples from the families of those reported missing to try to identify the dead.

The identification process has been slowed because collecting DNA samples from relatives has proved difficult, with family members traveling from other countries.

With at least 12 people dead, this is already among the deadliest wildfires in Spanish history.

In 1984, 20 people died in a fire on the Canary Island of La Gomera, while in 1979, 21 people, including nine children, died in a forest fire near Lloret de Mar in north-eastern Spain.

Wildfires have also plagued France over the summer months.

On Monday over 10,000 people were evacuated from their homes in the foothills of the French Pyrenees.

French authorities said on Saturday 32 people had been arrested on suspicion of starting the fires.

Climate change is driving up temperatures around the world, and Europe is the fastest warming continent, heating up twice as fast as the global average, according to the Copernicus climate service.

This is causing increased summer heatwaves, greater pressure on Europe's water supply, and more intense wildfires.

T. rex could become most expensive fossil ever - but it's a problem for scientists

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gykgyn1r4o, today

In 1997, Sotheby's hosted its first natural history auction selling fossils and other wonders of our prehistoric world.

It was a niche event mostly attended by the world's museums looking for specimens to add to their collections.

On the books that day was a Tyrannosaurus Rex called Sue - she was eventually sold for $8m (£6m) to the Field Museum in Chicago.

Nearly 30 years later, on Tuesday, another T. rex will make an appearance at the annual auction - one of the most complete specimens of this kind ever found.

And this time it is not just scientists who are dinosaur-hunting but also the super-rich.

The new specimen, known as Gus, has already been valued at $30m but it could fetch more, possibly even becoming the most expensive dinosaur ever sold.

It adds to a growing debate in the natural history world – should specimens of such scientific importance be reserved for museums and their scientists?

Or - as auctioneers would argue - should fossil hunters be rewarded for their discovery of dinosaurs lost to science and saving them from a second extinction?

Cassandra Hatton, global head of natural history at Sotheby's, knows very well the lengths some fossil scientists - palaeontologists - are willing to go to in the search for these creatures.

"People die on excavations," she says.

And for many of these hunters, the ultimate prize is the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

This dinosaur that lived millions of years ago hardly needs describing, having been immortalised in our culture by appearances in films like King Kong and Jurassic Park, and as the namesake of an English rock band.

"The people that look for these fossils will spend months out in the field with tents and their food in their backpacks and they're camping out in the middle of nowhere with the rattlesnakes and the bugs and the mountain lions," she explains.

This is South Dakota - Badlands country - where Gus was eventually discovered 67 million years after roaming our planet.

But finding it is almost the easy part, explains Dr Fiann Smithwick, an independent palaeontologist who has been collecting and preserving fossils for the past 20 years.

"Suddenly when they're out of the ground, they're out of equilibrium, and that normally means they start to decay, fall apart."

Thomas Heitkamp and the team that discovered Gus - named after the late Gary "Gus" Licking, a cattle rancher whose land it was found on - spent three years carefully excavating.

"But it's not the full year," Cassandra Hatton explains. "You can only dig during the field season. So you have to wait till the ground has thawed. And then you are furiously digging until the ground freezes again [in September]."

In 2023, the dig was complete, but the team was only halfway through the recovery process. They then spent a further three years documenting and reconstructing the T. rex back in the lab.

Tuesday's auction will be a payday that has been a long time coming for the team, and could be the biggest yet.

Gus has the highest pre-sale valuation at $30m.

The record for a dinosaur auction is currently held by Apex, a Stegosaurus sold by Sotheby's in 2024 for $44.6m - but that was 11 times what it had originally been valued at going into the auction.

If you are inclined to put a bid in this time, your starting offer cannot be lower than $19m.

For some of the oldest and largest museums in the world dealing in fossils, even this is out of reach.

"We're already priced out of having access to many, many specimens," explains Prof Susannah Maidment, dinosaur researcher at London's Natural History Museum (NHM).

The five most expensive dinosaurs sold at auction have all been since 2020, including Stan a T. rex sold for $31.8m in 2020 - the guide price had been $6-8m.

And this, she says, is "really problematic".

"There's no substitute for having the real fossil. If we're going to do any sort of study, the number one thing is we need to understand the anatomy. We need to know what's real," Prof Maidment explains.

And she said palaeobiology - the study of past life on the planet - has never been more important.

"We are in what is probably a mass extinction right now, we're changing our environment very, very, very rapidly. The past is really the only kind of empirical data we have to tell us about what is going on right now and in the future," she says.

That is just the impact on the scientists. Prof Maidment says that for the public, being able to see the real bones of a dinosaur in a museum "helps them engage with the natural world".

She says that dinosaur specimens are no longer being seen for their scientific value "but like we might view art" as something to collect by wealthy individuals, which has driven the price up.

'A huge bite mark on the skull'

Cassandra Hatton argues that the price of Gus is a reflection of how important a specimen he is.

"Gus is one of the largest and most complete T. rex ever found, 61% of the bones has been identified - in general you find half of the skeleton that's a major scientific find," she says.

The condition of the bones also provides deep insight into the kind of life this creature would have had.

"There's a huge bite mark on the top of the skull, which could have been sustained during a battle. You've got broken bones - some of the ribs, you see huge lumps where they broke and they healed."

Cassandra Hatton says she has reached out to museums all over the world for months to get them to take part in the auction. She wants "something that's scientifically important to get it into the public trust".

But she said the price has to reflect the time, skill, expense and risks with recovering dinosaurs. "For a lot of excavators, some of these people are living hand to mouth. They're not wealthy people.

"They have to invest their own money. It's not billionaires digging them up."

But it is billionaires buying them.

Apex, the Stegosaurus, was auctioned to Kenneth Griffin, founder and CEO of the hedge fund Citadel. Griffin has since loaned Apex to the American Natural History Museum for four years.

Museums have for a long time relied on wealthy individuals bequeathing, loaning or donating artefacts to build their science and art collections, explains Dr Smithwick, who recovers and sells fossils professionally.

But unlike pieces of art, there is a big stumbling block to relying on the philanthropy of private estates when it comes to the study of fossils.

The most respected scientific journals will not accept any study done on a specimen in a private collection. It is almost as if it does not exist to the scientific world.

The argument is that scientists need to be able to revisit the fossil over many years - to agree and disagree, to check their findings as other specimens emerge.

"What happens [if] that person gets bored of them, dies, gets divorced. And there have been many cases where specimens have been in private collections, and there's been a scientific description of them and [that has] gone in the skip," says Prof Maidment from NHM.

"So it's actually just not science anymore."

The second extinction of dinosaurs

Smithwick says the potential for losing specimens is also a risk with museums.

One of the most prolific early collectors of fossils was Mary Anning. In 1829, she discovered the first Squaloraja fossil - known as the fish with the "curling iron eyes" - it was an ancient creature which bridged the gap between sharks and rays. Its body was donated to the Bristol Institute but over a century later it was destroyed in a WWII bombing raid.

But they all agree - the fossil collector, the museum scientist, the auctioneer - that without the work and skill of these professional hunters, there would be no specimens to argue over and far fewer scientific discoveries.

"They're saving the dinosaurs from the second extinction," says Sotheby's Cassandra Hatton.

And Smithwick knows too well the race against time to save fossils in his hunting ground on the Jurassic coast of England.

"I've found a rock with the perfect impression of what was a fish an hour before, and now it's gone. If you imagine a wave coming in, splitting that rock open, the next wave comes along, just wipes out the fish.

"The sea has broken it into 10,000 pieces, and that is it. It is lost forever."

For fossils that are recovered in time, most will never make it to an auction house like Sotheby's.

They are smaller, less culturally revered, but he argues they can hold much greater value - to museums and the public.

"There are countless other specimens that will be scientifically more important in the grand scheme of palaeontology," says Dr Smithwick. "And you have got people selling ammonites to kids on the beach and that is inspiring curiosity in the outside world."

How Aldi is taking on US supermarkets with its $4 almond butter

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly0l5d5xn7o, today

When Mary Porter walked into Manhattan's newest Aldi store hunting for bargains, the long-time resident found what she considered a retail miracle in plain sight: a $4 jar of almond butter that costs $22 in her own neighbourhood.

"Aldi has the reputation for being inexpensive, so I thought I would come and check it out, and by golly, it is amazing," Porter, 79, told the BBC, marvelling at the savings alongside the fresh spinach and organic raspberries filling her basket.

To the unassuming passer-by, the storefront is completely hidden, tucked away in an underground parking lot beneath The Ellery, a luxury apartment complex where the cheapest rent starts at nearly $5,000 (£3,725) a month.

In fact, the building's own website completely omits the discount grocer from its curated online neighbourhood guide, choosing instead to highlight pricier nearby options like Whole Foods and Brooklyn Fare.

But step past the luxury façade into the basement, and the quiet disappears. Even on an early Tuesday afternoon in July, the brightly lit, bustling space hums with high energy as a lunchtime crowd of New Yorkers tightly navigates the narrow aisles with oversized canvas bags.

Porter's discovery is part of Aldi's $9bn US expansion plan to add 800 new stores over five years, specifically targeting dense urban hubs like Manhattan. It marks a massive scale-up for the German discounter, which first entered the US in 1976 and has steadily grown its footprint to nearly 2,800 storefronts.

The aggressive real estate blitz signals a bold shift for a brand traditionally associated with suburban strip malls and lower-end consumers.

Incumbent US grocers may look with some concern at the insurgency Aldi pulled off since it entered the UK market in the 1990s.

Alongside fellow German discounter Lidl, Aldi picked up huge swathes of the market by offering discount prices for high-quality goods. The traditional "big four" grocers at the time - Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons - were slow to respond to the new competition, leaving the challengers to gradually pick off their shoppers.

Today, Aldi is the UK's fourth biggest grocer, commanding 10.8% of the market.

Its rapid growth is being mirrored across Europe, its rise aided by easing perceptions of it as a strictly discount grocer as shoppers became increasingly impressed by the quality of its products. The cost of living crisis of the 2020s further fuelled its ascent.

However, while Aldi is rapidly ascending the ranks of American grocery consciousness, it is not, and may never aim to be, Walmart.

Aldi currently holds just 2.9% of the US grocery pie, while Walmart controls about 20%.

Yet analysts say that staying smaller is precisely how Aldi wins.

Data from location analytics firm Placer.ai reveals Aldi is capturing middle- and higher-income shoppers with household incomes between $75,000 and $125,000.

While hard discounters traditionally rely on lower-income demographics, years of persistent inflation have flipped the script, forcing wealthier households to aggressively trade down.

"Those shoppers have started to trade off a visit to a conventional grocery store or a quick service restaurant and started to go into Aldi more frequently," RJ Hottovy, Placer.ai's head of analytical research, told the BBC. "They're looking for ways to stretch their household budget."

For some urban commuters, the new city location offers a better experience than older formats. Kelvin Dozier, who usually shops at an Aldi in Brooklyn, recently started visiting the Manhattan location right across from his office for convenience.

"The one here - it's brighter," Dozier told the BBC, noting the fresh sweet navel oranges in his basket. "The one in Brooklyn is a little smaller. It almost seems temporary, but here it looks like a permanent location."

Still, winning over city slickers accustomed to premium brands remains an uphill battle. Ralph Montenegro, visiting Aldi for the first time, remained fiercely loyal to competitors.

"It has more variety than say Target," Montenegro said, praising the prices on staples like flour and fruit, though he noted he still prefers Trader Joe's. He added that Aldi's heavy reliance on packaged, private-label processed foods was a detractor compared to the natural organic options he prefers.

This strict reliance on limited, private labels is exactly what keeps Aldi's overheads low, according to Dustin York, an associate professor of communication at Maryville University.

He says that Aldi targets a lean, highly efficient model that provides about 80% of what a traditional big-box retailer carries, but at a much lower cost.

Still, York argues it is unlikely that Aldi will take dramatic market share from Walmart, because the retail giant is simply too massive. "I call Walmart the battleship, and I call Aldi a kind of submarine."

But navigating those crowded waters can bring a distinct financial hazard.

"Their biggest kryptonite is real estate cost," York warned, pointing to a brutal Manhattan retail landscape where average asking rents are between $350 and $700 per square foot.

In addition to high rents, Manhattan's roads provide another challenge.

Speaking on Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast, Aldi's US chief commercial officer Scott Patton detailed that supplying the Manhattan store requires trucking inventory in from South Windsor, Connecticut, using shorter, specialised trucks to navigate tight city streets.

"We come at night because of the congestion," Patton said, noting that each truck requires a two-driver team to handle the city's turning radiuses. One driver watches for blind spots while the other unloads the groceries. To keep shelves in the Manhattan location stocked, Aldi runs three to four of these trips every night, calling the operation a "logistical symphony".

Because of those structural constraints, beating America's largest retailer is nearly impossible, says Jerry Sheldon, a retail analyst at IHL Group.

"The reason Aldi cannot simply out-discount its way to the throne is that Walmart fights with a war chest and Aldi fights with a scalpel," Sheldon explained.

Walmart pours more than $20bn a year into its business, the bulk of it into technology, automation, and its supply chain, with robots moving product through its warehouses and AI setting its forecasts on delivery routes.

Furthermore, Sheldon points out that Walmart earns billions from things like advertising and membership, which Aldi does not.

"Aldi is a brilliant single-purpose machine, while Walmart is a money machine that happens to sell groceries cheaply. That gap is the whole ballgame," Sheldon said.

For shoppers like Mary Porter, the corporate chess match matters less than the immediate relief to her wallet.

"I get on the subway with my big bag and go home with my cheap groceries. I mean, I'm so happy. This is amazing," Porter said.

Additional reporting by Archie Mitchell

China evacuates nearly two million people as powerful typhoon makes landfall

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdxd3wkp2rzo, today

A powerful typhoon has made landfall in China, the second to hit the country in a week, with nearly two million people evacuated from areas in the path of the storm.

Typhoon Bavi, which spans 1,000km (620 miles) at its widest point - roughly the width of France - first came ashore in the coastal city of Taizhou on Saturday evening before making a second landfall in Wenzhou around midnight (17:00 GMT).

After pummelling a chain of remote Japanese islands, it brought heavy rainfall to Taiwan as it brushed past its northern tip.

Earlier landslides triggered by the storm killed at least 17 people in the Philippines.

Though it has weakened to a severe tropical storm, it still presents a risk because of the huge volume of moisture within its rain bands.

The storm is expected to gradually diminish in its intensity as it moves north-west.

On Sunday morning, the centre of the typhoon reached Hangzhou City in Zhejiang province, Chinese state media reported.

Forecasters said the typhoon would move to eastern Anhui on Monday, and to the northern Yellow Sea from the Shandong Peninsula on Tuesday.

More than 1.7 million people were evacuated in Zhejiang and thousands more in neighbouring provinces, state media said. Schools, work and outdoor activities have been suspended in Zhejiang, while 400 flights and dozens of train services have been cancelled.

The city of Wenzhou, home to around 10 million people, is close to the path of the storm, with authorities evacuating hundreds of thousands of residents.

"We could hear roof tiles and tree branches falling," Li Liangxing, a resident of the city told Reuters, adding "of course we were scared."

Beijing had ordered the evacuation of 100,000 people to "avoid risk", officials said.

Bavi began as a super typhoon, battering Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands last Monday with wind speeds of 290km/h (180mph).

As it made its way through the Pacific, weakening to 144 km/h winds, it struck the Sakishima islands, part of Japan's Ryukyu island chain between the country's main islands and Taiwan. At least five people were injured and thousands were without power.

Taiwan itself did not receive a direct hit but thousands of people were forced to leave their homes and there was a danger of landslides after heavy rain. Neither country has reported any deaths.

Taiwanese authorities had warned that Bavi could bring up to 1m (39 inches) of rainfall.

Dozens of flights have been cancelled while schools have suspended classes across the region. Supermarket shelves have been wiped clean as residents stock up on supplies.

Parts of southern China are still reeling from the devastation brought by Typhoon Maysak earlier this week.

Maysak left at least 39 people dead and killed large numbers of livestock, resulting in massive agriculture loss. It also spurred two rare tornadoes in the central Hubei province.

Muslim judge in India faces death threats after convicting 'cow vigilantes'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd6e9zq87xvo, today

An Indian judge has become the target of online abuse and death threats days after she sentenced 14 men to life imprisonment for lynching a man to death.

On 12 June, the additional district and sessions judge of a court in Madhya Pradesh state, Tabassum Khan, found the men guilty of offences including murder, attempt to murder, rioting and wrongful restraint.

The crime took place in 2022, when 50-year-old Nazir Ahmad was transporting cattle at night and was intercepted by a group of self-styled "gau rakshaks" (cow protectors), armed with sticks and rods. Hindus consider cows sacred and killing them is illegal in many states.

The men dragged Ahmad and his two companions out of the vehicle and brutally assaulted them on suspicion of smuggling cows. Ahmad later succumbed to his injuries while his companions survived to tell the court what happened.

In her judgement, Khan noted that the crime was a clear case of mob lynching.

But the verdict has made her the target of religious hate. In the days following the judgement, numerous videos abusing and threatening Khan, a Muslim, surfaced online. The videos implied that Khan had acted against the men because they were Hindu.

While judgments are often criticised, the attacks on Khan have focused not on her legal reasoning but on her religion. The scale of the abuse has prompted leading judicial bodies to rally behind her, and she has been given police protection.

The attacks on Khan began soon after the verdict, when family members of the convicted men gathered outside the courtroom reportedly protested against the judgement and attempted to stop the police convoy from transporting the men to prison. They alleged that the men were being punished for "saving cows".

Then began an online campaign of abuse, as videos of Hindu right-wing influencers abusing Khan with communal slurs and issuing rape threats and death threats against her began to surface.

In one video, a man warned of "bloodshed" across the country unless the convicted men were freed within 10 days. At the time of writing, many of the videos remained online, attracting thousands of likes and shares. The speakers' faces and social media handles were clearly visible as they issued threats and incited violence.

An anchor of Sudarshan News, a right-wing Hindi news channel, expressed solidarity with the families of the convicted men, saying that "they might have never imagined that their family members, who had put everything on the line to save cows, would be imprisoned for it". He also urged his viewers to "speak up" as "now was the time to fight for the sake of the protectors of cows".

Many self-described cow protection organisations and Hindutva groups also held massive protests against the verdict.

On 22 June, the Gau Raksha Parishad (which roughly translates to the council of cow saviours) staged a protest in Punjab state during which protesters assaulted and burnt an effigy of Khan. Three days later, the Rashtriya Bajrang Dal held a protest in Uttar Pradesh state, demanding that the "cow protectors" be freed.

In a post of X, former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju noted how these videos and protests did not merely criticise the verdict but sought to "delegitimise Judge Khan's authority as a judicial officer by reducing her identity to her religion".

"Her Muslim identity became the principal basis upon which the legitimacy of the judgement was questioned. This represented a dangerous inversion of justice. Judicial decisions are meant to be evaluated through legal reasoning, not through the religious identity of the individual delivering them," he wrote.

Katju later said Khan had sent him a message thanking him, saying that the abuse had traumatised her and made her feel like she had committed a crime by delivering her verdict.

Khan has also received support from prominent judicial organisations - the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association (SCAORA) and the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) have condemned the threats against her and demanded that action be taken against the culprits.

Vikas Singh, president of the SCBA, told the BBC that threats against a judge were a grave issue as the judiciary was interlinked with the fundamentals of democracy.

"If we allow this to happen, no judge will be able to dispense justice," he said. "In a democracy, a judge must be able to perform their duty without fear or favour."

Meanwhile, police official Sudhakar Baraskar told the BBC that a case had been registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and two people had been arrested. He said the cyber cell was tracing those sharing inflammatory videos and continuously monitoring social media for more such content.

But Supreme Court advocate Sanjay Hegde argued that the state and the judiciary should do more to ensure Khan's safety.

In an article in Live Law, a legal news website, Hegde gave the example of how another case involving threats against a former judge was dealt with recently.

Gautam Patel, a former judge of the Bombay High Court, and his family were facing threats for more than 10 months following his 2024 judgment in the a succession dispute within a Muslim community.

Following a public interest litigation filed by three judicial organisations, the Bombay High Court ordered the Maharashtra government to provide protection to Patel. It told the Mumbai police commissioner to supervise the investigation and demanded a status report.

"If a retired judge of a high court deserves state protection and judicial supervision of his case, so does a serving sessions judge in a district court. The principle cannot bend to rank. It cannot bend to religion. It cannot bend to the political weather around a particular verdict," Hegde wrote.

Last week, the Madhya Pradesh High Court asked senior officials to explain what steps had been taken to protect Khan and identify those behind the threats. It also ordered that her police protection continue.

At least two killed in Toronto street festival shooting

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce3e66e1x3go, today

At least two people have been killed in a shooting at a street festival in Toronto.

Police in the Canadian city initially received reports of an active shooter on St Clair Avenue at approximately 20:12 local time (01:12 BST), where a salsa festival was being held.

Six victims with gunshot wounds were found by police, who said two people had been pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said they had secured the scene, but urged the public to stay away from the area, where a large police presence would remain.

They said the suspect, or suspects, had not yet been apprehended.

St Clair Avenue, located in midtown Toronto, is lined with shops and restaurants.

Between the 11 and 12 July, it was set to host the annual Salsa on St Clair Latin festival, a yearly celebration which features a host of live music and dance performances.

This year was the festival's 22nd iteration.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

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We are living fewer years in good health: Is the NHS part of the problem?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8r2nz82z3vo, today

Angie currently lives in the English Midlands but is preparing to move to Bulgaria. She has suffered for years from multiple chronic health issues including ME and an autoimmune thyroid condition. She says holidaying in Bulgaria has been transformative - enough that she has decided to leave the UK.

A strong sense of community and the fresh air of the Bulgarian mountains are part of the pull.

But she also feels the Bulgarian healthcare system is more responsive than the one she is leaving behind in the UK.

"You have to pay a small fee to see a doctor, but then you see one quickly," Angie says, describing her experience in Bulgaria.

While she is "very glad" the free at the point of use NHS exists,  she believes it is failing to deliver. "People aren't getting a service - particularly with chronic health issues - that actually makes a difference to their health outcomes or quality of life," she says.

"Once you're diagnosed, that's it, you're left to your own devices. I've had to spend a fortune on private healthcare because I couldn't get any improvements [with]in the NHS."

A 2025 study from National Voices charity found 37% of people with a long-term health condition did not feel supported by the NHS to manage their physical health, compared with 16% of those with no long-term conditions.

Unlike the UK, Bulgaria's healthcare system is a mix between public and private. Employees, including foreign nationals, pay a compulsory 3.2% of their pre-tax salary into a healthcare insurance fund topped up by their employer. However, there are many extra costs for non-emergency medical treatment, such as doctor's appointments. Despite progress, Bulgaria's health outcomes are ranked relatively poorly by the OECD. But other countries without tax-funded systems do perform strongly.

Angie has become one of a growing number of Britons living with ongoing poor health. More working‑age adults are reporting long‑term health conditions, with 36% saying they had at least one in early 2023, up from 31% in the same period of 2019.

Healthy life expectancy - the years in which a person can expect to live in good health – has fallen in the UK in recent years, while it has increased in most other wealthy countries. While life expectancy has stagnated, in more than 90% of areas, healthy life expectancy has dropped below the state pension age, with Britons now living about a quarter of their lives in poor health.

While life expectancy in the UK has recovered after the Covid-19 pandemic, healthy life expectancy has worsened, particularly in the most deprived areas.

Across the country, healthy life expectancy in 2022-2024 was 60.7 years for men and 60.9 years for women, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).  This was a drop of 1.8 and 2.5 years respectively compared with 2019 to 2021, and the lowest level since the analysis began in 2011. The UK was one of only five of the world's richest 21 countries to see healthy life expectancy decline.

Meanwhile, many countries without tax-funded healthcare systems record more years lived in good health than the UK, according to the World Health Organization.

Healthy life expectancy is not a perfect metric; it is self-reported and so relies on how people feel about their own health. However, the Health Foundation describes it as a "key measure" of the population's health, because it can provide a more comprehensive picture of what's happening under the surface than life expectancy alone.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson told the BBC it is shifting the focus of healthcare from sickness to prevention. "We are committed to reducing health inequalities, GP patient satisfaction is up, and waiting lists are down by 340,000 compared to July 2024," they said.

So what is driving the UK's fall in healthy life expectancy? And why is a nation with a system specifically designed to give everyone equally good care lagging behind others?

What's the alternative?

The UK is facing similar issues to many of its peers; an ageing population, cost of living pressures and a growing burden of mental health problems.

But while citizens of many other countries report improvements to their health, those in the UK say it is getting worse. Health Foundation analysis of ONS figures shows the share of adults rating their health as "good" or "very good" dropped from 76% in late 2020 to around 71% in late 2025, a decline of 5%. Meanwhile in countries such as Bulgaria and the Netherlands the proportion of people reporting good health has risen.

Gareth Lyon, head of health and social care at right-leaning think tank Policy Exchange, argues the UK's decline can partly be laid at the door of its "creaking" National Health Service. "The UK is becoming an outlier… we're not prepared to look at how we make our system sustainable for patients in the long run," he says.

He points to Health Foundation figures suggesting access to GP appointments and early medical intervention lag behind the Netherlands, with half of Britons reporting they "always or often" receive a same-day response from their GP, compared to eight out of 10 Dutch people.

Meanwhile, one in five British patients wait over a year for non-urgent surgery; in the Netherlands the figure is zero.

Lyon blames this on the UK healthcare model in which the state both funds and provides treatment; this lack of competition means there is little motivation for contract holders to become more efficient, save costs or respond quickly to patient concerns, he says. Although patients in the UK can opt to go private if they can afford it.

Instead, he argues the UK should largely replicate the Dutch healthcare system, in which adults pay for compulsory health insurance, with subsidies offered to those on low incomes, which he says has created a highly competitive environment among insurers and healthcare providers, incentivising the best treatment for patients.

Since this model was adopted 20 years ago, Lyon says the Dutch have seen a "massive expansion of primary care, early diagnosis and treatment" while still offering universal healthcare.

But Sebastian Rees, head of health at the left-leaning think tank Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), rejects the idea that competition between providers or insurers improves healthcare or boosts healthy life expectancy.

He points to IPPR's recent analysis of 22 high-income countries which found no evidence insurance-based systems like the Netherlands' outperform tax-funded models on measures such as access or quality.

Instead, the report suggests performance varies far more within funding models than between them, and claims the NHS's poor performance against other countries is partly driven by chronic underinvestment.

'A sense of hopelessness'

Rees also points out that the UK and the Netherlands have markedly different population profiles, which he argues is a far more powerful driver of healthy life expectancy. For example, the Netherlands' obesity rate is almost half that of the UK. It also has lower child and family poverty, lower unemployment and higher disposable incomes.

"All of that is likely doing far more for population health in the Netherlands than competition between providers," he says.

For Rees, this is the heart of the UK's problem, and helps explain why countries can offer universal, free health services and still fall behind. Different parts of the UK show a stark disparity for health life expectancy: a woman in Richmond‑upon‑Thames can expect to enjoy a healthy life two decades longer than one in Hartlepool.

Prof Martin McKee from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has spent his career comparing different countries' healthcare systems.

He argues the NHS has suffered from years of underinvestment since austerity policies were introduced. "The  UK has constantly been scrimping and saving… we are low on scanners, low on everything, way behind everybody else," he says.

Like Rees, he suggests the roots of the UK's healthy life expectancy lies in poverty and lack of opportunity.

Austerity worsened the problems of regional inequality, he says, and that has been further exacerbated by a growing burden of mental health problems since the noughties.

"There's a lot of young people, particularly young men, who are in poor mental health and to some extent poor physical health too. Basically, groups who are marginalised, left out, left behind… A lot of it is to do with a sense of hopelessness," he says.

Around one in four adults aged 16 to 29 years were experiencing moderate to severe depressive symptoms in April last year, the ONS says, while across the UK, those in the poorest fifth of the population are twice as likely to be at risk of developing mental health problems as those on an average income.

Much of the UK's decline in healthy life expectancy is concentrated among marginalised groups, who are more likely to live in Scotland and the North of England, McKee points out.

It is no coincidence that these areas also contain the hotspots for "deaths of despair" – deaths resulting from drugs, alcohol and suicide. Many of the factors behind these deaths of despair, including addiction, poor diet and stress, also contribute to people spending more of their lives in ill health.

The 15-minute GP appointment

Some doctors are testing new approaches, seeing if tweaking the way NHS works can deliver better health. Dr David Blane is a GP in Glasgow's Possilpark, and academic lead for GPs at the Deep End, an organisation led by doctors in Scotland's most deprived communities.

He says patients in these neighbourhoods typically develop multiple long‑term conditions 10 to 15 years earlier than those in wealthier areas.

"Not only is there a good chance that you've got more long‑term health problems, but there's also other things going on in your life impacting on your mental health - lots of low mood, depression, chronic pain… These things have a big impact on your quality of life, your sense of self, your sense of purpose."

Part of GPs at the Deep End's role is to pilot new strategies to try to reduce healthcare inequalities.

One strategy has been to extend all appointments to 15 minutes. "That certainly helps with empathy. It helps with managing potentially more than one problem in a consultation and GP stress as well," Blane says.

But the most important factor, he argues, is continuity of care - seeing the same clinician each time. "Continuity of care saves lives, and it can also help to facilitate better access, better follow ups, and just better health outcomes," he says. "Over the last 10-15 years, the political emphasis has been much more on rapid access [to treatment], which is important for some things, but not for everything".

Blane is also helping evaluate new family wellbeing support workers in Glasgow. These staff link patients to money advice, housing help, trauma counselling, language support and physical activity programmes. The model, he says, creates "sticky" engagement with those who might otherwise drop out of the system and could, he adds, be replicated with families across the country.

Looking to the future

The issue, of course, is how these services should be funded in the long term.

Dr Kristian Niemietz, head of political economy at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a right-leaning free-market think tank, says no health system is insulated from the wider economy, but his view is that in an insurance‑based model, funding tends to be more stable. He says it avoids the "feast and famine" cycles that have characterised NHS budgets.

He argues that a more competitive market is best placed to deliver improvements. "So if it turns out that, say, continuity of care, greater integration, that improves outcomes - then a competitive market would lead to that, like it does in other sectors.

Others say the NHS should be retained because tax‑funded systems are best placed to deal with the challenge of aging populations.

McKee argues this is the "by far the best way of doing it" as the costs are borne by more of the population. He argues that with fewer people in paid work supporting a growing number of older citizens, who typically need more healthcare, systems that rely on insurance premiums or employer‑based coverage come under strain.

In Rees' view, there's no such thing as a "best" system for health outcomes. He argues that high performers exist across every system type, and their success owes far more to factors outside healthcare than within it: tax-funded systems like Norway, Iceland, Sweden and Spain do well, but so do social insurance systems in Japan, South Korea, Switzerland and Israel.

For patients, those debates surface in more immediate ways. Although Angie is preparing to move to Bulgaria, she hasn't given up on the NHS. She describes it as under incredible pressure, but still believes "we're incredibly lucky to have an NHS". Her frustration, she says, is with how hard it has become to access care.

Top picture credit: EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock / PA

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At Canada's biggest rodeo, the starting gun is fired in the fight over Alberta separation

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3eykgln5eeo, yesterday

Over a million people descend on the Calgary Stampede every year to marvel at the iconic chuckwagon race, a sport invented in the Albertan city where carriage drivers race teams of horses around the track to the sound of pounding hooves, or be amazed by the speed of bareback riders racing in First Nations horse relays.

The 'Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth' is the marquee event on Alberta's summer calendar, a distinctly western Canadian spectacle where political leaders also have to test their mettle, judged on the quality of their pancake flips at community Stampede breakfasts and their ability to pull off a cowboy hat.

This year, however, looming over the festivities and carnival music of the stampede grounds is the upcoming referendum on Alberta's place in Canada. In October, Albertans will vote on whether they want the province to remain in the country, or hold a binding referendum later on separation.

It is, in some ways, the starting gun of what is shaping up to be a hard fought battle over the future of Alberta.

"The referendum is the cloud over everything," said Corey Hogan, a Liberal MP from Calgary who invited dozens of his colleagues from across the country to this year's stampede to promote unity.

"It underpins every other conversation we might want to have."

Those who are rallying for a united Canada are using the Calgary Stampede as the stage to make their case.

At his own stampede speech, Hogan called separatism "a poison" dividing families across the province.

Prime Minister Mark Carney is slated to make his own appearance in Calgary this weekend, where he is expected to deliver a unity message.

"Everybody wants to make sure they're here at this moment," Hogan told the BBC.

Polls suggest the pro-unity side will comfortably win in October.

But those who want Alberta to remain told the BBC they were still anxious about the outcome, fearing a Brexit-style upset, when the UK voted to leave the European Union, in which the "Remain" side grows complacent, only to lose in the end.

"The shadow of Brexit is hanging over this whole thing," said Andrew Kemle, a graduate student at the University of Calgary, at Hogan's stampede breakfast.

"An entire country sleepwalked into an economic disaster."

They'll have the challenge of winning over people like Justin Perkins, who spoke to the BBC about his thoughts on the referendum while fuelling his car in rural Alberta.

"I would say I'm 100% Canadian, but every year it is a little less," Perkins said. "When you're not respected, it's hard to respect the people that don't respect you... I'm the hated redneck, right? That's me. Not that I did anything wrong, I'm just born here."

The pitch by Thomas Lukaszuk, a former Progressive Conservative Alberta lawmaker, is that separation "would be, from a political, economic, and social perspective, a terrible process to have to go through."

Lukaszuk's group, Forever Canadian, recently formally opened its campaign headquarters in Calgary. He told the BBC that his aim is not to tell Albertans how to vote, but to remind them of what it means to be Canadian, and - in his view - the dire consequences of separation.

He has spent the past two months driving a maple-leaf laden, refurbished 1997 camper van dubbed the "Unity Bus" across the province to make the case for Canada, handing out pins and lawn signs and speaking to would-be voters.

The October vote has been dismissed by people on either side of the debate as a "referendum on a referendum", since the question doesn't ask directly if the province should separate, but whether Albertans want to explore the possibility.

Still, many on the pro-Canada side are treating it like a binding vote.

"I think we're all very worried that Alberta politics could be consumed by this forever," Hogan said.

The main motivator behind the separatist push is the belief that Alberta is misunderstood and overlooked by decision makers in Ottawa – the "ugly cousin", one independence supporter told the BBC at the Stampede – arguing that the province has no choice left but to go it alone.

The reason a binding referendum isn't taking place is due to a court challenge by First Nations groups, who successfully argued they weren't properly consulted and their treaty rights placed at risk by the prospect of Alberta independence - a decision now being appealed.

"Our future is more secure if we stay in Canada," said Chief Samuel Crowfoot of Siksika First Nation, located just east of Calgary.

Crowfoot spoke to the BBC a few feet from where Treaty 7 was signed in 1877 between the British Crown and five First Nations in the region. Three such treaties encompass most of Alberta, of 11 numbered treaties in Canada. They form the basis of the relationship between the Crown, Canada more broadly, and hundreds of First Nations.

"Those treaties will be honoured more so if we stay within Canada," Chief Crowfoot said.

"There is no guarantee, there's no talk from the separatists, no outreach from any of the movements to speak with any First Nations about what this new Alberta would look like if we were to separate."

Chief Troy Knowlton of Piikani First Nation put it more bluntly, telling the BBC he would rather be "dealing with the devil that we know today".

So far, it's First Nations that have done the most to keep Canada together, Chief Crowfoot argues. A binding referendum "would still be moving full steam", he said, if it wasn't for the legal battle launched by indigenous Albertans.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who has to navigate a political base with separatist leanings while being personally and politically pro-unity, argued the "referendum on a referendum" is a chance to hear directly from Albertans.

While the idea of an independent Alberta has existed for decades, it gained steam last year, after pro-separatist groups held town halls across the province and later collected enough signatures for a petition to force a referendum under provincial law.

The pandemic helped fuel that restive anger, and some pro-independence Albertans told the BBC that the Freedom Convoy protests in 2021, when hundreds of truckers, many from western Canada, travelled to Ottawa to protest vaccine mandates, was a turning point.

"I was raised believing that Canada was a free country," said Chris Scott, an Alberta independence organiser who took part in the Freedom Convoy.

After two weeks of the protests, which gridlocked downtown Ottawa, then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the never-used Emergencies Act, granting authorities expanded powers to clear demonstrations.

Scott, who spoke to the BBC at his cafe and truck stop in rural Alberta decorated with the province's blue flag and drawings depicting scenes from the Freedom Convoy protests, said Trudeau's handling of the protest fundamentally shifted his view.

Many Albertans on both sides agree that the province is often overlooked by Ottawa, and that the oil-rich, landlocked province has struggled to get support for building more pipelines and getting its resources to market.

Carney's main appeal to the province so far has been to push for the approval of an oil pipeline to the west coast - a long time demand from Alberta.

It's been hailed as a good first step in healing the relationship between Alberta and Ottawa.

But for Scott, that overture is not enough, and he has said Alberta has no option left but to set its own rules.

The debate has been described as "divisive" and "emotional" by Albertans who spoke to the BBC.

"There are neighbours not trusting neighbours, and people watching which flag is flying on which house - is it an Alberta or Canadian flag? And if it's Alberta, (they are) suspicious that they're separatists," Lukaszuk said, adding: "This has to end."

The separatist push has been dismissed by many in the unity camp as coming from a "fringe minority" - polls indicate about 20% of Albertans back independence.

But in Mirror, a town of some 400 people a two-hour drive from Calgary, Scott said he could "count on both hands how many people that I've encountered that are dead set against independence" - a sign of the divide along urban-rural lines on the issue.

As the 10-day Stampede comes to a close this weekend, and the fairground rides go silent and cowboys head back to the ranch, both sides say this is only the beginning of their fight.

Scott said he bought his own camper van to rival Lukaszuk's Unity Bus.

An independent Alberta is "inevitable", he said regardless of the outcome in October.

For Lukaszuk, "loss is not an option".

"We will do everything we possibly can to win this referendum."

How men with female surnames are standing up to ridicule in Kenya

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c75ygy71wdgo, today

Many children in Kenya traditionally inherit their father's first name as their surname, but there are an increasing number of people who are taking their mother's instead.

This is particularly the case amongst the country's largest ethnic group, the Kikuyu - and has become a subject of debate and in some cases ridicule for the men with female surnames.

Girls and women who have their mother's names do not face the same censure - and often when they marry may opt to take their husband's first name as their surname.

Some say the growing trend of men having female surnames reflects changing attitudes to women and their influence in what is a patriarchal society; others are critical of those who have been given - or in some cases opt to take - their mother's name.

It used to be rare to see men in prominent positions with a female surname, but now there are even several politicians who have them - like MP John Njũgũna Wanjikũ.

Brought up by a single mother, he was first elected in 2021 and goes by the nickname "Ka-Wanjikũ", meaning child of Wanjikũ.

Some like Wanjikũ were given their female surname at birth, but others have chosen theirs to honour their mothers.

One of the earlier personalities to break the norm over male surnames was Peter Kĩgia, a Kenyan musician who chose his mother's name as his stage name.

Kĩgia wa Esther (son of Esther), now in his 60s, is known for playing benga - fast, rhythmic guitar folk music with lyrics in Kikuyu.

"When you take your mother's name, it means you love and respect her," he told the BBC, saying he had even registered his record company as Wa Esther Productions.

It now comes with a certain cachet in the music industry, with other younger male musicians following in his footsteps. Posters advertising performers with their mother's surname, such as Waithaka wa Jane and 90K Ka Msoh, are often plastered to hoardings in the capital, Nairobi.

Though in these cases the formal names of these artistes remain male.

Journalist Simon Macharia Wangũi told the BBC he decided to deliberately choose his mother's name as his official surname.

"Why give somebody credit where it does not exist?" he says of his father, who was absent for most of his life and about whom he has "only heard rumours of his existence".

Mostly raised by his grandmother, he was 12 when his mother died in 2003. He had no surname until his final year of high school, when he applied for a birth certificate.

Some Kenyans still think that a child raised by a single parent "lacks certain morals", explains Evans Kibe Waceke, a broadcaster who bears a female surname.

"People perceive you as undisciplined, especially when you are raised by a single mother," he tells the BBC.

A heated debate over the pros and cons of having a female surname began two years ago when prominent motivational speaker Robert Burale said it undermined men's masculinity.

This prompted TV personality Fred Mũitĩrĩri to go public about the difficulties of having a female surname - and how he ended up dropping his mother's name, deciding to use his English and Kikuyu first names only.

"Do you know how embarrassing it is for a boy to be called out, in a room full of kids, [with] a girl's name?" he wrote on Facebook - talking about his low self-esteem.

"From some of those experiences, I developed depression at the age of 23," he said.

Wairimũ Mũkũrũ, a young Kikuyu cultural expert with a large social media following, says the rise of female surnames is largely down to the fact that single-mother families have become much more common.

Still, she adds, it is a cultural anomaly as even sons of unmarried women are usually given male surnames.

"In the event that your mother doesn't tell you who your dad is or he rejects you, your mother's eldest brother takes up that role," she tells the BBC.

However, Mũkũrũ explains that there may sometimes be reluctance to do this as it gives a child the right to inherit property.

Mũgwe wa Njũhĩ, an official of the Kikuyu cultural group Kiama Kĩa Ma, agrees male relatives of single mothers may deny the use of their name to avoid inheritance disputes.

But he also argues that there should not be such disdain for female surnames given that, according to legend, the Kikuyu trace their lineage from the 10 daughters of the community's first couple - Gikũyũ and Mũmbi.

"I am Mũmbũi by clan [derived from Wambũi, one of the daughters]. We have always aligned ourselves with women, from the very beginning," he tells the BBC.

In fact, the Kikuyu are often referred to as the House of Mũmbi, after their mythological founding mother.

Wa Esther, the veteran musician, agrees that people from other communities who criticise the use of female names by Kikuyu men do not understand "our way of life".

Academic George Gathigi explains that while Kikuyu men may have traditionally identified themselves through their mothers, that was always informal, with formal adoption of female names being a new phenomenon.

When polygamy was more commonly practised, for example, children were identified by their mother's names in large groups to avoid confusion - as culturally too there is only a small pool of first names in each family.

Late Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, whose father Thiong'o wa Ndūcũ had four wives, wrote in his memoir Dreams in a Time of War that while growing up he was generally known as Ngũgĩ wa Wanjikũ – his mother's first name.

Gathigi, who lectures at the University of Nairobi and commentates on Kikuyu social issues, believes the adoption of female surnames reflects the "strength of women" in modern society, particularly in situations where men have been abandoning their responsibilities.

"Culture changes and you now have to deal with the modern realities in division of labour," he tells the BBC, noting that women have increasingly been taking up roles that had been seen as male.

He says that in such cases, when the children "don't get that advantage of being brought up by their father… the mother becomes both the mother and the father".

He sees this as a "bad thing that it is being normalised".

Such attitudes may explain the continuing backlash - one blog has described the practice of using female surnames as "a yoke around men's necks" while another says it is an effort to "womanise the Kikuyu man and make him weak".

While journalist Wangũi acknowledges it may not always be easy to have a female surname and it brings with it a certain "identity crisis", he is proud of his decision.

And he says that if you end up being successful, despite the name, "people will see you as having beaten the odds to get to where you are".

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Ice on testicles and donating blood - the myths sold to men trying to boost their sperm

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8921982pgzo, today

Every morning, Simon starts his day in a sauna, with an ice pack strapped to his groin.

"I place it on the testicles in order to preserve high sperm count," he says.

He believes the heat helps him sweat out toxins, improving his sperm function - but says he must take care to protect his testicles from the excessive heat.

The 28-year-old from Miami gets daily sunlight exposure, exercises regularly, only drinks filtered water and wears cotton boxer shorts - all part of a fertility-focused health regime which he follows despite any medical evidence to prove it works.

There is an element of truth behind these claims - environmental pollutants and heating the testes can impact sperm quality.

But it's unlikely these steps Simon takes will make a massive difference to his fertility, although exercising will improve general health.

He is part of a growing number of men paying close attention to their fertility. On TikTok and Instagram, hashtags such as #malefertility, #semenanalysis and #sperm attract hundreds of millions of views, while online communities dedicated to improving sperm health have grown rapidly.

Simon is not planning to have children any time soon and doesn't have a partner - he is more concerned with whether a low sperm count could affect his health.

He worries if he has low fertility it could affect something called the endocrine system, a network of glands and organs in charge of releasing hormones in the body.

But there isn't evidence this is the case.

A low sperm count won't trigger endocrine problems, although they may happen together in some people.

'I choose to protect my fertility'

Male fertility experts around the world say they have seen an increase in the number of men requesting semen analysis and expressing concerns about their future fertility.

The experts believe this is partly due to concerns about the impact of testosterone replacement therapies (TRT), steroids and certain environmental toxins all of which can adversely impact hormones responsible for sperm count.

UK-based fertility expert Prof Suks Minhas says that there are pros and cons to the increased discussion around declining sperm and male fertility.

"It is important to raise the profile of male infertility. But are we fuelling that worry unnecessarily?"

Meanwhile, an industry of influencers and products are emerging in response, capitalising on this anxiety, he adds.

Like many others, Simon first became interested in fertility through social media, where influencers speaking about declining sperm counts sparked his concern. Yet he has never had a semen analysis and has no specific reason to think he has a fertility problem.

"It's something that I'm generally scared of, so I choose to protect my fertility," he says.

It was content from influencer Bryan Johnson that led to Simon "really caring" about his fertility.

Johnson, an ex-Silicon Valley billionaire, gained fame for wanting to live forever. He has been self-experimenting using controversial methods in an attempt to extend his lifespan for the last five years.

He claims he has four times the average sperm count according to five lab tests over the space of three months.

He promotes the unproven sauna and ice pack protocols to increase testosterone and sperm count, which Simon follows.

Johnson's content - followed by more than six million people - drives his followers back to his website, Blueprint, where he sells supplements.

He is far from the only voice. Other protocols promoted by influencers without medical evidence have included certain supplements, red light therapy, and donating blood to "filter out" microplastics.

Declining birth rates

This kind of influencer content comes in the wake of wider discussions about declining birth rates.

Globally, birth rates have dropped from 4.9 babies per woman in 1950 to 2.2 in 2025, with 106 countries now below the replacement rate of 2.1, according to the UN World Population Prospects in 2025.

The US Secretary for Health, Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has promoted some unproven health claims, recently spoke of a "fertility crisis", arguing that in 1970, "men had twice the sperm count as our teenagers do today".

Large-scale analyses have suggested a significant global drop in sperm count and quality since the 1970s, but it isn't easy to make a direct comparison between young men today and the older men in the 1970s, age was not a focus of the study.

Overall, there is consensus that sperm count and quality is in decline, but some data suggests the decline may not be as drastic as feared.

According to a 2023 meta-review of falling sperm counts, the area is under-researched with the causes of sperm count decline and the impacts on birth rates remaining unclear.

Studies from 2024 and 2025 which looked at more localised populations in the USA and Denmark found no such drop in sperm count, and called for further research.

Meanwhile, manosphere-adjacent influencers like Andrew Huberman have discussed declining male sperm counts on their podcasts, with Joe Rogan warning of an impending "population collapse".

But there are many non-biological reasons for the birth rate decline. According to the UN's 2025 state of the world population report, 39% of people cited financial reasons for not having the number of kids they wanted, while one in five cited environmental and political instability.

Prof Channa Jayasena, a reproductive endocrinologist at Imperial College, London, believes there is room for valid concern around falling sperm counts, but says claims about male fertility problems are overblown on social media.

"There are certain challenges out there, but it's far from clear what those causes are," he says.

Despite the unclear picture when it comes to the causes of male infertility, unproven solutions are being sold across social media.

Naturopath Lucas is one of the health influencers whose content includes warnings about fertility rates.

"We're seeing a worldwide epidemic, a decrease in fertility across the board," he tells the BBC.

But Lucas's concern comes with some misleading claims - for example, he told his YouTube audience that men would be infertile in 33 years, which is unsupported by scientific evidence.

He sells online courses, provides 1:1 coaching, and sells supplements for men looking to increase testosterone and fertility.

His social media content, which promotes some unproven fertility protocols, has gone viral.

"I recommend to guys to apply an ice pack up against his underwear, two to three times a day for about 10 to 15 minutes," he says, claiming clients have told him their partners have fallen pregnant after trying this.

"This is more preliminary. I do think that it's a viable enough strategy to give it a shot," he claims.

When questioned about the unproven nature of his advice, Lucas said he believed icing the testes was a "promising intervention" but added that he would like to see more research.

NHS guidance on low sperm count does say tight underwear can increase the temperature of your testicles which may affect the quality of your sperm.

Lucas also advises followers and clients about healthy eating, sleep and exercise - steps which do have a strong evidence base.

Prof Jayasena recommends lifestyle changes to improve fertility.

"If there are any reversible things such as [quitting] smoking, such as [losing] weight and increasing physical activity," he says, "that's by far the best thing you can do."

This increase in fertility advice from influencers comes alongside a rise in the number of men taking testosterone-boosting drugs.

But taking steroids and testosterone can damage male fertility.

To try to reverse this damage, influencers promote "stacks" of different medications - which they often sell on their websites.

These include fertility medications HCG and HMG. While these drugs are sometimes given for specific medical reasons, they are not designed for other people to use to "switch on" fertility."

They can have dangerous side effects and can cause permanent harm when taken without medical guidance.

"It's incredibly dangerous," Jayasena says. "[Some] can cause blood clots, it can actually cause breast growth, which can be disfiguring if not treated promptly."

We spoke to seven different men around the world who were all consuming fertility "stacks" to get their fertility back after taking TRT. Because it is illegal to buy drugs like steroids online, they requested anonymity.

One man told me he thought he would father "many children" once he "blasted HMG and HCG".

Jamal, not his real name, took high doses of testosterone and steroids for bodybuilding, which lowered his fertility markers. He stopped late last year when he and his partner started to think about having kids.

He found fertility advice from men who were having the same experience on online forums and YouTube, with many suggesting "fool-proof fertility stacks".

After these did not help, he sought professional help and met reproductive endocrinologist Jayasena. Until then, he was not aware that taking these fertility "stacks" unmonitored could be dangerous.

Jamal has ceased all medication, including the fertility stack, under Jayasena's advice. Six months later, his natural testosterone levels are improving, however, the hormone which stimulates sperm production is still low. He and his specialist are hopeful it will improve.

While increased awareness of male fertility is positive, it's created a vacuum of information, Jayasena warns - meaning men like Jamal take advice from influencers because experts are not always accessible.

"It could, at the very best, actually distract them from doing the things that might actually help, but at worst it could actually get them to do things that are harmful," he adds.

Why Gen Z chilling red wine is socially acceptable, especially in the summer heat

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yzjlgr7zlo, today

On Wednesday evening, red wine lovers gathered in south Manchester for a tasting.

But the sell-out event, which cost £44 a ticket, shunned the long-standing belief that red wine is only properly served when at room temperature.

Instead, all the wines offered during the two-hour session in Didsbury came straight from the fridge.

Henry Alassane, the owner of Cru Manchester, has been drinking chilled red wine for years.

But he says it is only recently that he has noticed more customers wanting to do the same - and there has been a "massive increase" this year.

"It's something that we see guests actively asking for," agrees Holly Willcocks, owner of Half Cut wine bar in Kentish Town, London.

"I think it's definitely, slowly become something that people are really keen on."

She adds that it is specifically younger drinkers asking for chilled reds. "It's the [same] guests that were asking for an orange wine last year."

As well as cropping up on bar menus, people are popping red wine in the fridge at home.

Searches for chilled red wine on Ocado have soared compared to last year and, in April, Aldi released a red wine with a label that changes colour once it's properly chilled.

"This summer has seen a surge in the popularity of chilling red wine," says Miles Beale, CEO of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association.

"This is partly down to the heatwave and partly down to breaking down old school wine myths."

Younger shoppers are driving demand for the drink, according to an Ocado survey in June, with 56% of Gen Z and young millennial respondents saying they've had a red wine chilled or served with ice during summer months.

It was in trendy London wine bars where Dominic Lee, 26, first encountered a chilled red. He enjoyed it so much that he decided to start putting bottles of it in the fridge at home.

It "takes the edge off" the drink and makes it less heavy, says Dominic, who usually prefers white wine.

For Emma Moore, chilling red wine makes it taste more refreshing and accentuates its fruitiness.

"I love a chilled red and have done for quite a while," she says, calling it "rosé for grown-ups".

Moore runs wine tastings in York and makes sure she always includes a chilled red option, much to the surprise of many of her clients.

Perfect for hot weather

As temperatures in Britain soar, people say the option of a chilled red wine becomes all the more appealing.

"With weather like we're having at the moment, it's the only way you can handle a red wine," says Willcocks. Many of her patrons at Half Cut agree.

Alassane says it's all he drinks in Manchester's hot weather. While many customers opt for a chilled white or rosé when it gets warm, he thinks a chilled red has more flavour and character.

He thinks its rise in popularity is also partly down to Brits enjoying chilled reds on holiday, where he says "it's much more common" during the warmer months.

"They come back from holiday and want to keep drinking them here," he says.

This was the case for Sam Colenutt, 29, who first tried a chilled sparkling red wine at a vineyard in Australia.

"Initially I was a little apprehensive but it was very smooth and much less heavy when chilled," he says. "It's the only way to drink red wine in the heat."

But alcohol can also cause dehydration. Dietitian Kate Hilton previously told BBC News she recommends drinking alcohol in moderation during hot weather and alternating it with non-alcoholic drinks.

Chill the correct way

To serve an optimal chilled red wine, you shouldn't keep the bottle in the fridge overnight.

Instead, wine experts recommend placing it in there for between 20 minutes and an hour before serving.

If it does get too cold, don't worry - your body heat will help bring it up, says wine connoisseur Filippo Bartolotta. But if it's too hot, there's "no comeback".

Though he does have one quick fix to bring the temperature of red wine down by a few degrees - dropping in a big ice cube for about a minute and then fishing it out with a spoon.

Sommeliers may tell you that you're going to ruin your drink but "actually you're just going to get the wine to the right temperature," says Bartolotta.

When selecting a red to chill, the consensus is to go for something lighter-bodied and fruity that's low in tannins and has a lower alcohol content.

Red wine varieties that Moore, the wine tasting host, suggests chilling include Pinot Noir, Zweigelt and Gamay. "I've got a bottle of Beaujolais in the fridge at the moment," she adds.

Dominic typically opts for reds from cooler climates like Austria or Germany. English and organic red wines, which he says can taste tarter, are among his favourites to drink chilled.

In contrast, big-bodied red wines taste bitter and metallic when they're served lower than 16C, says Bartolotta.

But that doesn't mean you should always serve them straight from the kitchen cupboard - it depends on how hot your house is.

The notion that red wine must be served at room temperature is an outdated concept based on it being kept in the much cooler conditions of a cellar, says Bartolotta. Temperatures over 18C are a "killer for any fine wine", he explains.

To counter this, Willcocks recommends popping all red wines in the fridge for 10 minutes before serving.

"Temperature is one of the most misunderstood variables in wine service," adds Michael Sager, founder of Sager + Wilde wine bar in London. "Most reds are served too warm."

Chilling red wine is not so much a trend, he says, "it's just correct service for the right wine."

Wimbledon vs World Cup: Who wore their look best?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2vz37z7v3o, today

Wimbledon and the World Cup are known for their high stakes, high drama and - this year - high fashion.

On both sides of the Atlantic, fans, celebrities and players have been bringing their sartorial A-game to two of the biggest sporting events of the summer.

Use our interactive tool to rate their tournament style. There are four rounds and each allows you to select your standout looks.

Keep clicking on your favourite outfits until you find the one you like best. Then select your overall winner. Will it be football or tennis?

Choose your overall winner.

Will Trump Accounts deliver for American children?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg55v9e2y9o, yesterday

The launch of Trump Accounts, the new savings scheme aimed at encouraging investing among American children, was marked with an historic ringing of the Wall Street opening bell in the Oval Office this week.

But not everyone is convinced the project will prove a success in giving new generations a stake in the so-called American dream, with sceptics suggesting that it will not live up to the hype.

The savings accounts are now available to all US children under the age of 18, with babies born between 2025 and 2028 qualifying for a $1,000 contribution to kickstart savings.

The move comes as the cost of living remains a major issue ahead of November's mid-term elections, but tax experts told the BBC families on lower incomes could lose out and that the scheme is too complicated.

How do Trump Accounts work?

The accounts named after the president are available nationwide and can be created for anyone under the age of 18 with a valid social security number. Parents can simply download the app.

Families, friends and employers can contribute up to $5,000 per year per child, who can access the funds when they turn 18.

By law, the money must be invested in a low-cost index fund designed for long-term growth. But while the money grows tax free, withdrawals are subject to taxes and a possible 10% penalty if made before the age of 59 and a half.

To avoid such a penalty, the money must be assigned to pay for certain things, such as higher education, buying or building a first home, or for personal emergency expenses.

Trump Accounts add to other existing tax-efficient savings schemes that Americans can use for retirement, such as IRAs, or for educational purposes, such as 529 plans, which parents use to save for their children's college fees.

According to a Congress report, Trump Accounts are a new form of traditional individual retirement account (IRA), but differ because of certain rules.

What's the reaction been?

While the White House has been keen to push the scheme, reaction to it has been split.

The White House's argument is that Trump Accounts offer millions of children a way into stock ownership in the US, which it says has historically been "unevenly distributed, with many households - especially younger and lower‑income families - having little or no exposure".

However, Will McBride, chief economist at the Tax Foundation think tank, says the scheme is too complicated to sign up to, which will lead, in his view to a "minority that benefits".

He suggests those that will take advantage will be the parents of children who are "relatively well-informed, relatively well-off, relatively tuned in [and] have their act together".

However, Andy Blocker, head of policy, regulatory and government relations at financial services firm Edward Jones, believes the $1,000 contribution for babies born during Trump's second term in office will remove a "barrier of having nothing to start with".

"If by year-end more families have a clear on-ramp to begin saving and investing for their children's financial futures, that's success," he suggests.

Adam Michel, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, says the idea of the scheme is admirable, but warns it might "not live up to the rhetoric".

He says the main benefit is the $1,000 starting subsidy but suggests many families would be better off using existing savings accounts.

He also points out barriers such as penalties for early withdrawal, as seen for other savings accounts, adding that lower-income children may feel compelled to take the money out when they turn 18 to "help make ends meet", and therefore have to pay a penalty. "Trump Accounts do not fix that problem."

How many people have signed up?

It is understood some six million families had signed up before Trump Accounts went live on 4 July, which is a fraction of the tens of millions of children who could be eligible for one.

The White House said on Monday that the $1,000 subsidy for babies had been deposited into more than half a million accounts so far. About 3.6 million children were born in the US in 2025, according to provisional data.

At the end of this week, the White House said that American families had "contributed nearly $125 million to Trump Accounts" so far.

What are the returns?

Trump Accounts estimates the $1,000 starting pot could rise to $6,000 by the time a child reaches 18 even without any further contributions. Its calculations are based on historical S&P 500 averages, but it warns actual results may differ and are not guaranteed.

If $250 a year was added to a child's account, the pot could be worth $19,000 by the time they turn 18, according to the scheme. It could be as high as $271,000 if family members or employers contribute the maximum $5,000 a year.

The scheme has the backing of some big business names, including investment giant BlackRock, which said about 40% of Americans have no exposure to financial markets. Several US companies, including card payment giant Visa and tech company Dell, have also pledged support for the scheme.

Polish PM pledges memorial to victims of WW2 'genocide by Ukrainian nationalists'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cze94x4361po, today

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has announced the creation of a national memorial to the victims of a "genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists" during World War Two.

Tusk was speaking on the anniversary of what Poland calls the "massacre" in Volhynia - a Polish territory in German-occupied Poland and now known as Volyn and part of Ukraine. Warsaw says some 100,000 ethnic Poles were killed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in 1943-45.

Warsaw and Kyiv have for decades been at odds over the tragic events.

Many in Ukraine see the UPA as heroes who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Soviet army as well as Nazi Germany and Polish authorities.

Speaking on Saturday, Tusk said: "Truth is our duty toward the victims, but also a way to overcome a painful past for the sake of a better future.

"Memory cannot be the servant of hatred. The answer to nationalism cannot be more nationalism," the Polish prime minister said, urging Ukraine to "embrace this truth" if the country wanted one day to join the European Union.

Last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was stripped of Poland's highest state honour over his decision to name a Ukrainian military unit after the UPA, amid a diplomatic row between the two countries.

Polish President Karol Nawrocki said he had to act - but stressed that the row would not impact Poland's support for Ukraine as it continues to fight against a full-scale Russian invasion launched in 2022.

Three former Ukrainian presidents later returned their White Eagle awards to Poland in solidarity with Zelensky.

In his video address late on Saturday, Zelensky said that "representatives of the Ukrainian state took part in joint prayers with representatives of the Polish state" in both countries to commemorate the victims of the Volyn killings.

"Ukraine is doing its part to honestly establish the facts about those killed in those years.

"We must not forget that now... Ukraine and Poland have one common threat, and this is a mortal threat to our independence, to our states, to every city, to every village, and this threat is called Russia," the Ukrainian president said.

US Democrat Ro Khanna says he was detained by armed Israeli settlers

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0qyk9jwq9no, today

US congressman Ro Khanna says he was detained for 90 minutes by armed Israeli settlers during a visit to the occupied West Bank.

Khanna, 49, had been in a van with his team when they were surrounded by settlers wielding M4 rifles on Wednesday, he told Reuters news agency.

Writing on X, Khanna said that when the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) arrived, "they sided with the settlers and continued our detention".

The BBC has reached out to the IDF for comment. The Israeli military said in a statement troops and police officers took action after getting a report settlers had blocked vehicles in the area.

"Upon their arrival, the troops dispersed the Israeli civilians and allowed the vehicles to continue on their way," the IDF said.

Khanna was visiting the ruins of Khirbet Zanuta, on a fact-finding visit to look at the impact of Israeli occupation of the area.

The politician, a father-of-two, is mulling over a presidential run in 2028.

"We were at a village that Israeli settlers had destroyed, they had destroyed the school, they had destroyed that village, and we were just looking at it," he said.

"And these hoodlums come in with machine guns – M4, an American-made machine gun – and they detain us. They block off the road. And then they call the IDF and the IDF is on their side, not on the side of the Americans," Khanna said.

While they were detained, an aide who was with Khanna said they made appeals to the US Embassy in Jerusalem for help, and were released after a group of police officers intervened.

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem - land Palestinians want, along with Gaza, for a hoped-for future state - during the 1967 Middle East war. An estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them.

The settlements are illegal under international law.

See if you can spot an AI deepfake with our test

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9d2wgvg55jo, yesterday

Psychologist Dr Clare Sutherland is holding up two large photos. One shows the face of an Australian academic leading an international research study; the other is an AI-generated deepfake.

Artificial intelligence has become so adept at creating realistic images, it is increasingly hard to figure out what is real or not.

But can people be trained to spot an image of a human that has actually been created by a machine?

That's a question Sutherland, from the University of Aberdeen, and her Australian colleague have been examining.

But before we reveal the answer, have a go at this test - and note down your score.

If you found that tough, you are not alone.

It used to be far easier to spot computer-generated visual creations - often used by fraudsters - because AI would make blunders, like adding an extra finger or something else that was obviously weird.

But AI learns from its mistakes.

"Training on visual artifacts, like looking for a sixth finger or odd earrings, has had limited success, partly because the AI is getting too good, and fraudsters may avoid using pictures with obvious flaws anyway," explained Prof Amy Dawel.

She is the woman with shoulder-length hair in the picture being held by Sutherland. The man's image is the fake.

Dawel is the director of the Australian National University Emotions and Faces Lab.

She has been leading a team of researchers in Australia, Canada and the UK to find out if people can be trained to rumble the AI imposters.

The answer, for now at least, is yes - but learning to spot an AI fake requires a more subtle approach.

Getting a feel for fakes

Sutherland is leading the UK-based research at the University of Aberdeen.

She said they had noticed they were getting a feel for which faces were real or AI just by looking at them.

"So we thought, OK, it would be really interesting to see if we could teach other people this too," she said.

For the experiments a pool of thousands of AI-generated faces was created using an AI image tool called StyleGAN3, one of the most realistic face generators available.

Participants were tested before and after being given training

What were they trained to look out for?

The researchers trained participants in the studies by drawing their attention to six perceptual qualities:

* Symmetry - AI often fails to recreate the quirks that make us human - a slightly drooping eyelid or a lop-sided smile. "If it's too good to be true, it probably isn't."

* Proportionality - A similar concept. Very large noses or protruding ears are not typical of deepfake images.

* Attractiveness - "AI faces tend to look more attractive," explains Sutherland. "That one is more subjective, an aesthetic judgement, but AI often creates faces that are pleasant looking."

* Distinctiveness - "That could be something like 'what would make a face stand out in a crowd?' AI faces do tend to cluster towards the average. So they look a bit more generic."

* Expressiveness - "AI faces tend to look less emotionally expressive", says Sutherland. "They tend to show less emotion."

* Memorability - "They often look less memorable - they're difficult to remember."

AI also tends to be less proficient at recreating non-white, older or younger faces because more of its training involves young white people.

Some of these tips might sound quite similar and "fuzzy" - but that's the point.

Rarely will you encounter a surefire "tell" that will unmask an AI fake. Rather, it is about becoming attuned to their characteristics and developing a gut feeling.

Researchers found that by exposing people to images, both AI and real, then telling them which was which, they can get significantly better at it - even in the space of an hour or so.

The researchers found the participants would typically increase their accuracy score from about 40% to 80%.

A few individuals achieved close to 100% accuracy.

Ironically, what the human brain is doing here is similar to the way that generative AI models work.

Give them enough data to train on and, over time, their accuracy improves - even though we may not totally understand how they are doing it.

The studies also looked at how confident the participants were at identifying the AI images.

Previous research had indicated people were overconfident that they could spot AI faces, with the most confident people making the most errors.

After training, participants were found to have increased their confidence in spotting the deepfakes.

"That's helpful right?" says Sutherland. "Because if you don't know when you're correct or not, you can't really do anything with that information."

OK, so are you ready to take another test?

How did you do? Feeling more confident?

If the answer is no, don't beat yourself up over it. In both the human world and that of generative AI, practice makes perfect - or at least a bit closer to perfect.

There are many websites out there where, if you so desire, you can hone your skills. You can also volunteer to take part in the research yourself.

Why does learning to spot an AI fake matter?

The obvious danger is fraud.

Global consultancy firm Deloitte has predicted that losses from AI deepfake scams in the US alone could rise to £40bn next year, up from £12bn in 2023.

The report cited the example of a scam where an employee at a Hong Kong-based firm transferred £25m to fraudsters after a video call with a deepfake recreation of their boss.

Another sinister use of deepfake technology is political espionage.

As long ago as 2019, an Associated Press investigation found that a LinkedIn profile - including a photo - belonging to a woman called Katie Jones appeared to be fictitious.

Jones purported to be a Russia and Eurasia specialist with links to prominent Washington think tanks and policy circles.

The AP report claimed she was actually a deepfake produced by Russian intelligence who had successfully connected with top US political aides and national security officials.

In Australia, a politician is currently proposing a requirement to disclose and "watermark" AI-generated political content.

To be fair to AI, Sutherland also sees some positive uses of the technology - such as the ability to quickly and cheaply show how a long-missing child might look at various ages.

She says that if people are "engaging with it in good faith and people know that AI has been used, it could potentially be very useful for creative acts".

So the good news is that we're yet not living in a dystopian world where it's impossible to tell what's real and what's computer-generated.

The bad news is that AI models may have already "read" the published academic research papers. And it's learning.

Man died after twice being told that no ambulance would be sent

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70yd2y6geyo, yesterday

A 55-year-old man died alone after twice calling 999 only to be told by call handlers an ambulance would not be sent for him.

Brian Hurton had an aortic dissection - when a tear opens up in the body's main artery - on 18 November last year.

He called the emergency services at 17:55, complaining that he was struggling to breathe and felt like he was going to collapse.

He was told that a clinician would call him back, and that if he got worse in the meantime he should call the emergency services again.

He did call again, about 10 minutes later, and told the call handler he was "losing breath". He was again told that someone would call him back.

According to the transcript, seen by BBC Scotland News, Brian was told: "We are quite busy in the area at the moment Brian, so based on the information provided instead of an ambulance response initially one of our clinicians is (going to) call you back."

An hour and 12 minutes after his first call, a clinician called him back.

But that call and two further calls went unanswered.

An ambulance was not dispatched until 21:12, and arrived at 21:19 - almost three-and-a-half hours after his first call to 999.

The front door of Brian's home in East Kilbride was ajar, and he was found by paramedics. He was lying dead on his bathroom floor.

'My brother died begging for help'

Brian's sister, Allison Duncan, said that her brother - Brian's twin - had phoned her to say that Brian had died.

She and her husband went straight to Brian's house.

Brian's body was still there, and police told Allison her brother had called 999 for help before he died.

The family asked for a report to be carried out into the circumstances around Brian's death.

Allison told BBC Scotland News: "We couldn't believe it when we found out that Brian had made two calls and they then called him back and they couldn't get a response and it still took them another couple of hours before they sent an ambulance out to Brian's house."

She said listening back to Brian's calls to the emergency services was "harrowing".

Allison said she did not understand how an ambulance was not sent out right away, adding that the call handlers should have asked if someone could go to be with Brian.

She said Brian's twin could have been with him in seconds.

Thinking about how Brian died left her feeling "very sad" and "quite traumatised", she said.

Allison continued: "He was left with his last dying moments on his own, struggling for breath, begging for help, thinking that he was going to get help.

"Then the second call, when they said again, they're not sending anybody out. It was clear in the audio that he gasped. He couldn't believe it.

"He still said: 'Okay, thank you. Bye bye.'

"I could see it in his face - he was terrified."

Allison said while Brian may not have survived had paramedics reached him, he could have been given oxygen and pain relief to make him comfortable.

She added that he would have felt safe and would have had someone with him when he died.

The full transcripts of Brian's calls have been published by the Daily Record.

What did the review find?

A review into Brian's death by Healthcare Improvement Scotland has been seen by BBC Scotland News.

It said:

* Brian's first 999 call should have been allocated a higher priority response. If this had been coded correctly, a "timelier" ambulance response would "likely" have been sent.

* It was not possible to determine whether this would have changed the outcome.

* The response time for clinical review was longer than the expected waiting time.

* Excessive delays at hospital reduced the ambulance service's ability to service the emergency calls that were awaiting response.

* Additional guidance should be developed for vulnerable patients who are alone and could deteriorate.

* The demands on the 999 service were lower than expected for the time.

'Failure in call handling'

A spokesperson for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: "Due to the seriousness of this case, the Scottish Ambulance Service undertook a full Significant Adverse Event Review (SAER) rapidly, and we remained in contact with the family throughout the entire process.

"We understand that nothing can change the outcome, but we hope that our adoption of the review's recommendations demonstrates our commitment to learning and improvement."

The spokesperson offered the service's condolences to Brian Hurton's family and said they were happy to discuss the review with them directly.

The Scottish government's health secretary, Angela Constance, said her sympathies were with the family.

She continued: "This should not have happened, and it is clear there has been a failure in call handling."

Constance welcomed that the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) had accepted the report into its failures.

"SAS must learn from this investigation and I will be meeting with them to ask how they will be taking all appropriate steps to ensure improvements to call handling," she said.

Constance added that A&E departments continued to experience "significant pressure".

But, she added, it was unacceptable for patients to wait "too long for the care they need".

She said the Scottish government would be bringing forward a new national plan for "hospital flow", which would bring together the ambulance service and health boards to shorten waits for patients, reduce unnecessary hospital trips and ease pressures in A&E.

Harry visits King with Meghan and children for first time in four years

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj4g79exkzlo, yesterday

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, along with their children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, have visited King Charles and Queen Camilla.

Buckingham Palace confirmed on Friday evening that the King and Queen hosted the family at Highgrove House earlier in the afternoon.

The Palace described the meeting at the King's private home in Gloucestershire as a "private family occasion".

It is the first time the King has seen his grandchildren Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, in person in more than four years.

Prince Harry and Meghan had not been in the UK together since 2022, when they attended the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

Prince Harry has attended a number of events in the UK this week, but it was confirmed on Thursday that Meghan and the two children would not accompany him on any public engagements during the last two days of his visit.

It is not known where the family is staying while here.

The meeting is a significant development in family relations that have been strained since Prince Harry and Meghan's departure from the UK and royal duty in 2020.

Sources said father and son wanted to meet this week and the King was keen to make time to see his two young grandchildren.

The prince has travelled to the country alone since 2022, and met his father on a trip last September.

While Prince Harry and his family were at Highgrove, his brother, the Prince of Wales, was playing in a charity polo match in Windsor.

The brothers' relationship remains broken and there are no plans for them to meet while Harry and Meghan are in the UK.

Earlier on Friday, Prince Harry was in Birmingham counting down to the next Invictus Games for injured service men and women, an event he has been closely involved with for a number of years.

He was warmly applauded by participants and supporters of the games, and tried his hand at pickleball and wheelchair rugby.

Initially, the prince's visit to the UK was overshadowed by his court defeat against Associated Newspapers and confusion over whether Meghan and their children would come to the country.

Initial details of the trip said Meghan would appear at events in London and Birmingham. Following a dispute over levels of security, it was later confirmed this would not be the case.

And last week, before the prince travelled, there was confusion over whether he was going to stay in Buckingham Palace.

His team had announced that he had accepted an invitation to stay at the Palace, but that was then swiftly rejected by the Palace, who said Prince Harry had already been told that he would not be allowed to stay there.

The King attended events in Oxfordshire prior to the family meeting on Friday.

He opened a building at the University of Oxford before meeting astronaut Tim Peake at the launch of a space initiative.

Earlier in the week, he was joined by the Queen on a visit to London Zoo, where he was pictured during sweltering temperatures as much of the UK experiences a heatwave.

Man arrested on suspicion of murder of Ann Widdecombe, police say

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz6v5z9zz8jo, today

Police say a 28-year-old man has been arrested in South Yorkshire on suspicion of the murder of Ann Widdecombe.

"The suspect, who is a white British national, is now in police custody," a statement from Devon and Cornwall police says.

Widdecombe, a former Conservative minister turned Reform UK spokesperson, was found with serious injuries at her home in Haytor, Devon at 11:40 BST on Thursday. Police believe she was attacked almost 24 hours earlier.

A man, 26, had been arrested earlier in Newton Abbot, 11 miles (18km) away on suspicion of murder before he was released on Saturday. After he was released from custody, police said he was "no longer part of the investigation".

The latest arrest took place at an address in South Yorkshire, police say, approximately 270 miles (430km) from Widdecombe's Devon property.

Devon and Cornwall police issued a new statement saying: "We were supported by Counter Terrorism Policing North East and South Yorkshire Police who carried out the arrest on behalf of Devon & Cornwall Police.

"At this time, there is still no information to suggest that this is a terrorism related incident and as a force we retain primacy of the investigation."

"This is a live and active investigation, and no further information will be issued tonight."

Widdecombe's family had been informed of the latest updates, police added.

A significant police presence remained in the area over the weekend, with forensic officers seen arriving at the property.

Shortly after Widdecombe's management confirmed she had died on Friday, Assistant Chief Constable Matt Longman said that counter-terrorism officers had initially been involved in the investigation before ruling out terrorism.

Detective had no information to believe Widdecombe's death was a "politically motivated crime", he said.

On Saturday, he said the force had decided not to release further information, including descriptions of any potential suspects or CCTV footage, for the time being.

"Releasing such information prematurely could compromise ongoing enquiries and may prejudice future investigative opportunities," he said.

Widdecombe's political career spanned several decades, having served as a Tory MP for Maidstone in Kent from 1987 to 2010.

Following her departure from the Commons, Widdecombe appeared on BBC's Strictly Come Dancing in 2010 and was a runner-up on Celebrity Big Brother eight years later.

She joined the Brexit Party in 2019 where she represented South West England as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2019 to 2020.

In 2023, she became a member of Reform UK, where she was the party's Immigration and Justice spokesperson.

If you ask Americans, Norway's Erling Haaland is already a winner

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ceqd3l4v7reo, yesterday

America loves Erling Haaland, and the feeling is mutual.

The Norwegian striker is everywhere these days. Yes, he's in the running for top scorer at the Fifa World Cup alongside Messi and Mbappe. Yes, he's one of the world's highest-paid athletes and was the Premier League's top scorer last season.

But that's probably not where most Americans know him from. He's a social media sensation.

Haaland has gone viral for his goofy Snapchat stories, unfiltered interviews and candid vlogs. He posts selfies using the Shrek filter, captioned "selfie with my twin".

He replies directly to fans with crying-laughing emojis. He accidentally misspells Orlando as "Ornaldo", before apologising to all the "perfect brothers and sisters out there" for his mistake – all while staring blankly into the camera.

There are few footballers of Haaland's calibre who have broken into the cultural zeitgeist quite like he has.

Before the tournament, many knew him simply as a prolific goalscorer, or, perhaps, from the "imagine this Viking running at you full speed" memes.

Now, he's gaining a whole new cohort of fans.

"I had no idea who he was," said Juliana Hofmann, who lives in Millington, New Jersey. She discovered the star after the Norwegians beat Brazil, and now her social media pages are full of Haaland content.

"The way he carries himself is amazing, because despite being one of the biggest stars in the world of football, he's so humble," Hofmann said.

His Instagram following has grown from 40 million to 60 million throughout the tournament.

His vlogs, where he documents his adventures across America, have several million views on YouTube. In one video, he visits Wild Bill's Western Store in Dallas, Texas, to buy a cowboy hat and boots.

"I'm looking forward to walking out on the street and doing this," he says, while tipping his hat.

For much of the video, he dons a T-shirt reading: "Y'all can kiss my Dallas."

"I think we should keep him!" one Texan commented on Instagram.

"Texas looks good on you!" commented another.

"We're all rooting for Erling Haaland," said Marie, an American woman attending a Norwegian celebration in Miami, Florida.

"We've all fallen in love with him," she told BBC Mundo. "He's goofy and he's a beast."

"I'm entranced by Mr Haaland," said Miami resident Robert, speaking to BBC Mundo. "He's a machine, that guy. Terminator, move over."

Robert organised a Norwegian-style "row" with 10 of his pickleball friends in Miami Beach on Friday morning, inspired by clips of the Norwegian team on social media.

"For us Americans who don't know a lot about soccer... it's wonderful, he's amazing."

The Norwegian striker also seems quite found of America.

"People are so nice here," Haaland said in one of his vlogs. "They're so positive. I don't know what it is, they're just enjoying life."

"I'm definitely coming back here," he added.

At a recent press conference, Haaland was asked about his new American fans.

"I like the Americans, I think they are kind of hilarious as well," he said. "They are funny, I like the way they are."

Haaland also engages directly with his fans, to their delight.

One Instagram user posted a video of a spring onion with the text: "Am I losing it or does this green onion look like Haaland?"

The footballer's comment (a gif of a dog in a car, raising its eyebrows as the car window rolls up) has nearly 1.5 million likes.

The spring onion comparisons have gained traction in unexpected corners of the internet.

Florida congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna asked her followers on X whether they would support Norway or England in the quarter finals on Saturday.

She then posted the spring onion video, writing: "Just so everyone knows where I stand", paired with a Norwegian flag emoji.

Will Haaland's American adventures continue? It all depends on the fallout of Saturday's quarter finals match against England, when the Norwegian will face off against his former teammate Jude Bellingham in Miami.

The two played together for two seasons at Borussia Dortmund between 2020-22 and became fast friends. In one viral clip, Bellingham interrupted an interview to plant a kiss on a smiling Haaland's cheek.

Fan-edited montages of the pair embracing, giggling and jumping into each other's arms are all over social media.

The two have remained pals, even after Haaland joined Manchester City and Bellingham made the move to Real Madrid.

When the pair met for a Champions League match, Bellingham briefly rested his head on the 6ft 5in (195cm) Norwegian striker in the lead-up to a corner kick.

Cue social media frenzy.

This is the first time the two friends will play each other in a World Cup. A spot in the semi finals is on the line.

Regardless of the result, if you ask Americans, Haaland is already a winner.

Losing to win: The strangest game in football history

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260703-losing-to-win-the-strangest-game-in-football-history, 7 days ago

Sometimes sporting rules can incentivise teams to behave in ways that appear to defy logic – by actively trying to lose.

It has been called the most extraordinary game of football ever played. Yet there was no global audience watching with baited breath, nor a championship title or coveted trophy on the line.

Indeed, before the two sides – Barbados and Grenada – stepped out onto the pitch, it appeared it would be a very ordinary match between two small nations to decide who would qualify to compete in the 1994 Caribbean Cup.

Barbados looked to be cruising to a 2-0 victory until the 83rd minute when Grenada pulled one back. Minutes later Barbados funnelled the ball to defender Terry Sealey, who passed it back and forth with his goalkeeper Horace Stout. Then Sealey intentionally blasted the ball into his own net to make the score 2-2.

Then things got even weirder. The Grenadians tried to do the same thing. They attempted to score in their own net only to find the Barbadians blocking the way. The Grenadians then went up the other end to try to score in the Barbadian's goal only to find their way blocked again.

They continued to try to score in both nets until the full-time whistle. In extra time the normal pattern of play seemed to resume, with the Barbadians eventually scoring the "golden goal" which ended the game and saw them win the match.

So what was going on? In an attempt to make the qualification stage of the cup more exciting, the organisers had decreed that there would be no draws. If a match finished tied, then it would go to extra time. A "golden goal" was introduced which, if scored, would immediately end the game. The golden goal would be worth two normal goals – a quirk expected to make little difference. Only it made all the difference.

It was all to do with the previous matches in the qualifying group. Puerto Rico had beaten Barbados 1-0, but lost to Grenada 2-0. With only the top team going through to the cup proper, it meant Puerto Rico were effectively eliminated due to the goal difference.

Barbados, however, had a slim chance. If they could beat Grenada by two clear goals or more it would give them the points and the goal difference needed to overtake Grenada in the table.

At 2-0 in the 83rd minute they were sitting pretty, but when they conceded, the 2-1 scoreline would no longer be enough. Instead of trying to score in the remaining seven minutes, the Barbadians reasoned it would make more sense to take the game to extra time by scoring an own goal. This would give them 30 minutes to score the golden goal, which would be worth two. So they duly did.

When the Grenadians realised what their opposition were doing, they tried to score an own-goal themselves which would have seen them defeated, but not by a big enough margin to allow Barbados to overthrow them at the top of the group.

Scoring in the Barbadian net would also have given them the victory, which is what led to the Barbadians having to defend both goals. With Barbados netting the golden goal, they finished the match 4-2 winners. Their plus one goal difference, was enough to surpass Grenada's goal difference of 0 and leave Barbados top of the group.

This is a stunning example of a perverse incentive: a tweak in the rules which causes behaviour that is the opposite of what was originally intended. Perverse incentives are sometimes known as the "cobra effect". The name derives from a story which goes back to the era of the British Raj in India.

Bureaucrats in Delhi became concerned about the number of venomous cobras in the city. To resolve the problem, they placed a bounty on each cobra's head. Soon after, thousands of dead cobras began to pour in.

But rather than going out and catching cobras, some entrepreneurial individuals had set up lucrative cobra-breeding programmes to cash in. Once the British got wind of the ruse, they withdrew the bounty. With no viable income stream, the temporary serpent-breeders released the cobras in huge numbers.

In a sporting context, the cobra effect has reared its head on multiple occasions. At the 2012 Olympics, badminton players from China, South Korea and Indonesia deliberately attempted to lose matches to secure an easier draw in the knockout stages.

The England national football team had a similar incentive to lose their last group-stage game to Belgium in the 2018 World Cup, to ensure they were placed in the easier side of the knockout draw. England's manager made eight changes and his side duly lost the game, securing a route which led them all the way to playing the lowest-ranked team in the semi-finals (although there is no suggestion that England deliberately played poorly to lose the match).

More recently, a match at the World Cup 2026 between Austria and Algeria sparked conspiracy theories after it ended in a draw. The two teams entered the match knowing draw would give them a point each needed to send them both through to the next round, while a loss could knock them out. Both teams strongly denied deliberately playing for a 3-3 draw, but some fans voiced their scepticism after the match, even going as far as to describe the game as "scripted".

In American sports, teams with a worse record one season get earlier picks in the draft (the process by which teams select new players for the next season). As a result, there has often been an incentive for teams who aren't fighting to make it into the playoffs to "tank" by losing games late in the season.

More like this:

• The maths behind world records

• How to complete the World Cup sticker book

• The ancient reason there are 60 minutes in an hour

There is a branch of mathematics which potentially allows tournament organisers to avoid these perverse incentives. Game theory assumes that parties competing with one another are rational and act in their own self-interest, providing a framework for understanding how participants will act under a given incentive structure.

Indeed, in Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League, a mathematical "anti-tanking" strategy is deployed to prevent teams from deliberately losing matches towards the end of the season.

Instead of the worst team getting the first pick in the draft, teams are entered into a lottery to determine who gets the first pick, dampening the incentive to finish bottom.

But it shows that, unless thought through carefully, rules can incentivise some strange behaviour, even from those you would expect to be rational.

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Loyal and royal: How the future King became a football superfan

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly9r8j7vrwo, 3 days ago

In the early hours of Monday morning, like millions of other football fans, the Prince of Wales stayed up in Windsor to watch England's memorable victory over Mexico.

At Forest Lodge, his family home on the Windsor estate, he endured the delayed start, the intense atmosphere of the Azteca Stadium and the nerve-jangling end to the second half when a 10-man England agonisingly clung on to their lead.

He'd watched every other England match too as you'd expect from the Patron of the Football Association. He knows the England set-up well and has been in direct contact with players and staff during the tournament – several England footballers have Prince William's personal phone number.

If England make it to the World Cup final in New Jersey on 19 July, Prince William will fly over as an official representative of the FA and the royal family's most ardent football fan.

No royal has ever shown their love for football quite like Prince William.

And his passion for the game has often been at its most raw on the royal family's social media platforms.

Royal posts can be tame affairs. The usual pattern is a reminder of the day's engagements, a clip of a speech delivered, sometimes an official comment around an event alongside the day's best pictures.

But on 20 May this year, Prince William's official accounts loosened up just a bit.

"UTV! VTID" they screamed alongside a red love heart and the muscular arm emoji. For those not in the know, that translates as "Up the Villa" and "Villa Till I Die." Not your typical royal social post.

They were published with a "W" meaning they had come personally from William and were up just minutes after his beloved Aston Villa had won the Europa League final with a convincing 3-0 victory over German side, Freiburg. It was Aston Villa's first European title in 44 years – they won the European Cup in 1982, the year Prince William was born.

He'd been at this year's final in Istanbul with a group of close friends, many from his childhood who share his love for Aston Villa – Ben Dawes, Thomas van Straubenzee and Edward van Cutsem. They have all been regulars at Villa games over the years. It was a family friend who persuaded him to support Aston Villa when he was a teenager.

Prince William's reaction to every goal, caught on the TV coverage of the Europa League final, was unbridled joy, what football fans would call "limbs" – the shouts, the jumping on and hugging of those around you, the uninhibited celebrations.

In his post-match interview, club captain, John McGinn, picked out their royal supporter.

"He's a classy guy. He was in the dressing room before the game and he's a massive Villa fan, he was never going to miss it and it's great to have his support."

We don't know whether the royal credit card was given an outing during some drinks with the team but Prince William did head to the dressing room for the celebrations after the match.

What Prince William also did that night was reinforce his credibility with fans.

Sitting a few rows away from their royal supporter were Mat Kendrick and Dan Rolinson who host the Claret and Blue podcast devoted to their love of Aston Villa. It turns out Prince William is a regular listener.

Prince William told them he liked the "good nonsense" of their podcast and said he'd like to appear on it in future.

"Football fans always like to get one up on each other and as celebrity fans go we are doing pretty well because we have the future King of England and also the actor, Tom Hanks," said Mat Kendrick.

"It is a real sense of pride for fans who see it as not just a token thing."

The royal family has always been sport loving but football has never been their thing.

Last week, Prince William appeared on New Heights, a podcast hosted by American football player Travis Kelce – now Taylor Swift's husband – and his brother, retired player, Jason. When asked if his father had encouraged him to support Aston Villa, Prince William's reply was clear.

"Absolutely not. My father hates football," he said.

For Queen Elizabeth II, it was always about horseracing as it had been for generations of royals before her. She was a racehorse owner, breeder and a racing fan who, like her grandson William, often revealed a more private side of her personality in her reactions while watching a race.

In 2013, she became the first reigning monarch in 207 years to own a Gold Cup winner at Royal Ascot. Her animated delight at her win was a rare show of emotion from a contained Queen.

For the Princess of Wales, her sport is tennis. She is Patron of the All England Lawn Tennis Club and is a Wimbledon regular. She'll be presenting the winners' trophies this weekend.

And then there is polo – a far more elitist undertaking but loved by the King when he was younger and a sport his sons, Princes William and Harry, used to play regularly. Prince William will be back in the saddle today (Friday) for a charity polo match that has become an important fundraiser for his charities over the years.

But there has never been a football superfan among senior members of the royal family until now.

In a country with one of the world's greatest professional leagues, where a World Cup can keep an audience of more than nine million people up all night to watch an England game – Prince William's love of football provides him with an immediate connection to huge swathes of the public who share his love of the sport. And his decision to support Aston Villa as a teenager helps too.

"Avoiding say Manchester United or Liverpool, huge global brands, and Arsenal or Chelsea, did make him more relatable," said Gregg Evans, writer for The Athletic and co-author of Waking the Giant, Inside the Rebirth of Aston Villa.

Sharing the suffering and elation of football fans matters in a world where public perceptions of royalty have been tested in recent months. A love of football connects William to the country he will one day reign over in a way polo would not.

"I don't think a 13 or 14-year-old William thought, I know, when I make my pitch to be King in 30 or 40 years I'll prove that I'm a man of the people by going to support Aston Villa," said Mat Kendrick from the Claret and Blue podcast.

"The interesting thing will be to see if when he is King, he can still show his claret and blue allegiances as clearly as he does now.

"I'd like to think that getting the top job won't change how he behaves and responds to people. We're obviously going to have bragging rights then when the King is a Villa fan!"

And when it comes to bragging rights, there would be none greater for Prince William than watching England win the World Cup for the first time in 60 years as a future King, a patron of the Football Association and a royally devoted football fan.

Apple sues OpenAI, its employees claiming theft of trade secrets

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8w379e091o, yesterday

Apple has accused OpenAI of gaining access to valuable inside information through the hiring of its former employees.

In a federal lawsuit filed on Friday, Apple sued the artificial intelligence (AI) company, two of its employees, as well as io Products, claiming it has engaged in "a pattern of theft" of Apple's confidential product development and related work.

At least two long-time Apple workers who left the company to join OpenAI allegedly took part in this pattern by, in part, emailing themselves internal Apple information.

Drew Pusateri, a spokesman for OpenAI, told the BBC: "We have no interest in other companies' trade secrets."

Pusateri added that the company, which is currently reviewing Apple's complaint, is "focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere."

An Apple spokesman told the BBC the lawsuit is the result of "significant evidence."

It represents a major shift in relations between Apple and OpenAI, creator of the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT.

Tim Cook, Apple's outgoing CEO, had added ChatGPT into Apple devices as the company was looking to offer more AI features.

This year, Apple shifted more of its AI features to run on Google's Gemini model and tools.

Yet, when Cook revealed in April that he was stepping down, Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, publicly praised him as "a legend", adding he was "very thankful for everything he has done".

Now, Apple is accusing OpenAI of undertaking a "strategy to extract Apple's confidential information".

Along with OpenAI, Apple is suing io Products, the design startup founded by Jony Ive, a long-time Apple executive. OpenAI acquired the company last year.

It is also suing Chang Liu, a senior electrical engineer who worked at Apple for eight years, and Tang Yew Tan, a vice president of design for iPhone and Apple Watch who spent 24 years with the company. Tan is now OpenAI's chief hardware officer.

Through these former employees and their access to "sensitive projects, trusted partner relationships, proprietary manufacturing techniques, and unreleased products," Apple claims OpenAI has been able to glean details of its product plans and operations.

Apple added that when OpenAI interviews current Apple employees for potential jobs the company allegedly tries to extract further information from them.

OpenAI interviewers allegedly have told the prospective hires to "bring 'actual parts' as 'props' from Apple for 'show and tell'" during their interview.

Apple accused all of the parties it was suing of "acting in concert and as an enterprise, exploiting Apple's confidential information to advance OpenAI's efforts to enter the consumer hardware market".

OpenAI is expected to release its first hardware product, a type of keyboard to be used with its AI tools, this month.

It is also planning to become a publicly traded company.

Apple said in its lawsuit that, because OpenAI's "misconduct is normalized and exemplified by leadership" its "nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations, rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets".

The company also said that it had attempted to discuss it's concerns with OpenAI in February, but was ultimately ignored.

Apple has asked the court to immediately prohibit OpenAI from obtaining or using any alleged confidential information and it is seeking unspecified monetary damages.

Meta pulls new AI image feature after days of backlash

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2dy6e8klw0o, yesterday

Meta has abruptly taken down a new feature that allowed people to use its artificial intelligence (AI) tool to make fake images from user content on Instagram.

The feature was part of a broad rollout of Muse Image, a new AI image generation tool Instagram's parent company released on Tuesday.

It allowed users of the Meta AI chatbot to tag public-facing accounts on Instagram and quickly use content on those accounts to create AI-generated or altered content and images.

The feature quickly sparked blowback due to privacy concerns, leading Meta to admit it had “missed the mark" so it was "no longer available”.

Muse Image was the tech firm's first foray into AI image generation but faced backlash as Instagram users were opted in by default.

It meant that anyone with a public account could have their likeness used without their knowledge or permission.

Hollywood union Sag-Aftra described the U-turn as a "win". It had previously urged its members and "all Instagram users" to take action to protect their likeness stating that there had been an "utter miscalculation of public sentiment regarding the obvious dangers and harms inherent in such use".

The London-based human rights charity Privacy International had also criticised the feature, telling the BBC it was "the latest sign AI companies see people's images and data as raw material to be exploited".

“Our intent was to provide a useful creative tool and to give people control over whether their public content could be referenced in this way,” Meta added in its decision to pull the feature. “We've heard the feedback.”

When Meta announced Muse Image, the firm said it was limited to Instagram, but more AI features and integrations were planned for WhatsApp, Facebook and Messenger.

It also has an AI video tool in development.

Meta declined to make any further comment.

Why wellness is booming at festivals in the UK

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj4p75lldgvo, today

Smelly outside toilets, muddy fields, day drinking and not sleeping might sound like a familiar festival experience to many.

But, as people spend more money on activities that improve their wellbeing - it is a multi-trillion pound industry - music events are dedicating spaces to things like yoga classes and wood-fired saunas, to appeal to festival-goers.

Worth more than £160bn, the UK's wellness industry is continuing to grow in 2026 and the average consumer spent about a third more in 2024 than five years before that, according to the Global Wellness Institute.

Organisers of the Boardmasters festival, in Newquay, Cornwall, said they have seen a massive shift in demand for wellness, as attendees seek to "maintain their at-home rituals" like morning yoga, runs or treatments while at the event.

"Five or 10 years ago, wellness was very much a niche add-on. Now it's a core part of why people come," organisers said.

Their festival programme has increased over the years to include run clubs, sound baths and Pilates, alongside activities like jewellery and candle-making.

They have introduced a boutique spa for 2026 as they said demand for wellbeing activities continued to boom and it will offer treatment tents, facials and aromatherapy as "moments of serenity" for festival-goers.

Attendees were increasingly looking for experiences that were not just about partying but where they could "recharge and reconnect" with their wellbeing, organisers said.

"People want both the euphoria of a headline set and the calm of a cliffside yoga session the next morning," they added.

Lizzy McNamara, from Pembrokeshire, Wales, took part in Boardmasters' run club last year to have a bit of a "normal routine" while camping at the festival.

The club ran for three days, run by travel company Run Weekends and McNamara described it as "welcoming" and "lovely with great vibes" as everyone ran together at a slow pace.

She said running with the club meant she had done something positive for her body "in a weekend of little sleep and festival food".

"I don't drink alcohol so it was such a lovely way to spend a morning when others were feeling groggy," she said.

Brits are choosing to prioritise wellness as they become more aware of the risks of poor diets and sedentary health, global market insights provider Innova claimed.

Social media had increased access to health information and the trends were being driven by a "desire for emotional stability, weight loss and disease prevention", a spokesperson added.

To make health retreats "easily achievable", Alex Hyde and Sam Carter-Smith hosted the OneRetreat Wellness in Birmingham, a one-day festival with exercise classes, sauna sessions and professional talks.

The pair cofounded the event as they said they noticed a "massively growing demand" for in-person retreat weekends as attendees made more space for wellness.

"People are on their phones all the time and online events are harder to sell, they want to see real faces in real life," Hyde said.

Although wellness appears to have never been more popular, there have been enthusiasts in the industry for decades.

The Mind Body Spirit Festival was founded in 1977 in London to show the "inter-relatedness" of the mind, body and spirit while organisers said they tried to change the public's attitude "and perception of themselves in the world".

Its key highlights were a meditation sanctuary, vegetarian restaurant and "psychic" readings, organised by the British Astrological Society and Psychic Society.

Nowadays, more than 30,000 people attend their festival every year, held in London and Birmingham, with exhibitors selling organic food, crystals, homemade products and supplements.

"People have become a lot more aware of their own wellness in the last five years as they submerge themselves in health and wellbeing markets," event organisers said.

They claimed they have noticed attendees who feel anxious and depressed leave the festival feeling "inspired and motivated" with the "answer they came for".

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Meet the crypto billionaires building a world where money buys you a vote

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly8eqyj8e2o, yesterday

The Free Republic of Liberland doesn't look like much from the boat.

You would never guess that this flat, muddy stretch of floodplain on the Danube River, dotted with alder trees, tents and treehouses, is connected to some of the world's wealthiest men - including the biggest initial investor in the Trump family's crypto business.

By contrast, the virtual reality version of Liberland I'm currently being shown, designed by Zaha Hadid's ZHA architecture firm, features gleaming towers, floating public parks, and gravity-defying water features.

The person showing it to me is Vít Jedlička, Liberland's president. He founded the micronation on a disputed bit of territory between Serbia and Croatia with the goal of making a truly libertarian, digital country that runs on the same technology as cryptocurrencies.

I've come to Liberland for the past year as part of a BBC Two documentary, The Tech Billionaire Takeover. Liberland may look and sound like a joke. But it is bankrolled by some of the wealthiest men in crypto, and it runs on an idea they are trying to export: that government itself can be replaced.

We arrive at the country by boat because Croatian authorities have stopped people from doing so by land. A few settlers in anoraks come out to wave to us from the shore and President Jedlička, communicating via megaphone, presents one of the settlers with an official medal.

In most modern democracies, everyone has an equal vote. But things are different in Liberland thanks to a purchasable crypto token called Liberland Merits. President Jedlička tells me a person is elected through Merits. "So the people that have more Merits are able to have more say in who is going to be in the leadership of the country," he says. This effectively means you can vote directly with your money.

Liberland is also entirely tax-free, something its interior minister, Ivan Pernar, a controversial Croatian former MP who was kicked out of parliament for spreading conspiracy theories, explains to me.

"Usually, people who believe in freedom, decentralised finances and so on, they tend to be from the upper class of society," Pernar tells me. "If you make zero selection and you say whoever comes on [the] boat is welcome, we would end up like [the] UK. We don't want that."

"So it's liberty, but... some people have more liberty than others?" I ask. One of the main ways to gain power and influence in Liberland appears to be through money, I suggest.

"Of course," says Pernar. He says that if you had "a bunch of bums in your country without anything", others would have to contribute to their benefits. He goes on to compare the poor to animals. "Don't feed the animals, because if you do, they will be accustomed to that and they will lose [the] ability to feed themselves. The same is with people."

To Liberland's wealthy backers, helping the poor - or indeed any form of taxation or centralised redistribution of wealth - is an affront to their individual liberty. This view is shared, unsurprisingly, by people in this world with far more money and influence than Pernar.

The banana billionaire

Over the past year, I've been hanging out with Liberland's prime minister, Chinese crypto titan Justin Sun. With Sun's backing - and that of about 30 other tech billionaires, they claim - the Liberlanders may now actually have access to the money needed to start building the version of their micronation with gleaming towers.

Sun is worth an estimated $8.5bn (£6.4bn). He's perhaps most famous for purchasing an art piece consisting of a banana duct taped to a wall for $6.2m and then eating it. He has also been accused by US regulators of fraud and market manipulation. Sun denies the charges, and recently reached a $10m settlement to resolve them.

His company, Tron, is a blockchain, a global software network on which you can buy and sell crypto currencies. Unlike a bank, it isn't run by one single authority - it's decentralised, existing across many computers all around the world, making it harder to tax and regulate.

This same blockchain technology is being used to run Liberland's government and one day, if Sun gets his way, it could run ours too. Citizens vote on laws and referendums using digital tokens, and the voting itself is automatically tallied and enforced by code, rather than counted by officials. In reality, though, the technology is still in its juvenile phase, and human officials are still required to implement laws.

According to blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs, Tron is one of the biggest platforms for moving illicit crypto - reportedly including funds tied to Hamas and Hezbollah, alongside those of drug cartels and mafia networks. Sun says Tron has innovated new collaborations with law enforcement to tackle illegal transactions on the blockchain, leading to huge declines in illicit volume on the platform.

The Trump family welcomed him as lead token investor in their own crypto business, World Liberty Financial. Sun invested more than $75m in the company, as well as millions more in Donald Trump's memecoin, which won him a dinner with the US president.

President Trump officially stepped down from the company once he took office but his family trust still owns and profits from it, selling a cryptocurrency coin called USD1. He has made more than $1.4bn from crypto in the past year, and stands to make much more.

A planet without borders?

It's safe to say the Trumps have profited hugely from their relationship to Sun. But what do Sun and other crypto entrepreneurs who have cosied up to the Trumps want in return? Liberland may offer a glimpse.

In person, Sun is warm and friendly. Like other billionaires I met, I sensed that Sun rarely got to hang around people that didn't work for him or desire his money. Most of our conversations centred around sci-fi and video games.

Last summer, when Sun had just landed from space after paying $29m to fly there with Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin company, he rang me to tell me about the experience. He had been struck by the idea that "the planet itself is boundaryless", without borders, and that "there's not even a concept of the country in the first place". The notion that the nation-state is outdated, and could therefore be replaced with blockchain technology, is one of the reasons he decided to run to become Liberland's prime minister.

Liberland isn't an outlier - it's one of several prototypes of such micronations, areas claimed as independent nations but not legally recognised as such. Prospera in Honduras, Peter Thiel's Seasteading Institute, and Tim Draper's Draper Nation, a fully digital country with Bitcoin as its currency, are all chasing the same idea.

I meet Draper, a billionaire tech investor himself, at Silicon Valley's Draper University, his boot camp for young tech founders, where students pledge to "promote freedom at all costs". Draper tells me he believes government provides "bad service at a high cost", and blockchain will simply replace it: "It's just a matter of time."

Many of these ideas can be traced back to the controversial thinker and tech founder Curtis Yarvin, who has been called the "founder of the Dark Enlightenment". He has won praise from figures on the US right, including tech billionaire Peter Thiel and some in the current Trump administration, including Vice-President JD Vance. His philosophy is notoriously confusing, but it essentially amounts to a criticism of democracy (which has failed, he claims, because immigration is still too high) and concludes we should replace it with an authoritarian structure that sits somewhere in between a corporation, a monarchy, and a blockchain-run micro-nation.

Despite the fact that he views the media as one half of "The Cathedral" - his term for what he believes is the repressive ideological power made up of journalists and academics that secretly runs Western society - he agrees to meet me in Berkeley, California. We go on a short hike while Yarvin, who looks like an ageing punk rocker, speaks in circuitous, long-winded yarns that reference esoteric texts and periods of history to prove his points.

In our conversation, he outlines his "Patchwork" concept, in which traditional nation-states are replaced with a global network of sovereign mini-countries owned by shareholders and competing for citizens like a business competes for customers. He believes blockchain can be used to bring this world about and that the result would be "corporate monarchies" ruled over by "CEO-kings". These corporate monarchs would be accountable to a hidden board of shareholders, who could potentially even control the military and police through something he called a "crypto dingus" that would allow them to essentially disable all guns.

Many of these tech billionaires see Trump, and his office, as outdated, something that will eventually be replaced with their superior technology. Throughout my time meeting tech billionaires, I increasingly got the sense that they saw themselves as the real holders of power.

The crypto lobby has now surpassed the fossil fuel industry to become the most powerful lobby in the US, having contributed $238m in the most recent election cycle, according to Fox Business analysis. Yarvin, Sun, Draper, and Liberland all give a glimpse into the future some of them envision for us.

From Justin Sun, to Liberland and Tim Draper, everyone told me how blockchain technology and cryptocurrency can free us - and our money - from government control. But who would we be handing the control to instead? Every example I've seen ends in wealth and power flowing to whoever controls the technology.

Wealthy AI workers send San Francisco house prices soaring

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9q29j47v9ro, 4 days ago

On a tree-lined street in the affluent Duboce Triangle residential neighbourhood of San Francisco, the top half of a white, Edwardian-era, detached house was drawing visitors from prospective buyers.

The opulently renovated three-bedroom apartment was on the market for almost $3m (£2.3m). And it had been attracting increased attention due to an unusual payment possibility - the seller would consider shares in artificial intelligence companies OpenAI or Anthropic instead of cash.

"The value [of the property] is questionable, but I would like to buy," says a young OpenAI employee who has just viewed the flat with his partner.

The worker, who moved to the Californian city two years ago for a technical job with the San Francisco-based company, is currently renting. He plans, he says, to ask his bosses about the stock transfer possibility.

Welcome to San Francisco 2026, also home to fellow AI giant Anthropic. The city is ground zero for the AI revolution, and its property prices have risen dramatically this year.

"They are just astronomical," says Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, a real estate company that tracks US home prices. "People are flush with cash and ready to buy."

In March, San Francisco regained its title as the most expensive city for homebuyers in the US, overtaking rival San Jose 50 miles to the south in the heart of traditional Silicon Valley.

That month, the median house price in San Francisco rose 19% on the year before, and that trend has continued, up 14.5% and 14.1% in April and May respectively, according to data provided by Redfin.

The median sale price in the city as of May 2026 is a record high of $1.76m, compared with nearly $400,000 for the US as a whole, where prices rose by just 1.4% in March, and 2% in both April and May.

The prevailing view of pretty much everyone is that AI money is the driver of the red-hot San Francisco property market. "We have come to that conclusion based on what we're seeing in the data, and what we've heard from our agents," says Fairweather.

She highlights the steep jump in prices in the wider San Francisco Bay Area's luxury zip codes – which includes Duboce Triangle – since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022, a trend absent in cities with less AI wealth.

It has halted the downturn that San Francisco saw during the Covid pandemic, when the population fell and house prices softened.

Today, the high salaries and signing bonuses being paid to top AI staff in the city can be extraordinary, even by Silicon Valley standards. Yet even more generous are the stock options that the employees have been allowed to partially cash in via limited share sales.

Last October, more than 600 current and former OpenAI employees sold combined shares worth $6.6bn, an average of $11m per participant, it was recently reported.

At Anthropic, whose main product is Claude, workers were also recently said to have been allowed to sell shares totalling some $6bn.

And with both companies due to have full stock market flotations later this year or next, minting more multi-millionaire employees, many see no end in sight to San Francisco's real estate rises.

"Today's bidding wars are going to be seen as bargains, and they already are," says Rachel Swann, the listing agent for the Duboce Triangle property.

Enrico Moretti is a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, who lives in the city.

He says it is still "very early" in the AI boom, and points out that while the city's population and employment levels are rising, they remain below what they were before the pandemic.

There are also opposing forces that may keep a lid on things. Big tech firms such as Meta have recently seen large layoffs.

And as the AI industry moves from its fast-growing innovation phase to one of established companies, it is likely to require less specialized workers who are less able to command the same pay.

Moretti also points out that the lion's share of the wealth from OpenAI and Anthropic's coming stock market flotations will go to investors rather than employees, and they are globally located.

But in the meantime, San Francisco estate agent Matthew Goulden says the current situation is "crazy".

Goulden, who has been doing the job for more than 20 years, says he first started noticing an uptick in prospective buyers – many from the world of AI – late last year.

The upward trend, he says, is not just confined to luxury properties but extends across the market, from single-family homes to one-bedroom flats, and while it is most pronounced in desirable neighbourhoods, it is being felt almost everywhere.

He says that bidding wars are now common, sometimes pushing sale prices millions above the asking level.

At the same time, he adds that homes are selling faster than ever, and the number of all-cash purchases seems to be surging, particularly at the upper end of the market.

Danielle Lazier, another experienced San Francisco realtor, describes similar, but adds some perspective. There has long been a tendency in San Francisco for homes to be listed below market value to get an auction effect going, she says.

And supply is chronically limited – San Francisco is small, there is a high proportion of renters and it has struggled to build new housing (even if the city's new pro-growth, recovery-focused mayor is seeking to change that).

"All of a sudden AI money can have an outsized effect," she says.

Meanwhile, as the new AI boom takes hold, the tale of who gets to stay in San Francisco and who doesn't is told by its residents.

Two San Francisco families with school-aged children, who both asked for anonymity to protect their privacy, recently succeeded in buying move-in-ready single-family homes to meet their desperate needs for more space – but only one was able to do so in the city.

That family was able to purchase in the desirable family-friendly neighbourhood where they had been long-term renters after one parent, who works at OpenAI, sold some company shares last October, giving the family the financial boost needed to buy in an all-cash offer.

The couple say they feel "conflicted and self-conscious" that it is AI money that has made it possible. "We're not ostentatious people," they add. "We've just done what we can with the opportunity."

In contrast, the other family, which doesn't derive its income from AI or the tech world, had to instead move to a more suburban Bay Area town to the north.

Their new home, bought in part with a mortgage, includes a pool and extra land.

It is a different kind of life, notes the mother, and they have mostly adapted now – though it involves a long commute for her husband, who has a senior government job in San Francisco, and they still have "what if" moments.

"We wouldn't have left if we could have afforded to stay," she reflects. "It kind of sucks and I do get a little salty seeing all this extra AI money squeeze everyone else out."

The Duboce Triangle flat, for the record, and according to its listing agent, sold for $3.2m – $200,000 over the asking price. Whether the deal included AI stock is confidential.

The African fishermen who blame Chinese trawlers for their woes

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj4gy9qy7vyo, 7 days ago

The villagers are shouting as they haul on the ropes to pull the net in from the sea.

It takes a big collective effort of a dozen or more people to drag the wriggling mass of snapper, mackerel, barracuda, rays, and many more fish besides, onto the beach.

Shore fishing like this is a tradition on Sierra Leone's Sherbro Island in West Africa, some 75 miles (120km) south of the capital Freetown. But the locals say that catches have fallen in recent years, and they all blame the same thing – large, foreign fishing ships.

One woman, Marie Pierre, is picking sardines from among the discarded jelly fish. She says that international trawlers are illegally entering the coastal waters in ever larger numbers, despite there being an official exclusion zone to keep them out.

Fisherman Musa Gassimo even alleges darker actions. "We cast our nets in the evening and return to shore. In the night, the trawlers have come and [deliberately] cut the lines."

He points out towards the large, foreign ships on the horizon. He says the nets are costing them up to $250 (£189) every time to replace.

West Africa remains the global epicentre for illegal fishing. An estimated 40% of the world's unlicensed catch can be traced to its waters, according to a 2024 global report.

The study estimated that this costs West African nations a combined $10bn in lost revenues, and risks the food security of millions of people. Commentators say that the situation has not improved in the subsequent two years.

Thomas Turay, president of Sierra Leone's Fishermen's Union, says that the average catches for his members are down some 40% in recent years. And he's in no doubt where the blame lies.

"The illegal fishing is too much," he says. "The sea belongs to us, but for the foreign trawlers, they come at night and violate the seven-mile exclusion zone, they come right into the shore here."

As we talk in Tombo harbour close to Freetown, he points out to a few large trawlers on the horizon. The vessels anchor outside the exclusion zone he says, but will come in almost every night.

He then introduces me to a group of fishermen, many of whom have a story to tell.

Abou Waisissé, 70, describes an attack in which he says multiple small, local fishing boats saw their nets cut. Mohamedi Kamara, 55, tells me that a large, international trawler damaged his craft in a collision.

So, what are nationalities of the international ships off the coast of Sierra Leone?

Steve Trent, CEO and co-founder of global campaign group Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), says the vast majority are from China.

"In the past, we've seen South Korean vessels there, we've seen Taiwanese, we see European vessels there doing bad things. But now when you look across that region, it is overwhelmingly Chinese".

Kamara says local fishermen "do complain [to the Fisheries Ministry], but our claims go nowhere. Nobody listens".

Turay blames official corruption. "Government authorities are afraid to help the local fishermen," he tells me. "I know that somebody who is doing this illegal business has the money to bribe and pay."

These allegations are strenuously denied by Sheku Sei, director at the Sierra Leone Ministry of Fisheries. "Our illegal fishing, it used to be a big problem," he says. "But we've put in place measures, so it's reducing."

Sei points to the fact that all international vessels now have to carry transponders that track their movements, and that there are government inspectors who routinely check on them.

When I point out that shipping around the world is repeatedly accused of switching off transponders - for example to avoid international trade sanctions - Sei tells me this doesn't happen in Sierra Leone's waters.

He also insists that the financial penalties for breaching the seven-mile international exclusion zone provide a strong deterrent, although he can't point to any examples of the penalty actually being applied in the past decade.

The Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Sierra Leone did not respond to the BBC's requests for comment. However, recent allegations of Chinese illegal fishing in Latin American waters did prompt a blanket denial from the Chinese Foreign Ministry last month.

"China is a responsible fishing nation, strictly enforcing the regulation of its distant-water fishing activities and engaging in mutually beneficial fisheries cooperation with relevant countries in accordance with international law," it said in a statement.

Trent from the EJF says the Chinese government is adopting a head-in-the-sand approach.

"It's simply not credible for them to carry on in this way. China, to date, still is not doing nearly enough to control its fleet. In fact, I would say they're enabling it, through subsidies, through a lack of oversight and control."

The solution, Trent says, needs to come from better tracking of commercial vessels, and increased international pressure on Beijing, including from consumers themselves. The fish taken from west Africa's rich coastal waters is being sold for consumption around the world, he points out.

"You can choose, do you want to take a product that's been fished illegally, probably unsustainably, stolen from a poor third-party nation, or do you want a product that you actually enjoy eating?"

Is this the electric car of the future?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c862980v374o, 2 days ago

I am driving around in a one-of-a-kind electric car that can charge its battery from 10% to 80% in 10 minutes.

It is packed with cutting edge technology, but in the fiery kiln of a British heatwave there is a bit of worry the wing mirrors might melt.

In jargonese, this is the Shell Triple 10 Challenge Concept Car - which means this is a car built from scratch, in 18 months, to pack in as much of the latest electric vehicle (EV) technology as possible.

It is a demonstrator, a project to show just what might be possible for a new generation of electric vehicles.

The result is a car that charges really fast, squeezes a lot of range out its half-size battery and that has a remarkably small lifetime carbon footprint.

There is a lot of state-of-the-art tech here, but perhaps the biggest change is the battery itself.

Parts of the car's motor and all the battery are submerged in Shell's new battery coolant fluid. This keeps everything electrical nice and cool and that means you can get a lot more work out of it.

Sitting in the back of one test car, Denis Gorman from RML Group took me through the battery.

"What we've done here is a really clever concept of flowing Shell's fluid through all of the cells. So we can work the battery really hard to charge it really quickly... but keep it in its safe working limits."

Around the battery, the team have brought together recycled materials to lower the carbon footprint and also made big efforts to reduce the car's weight, giving it the sort of range you'd expect from a car in this class, about 124 miles (200km), but with a battery half the size.

Of course pulling all this technology together and getting it to work in a car is not easy and that is where the experts at the HORIBA-MIRA testing facility in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, come in with their engineering expertise for just this sort of project.

Ben Gale from HORIBA-MIRA explained there was a lot to think about.

"So how does this new fluid interact with rubber hoses for example? There's learning around all of that and it's part of the development of this concept. But showing the potential of it is where the real excitement is."

So now the team have achieved their goal when might we see this tech, and this fluid cooled battery, available in showrooms to buy?

"There's a lot of interest from car makers and we are hopeful the next generation [of EVs] will see a vehicle like this on the market," Toby Rockstroh of Shell said.

Being driven around the car feels like a production model, there are nice screens, nifty ideas and a lot of legroom in the back thanks to the smaller battery.

Sadly we cannot stay in today's superstrong sun for too long in case the space-aged 3D printed plastic wing mirrors start to melt - but that is a prototype problem.

It will not be an issue for the real cars that Shell, HORIBA-MIRA and all the Midlands engineers involved in this project hope will follow.

Chip giant SK Hynix raises $26.5bn as shares surge in bumper US listing

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gym70r0y4o, yesterday

South Korean computer chip maker SK Hynix has raised $26.5bn (£19.8bn) in its New York share offering, marking the largest ever listing by a foreign firm in the US.

The company, a key supplier to AI chip giant Nvidia, said on Thursday it had sold 177.9 million American depositary shares for $149 each. The shares surged as much as 17% on Friday in their first day of trading on the Nasdaq.

SK Hynix saw its market value top $1tn in its home country in May, lifted by the boom in demand for AI chips.

Its share price has more than tripled in South Korea this year, which along with Samsung Electronics has helped boost the benchmark Kospi index by more than 70% over the same period.

SK Hynix is one of the world's leading memory chip makers. The industry has been given a major boost by the hundreds of billions being spent on AI.

Shares in rivals Samsung Electronics and Micron have more than doubled in recent months.

The debut comes after the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) said this week a global surge in AI infrastructure spending is actively shielding tech-heavy economies, including South Korea, from the growth-stifling effects of the war in the Middle East.

The US listing gives SK Hynix easier access to huge amounts of potential investment from the world's biggest economy, which has fewer barriers than South Korea, said Seoul National University finance professor Jaewon Choi.

Traders are closely watching the listing as a "yardstick to test the water" for whether investor enthusiasm for memory chip makers will continue, Choi said.

The AI boom has triggered a rush of companies raising money on the the stock market.

In June, GrokAI owner SpaceX became the world's biggest ever listing as it raised $85.7bn.

Meanwhile, AI developers Anthropic and OpenAI are preparing to go public, with valuations of more $1tn.

Demand for SK Hynix's offering was reportedly over seven times more than the number of shares available, highlighting the strong investor appetite for a key company in the AI supply chain.

The bumper appetite effectively means investors were so desperate to buy the shares that the company was able to charge a price 2.9% higher than its current stock price in Seoul, rather than offering a traditional discount.

Each American depositary share is equivalent to a tenth of a Seoul-traded common share, SK Hynix said.

The offering gives US investors a way to buy SK Hynix shares without having to trade via an overseas stock exchange.

The company has pledged major investments to develop South Korea's chip making and AI capabilities in the coming years.

"They're using the money they're raising from this US listing to help build more plants, to develop these high-end chips," Shanti Keleman, co-chief investment officer at Seven Investment Management, told the BBC.

"They're going to be building those plants in Korea and obviously the US has a lot of people willing to invest so it makes sense to go there to raise the money."

However, Hanyang University business professor Yun Youngjin said while South Korea's government was likely to be counting on the move to raise funds for domestic investments, a Nasdaq listing carries some risks, especially if investors move money towards the US and away from South Korea's stock market.

In June, the country's government unveiled plans for more than $880bn of investments in partnership with SK Hynix and Samsung.

Both SK Hynix and Samsung have stock market valuations of more than $1tn, joining a growing group of firms which includes tech giants Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft and Google-owner Alphabet.

Major car firms found not to have installed emissions-cheating devices

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0mye0d1297o, yesterday

Vehicles from a host of major car manufacturers did not contain devices alleged to have allowed them to cheat on emissions tests, a judge at the High Court has ruled.

More than a dozen manufacturers are being sued by around 1.6 million motorists over claims that several diesel vehicles made from 2009 onwards contained "prohibited defeat devices" (PDDs).

The cases involved 20 "sample vehicles" made by five manufacturers: Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Nissan, Ford, and Peugeot and Citroen.

The 880,000 motorists claimed they had been misled about emissions tests.

The ten-week trial concluded in March and, in a 369-page ruling handed down today, Lady Justice Cockerill said most of the strategies did not constitute PDDs, with the exception of one in Mercedes cars that was removed in 2015, and another used in some Peugeot-Citroen vehicles.

The judgement said: "The Court rejected most of the principal allegations advanced against the manufacturers whose vehicles were examined at trial."

It added: "In the majority of instances, the Court found that the relevant strategy did not constitute a prohibited defeat device."

Mercedes welcomed the ruling but said it disagreed with the court judgement that one of its four sample vehicles was not compliant prior to the software update.

The German carmaker said: "In our view, the emission control software functionalities are justifiable on both technical and legal grounds. We are actively considering all of our available options, including a potential appeal."

Peugeot-Citroën has yet to comment.

Those taking legal action either bought, leased or otherwise acquired a diesel vehicle made by one of the companies, with most living in England and Wales.

Barristers for the motorists told the trial the devices installed in the cars allowed the vehicles to detect when they were being tested and alter the amount of harmful emissions produced so they fell within emissions regulations.

However, the court found that not every calibration or emissions-control strategy amounted to a defeat device.

"For a defeat device to be found, there needs to be an intention to cause the emissions control system to operate differently when it senses it is being tested," the judge found.

"It was not enough for the Claimants simply to establish that the challenged strategies reduced the effectiveness of emissions-control systems outside the relevant testing conditions."

Solicitors for the claimants did note that Justice Cockerill said "if an alternative approach to the meaning of 'defeat device' were taken, a larger number of devices would be established, including devices in each of the lead manufacturers cars".

James Oldnall, managing partner at Milberg, which represented some of the claimants, said: "We are pleased that the court has ruled that Mercedes installed illegal defeat devices, just like Volkswagen back in 2015.

"The fight is not over on this case, but the first domino has fallen. We are on the right path and will continue pushing to hold these carmakers to account."

A further trial is also scheduled for October this year to determine the consequences of any actionable breaches and any issues relating to damages or other remedies.

This case only examined 20 sample vehicles made by Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Nissan, Ford, and Peugeot and Citroen. The wider case also involves models made by Opel and Vauxhall, Volkswagen and Porsche, Jaguar Land Rover, BMW, FCA and Suzuki, Volvo, Hyundai-Kia, Toyota and Mazda.

The dieselgate scandal first emerged in September 2015, when the US Environmental Protection Agency accused Volkswagen of installing software - which became known as "defeat devices" - on diesel cars to lower readings of the cars' nitrogen oxide emissions.

This software recognised when cars were undergoing official emissions tests, and turned on systems designed to reduce their output of nitrogen dioxide, a gas which can cause respiratory problems.

But when the cars were used on the road, the systems were turned off, in order to improve performance. The net result was that cars produced significantly higher levels of pollution in everyday use than official figures suggested.

VW later admitted the defeat devices had been used deliberately to circumvent emissions tests in the US, and had been fitted to some 11 million cars worldwide.

It has paid out some £27.8bn worldwide in fines and compensation over the scandal, mostly in the US. That includes £193m paid to 91,000 British motorists.

As part of the High Court trial in London, barristers for the car owners cited a report from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

It found that excess nitrogen oxide - the emission created by diesel engines - had caused 124,000 premature deaths and 98,000 new cases of asthma in children in the UK and Europe between 2009 and 2024.

EasyJet agrees to surprise takeover bid as rival US firm swoops in

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgjxqq9jg8yo, yesterday

No-frills airline EasyJet says it has agreed in principle to a £5.7bn takeover proposal from US firm Apollo Global Management - just days after accepting an offer from a rival suitor.

The carrier said Apollo's offer delivered "a superior outcome" to investors than the previous bid from US investment firm Castlelake that EasyJet had also agreed to in principle at the weekend.

EasyJet is one of Europe's largest airlines. It employs more than 19,000 people, and flies around 1,200 routes across 35 European countries.

It was founded by Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou in 1995 to offer cheap air fares to Europe and, together with other carriers such as Ryanair, has transformed UK air travel.

Its first flights took off in November 1995 flying from Luton to Glasgow and Edinburgh, with its first international flights the following year.

Sir Stelios and the Haji-Ioannou family still own about a 15% stake in the airline.

EasyJet said Apollo's offer was worth £7.15 per share, compared with the £6.90 per share proposal from Castlelake which it said it was now "no longer minded" to accept.

In a short statement, Castlelake said it noted the statement from EasyJet and Apollo, and was "considering its options in respect of its possible offer".

Analysts say EasyJet is an attractive target as it is profitable, has a large fleet of aircraft, and has take-off and landing slots at major airports such as Gatwick and Paris Charles de Gaulle. The most popular slots can be worth tens of millions of pounds when traded between airlines.

'Business as usual' for passengers for now

Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said Apollo was focusing on EasyJet's potential.

"While the carrier has been buffeted recently by higher fuel costs and geopolitical turbulence, it has built a resilient European network, a strong balance sheet and, crucially, a fast-growing holidays business. That's likely to be one of Apollo's biggest attractions."

"Package holidays generate higher margins and more predictable revenues than airline tickets alone," she added.

"For passengers, it's very much business as usual for now, with flights, bookings and loyalty schemes unaffected while any deal works its way through the regulatory process."

Conroy Gaynor, senior consumer analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said while Apollo has "more explicitly" backed EasyJet's growth model, "the need to improve the airline margin suggests any success in lowering costs won't necessary translate to lower fares".

The latest statement from EasyJet does not mean a deal has been confirmed. Apollo has been set a deadline of 17:00 on 7 August to either make a firm bid for EasyJet or walk away. Castlelake's deadline to make a firm offer is 3 August.

Apollo's move came after Castlelake had made a series of offers for EasyJet, which had initially been rebuffed by the carrier after it accused the US firm of trying to buy it "on the cheap".

However, on Sunday, EasyJet said it had reached an agreement in principle with Castlelake, over a potential takeover offer worth around £5.2bn.

One significant regulatory hurdle to any EasyJet takeover is that European Union regulations stipulate the carrier must be majority-owned by EU citizens.

Castlelake had proposed going into partnership with two EU nationals, businessmen Peter Bellew and Mark Breen. They would own an EU-based company that would have majority control of the airline.

Apollo said it would take "all necessary steps" to meet any EU conditions surrounding the deal.

Shares in EasyJet jumped nearly 15% on Friday to stand at around 673p.

EasyJet said the offer from Apollo represented an 81% increase from its share price of £3.94 on 28 May, the last day of trading before the takeover interest from Castlelake was made public.

Until EasyJet reached agreement with Castlelake, it had accused the US firm of being "highly opportunistic" with its bids, the first of which was at 560p a share, arguing that its share price had been "temporarily depressed" partly due to the impact of Iran war on the travel sector.

"The bidding war now comes down to price," said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell.

"The spotlight now turns back to the original suitor [Castlelake] to see if it will dig even deeper to beat Apollo. Shareholders will be putting their feet up and enjoying the ride."

We've saved £6,000 on holidays by swapping homes with strangers

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce8kkerxz74o, 2 days ago

Would you swap homes with a stranger in exchange for a cheaper holiday? Or would the idea of someone sleeping in your bed and using your kitchen while you were away put you off?

Henry Vanderpump, 42, his wife Elliw, 39, and their two young children have had two home exchange holidays in the past two years and have another planned this summer.

In each case, they have stayed in another family's home, while that family stays in theirs, a five-bedroom house in Tarporley, rural Cheshire.

Neither side pays anything for their accommodation, although they do pay an annual membership fee to Home Link, the listings site they use to book the trips.

So far, the Vanderpumps have stayed in similarly sized properties in Hamburg and Copenhagen, and Henry says they have saved around £2,500 on accommodation per trip, plus a further £700 on transport, as they also swapped cars.

"We used to have one holiday a summer, now we have two [because of the savings we make from home exchanges]. And the kids love the idea of living in someone else's house while that person is living in theirs."

Home exchanges have been around since at least the 1950s, but an increasing number of people seem to be embracing them because of the rising cost of living, or simply to experience a new type of travel, commentators say.

'We lived like a German family'

Henry says the best thing about swapping homes isn't the savings but getting to visit places off the tourist trail and have a "really authentic experience".

When the family visited Hamburg in 2024, they stayed in a suburb and lived "like a German family" for a week, exploring lakes on the edge of the city recommended by their hosts.

Last year, they stayed in "a very Scandinavian house" in suburban Copenhagen, which was "all on one level and had no clutter".

"They also left us several electric bikes to use," Henry says. "We cycled to the beach, swam in the Baltic and tried restaurants they recommended."

Some people are not comfortable with the idea of strangers staying in their home, and for those who are, there's a lot of preparation and tidying to do before their guests arrive.

Home swappers may also have to be more flexible about when they travel - Home Link says members typically send 10-15 messages before getting an offer.

"Last minute bookings won't always work," says May Burrough, 38, a chief operating officer from London who has done 34 home swaps over the last three years using HomeExchange.

Rather than doing direct exchanges, she hosts people in her central London flat while she's overseas staying with her partner in France.

This way, May builds up points on the platform she can use to book trips at other times.

How to home swap successfully

* If you are putting your home on a booking platform, make the listing clear, with plenty of information and appealing photos

* Keep in contact before and during the exchange to build trust and avoid misunderstandings

* Declutter and make space in wardrobes, drawers and cupboards your guests will use

* Leave a comprehensive guide for guests, covering things like appliance instructions, rubbish collection and emergency information

* Share local recommendations to help them get the most out of their stay

* Lock away items of value to avoid them being damaged

* Check that your home insurance policy provides the cover you need

Sources: Home Link, HomeExchange, the Association of British Insurers

May reckons she has saved about £5,000-£8,000 through swaps in places like Barcelona and the Swiss Alps.

She loves the "community feel" of home exchanges and says she's only ever had one "semi-negative experience" when a booking she thought was for a whole flat turned out to be a room in a flat share.

As for preparation before guests arrive, she says she tries to make sure her flat is clean and clears some space in her wardrobe. "I provide clean sheets and towels. I lock away valuables."

The main home-swap listings platforms vet their members and invite them to review one another.

But the Association of British Insurers advises hosts to check that their home and contents insurance provides the cover they need before hosting guests.

It also says it is worth checking your travel insurance before staying in someone else's home to check it covers accidental damage.

Petra Novak, who uses the home swap site Kindred, says the platform's own damage protection policy has covered her on the few occasions something was damaged in her London flat.

The 34-year-old, who uses the platform as she works remotely around Europe, says she has saved some £18,000-£20,000 through home exchanges.

She says she was nervous about swapping homes with strangers at first but has never had a bad experience.

However, for added peace of mind, she likes to check out the social media profiles of prospective guests, adding that a personal touch can help build trust before an exchange.

"I personally like when someone submits their booking request along with a nice introduction letter, telling me about themselves and the reason why they would be visiting London."

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Welfare cuts: What's been happening with Pip and universal credit?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj924xvzrr2o, 3 days ago

A key disability benefit is "not fit for purpose" and requires fundamental change, a review has said.

Disability Minister Sir Stephen Timms has been leading a review into Personal Independence Payments (Pip) and his comments came as its interim report was published.

The review was commissioned by the government last year after it was forced to water down planned cuts to benefits in the face of fierce opposition from backbench Labour MPs.

What is Pip and what is it worth?

Pip is paid to 3.7 million people with a long-term physical or mental health condition in England and Wales.

It is not linked to someone's savings or income and does not affect other benefits, or the benefit cap. People can get Pip if they are working.

Pip includes a daily living component and a mobility component. Claimants may be eligible for one or both.

The daily living payments are:

* a standard rate of £76.70 per week

* an enhanced rate of £114.60 per week

The mobility payments - which are not affected by the changes - are:

* a standard rate of £30.30 per week

* an enhanced rate of £80.00 per week

What is happening to Pip?

In March 2025, the government announced plans to tighten daily living assessments for both current and future Pip claimants.

However, after more than 120 Labour MPs threatened to vote against the legislation, the government said those already receiving Pip would not be affected.

The original proposals said that people with the highest levels of a permanent condition or disability would no longer have to be reassessed at all.

The assessments involve questions about everyday tasks, with each scored from zero, for no difficulty, to 12, for most difficulty.

For example, needing help to wash your hair, or your body below the waist scores two points, but needing help to wash between the shoulders and waist is worth four points.

The government said originally that anyone claiming Pip for the first time after November 2026 would have to score at least four points for a single activity, rather than across a range of different ones.

However, this change was delayed until the wider Timms review of Pip. The final report - which will include recommendations - is due in the autumn.

The cost of Pip is forecast to rise to more than £41bn by 2030. The cuts originally proposed by the government aimed to save about £5.5bn a year by the end of the decade.

However, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and Resolution Foundation said the concessions made by the government meant it would make no "net savings" by 2029-30.

Any changes to Pip would apply in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

In Scotland, Pip has been replaced with Adult Disability Payment.

However, although new Pip rules would not apply, any reduction on spending on the benefit by Westminster would have a knock-on effect on the Scottish government's budget.

How did universal credit change?

The government also wanted to reform universal credit (UC), and these changes went ahead after MPs backed the renamed Universal Credit Bill in Parliament and covers the whole of the UK.

The basic level of universal credit is £424.90 a month for a single person aged 25 or over.

Before the changes went through, if someone had limited capacity to work due to a disability or long-term condition, the payment more than doubled because of an incapacity top-up.

However, from April 2026, the health element of universal credit paid to new claimants was halved for those with less severe conditions.

The change did not affect the 2.8 million existing claimants of the health element.

Why does the government want to cut welfare spending?

In 2019, almost three million working-age adults (aged 16 to 64) in England and Wales claimed either disability or incapacity benefit. That is 1 in 13 of the population.

By March 2025, that had grown to about four million or 1 in 10, according to the IFS.

The rise has been fuelled by an increase in the number of claimants citing mental health conditions.

Welfare spending is forecast to rise by over a quarter between 2025 and 2030, with the main increases being sickness-related payouts for working age adults and pensioner benefits.

By cutting the amount it is paying out on welfare benefits, the more the government has to spend elsewhere.

How can I get air conditioning in my home and how much does it cost?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2ey1p0jnmxo, 3 days ago

As the UK experiences hotter summers and more regular heatwaves, households have been grappling with how to keep sweltering homes as cool as possible.

Air conditioning has been in hot demand, with retailers seeing their stock fly off the shelves and units online sell out.

The technology already features in many modern cars, hotels and other public places, yet historically homes have been designed to cope with cold weather and keeping heat in them.

Is it time the technology became a feature in most British homes?

Types of air con and how they work

The main function of air conditioning is to cool the temperature inside a building.

There are three main types of air con systems designed for homes:

* Portable air conditioners: The clue is in the name. They are portable, standalone units, which can be used to cool individual rooms. They are simply plugged into the nearest socket and work by drawing in warm air, cooling it, and venting heat outside through a window via a pipe or ducting.

* Split systems: These involve two units, one inside and one outside, that are fixed to a wall and linked by a pipe. The one outside acts as a condenser, which expels the unwanted heat into the air outside. You can buy one for just one room or you can get multiple indoor units to work with a single outdoor condenser, according to LG, the household appliance and white goods retailer. British Gas says such "ductless systems" are one of the most common options for UK homes.

* Ducted air con: These systems are designed to serve the entire home, with a central unit pushing cooled air through a network of ducting, with vents in each room. Unlike the other options, this would require invasive renovation work to an existing property.

How much do they cost?

Costs range widely depending on what is wanted and/or required.

Portable units are the cheapest form of air con, ranging from £350 to £650 on average, depending on the brand and performance, according to Checkatrade.

However, as demand has soared in recent weeks some retailers began selling the cooling machines for £149, as Lidl did in its middle aisles.

Wall mounted or split air con units can cost between £750 and £1,100 each, Checkatrade says - but that is just the unit, and does not include the labour and other installation costs, such as hooking it up to the property's electricity fuse board. Installation company Heatable suggests a full cost is typically £2,000 to £3,500, but can go up to £6,000 if you want to have it in more than one room.

Ducted air con systems cost the most, between £990 and £1,750 without installation costs, according to Checkatrade. Fitting the ducting or remedial work to hide it inside properties means it is likely to be more expensive than any of the other systems given the level of work involved. Heatable estimates it to be between £5,000 and £10,000, depending on the property size, layout and how complex the ductwork needs to be.

The size of both split and ducted units are determined by what is known as the BTU (British Thermal Unit), Checkatrade says, to ensure it will cool the space it's required to. The larger the BTU number, the bigger the room to cool, and therefore the more expensive the unit.

Following installation, consumer group Which? suggests the running costs "vary wildly" and depend on the type of system.

"A typical portable air conditioner adds roughly 25p to 40p an hour to your electricity bill," it says.

The pros and cons

Stating the obvious, the main benefit of having air con in a home is that it can keep it cool during times of extreme heat, meaning people can sleep, work and generally live more comfortably.

However, air con units require electricity, the price of which remains much higher now than it was a few years ago, and so you can expect your overall energy bill to increase if you purchase and use one regularly.

Some environmental groups have also raised concerns over the impact of such technology on the environment, including the chemicals used in units to cool air.

Portable air con units are easy to set up, use and move around homes. They are cheaper to buy than the alternatives and do not require professional installation.

But they can be more expensive to run due to not being as energy efficient.

Checkatrade says portable or window units are a good short-term solution and are also ideal for renters or those who live in listed buildings who cannot make major changes to their property.

Split systems are much better at cooling rooms and are also cheaper to run, according to Checkatrade. They are also quieter than portable units, but they do entail larger upfront costs and need to be installed by a professional tradesperson.

Ducting air con is the least noticeable option due to the vents and can cool multiple rooms. But when it comes to retrofitting older homes it can be complex due to having to find space for the equipment, which adds to installation costs.

Do you need planning permission to install air con?

You don't for portable units.

The government says "in most cases", planning permission is not required to install air con "for a small home if it would not materially affect the appearance of the building from outside".

It adds there is no blanket rule and says people should speak to their local authority to check the rules, adding "councils should take a common-sense approach".

What about heat pumps?

There are some heat pumps that can also work as air conditioning systems, although Which? says this depends on the type and whether the model is reversible.

"Air-to-air heat pumps are specifically designed to provide both heating and cooling by reversing the way they transfer heat - taking heat from outside to warm your home in winter, and removing heat from inside to cool it in summer," Which? says.

How do I keep cool if I don't want or can't afford air con?

Let in cool air and encourage air flow. Open windows on opposite sides of the house to encourage air flow, but only do this when the air temperature outside is cooler than inside, which tends to be overnight or in the early morning.

Keep warmer air out during the day. In the heat of the day it is best to keep your windows shut and blinds or curtains closed.

Use a fan to enhance the breeze. Fans are a relatively cheap and energy-efficient way to keep air moving and can help you stay cool.

Stay hydrated, wear loose-fitting clothes and take tepid showers. Tepid showers can help to cool your body temperature. The NHS recommends six to eight glasses of water a day, but you may need more in the heat.

Vapes to have less enticing names and flavours to protect children

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9v29d7vml7o, 2 days ago

Vapes with colourful packaging, or with names or flavours inspired by sweets and cocktails, could be banned as part of plans to stop them being marketed to children.

The government is launching a 12-week consultation about its plans "to make vaping less attractive for children and young people". Health Secretary James Murray said it was clear too many were being lured into experimenting.

Under the new proposals, packs would need to be plain with strict limits on branding and only simple flavour descriptions like "apple" or "cola" used.

Other restrictions would move vapes out of sight in shops, similar to how cigarettes and tobacco are currently sold.

There is no legitimate reason for nicotine products to come in neon packaging, feature cartoon images, or use flavours and branding designed to catch a child's eye, say health experts.

Murray said: "The evidence is clear: there are too many young people experimenting with vapes, attracted by the array of flavours, bright colours and marketing displays.

"We must act now to reduce the appeal of addictive vapes to our children.

"Vapes are less harmful than cigarettes and can play an important role in helping adult smokers to quit, but they should never be designed or marketed in ways that tempt children.

"These proposals are about striking the right balance and I urge everyone to have their say."

The 100 day consultation follows the recent passing of the Tobacco and Vapes Act, which sets out proposals to create the UK's first smoke-free generation, protecting children from nicotine addiction, while ensuring adult smokers can still access vaping products to help them quit.

Children aged 17 or younger now face a lifelong ban on buying cigarettes, since it will be illegal for shops to sell tobacco to anyone born after 1 January 2009.

And it gives the power to ban vaping in cars carrying children, in playgrounds and outside schools and at hospitals, expanding smoke-free laws.

It follows a ban on single-use vapes and comes ahead of future bans on the sale of vapes from vending machines and a planned end to the advertising and sponsorship of vapes.

Around one million or nearly one in every five 11-17 year olds in Great Britain reported trying vaping in 2025, according to the charity Action on Smoking and Health.

The consultation also proposes inserts for cigarette packs telling buyers where to get help to quit and plans to make all tobacco products – including cigarette rolling paper and cigars – come in plain packaging.

The weirdest things that mess up wi-fi - and how to improve your signal

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260708-the-weirdest-things-that-mess-up-your-wifi, 3 days ago

The world runs on wi-fi, but strange things can stand in its way – including your lunch.

Alex Hills is a pioneer: he was among the first people on Earth to ever battle their wi-fi connection.

In 1993, he led the team that built one of the first large wi-fi networks, as a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in the US.

Hills tells the story in his book, wi-fi and the Bad Boys of Radio. But "Bad Boys" isn't a reference to his ragtag bunch of internet cowboys – it's the name he gave to the processes that stand in the way of smooth-running wi-fi.

Your home may be filled with bad boys of its own, doing everything they can to interrupt your memes. Some such disruptors are unsurprising, like thick walls. Others are a little bizarre.

Identifying these hitches might help fix your connection – and could even change how you think about one of the most important technologies in your life.

Microwaves

For 17 years, mysterious radio signals baffled astronomers in Australia. Some blamed solar flares. The public suspected aliens. Eventually, they learned the culprit was closer to home: their telescope was picking up bursts of energy from the office microwave at lunchtime.

Telescopes aren't the only technology that's vulnerably to pesky microwaves. They can also mess up your wi-fi.

Wi-fi, like most wireless communications technology, transmits information over radio waves. Governments reserve most radio frequencies for specific purposes, like law enforcement, air traffic control and AM and FM radio stations. But some are free for unlicensed public use.

For example, 2.4 GHz is one of the most common frequencies used by wi-fi networks and Bluetooth devices. Coincidentally, that's also the frequency your microwave uses to heat up leftovers.

Microwave ovens are shielded to keep the ramen-warming waves inside the machine. But if you've got a beat-up old microwave, or if you open the door before it's finished cooking, Hills says it can clash with your wi-fi signal.

"It's one of the most significant sources of interference that people talk about," says Hills. You can get the same problem from frequencies leaking out of fluorescent lights or car ignition systems.

"These days, microwaves are less of a problem," says Hills. They're built better and wi-fi can operate on 5 GHz instead of 2.4 GHz. But if you've got an older wi-fi setup or an ageing microwave, defrosting TV dinners can interrupt your memes.

Fish tanks

If you have water-dwelling pets at home, it may cause problems.

"A radio signal naturally gets weaker with distance," says Hills. "But sometimes it penetrates an object that weakens the signal. We call that 'shadowing'."

Wi-fi and water don't get along. Among other problems, water molecules can act like tiny magnets that drain the radio signal's power. If you've got a fish tank between you and your router, it can create a wi-fi dead zone.

Shadowing is the biggest problem people have with wi-fi networks, Hills says – and not just because of fish tanks.

Radio can pass through some materials like wood and drywall with relative ease. But if you've got walls made of dense material like brick or concrete, that's harder to deal with.

"Think of a straight-line path between your router and the device you're trying to serve," says Hills. Signal can bounce around a room and find other ways around objects. But the more obstructions you have in the way, the harder it gets.

A shorter distance makes things easier for wi-fi too. Putting your router in the middle of the house and getting it as high up as possible are good first steps.

If that doesn't cut it, you can try using a wi-fi extender, which boosts your signal, or replacing your router with a mesh network that distributes the wi-fi around your space with a series of small devices. That way you don't have to disturb the poor fish.

Mirrors

Microwaves can interfere with wi-fi signals, aquariums can swallow them up. But there's another common problem: reflection.

Radio is another form of light. And just as light bounces off reflective surfaces like mirrors, so can your wi-fi signal.

Any flat, reflective surface like a TV can cause the same problem. You can have the same problem if your walls use sheets of metal in the building materials.

If you have a dead spot in your house, picture a line between you and the router and think about whether there's a mirror or a big TV that might be bouncing the signal away.

You might want to consider moving the reflective surfaces around. Or if you don't want to mess around with your layout, this is another problem that wi-fi extenders can help solve.

Winter

Rain shouldn't interrupt your wi-fi, unless you use a network in another building separated by open space. But when the weather gets really bad, things can fall apart.

Snowfall can knock out the infrastructure serving a house, neighbourhood or even a whole town – whether that's extreme cold damaging the metal inside cables or snow piling up and blocking satellite signals.

Heat can cause similar problems. And even if the weather itself isn't causing a problem, networks can slow down when everyone at your house is stuck inside watching YouTube at the same time.

It means that disrupted memes may be yet another consequence of climate change. The answer? Aside from doing your part for the planet, you can pester telecom companies and local officials to take proactive measures.

More like this:

• Want to see the future of the internet? Visit the 'TikTok Farlands'

• Why people are abandoning wireless headphones

• Is your tech giving you 'phone body'?

As for Alex Hills, he lives in Alaska these days, where he's spent a large chunk of his career helping remote towns and villages get online.

Satellite internet services have made that project a lot easier, but they pose their own wi-fi "bad boys".

Sometimes, when a blizzard covers your satellite dish with snow, you have to break out the shovel.

For more insights, sign up to our Tech Decoded newsletter, where Thomas and Lily Jamali break down the biggest stories of the tech world, and help you live a better digital life. Sign up for free here.

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Is the Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake worth the 13 year wait?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjrg9r80908o, yesterday

You don't need to look hard to find a film or TV fan who will say a reboot is never as good as the original.

Yet gamers often beg studios to remake their favourite titles and give them a new lease of life with modern tech.

Some 13 years after its original was launched, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has been released to cash in on leaps in graphics and gameplay.

But is it worth the wait?

What Will We Do With a Drunken Sailor?

Assassin's Creed is one of the most popular franchises in gaming, having sold an estimated 230 million copies across its various iterations.

I have played every single one of them and, like many gamers, would rank Black Flag among the best.

That mainly comes down to its excellent setting - players take control of fictional Welsh pirate Edward Kenway in the Caribbean during the 1700s.

While hardly the first game about piracy, it was by far the most successful. So it is no real surprise Ubisoft chose this as the first game in the series to remake.

It opens with pirate ships in battle, swiftly followed with a lush tropical island on a sunny day. It all looks good, as you would expect from a big budget game in 2026.

Early on, players are encouraged to dive underwater and are met with a fantastic coral landscape.

The developers are keen to show off the fancy new graphics, and here the game holds its own.

It is a lot brighter than the original, which suffered from something unaffectionately referred to as the "muddy era" of gaming (amongst other less publishable names), where developers used darker colours to help games look gritty and realistic.

Released right at the tail end of this era, the original Black Flag was not the most egregious example of this - but still suffered somewhat.

Now, we have moved far beyond this "muddy era" - and the new game is filled with bright colours befitting of the Caribbean setting.

Running Down to Cuba

It is a game which, in hoping to live up to the original's legacy, photographs well.

Andy Farrant, co-editor of the YouTube channel Outside Xbox, told the BBC he was excited to play it.

"I firmly believe Black Flag is the best Assassin's Creed game," he said.

For Farrant, its only downsides had been "the boring modern day bits" which saw a pirate's life swapped out for meetings and water cooler chat in a Montreal office - a section of the original axed in its remake.

"The world and the characters of Black Flag is what made it so appealing," he said.

"The chance to dip back into that world with some shiny new visuals and more screentime for fan favourite characters like Edward Kenway, Anne Bonny and Stede Bonnet can only be a good thing."

Some fans might even call Black Flag Resynced a love letter to the original, though more cynical gamers may be inclined to call it a cash grab.

If it is a hit, there is no question it could mean big money for Ubisoft.

It would deliver some relief, too, given the company began 2026 by closing two studios, cancelling six games and delaying seven others.

Remakes are big business in the gaming industry - something gaming expert Christopher Dring said can come down to "financial necessity".

"The big video games are taking longer to make, and to fill gaps in the schedules, you're getting major companies turn to older classics, dusting them off and sometimes updating them for a modern era," he said.

"These games are typically very successful... as an industry, this remake, remaster, nostalgia business has become big."

The Worst Old Ship That Ever Did Sail

The new game, much like the original, offers a wide variety of activities ranging from swashbuckling and boarding ships to exploring the islands of the Caribbean.

And that is really at the heart of what made the original so good - you have a map, you have to pick a spot, and sail there in search of treasure.

It is the same basic idea which made The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker a hit for Nintendo in the 2000s, and Sid Meier's Pirates a success before that.

And in a world where Mario Kart costs £75 and the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI costs £70, Assassin's Creed comes in at just £50.

Fans will be relieved to see Ubisoft bucking the current trend in game pricing, though perhaps it is appropriate for a remake.

But despite all the new assets and graphics, there is no escaping the fact it is based on a game first released in 2013.

Ubisoft had to make lots of calls about what to reuse and change from the original.

Welsh actor Matt Ryan's performance is excellent, but some of the initial game's animations - such as characters repeatedly biting and spitting out a cork from a bottle - might have been best left in the past.

The game also suffers from a problem all too common in modern gaming: it holds your hand far too much.

In the most extreme case, at one point it gave me less than 10 seconds to figure out a puzzle before a character spat out the solution.

The combat also clearly draws from modern Assassin's Creed games, but preserves some of the timing-based battling of the original.

It's a nice marriage between the two, albeit disappointing that some things were not recreated - such as the ability to wield your assassin's hidden blades in combat.

That combination of modern and classic combat is a good example of where the game shines. And if Ubisoft uses this as the template, we may be set to see many more remakes in the series' future.

So perhaps the question is not whether it worth the wait at all, but how long we will have to wait for the next one?

Weak hands and blurry vision: Is your tech giving you 'phone body'?

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260630-is-your-tech-giving-you-phone-body, 11 days ago

Your devices are changing your body in ways you might not realise. It's not too late to do something about it.

When we worry about the effects our screentime might have on us, we tend to focus on the mind. But recently, I looked down and noticed a little calloused bump on my pinky finger. It's exactly on the spot where I prop up my phone. It got me thinking: what's my phone doing to the rest of my body?

I called some experts to find out. The answer – maybe you saw this coming – is not encouraging.

The latest science suggests your phone and its digital comrades may be altering the shape of your neck, hurting your vision, affecting your motor skills and reducing your muscle strength. People even worry our tech-driven lives are causing more wrinkles. And some of these physical issues could in turn lead to cognitive decline or other more serious problems.

I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take all that sitting down (especially because all the sitting is part of the problem). Fortunately, if you don't want technology ruining your body, there are a few things you can do about it.

Deformed spines

If you're reading this on a phone, chances are you're tilting your head to look down at it.

This "forward head posture" can put up to 60lbs (27kg) of pressure on your neck. Over time, that can damage the discs in your spine, degenerate joints and muscles and even reduce your lung capacity. It even has a nickname: "tech neck".

It can also permanently change the way your body looks.

Special exercises can help correct the problem, with the approval of a doctor. But there are simpler changes you can start right now: lift your phone up higher.

Position the screen at eye-level, ideally around arm's length away from your face. The same advice applies to computer monitors. Some experts say taking screen breaks can help. Try a 20-minute break every half hour.

Irritated skin and wrinkly necks?

Recently a new worry has emerged – is tech neck causing neck wrinkles?

"It makes sense, in theory," says Justine Hextall, a consultant dermatologist and fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in the UK. Repetitive stress causes wrinkles, so leaning forward and folding your neck up all the time could be a problem, she says.

But there haven't been any good studies proving the link, Hextall says. She advises against buying any special "tech neck" skin products that have showing up online.

There are other skin problems to worry about though, particularly for smart watch devotees who never take them off.

"A dark, damp environment [like the area under your watch] is great for yeast, so you might get irritation or even eczema," she says. And because this can damage the skin barrier, Hextall says it could also lead to sensitivities to some of the ingredients in tech products, including nickel, rubber, latex and a group of chemicals called acrylates.

The solution there is simple: take off your smart watch more often and wash your skin. She also recommends wearing a barrier cream if you're going to have a watch on all day.

Decaying vision

Rates of myopia (near sightedness) have been skyrocketing for decades.  If you consider what's changed, it's easy to blame technology.

That may be true, but not in the way you might think, according to Donald Mutti, a professor of optometry at Ohio State University in the US.

"We did an over 20-year longitudinal study of kids' eye development, looking at risk factors for the onset and progression of myopia," Mutti says. A key question was whether there's a connection between myopia and "close work", tasks that keep you focused on something close to your face like a phone. "The answer was 'not really'," he says.

But the study uncovered something else: time spent outdoors seems to have a protective effect. "The idea is the bright light of the outside stimulates a release of dopamine from the retina," Mutti says, and it appears that could affect the way your eyes develop.

Technology is part of a global shift towards more of our time spent indoors. In that sense, Mutti believes, your devices may have an indirect negative effect on your eyes.

The solution here is a simple one, says Mutti – you just need to spend more time outside. It's not just good for your eyes, it can also help you sleep better. Just make sure to wear sunscreen and sunglasses to avoid the harmful effects of sunshine. (Find out if you're applying sunscreen correctly in this article by my colleague Jessica Bradley.)

Weak hands

Grip strength is increasingly recognised as a key marker for your overall health.

One study found it predicts early death better than blood pressure. And grip strength is on the decline in many countries, especially among younger people.

"A generational decline isn't just about weaker hands, it may be an early warning sign about the future health of younger cohorts," says Johannes Beller, a professor of medical sociology at the Medical University of Lausitz, Germany.

"There's a reasonable case that the shift toward computer-based, sedentary work is contributing to declining physical fitness," and it's plausible that would affect grip strength too.

You should be able to squeeze a tennis ball as hard as you can and maintain it for 15-30 seconds. If you can't, this article by my colleague David Cox has advice for special wrist curls. But this is about more than grip, it's also about improving your overall fitness. In other words, hit the gym.

Hand-eye coordination

It seems technology affects motor skills, abilities that tie the mind and the body together for precise movements.

It could make you better at stuff like clicking and swiping, says Sebastian Suggate, a professor of developmental psychology and education at the University of Regensburg, Germany. "But if you look at broader motor skill development, particularly fine motor skill development, the evidence converges on a negative effect."

We know a lot more about the effects on children than adults. Suggate's own research shows an association between more screen time and worse motor skills.

That's especially alarming because there's a correlation between motor skills and cognitive and academic development in children and adolescents.

His advice isn't to panic or ban screens. Instead, consciously introduce hands-on activity in daily life.

More like this:

•Your phone's blue light isn't ruining your sleep

• AI might turn your brain to mush. Here's how to stop it

• AirPods with cameras - could this be the end of screens?

Sustained hands-on tasks such as preparing a meal or physical arts and crafts can help. Suggate does wood working, but you could learn an instrument or even just write by hand.

"It's not the end of the world. These are subtle effects," Suggate says. "But even if the effects are moderate to small at the individual level, collectively, across generations, we're talking about a potential dumbing down of society, and an inability to think in reality, because the hands are such a central point of contact we have with the world."

For more science, technology, environment and health stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

Can China repeat its EV success with robotaxis?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgl8dlxjd3o, 6 days ago

In Beijing's Yizhuang district, driverless vehicles have become a common sight. Robotaxis weave through traffic alongside ordinary cars, while autonomous delivery vans glide along the inside lane as they carry packages to collection points.

The district has become one of China's testing grounds for autonomous driving, with companies including Baidu, WeRide and Pony.ai operating commercial robotaxi services within designated areas.

Booking a ride requires little more than opening an app. Within minutes, a robotaxi pulls up with nobody behind the wheel. After confirming the journey on a touchscreen, the vehicle merges into Beijing's dense traffic, navigating buses, cyclists, scooters and pedestrians with little hesitation.

The technology is still evolving. But a bigger question now looms: can Chinese companies turn robotaxis into another sector they dominate globally, as they have with electric vehicles (EVs)?

Riding China's EV boom

China's autonomous driving companies already have a powerful advantage - the industrial ecosystem that helped turn the country into the world's largest EV market.

Unlike Tesla, which designs much of its technology in-house, China's self-driving industry is built around a network of companies.

Established carmakers including BYD, Chery, Geely, and SAIC build the cars, while specialist firms develop the software.

Autonomous vehicles rely on many of the same batteries, sensors, chips and onboard computers as electric cars.

Because those supply chains already exist at enormous scale, companies can develop technology faster and at a lower cost.

"What you see is a pace of innovation and adaptation in the Chinese EV industry that I don't think is matched anywhere else around the world," says Kyle Chan, a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution.

"China's EV capacity doesn't just stop there. It actually spills over into other related industries through something that I call these overlapping tech industrial ecosystems."

New productive forces

Government policy has also played a role. Pilot programmes in several cities allow companies to test the technology on some public roads.

But China also offers something else to firms that are trying to make the technology smarter: complex driving conditions.

A single journey through Beijing can require an autonomous vehicle to deal with buses, scooters, cyclists, pedestrians and unpredictable traffic.

"The traffic environment here in China is very complex," Maeve Zhang, chief marketing officer at WeRide, told the BBC.

That diversity of road users generates vast amounts of data to help improve software.

Although driving data from China is useful, there are other challenging conditions abroad which could hinder any rapid expansion in overseas markets.

"In the Middle East, the temperature is very high. In South East Asia, there is heavy rain... and in Switzerland, winter temperatures can be very, very low," says Zhang.

Extreme temperatures can reduce battery performance, while heavy rain, snow and fog interfere with the cameras and sensors that autonomous vehicles rely on.

Robotaxis are only one part of China's autonomous driving ambitions.

QCraft is applying its autonomous software to passenger cars, as well as autonomous buses and delivery vehicles. It says its buses already operate in more than 20 Chinese cities and it is expanding overseas.

"It's very promising on the technology side that maybe the next five, seven, at most 10 years, it will get into everybody's life," says James Yu, the company's chairman and chief executive.

The Waymo benchmark

Chinese companies are expanding globally, and fast. Their biggest commercial competitors are in the US.

Waymo, Alphabet's robotaxi business, remains the commercial leader, operating paid driverless services in several US cities. Amazon-owned Zoox and Tesla are expanding more cautiously, while Uber has abandoned the development of its own autonomous vehicles, which had been marred by a fatal accident in 2018.

Uber, and its ride-hailing rival Lyft, are now partnering with Chinese firms.

That gives them automatic "access to millions of customers that they wouldn't have if they created their own app," says Tu Le, founder of consultancy Sino Auto Insights.

"Through these partnerships, they're able to commercialise and broaden their scope."

Although Chinese companies are able to manufacture cheaply, Waymo has spent years building expertise in customer service and the app technology.

"Having experienced Waymo and the WeRides and the Ponys... I would have to say the user experience for Waymo is much better than all the other competitors. I feel like Waymo is really becoming a standard mode of transportation for California," says Tu Le.

Perceptions also differ across markets.

In the US, unions have warned robotaxis could displace taxi, delivery and freight drivers.

China's policymakers present automation as a remedy for its shrinking workforce but government censorship of dissenting voices makes it difficult to gauge opinions in the wider population.

President Xi Jinping has promoted AI and robotics as part of China's drive to develop "new quality productive forces" - that will create jobs and boost economic growth.

And so there are incentives and impetus for companies to invest in the technology and expand.

One of the industry's arguments is that autonomous vehicles could improve mobility for people who cannot easily drive themselves.

"If we can bring the cost down for a robotaxi ride so that it's as cheap - or maybe even cheaper - than hailing an Uber with a normal driver, then it really helps broaden mobility," Le says. "Elderly folks, folks that are disabled - these robotaxis really allow them a lot more ability to travel."

But there are still many concerns around safety.

Earlier this year, Baidu's Apollo Go service suffered a software malfunction that left about 100 robotaxis stranded in Wuhan.

Some passengers reported being unable to leave vehicles because the doors had automatically locked.

Services resumed after several weeks. In the UK, Baidu is partnering with Lyft to introduce Apollo Go robotaxis, with Lyft saying testing is expected to begin soon.

But the episode highlighted how failures can quickly undermine public confidence.

Similar issues have emerged elsewhere. GM shut down its robotaxi division Cruise to "refocus autonomous driving development on personal vehicles".

California regulators had suspended its permit following a 2023 crash in which one of its robotaxis dragged a pedestrian several metres after she had been struck by another vehicle.

That is one reason some analysts say robotaxis will be harder to export than electric vehicles.

Operating robotaxis is more difficult than traditional carmaking, or even ride-hailing platforms, as it faces issues like complicated regulatory approvals, detailed mapping, local operating teams and public trust.

This is something even homegrown brands have struggled with in the US.

They may also face growing geopolitical barriers. Unlike EVs, robotaxis generate a great deal of mapping, camera and location data. That makes them particularly vulnerable to national security concerns in overseas markets.

Despite the challenges of rolling out the technology, WeRide says regulators are becoming receptive to autonomous driving.

"We see very positive attitudes and very good policies and regulations coming out from governments both here in China and in some other international markets," Zhang says.

For Chan, however, robotaxis represent something much bigger than a new mode of transport.

"China is trying to create this sort of high-tech economy that's digitally connected, that's AI-powered, and that builds on its existing strengths today in batteries, EVs, motors and other related technology."

Additional reporting by Jaltson Akkanath Chummar

Student's £30 device 'translates in real time'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ced47540de2o, today

A student who has designed an affordable device which can translate and transcribe language in front of people's eyes hopes to make tech more accessible for all.

Milya Mohd Asyraf, 22, spent six months coming up with the design as part of her electrical and electronic engineering degree at the University of Plymouth.

The gizmo, which costs about £30 to make, translates speech into text before projecting it onto a small screen in front of a person's glasses via a clip-on electronic box, she said.

Using affordable and recycled materials, it was cheaper than many existing versions of the concept and ultimately aimed to help people overcome a range of communication barriers, she added.

Milya said: "My whole inspiration behind this project is that I grew up in a multilingual environment and was always one of those people who didn't understand what everyone else was saying.

"Language barriers – or even differences in accents – can make communication tricky, and many translation tools currently rely on phones, playback or expensive smart glasses that either interrupt conversations or reduce accessibility."

She said her device addresses that by fitting on someone's glasses "without additional features like other smart glasses that cause the high prices".

The design captures speech through a small microphone, where an AI model translated and converted it into written text in real time.

The translated text was then sent over wi-fi Fi via a "microcontroller" which Milya said "sends signals from one thing to another".

She explained the controller was, in essence, "a small computer, and that's how the language is detected and also translated".

The text is reflected through a mirror, lens and reflector, appearing like subtitles in the user's field of view, she said.

Milya said the device was more accurate if programmed for a specific language - but was also not just helpful for understanding foreign languages.

She said: "Besides translation, it's really good at transcription.

"So, people hard of hearing can have a subtitle display."

She added: "I'm really interested in accessibility technology and I'd like to make technology that people actually need, something that doesn't take advantage of people by taking their data, for example.

"I'd like to make something that people actually would like to use without any of that risk."

Asked what advice she would give to others hoping to create their own designs, she said: "I would say to just get started immediately, even if you don't know anything.

"Just have a piece of paper and write something down, whether it's a plan to get out of your head. Everything will fall in place."

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EU threatens Meta with fines over 'addictive' Facebook and Instagram

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8j2dje3pldo, 2 days ago

Meta must change Facebook's and Instagram's "addictive" design or face a heavy fine, the EU has warned.

In its preliminary findings, the European Commission said features such as infinite scroll, autoplaying videos and personalised recommendations could encourage "compulsive use", particularly among children and teens.

If Meta does not make suitable changes, it could be fined up to 6% of its total global annual turnover.

A spokesperson for the tech giant told the BBC it disagreed with the findings "which don't accurately take into account the significant steps we've taken to protect teens".

In the preliminary findings, the Commission said the endless stream of content "shift the brain into autopilot mode, contributing to unhealthy habits".

In particular, it is particularly concerned about the impact social media platforms may have on younger users.

"Protecting the physical and mental health of Europeans must be a priority for social media platforms," EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said in a statement.

The Commission said Meta failed to adequately assess the risks posed by how Facebook and Instagram were designed, as well as how long children spend on the platforms, particularly at night.

It raised concerns about features such as Reels and Stories, arguing they could contribute to excessive use, and claimed Meta's safeguards do not go far enough.

The Commission said time-management tools on Facebook and Instagram, including those enabled by default for teenagers, can be dismissed and do not meaningfully reduce usage.

And it also criticised Meta's parental controls, arguing they are only effective if parents have the time and technical expertise to understand and use them properly.

But Meta said it had rolled out Teen Accounts that "automatically protect teens and put parents in control - allowing them to block access to Instagram at night and cap daily screen time at just 15 minutes".

Stepped up efforts

The findings are not a final decision.

The tech giant can now review the evidence against it and submit its formal response.

"We share the European Commission's commitment to providing teens with safe, positive online experiences and will continue to engage constructively with them," a Meta spokesperson said.

The EU has in recent months stepped up efforts to force big tech companies to better protect users online, especially children.

The findings come ahead of recommendations expected on Monday from an expert panel tasked with proposing new ways to shield children from harmful online content.

The EU is facing pressure to act, with countries including France pushing for a social media ban for minors following Australia's restrictions for under-16s.

Big tech must deal with scam ads under Ofcom proposals

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9q2rznjqwwo, 2 days ago

Platforms like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok will need to take action to deal with scam adverts, under new proposals from Ofcom.

The regulator has published draft measures it says big tech should take to protect people from falling victim to fraudulent ads online - along with a list of services which will face more responsibilities under the Online Safety Act (OSA).

It says more than half of UK adults have come across potentially fraudulent ads online, with over a third seeing them often.

If the draft measures pass into law, firms which fail to comply could be made to pay £18m or 10% of global turnover - whichever is greater.

"For too long, victims have been exposed to scam ads online with tech giants simply not doing enough to combat the fraudsters using their platforms," said Ofcom online safety director Oliver Griffiths.

"We expect firms to take robust action to stamp out scam ads and boot out the bad actors behind them to safeguard their users."

Ofcom's proposed measures are targeting content which advertises products or services in a way that misleads or tricks viewers.

It said this includes mandating tech firms ban those who post scams and prevent them from creating new accounts, as well as those who impersonate real businesses.

"Platforms should not drag their heels – they can start making improvements for their users now," Griffiths said.

"And sites and apps that fail to meet their legal duties, once in force, can expect to face serious consequences."

Categorised services

Paid-for false advertising which convinces people to part with cash has become a familiar part of everyday life online.

On Friday the UK's advertising watchdog warned claims in adverts for some portable air conditioning units, shown on Facebook and YouTube, were "too good to be true".

Concerns were also raised in early June over a series of adverts on X containing fake AI-generated images of Reform leader Nigel Farage fighting Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey.

While Ofcom has faced calls to take action on the issue, some of its powers to do so are bound up with rules for categorised services that have not yet been enforced.

Platforms face additional transparency and accountability requirements if they fall under Category 1, 2A and 2B, under the OSA.

Categorised services must have systems in place to prevent users from encountering fraudulent ads and swiftly remove reported content.

They must also minimise how long the content is up on their services.

Ofcom has now published its register of categorised services - including Category 1 platforms it feels should face the toughest additional requirements, including for dealing with fraudulent ads, due to their size and popularity.

These are Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Quora, Reddit, Roblox, Snapchat, TikTok, WhatsApp, X and YouTube.

It says it is also monitoring Apple's dedicated messaging service iMessage, Meta's Messenger and Threads, and Wikipedia as potential "emerging Category 1 services".

Ofcom is calling for views from industry and the public on its proposed measures in the form of a consultation, running until 2 October.

Rocio Concha, head of policy and advocacy at Which? welcomed the publication as a "significant step" in holding tech firms accountable for profiting from fraud which harms users.

But she said the regulator's timeline "leaves consumers unprotected until 2027 at the earliest".

"This is very problematic at a time when breakneck advances in AI are making scams more sophisticated than ever," Concha said - adding Ofcom should implement its codes as soon as possible.

'Cool in 90 seconds' - the fake portable air conditioners sweeping the internet

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj6g41pzy41o, 3 days ago

As parts of the UK brace for another hot weekend, online adverts have been appearing for portable air conditioners claiming to be "designed by former Nasa engineers" and able to "cool a room in 90 seconds".

The adverts have emerged on platforms including Facebook and YouTube, but the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has now warned the products are often "too good to be true".

YouTuber Stuart Matthews, who bought several devices to test on his Proper DIY channel, told the BBC that despite paying £70 for one machine, it turned out to be "a small, simple fan worth only a few pounds".

The BBC has approached Meta and YouTube for comment.

The ASA told the BBC that some of the adverts it had seen online in recent weeks made exaggerated claims, including that a small device could cool an entire home within minutes or used very little electricity.

It also said the adverts frequently featured fake customer reviews describing dramatic temperature drops or exceptional performance.

The adverts direct shoppers to websites selling the devices, typically for between £70 and £120.

Many of the adverts also appeared to be AI-generated, using visuals such as copper coils and metallic boxes to make the products seem more sophisticated.

The ASA said there were several ways for customers to tell if an advert for a portable air conditioner was likely to be misleading.

It said people should be sceptical of the following:

* Promises which sound too good to be true, like claims a small device can chill large rooms

* Dramatic backstories about "secret inventions" or "industry breakthroughs"

* Poor grammar, spelling mistakes and inconsistent branding

* Customer reviews describing dramatic results or reading as though they're too perfect

The watchdog advised consumers who were unsure to research the retailer and check it provided genuine contact details and a business address.

Customers should also look for independent reviews rather than relying solely on testimonials on the seller's website.

It added that anyone concerned about an air conditioner advert could report it via their website.

A closer look

Matthews said he bought several of the devices to see whether they performed as advertised.

The civil engineer and content creator said rather than buying something that would bring the temperature of his room down quickly, he found he had instead bought some "cheap components" made using "flawed science".

One advert described the product as a "reverse-engineered aircon unit" featuring "a liquid-compressed cooling cartridge".

Matthews said the device actually contained "a load of cardboard fins that get wet as the water blows past them".

While so-called "swamp coolers" - machines that chill air by evaporating water - do work reasonably well in hot, dry climates, they also increase humidity and so are much less effective in humid places like much of the UK.

They are also not conventional air conditioners, which work by removing heat from a room via an exhaust hose or external unit.

"I really feel for the people that have been sucked into buying some of this rubbish," Matthews said.

"While we'll continue to take action where we see the rules being broken, the nature of some of the businesses behind these ads means enforcement alone isn't enough to stop the problem," said the ASA.

Although the watchdog regulates paid-for adverts on platforms including YouTube and Facebook, it cannot issue fines itself.

Porn site company fined £630,000 over failed age checks

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c07ylddnvmyo, 3 days ago

Ofcom has fined the operator of a pornography site £630,000 for failing to properly check the ages of its users.

Sites allowing adult content, including porn, have had to use "highly effective" age assurance to make sure UK visitors are 18 or older since July 2025.

But Ofcom, which enforces these requirements, said the company behind porn site Fapello had not introduced any checks and did not reply to requests for information on time.

"Age checks are no longer optional for porn sites in the UK," said George Lusty, director of enforcement at Ofcom.

"They are a cornerstone of our laws to protect children from content they should not be seeing."

The regulator opened an investigation into the porn site operator in November.

On Thursday, Ofcom said it had fined the company £600,000 for not introducing methods to check the age of users.

After it did not respond to its requests for information on time, Ofcom handed down an additional £30,000 penalty.

"Providers also need to know that if they don't supply accurate information to us on time, when we request it, they should expect to face enforcement action, including fines," added Lusty.

While the site has since blocked UK visitors, the regulator says it will continue to monitor its compliance.

Broader scrutiny

The fine is one of many handed down by Ofcom in recent months over age check failings.

In May, the regulator fined porn company YoungTek Solutions £600,000 for not putting systems in place to make sure UK visitors were over the age of 18.

And prior to that, the regulator levied a £1.35m fine on another adult site operator for failing to introduce age checks.

But Ofcom has also faced ongoing scrutiny over the effectiveness of its enforcement of the UK's age check rules for porn sites.

It was revealed in December the regulator had never heard from a firm handed a £1m fine - prompting questions of whether monetary penalties were enough to secure action.

However, that same company later began complying with Ofcom's rules.

Meanwhile Ofcom is involved in an ongoing dispute with online message board 4chan over its refusal to pay a £520,000 fine.

A lawyer for the firm has repeatedly mocked the regulator's threats of further fines or enforcement action with AI-generated cartoon images of hamsters.

Ofcom has set out a number of ways websites can verify the age of users, including through credit card checks, photo ID matching and estimating age using a selfie.

Whatever format platforms choose, they must be "technically accurate, robust, reliable and fair", it says.

The regulator said on Thursday it had opened a new investigation into another porn provider, Bit Hive, to assess its compliance - citing concern one of its age check methods "may not be highly effective".

Palantir's police contract lawsuit set for 2027

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cewq9d5dxl5o, 3 days ago

Tech company Palantir has claimed it was unlawfully blocked from a £50m contract with the Metropolitan Police over City Hall's objections to its "values and ethics", according to court documents.

The firm is suing the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) after it refused to approve the deal earlier this year, which Palantir's lawyers called an "unlawful veto".

In written submissions MOPAC's barrister Joseph Barrett KC said Palantir had "provided no evidence whatever" to support its claims.

At a preliminary hearing on Thursday, Mr Justice Constable said that a full hearing of the case would take place in January 2027.

'Serious breach'

Barrett said MOPAC's decision not to approve the deal was "obviously within the range of options" open to it.

He added that the mayor's policing office and the Met were "working together on a new, competitive procurement" for the contract, and that Palantir was "free, and indeed positively welcomed, to participate in this new, lawful and transparent competitive process".

The Met had said it wanted to use Palantir's technology to speed up tasks such as searching through reports and phone data. It is already used by the NHS and the Ministry of Defence, while some police organisations have also used the company's tech.

But MOPAC said the force had failed to present its procurement strategy in a "clear and serious breach" of procedure, and Palantir was the only bidder seriously considered for the contract.

Shortly after the £50m contract was blocked, Palantir's UK chief executive Louis Mosley accused London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan of "putting politics over public safety".

Critics of Palantir have pointed out the company's funding links to the CIA, leading to allegations around surveillance, its contracts with the Israeli Defence Force, and its co-founder Peter Thiel being a major donor to Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

The tech company filed a legal claim against MOPAC at the High Court in June, seeking an order that the contract be awarded.

In court documents setting out Palantir's claim, Lord Pannick KC said the Met approached the company about the contract in April, and understood that it had been selected as the supplier by May.

But Lord Pannick said that press articles on MOPAC's refusal to approve the deal cited concerns about Palantir's values and ethics.

These included a Guardian article in April quoting a spokesperson for the mayor of London's office who said: "As a general point, the mayor would have concerns about using public money to support firms who act contrary to London's values."

Lord Pannick said MOPAC's assessment of Palantir's "values and ethics" had played an "unlawful and non-transparent role" in the decision-making process.

In June the deputy mayor for policing and crime Kaya Comer-Schwartz told the London Assembly's Police and Crime Committee she had rejected the deal over value-for-money concerns.

"I make no apologies for making sure that we have the right oversight over significant amounts of money," she said.

"Our job is to make sure that, on behalf of Londoners, there is value for money in these contracts."

In June, Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley warned of potential cuts to front-line police services and officer numbers following the decision to block the Palantir deal.

Sir Mark said that the impact could be reduced if a new deal were to be made, but warned that "any new procurement process that meets MOPAC's expectations is likely to take at least a number of months".

The force had proposed a £25.3m deal with Palantir for 2026-27 to support criminal investigations and internal reform. It included an optional one-year extension worth a further £24.8m.

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Council criticised for using AI instead of artists

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ceqd8g120gpo, 3 days ago

A group of artists have criticised their local council's decision to use AI-generated designs created by an agency as part of a new art trail.

The Scarborough deckchair trail was commissioned as part of the town's 400th anniversary celebrations, with each deckchair depicting a moment in its history.

North Yorkshire Council said it had contracted an agency in the county which "used AI alongside the skills, experience and creativity of its team".

However, local artists said they were "deeply disappointed" by the decision and urged the authority to involve the creative community on its doorstep.

Adrian Riley, a Scarborough-based artist who designed the mural on the side of the Central Tramway Station, described the designs as "AI slop".

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, he said: "We're a tourism destination and an important part of that is people visiting for culture.

"You can get AI anywhere in the world, but you can only visit the workshops, galleries, exhibitions, and studios of many local artists by actually being here in Scarborough."

The artist, who works on public art commissions across the UK, added: "If Scarborough is perceived as generic as everywhere else, what reason do people have to come here? Let's emphasise the uniqueness of this town, including its creative community."

Hannah Grahamslaw, a 25-year-old illustrator who produces Scarborough-themed artwork, has spent the last few years working on commissioned projects that promote the area.

"This deckchair project is exactly the sort of thing that six months ago I would have been paid to do," she said.

"But it's not just the impact on my own employment that offends me, my concerns are mainly that all AI "art" is stolen from artwork created by real artists.

"It is is damaging to the environment, it takes jobs from artists, without whom North Yorkshire would be an extremely dull and grey place."

The council's corporate director for community development, Nic Harne, defended the temporary installation and said the authority would welcome input from local creatives on developing a more permanent trail.

He added: "We continue to support local artists through a wide range of cultural programmes, events and initiatives across North Yorkshire.

"The deckchair trail is a temporary installation as part of the Scarborough 400 celebrations, and we will review its success once the programme has come to an end. However, the reaction so far suggests there may be an opportunity to develop a similar project in the future.

"If we do, we would welcome input from Scarborough's artists and creative sector on how a more permanent trail could be developed."

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Why are thousands of people opposing a new data centre?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpv3w39gv9ro, 3 days ago

Nearly 5,000 people have signed a petition against plans for a data centre in countryside close to Norwich. What exactly is proposed, and what do opponents and backers of the scheme say?

The seven-acre (three-hectare) Norwich Apex Data Centre would be built on land being turned into a business park at Keswick, just south of Norwich, close to nature sites including Marston Marsh.

A packed-out meeting in the village on Tuesday heard more about the plans, ahead of an application due to be submitted to South Norfolk District Council soon.

What are data centres?

Data centres are giant warehouses full of powerful computers used to run digital services, from movie streaming to online banking.

Experts estimated there were about 477 data centres in the UK last year, with the number due to increase by about a fifth in the coming years.

AI systems, which require a huge amount of data to be processed very quickly, are driving demand for them.

By some analyses, the UK is already the third-largest nation for data centres behind the US and Germany and the government has made it clear it believes they are central to the UK's economic future, designating them critical national infrastructure.

But there are concerns about their impact due to the huge amount of energy and water they consume.

What is proposed here?

The data centre, which would require 150MW of electricity, would be built on land off Ipswich Road, opposite a Tesco superstore.

It would stand on a 32-acre (13-hectare) business park, for which permission has already been granted and work is under way, but a new application is needed for the data centre itself.

The site is in the River Yare valley, about 650m (700yds) away from Marston Marsh, a protected nature site.

The plans are causing concern locally and at a well-attended consultation event in Keswick this week, a group of protesters holding up placards stood outside to oppose the scheme.

What do local people say?

Jan Hill, chairperson of Keswick Parish Council, wants to see more details when the application is lodged.

"The people who live here feel very passionate about keeping Keswick as it is and not sucking it into the rest of Norwich, which I fear is the way we may be going," she said.

Sue Gilbert, who said she lived in one of the oldest houses in the village, worries about the environmental impact the data centre could have on the Yare Valley.

"I get that we need to use AI but at what cost?" she said.

"This summer, temperatures have gone through the roof and we are still building these centres that use more energy than I'd care to even know about. How are they offsetting it?"

Online marketplaces still selling dozens of unsafe baby products, Which? finds

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1dy11vvwk1o, 4 days ago

Potentially dangerous baby products - including self-feeding devices, pillows and sleeping bags - are still being sold on online marketplaces in the UK, according to Which?.

The consumer group found 150 such products listed for sale by third parties on sites like Amazon, eBay and TikTok - despite having been subject to official safety warnings and product recalls.

Sue Davies, the head of consumer protection policy at Which?, said the investigation had shown "how easy it is to find these unsafe products" and urged the government to make marketplaces liable for the safety of items sold on their sites.

Most of the companies concerned said they have removed some of the products Which? had flagged.

The investigation looked at three types of products - sleeping bags, self-feeders and sleep pillows - that have been the subject of warnings from the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS).

It found unsafe products were listed on eight online marketplaces - Alibaba, AliExpress, Amazon, eBay, Etsy, TikTok, OnBuy and Wish.

Of the 150 unsafe products it found, more than a third were designed to feed a baby from a bottle with little or no assistance despite an "obvious" risk of choking, Which? said.

Thirty-three involved a long straw design and 21 were pillow bottle-holders designed to fasten around a baby's neck.

These bottle-feeders were available on several platforms despite an OPSS alert from 2022 calling on businesses to remove such products.

The probe also found 59 sleeping bags with hoods or without armholes and 37 sleep pillows marketed for newborns, despite concerns about suffocation and overheating, as well as NHS safe sleep guidance.

OPSS also issued an alert for baby sleep pillows - some of which have been marketed with claims of improving night-time sleep - in December 2025.

Davies said: "The lives of babies are at risk because these platforms won't stop dangerous products from reaching their customers - even though they are well aware that these products can be deadly."

She added that the government "must urgently use the new powers it has under the Product Regulation and Metrology Act" to "impose a clear legal duty on online marketplaces for ensuring the safety of products sold through their third-party sellers, with tough enforcement for those that fall short".

'Most vulnerable consumers'

Ruth Watts, a registered health visitor who posts advice on social media, told the BBC that she was not surprised that a number of unsafe baby products were still on the market.

"Parents are the most vulnerable consumers out there," she said. "We want what's best for our babies, we're desperate for sleep - and if a product is promising you that it will help or your baby sleep better... it's of course tempting."

When shopping for baby products, Which? advises parents not to buy any self-feeding aid, and that babies under the age of one do not need a pillow to sleep at night.

It also says never to buy a baby sleeping bag with a hood or without armholes, or one with excess material or attachments, and to make sure to buy the right size sleeping bag.

Watts' advice for parents struggling to figure out whether a sleep-related product is safe for babies is to check whether that item is recommended by the baby sleep safety charity the Lullaby Trust.

"If something seems too good to be true, if someone is promising you a quick fix of a problem, then chances are it's too good to be true," she said.

The safest place for a baby to sleep is on a firm, flat mattress on their back in a clear cot with no toys inside, according to the Lullaby Trust.

Seven of the online marketplaces issued statements in response to the findings.

An Amazon spokesperson said it had removed the products highlighted by Which?, adding that it continuously monitored products being put on sale on its site and took swift action when alerted to potential issues.

"Parents trust Amazon because we take customers' safety incredibly seriously, particularly when it comes to babies and infants," they said.

Alibaba said it had removed any "non-compliant products" and that it would "continue to educate sellers, and take action against those who violate our terms of use".

AliExpress said it "takes customer safety and product compliance extremely seriously", that the relevant products had been removed from the UK market and that it will be making "necessary enhancements to our existing control measures" to ensure these products did not reappear.

EBay said it uses "technology, AI and expert teams" to keep unsafe items off its platform, that it had removed some of the items flagged and was carrying out wider checks to remove similar items.

An Etsy spokesperson said it had removed all the listings flagged by Which?, adding: "Keeping our users safe is paramount."

TikTok said the products flagged by the investigation have been removed and that it had notified customers.

OnBuy said all relevant products had been removed and that it had been working closely with OPSS to ensure that unsafe and non-compliant products were removed from its marketplace as quickly as possible.

A spokesperson for the Department for Business and Trade said the results of the Which? investigation were "incredibly concerning" and that any product that puts babies and children at risk should not be sold in the UK online or in shops.

"It's not enough for companies to act when such products are flagged - they have an obligation to proactively stop unsafe products making their way onto their sites in the first place," they said.

The BBC has contacted Wish for comment.

Outcry as Meta lets users make AI images from public Instagram profile pics

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp9lee19y1yo, 4 days ago

Meta is facing a backlash over its new AI tool Muse Image, which can generate pictures using other people's profile pictures without telling them.

It is one of many text-to-image tools publicly available, which as the name suggests can create pictures from a few lines of simple written text.

Muse Image is available through the Meta AI app and web browser, as well as on WhatsApp and in Instagram Stories for US users.

While Meta says users can opt out of their image being used even with a public account, Donald Campbell, advocacy director at tech justice non-profit Foxglove told the BBC it was an "obvious recipe for disaster".

"We've already seen a catalogue of harms from non-consensual AI-altered images on social platforms just in the past year," he said.

"It is hard to see why Mark Zuckerberg thinks facilitating yet more of this creepy image manipulation is a good idea."

The feature is likely to face heightened scrutiny as regulators and campaigners raise concerns about AI-generated images, with Ofcom currently investigating X over Grok's role in creating and sharing non-consensual AI-altered images of real people.

Privacy International also criticised the feature, telling the BBC it was "the latest sign AI companies see people's images and data as raw material to be exploited".

"Pulling real users into generated photos without explicit consent is a privacy landmine waiting to detonate," one user wrote on X.

Meta said a dedicated setting, separate from account privacy controls, allows users to opt out even if they have a public account.

To do so, users must go to Instagram's settings menu, select "Sharing and Reuse" and switch off "Allow people to reuse your content on Instagram and with AI features at Meta" for posts and reels.

These settings only appear if you have a public account - if your account is private, it will already be unable to be shared.

Yet another image generator

There are many tools on the market now which can make images with AI from text, so Meta is already entering a crowded market.

But its use of Instagram is new - and powerful.

To try it out, I asked Muse AI to make it look like I was driving a car and it happily did so, with interesting results.

In a blog post covering the new announcement, Meta said the tool uses "advanced reasoning to understand complex prompts, seamlessly blending multiple photos into high-quality creations you can download and share anywhere".

The company said users can also choose from presets and suggested prompts to "spark ideas", as well as sketch edits directly onto images.

While the tool is free for "everyday creation", Meta said heavier users can access additional usage through one of its subscription plans.

The company added Muse Image will soon be available on Facebook and Messenger, and through another tool where it can be used by advertisers.

A video-generation version is reportedly in development.

'I was so brainwashed': The 1980s doomsday cult that ensnared the young and beautiful

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260709-the-1980s-doomsday-cult-that-ensnared-models, 2 days ago

Led by an enigmatic New York socialite who claimed to be an alien in human form, Eternal Values boasted an elite membership. Now one of its most high-profile ex-followers, former male supermodel Hoyt Richards, is telling his story.

Few people have lived a double life like Hoyt Richards. Back in the 1980s, this classically handsome Princeton graduate was fronting ad campaigns for luxury brands like Ralph Lauren, Dunhill and Donna Karan. Though he has since branched out into acting, film-making and public speaking, Richards is still regularly described as "the world's first male supermodel".

He looked like the epitome of quietly confident masculinity, but when he wasn't jetting somewhere exotic to be photographed by Richard Avedon or Steven Meisel, Richards was a devoted member of a shadowy spiritual cult called Eternal Values. Though it was the subject of a 1990 Vanity Fair exposé by journalist Marie Brenner, Eternal Values has since been roundly forgotten. However, its fascinating origins in the aspirational mid-1980s and slow decline throughout the '90s are now being spotlighted in Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult, a gripping and chilling documentary series that premiered on HBO last month.

This is a true story that no one could dream up. Eternal Values' founder, the well-connected but enigmatic Manhattan socialite Frederick von Mierers, claimed to be an "alien walk-in": an extraterrestrial from the planet Arcturus who had stepped into a human body to spread a message of enlightenment on Earth. His oft-stated mission was to recruit new Arcturian leaders from the human race before a so-called "pole shift" destroyed the planet in 1999.

In effect, this was a doomsday cult with lashings of added glamour. A master of reinvention who was also an inveterate social climber, Von Mierers liked to surround himself with bright young things like models and ambitious young professionals. Strictly speaking, he didn't just want beauties, but anyone who could improve his reputation and financial fortunes.

Born Fred Meyers in working-class Brooklyn – though few knew his true identity at the time – he built his following and the cult’s fortune by selling personalised psychic "life readings" on cassette tape and bespoke gem subscriptions. The prices were high, but Von Mierers claimed his precious stones had healing properties. Jacki Adams, another prominent 1980s supermodel lured in by Eternal Values, told Brenner that she gave the cult leader more than $100,000 (£75,000) for gemstones and apartment renovations he was helping with.

Richards was first targeted by Von Mierers in 1978, nearly a decade before Adams joined Eternal Values in 1987. And he only extricated himself for good in 1999, a full nine years after its founder, whom Richards calls Freddie, died from Aids-related complications. "When Freddie died, I would say that the cult died with him," Richards tells the BBC. "But we carried on in his shadow as this really toxic, dysfunctional family."

By the time Richards fled Eternal Values in 1999 with help from fellow male supermodel Fabio Lanzoni, membership had dwindled to a few rudderless diehards. Yet to this day, many of Von Mierers’ former followers refuse to believe that they ever were part of a cult.

Richards, now 64, has no such qualms about admitting he was "brainwashed" by Eternal Values' magnetic leader. "I've gone on a 25-year journey of wanting to go more public [about what happened] because I think there's real value in telling this story," Richards says.

How Richards was duped

Much of this value is rooted in Richards being such an unlikely mark. He had a privileged and loving upbringing in suburban Pennsylvania, but his "cultic relationship" with Eternal Values, as Richards describes it, stopped him speaking to his family for 12 years. He was never a physical prisoner, but he says he remained under Von Mierers' spell even as he was shuttling between Manhattan and Milan for photo shoots.

The series' director Chris Smith – who has previously made documentaries about botched music event Fyre Festival and controversial anti-ageing guru Bryan Johnson – uses Richards' story as a cautionary tale that highlights Von Mierers' charisma and cunning. The future supermodel was just 16 when he was approached on a beach in Nantucket, the upmarket Massachusetts coastal resort where his family spent their summers. Because Von Mierers wanted to present a refined, old-money image, it was precisely the sort of spot he too liked to frequent.

Though Richards had no clue at the time, Von Mierers was grooming him from the start. "Before Freddie would go into one of his [spiritual] diatribes, he would say, 'You're very smart, so you'll get this,'" Richards recalls. "So even though I didn't really understand what he was telling me, I couldn't question it, because he'd given me this compliment."

Von Mierers, who claimed to be an orphan with aristocratic European blood, also began to separate Richards from his peers. "My friends dismissed him as just another eccentric person in Nantucket," Richards says. "But he would look over at them and say, 'You're not like your friends; you're different.' And at 16, that feels like a valid question to consider – like, 'Am I special in some way?' So I went down that rabbit hole."

Three years later, when Richards went to Princeton University in New Jersey to study economics, Von Mierers' Manhattan apartment became a handy party pad. "He was so excited when he heard I was going to an Ivy League college, but he never spoke about his own college years," Richards says.

By this point, Van Mierers was in his mid-thirties, but he concealed his age and true biographical details because they didn't fit his artfully polished persona. Richards learned later that the man born Fred Meyers in Brooklyn used his brief modelling career to reinvent himself as the dazzling Manhattan socialite Frederick von Mierers. He never spoke about his college degree because he didn't have one, but in the 12 years that the two men knew each other, Richards says that "Freddie never once dropped character".

"I've since learned that people with narcissistic personalities, which is how I'd characterise Freddie, tend to self-identify according to the people they surround themselves with," Richards says. "He would always inflate my achievements when he introduced me to someone, I guess because he wanted to make us both look better."

After Richards graduated from Princeton, Von Mierers introduced him to Joey Hunter, a major player at the world-renowned Ford Modeling Agency, which is now known as Ford Models. Richards' career took off spectacularly when he was plucked from obscurity by Bruce Weber, an influential fashion photographer who has since been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by multiple male models. Weber has always denied these allegations and all cases against him have either been dismissed or settled out of court with no admission of any liability.

Richards admits that he "felt guilty for pursuing a career that I didn't consider spiritual". By the mid-1980s, with the New Age movement gaining traction, Von Mierers' disparate spiritual beliefs linking astrology with ideas borrowed from Eastern mysticism no longer seemed so marginal. He was perfectly placed to exploit Richards' insecurity.

"I thought Freddie was a great teacher and felt proud to generate money for the group," says Richards, who estimates that he gave as much as $4 to 5 million (£3 to 3.7 million) to Eternal Values. Richards says Von Mierers was always "the life and soul of the party", but believes he acquired an extra grooming tool – celebrity – when he was featured in Ruth Montgomery's best-selling 1985 book Aliens Among Us.

The growth of the cult

In the book, Montgomery corroborated Von Mierers' outlandish backstory by writing that he really was a highly enlightened extraterrestrial who had assumed human form. "I would say we really became a cult when that book came out," Richards says. "And then we built a business around the cult by selling tapes with Freddie's psychic life readings on them. At that point, we were getting letters from people in 45 countries."

Despite Von Mierers' subsequent TV appearances, which Smith deftly weaves into the documentary, Richards estimates that "no more than 100 people" ever became fully fledged members of the cult. Perhaps because of his earning power, Richards was a long-time member of "the inner circle", who slept side-by-side on the floor of Von Mierers' apartment and maintained a strictly celibate lifestyle, at least to begin with.

"We were all in our 20s with hormones raging, so I think Freddie realised it was impossible to stop us [from having sexual urges]," Richards says. At this point, Von Mierers switched tack dramatically and instructed the cult members to start having sex with one another. "It was incredibly unhealthy, especially for the women in this very male-dominated environment," Richards says. Anyone who said no was "slammed" by Von Mierers for being "sexually repressed" and unable to "separate their spirit from their body", he adds.

It later emerged that during his supposedly celibate years, Von Mierers was regularly paying male sex workers. "I was so brainwashed that I bought into his narrative that he was bringing them to the apartment to help them spiritually," Richards says.

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Richards believes Von Mierers maintained his hold over followers by "being able to turn on a dime from kind and nurturing into this strict disciplinarian figure". Cult expert Dr Steven Hassan, the author of Combating Cult Mind Control, says Von Mierers was simply "practising intermittent reinforcement, which is a very powerful behavioural conditioning technique". Essentially, he kept Richards and other followers hooked by mixing heavy criticism with just enough positive encouragement to leave them craving more.

According to Hassan, Von Mierers' abrupt about-turn from imposing abstinence to promoting promiscuity is also a common tactic. "In a cult, it's all about dependency and obedience to the leader, not to any particular principle," he says. "And if you can manipulate somebody's sex drive, you have a big lever over them."

Some 48 years after Von Mierers approached him in Nantucket, Richards is still reckoning with the cult leader's impact on his life. Happily, he has reconnected with his family and made peace with the fact that Von Mierers helped him to build a highly successful modelling career. "You can't throw the baby out with the bathwater, right?" Richards says sanguinely.

On top of Bring Me the Beauties, a recently announced biopic of Richards will star Nicholas Galitzine, with Gus Van Sant in talks to direct. How much that will focus on Eternal Values or not is unconfirmed, but when it comes to the documentary, Richards hopes his story will help people to question the way they interact with anyone who "really showers them" with attention or flattery. "When you give away your power to someone, whether unconsciously or not, I would characterise that as a 'cultic relationship'," he says. "Not every cultic relationship is abusive like mine was, but they can be unhealthy, and I think it's important to acknowledge that they seem to be part of the human condition."

Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult is available to stream on HBO Max now

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Five key scenes from the Bayeux Tapestry, and the story they tell

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gy1xg9z0mo, yesterday

Power struggles, betrayal and bloody battles - these are the events shown in great detail in the Bayeux Tapestry, covering one of the most momentous periods in English history.

The artefact, almost 1,000 years old, is a 70m-long storyboard of embroidered pictures showing an epic account of the Norman conquest and the Battle of Hastings of 1066.

It depicts a medieval game of thrones as William the Conqueror fought King Harold to rule England.

The tapestry has returned to England for the first time in more than 900 years, and will go on display at the British Museum.

Here's the story in five key scenes, helped by Dr David Musgrove, co-author of The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry and content director of HistoryExtra magazine and podcast.

1. William honours heroic Harold

The tapestry begins in 1064 or 65, when Harold, the most powerful earl in England and brother-in-law of king Edward the Confessor, is sent to Normandy, now in northern France.

Harold joins William, duke of Normandy, in battle in Brittany, and is portrayed in a positive light for the first half of the tapestry.

"He's being given arms and armaments by Duke William, and this is really important because the subtext of the first half of the tapestry is essentially to present Harold as a heroic figure," Dr Musgrove explains.

2. Harold's anguished oath

The most important scene in the tapestry, according to Dr Musgrove, shows Harold reaching both arms out to touch two boxes of holy relics while making an oath.

He's thought to be swearing allegiance to William as Edward's successor as king of England.

"He actually looks physically contorted and conflicted," Dr Musgrove says. "At least that's my take on it. He looks as if he's kind of a bit anguished about having to make this oath."

Dr Musgrove adds: "This scene is basically where Harold goes from hero in the first part to zero in the second part."

3. Harold claims the throne

Back in England, Edward the Confessor dies in January 1066 - and Harold claims the throne for himself.

"So he's gone against this supposed oath, and this is where he becomes the villain of the piece. This is a really important moment."

4. An omen of doom

The appearance in the sky of Halley's Comet, which is only visible from Earth roughly every 75 years, is regarded as a bad omen following Harold's alleged betrayal.

"You can see all the people staring up and pointing at it," Dr Musgrove says.

"That is basically saying, 'Something's gone wrong here, Harold having himself crowned is going to lead to a bad result.' And that is what happens."

5. Harold defeated by an arrow in the eye (probably)

William amasses a mighty army to fight Harold for the crown, and the two sides meet at the Battle of Hastings.

Harold is shot in the eye by an arrow, which he is seen clutching in his final moments.

"This is the most famous scene in the tapestry," Dr Musgrove says.

The caption reads "Here King Harold is killed" - and the English army flee in defeat after their leader's death.

At least, that's the most famous version of events. But there's debate about whether the arrow was actually in the original version of the tapestry or added during a 19th Century restoration.

There's also disagreement about whether the figure is even Harold, or whether the inscription refers to a neighbouring figure who is slain by a soldier on horseback - or if they both in fact show Harold at different moments.

"It's undeniable that Harold is dead - the text says it - but the manner of his death is somewhat debated," Dr Musgrove says.

Either way, it was a graphic and dramatic climax to a period that changed the course of English history.

The Bayeux Tapestry will be on display at the British Museum from 10 September 2026 to 11 July 2027.

The Englishwoman who sketched India before photography took hold

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2drrv6q54o, yesterday

Long before photography became the visual language of empire, one Englishwoman was sketching the people she encountered across India with unusual curiosity and precision.

Emily Eden, a gifted artist and writer, belonged to one of Britain's most influential political families. She travelled across northern India in the 1830s while accompanying her brother, George Eden, first Earl of Auckland, the governor-general of India.

Alongside princes, generals and courtiers, she drew servants, attendants, travellers, fakirs, Afghan and Sikh nobles, Akali warriors, hill communities and even the animals that accompanied imperial journeys. Her remarkably broad gaze set her apart from many contemporaries.

More than two dozen of her sketches were published in 1844 as Portraits of the Princes and People of India. They now form the heart of Princes & People, an exhibition at DAG in Delhi curated by art historian Mary Ann Prior, bringing together the complete published series of hand-coloured lithographs made from Eden's original sketches.

Eden arrived in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in March 1836 to a whirlwind of official engagements and an unfamiliar world. Homesick and struggling to adjust, she did not sketch for three weeks or complete a painting for two months.

But her spirits were buoyed by her travelling party, which included her nephew William, sister Fanny, maids, an ayah, a cook, a valet, a physician and an assortment of pets.

Even before reaching India, the voyage had begun to broaden her outlook as she encountered new people, cultures and ways of life, notes art historian and author Mary Ann Prior.

"The diversity of people and places motivated and improved Emily's artistic output, and her natural curiosity sought out the unusual. She meticulously documented her observations through her sketches and paintings." Instead of castles, churches and English landscapes, Eden increasingly turned her attention to the strangers, costumes, architecture and unfamiliar landscapes she encountered.

Between 1836 and 1842, that curiosity took her across a region on the cusp of profound political change. Her sketches offer a rare glimpse of the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, whose Punjab kingdom was one of the subcontinent's most powerful states, capturing it at the twilight of his reign and the dawn of the Victorian era.

Eden was as engaging a writer as she was an artist. Her lively journals brim with humour and observation, with names and places often spelled exactly as they sounded to her.

On arriving in the holy city of Benares (now Varanasi), the Eden party sailed along the Ganges before continuing to nearby Ramnagar, where the king had a country house. The scene so captivated Emily that she wrote: "We mean to keep our steamer here and to go out sketching in it."

Her enthusiasm had not come immediately. At first, the cultural gulf between England and India left Eden deeply homesick. She fretted over women attending church without bonnets, ravenous mosquitoes, relentless heat, the cacophony of dogs, crows, jackals and Brahminy kites, and being confined indoors for much of the day.

But as the months passed, she drew prolifically, and her paintings soon became a success, selling briskly at charity fairs in Shimla, winning admiration from the British in India and being copied by Indian artists.

Prior ranks Eden's Indian sketches among the finest produced by any British woman artist of the Regency and Victorian eras. Only Charlotte Canning, celebrated for her botanical paintings, and later Marianne North rivalled her achievement.

Yet Eden's remarkable powers of observation coexisted with an unshaken belief in Britain's civilising mission. As Prior writes, she viewed her years in India as "an unwelcome ordeal to be endured for a higher purpose", framing colonial rule as an obligation to "civilise" the country.

The Edens left India in 1842, looking forward to returning to England. Back in Britain, Emily continued to paint, although the urgency that had driven her to record unfamiliar landscapes and people in India had faded. Her later works were fewer and turned to familiar English scenes.

Writing increasingly became the vehicle through which her Indian experience reached a wider audience. Up the Country, her lively letters from India, was published in 1866, followed by Letters from India in 1872.

Although her reputation was initially became entwined with her family's association with the First Afghan War, it gradually came to rest on her own accomplishments as both writer and artist. Emily Eden died in 1869.

Twenty years of Chasing Cars: 'It's the song that took us to the whole world'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwykqqk1y3wo, yesterday

Ever wanted to write a song so huge it becomes your pension plan? Here's the secret: pretend you're making it for someone else.

That's what Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody was doing back in 2005, in a garden shed owned by his friend and producer, Jacknife Lee.

"We wrote 10 songs in a couple of hours, over quite a few bottles of wine," he recalls.

"It was essentially a session for other people and sometimes, that takes the pressure off because you're not thinking about how you're going to record it, or what it means to have that song become part of your life."

Three bottles in, Lightbody stumbled on a chord sequence and a lyric: "If I lay here / If I just lay here / Would you lie with me and just breathe in the world?"

The atmosphere shifted. Suddenly, the session wasn't for anyone else. They'd found something that would change Snow Patrol's career forever.

"It's the song that took us to the whole world," Lightbody says. "We just followed it along like little ducklings."

That song was Chasing Cars. You know it. You might even be sick of it. It's been streamed more than two billion times. In 2019, it was named the UK's most-played radio song of the 21st Century.

But it wasn't finished that first evening. Eagle-eyed readers may have spotted that the lyrics quoted above received a subtle rewrite. In total, it took months of work to perfect the song's deceptively simple arrangement.

"We even played it live a few times without finished lyrics," says Lightbody. "I hope those recordings have been destroyed. Those early lyrics were bad."

They haven't.

You can hear an embryonic version on YouTube, recorded in Seattle in 2005. At that point, Lightbody was pining for a woman who'd rejected his advances.

"You come to me / With these three words / 'Not right now'."

That storyline was eventually replaced with a more romantic one. But hearing it gives more context to the song's inscrutable title – borrowed from a phrase Lightbody's father had used about his son's hapless love life.

"You're like a dog chasing a car," he'd said. "You'll never catch it and you wouldn't know what to do with it if you did."

In its finished version, Chasing Cars was released as the second single from Snow Patrol's fourth album, Eyes Open, in June 2006.

A slow-burning hit, it peaked at number six in the singles chart, but really took off after being featured on the US medical drama Grey's Anatomy.

It's now the UK's eighth best-selling song of the 2000s, with a staggering 1.2 million copies sold.

"The numbers are ridiculous," says Lightbody.

"It doesn't make any sense in any kind of real way where you can go, 'These are the things that we did to become successful'.

"All of it happened by accident."

The band will celebrate the song's 20th anniversary later this year with two shows at the Royal Albert Hall. They'll play Eyes Open in full, as well as some deep cuts and greatest hits… and maybe some special guests.

It comes after a major turning point for the Northern Irish band. In 2023, drummer Jonny Quinn and bassist Paul Wilson both quit.

The remaining trio - Lightbody, guitarist Nathan Connolly and multi-instrumentalist Jonny McDaid (who's also Ed Sheeran's chief collaborator) - tried to write a new album, but the sessions fell apart. The songs weren't flowing. The band's confidence was shot.

"It's the first time we ever had to do it," Lightbody says. "If you have to scrap an album after 30 years of being in a band, you might think, 'We might as well pack up and go home'.

"So that was a kind of a sliding doors moment, where in another strand of the multiverse, we're not together anymore. But this version of us went, 'No, let's try again'."

A new band with Kylie Minogue?

A major catalyst was hiring Adele and Stormzy's producer Fraser T Smith, whose "calming" influence helped the band refocus. The resulting album, 2024's The Forest is the Path, gained Snow Patrol their best reviews in 20 years.

"It grips my heart and squeezes," wrote the Telegraph's Neil McCormick. On AllMusic, Neil Yeung called it "a late-era treasure trove" full of "emotional catharsis and introspection".

A record of space and breadth, it found Lightbody - a recovering alcoholic who'd moved from Los Angeles back to his native Bangor - mourning the loss of his father and reassessing his life.

"I spent so many years not understanding myself and not understanding what was going on in my own head," he says.

"I was always waiting for that tap on the shoulder to say, 'You're not supposed to be here. All this [success] was meant to be for somebody else'."

That feeling never entirely disappears. But Lightbody is more comfortable in his skin since getting clean in 2016.

He's replaced alcohol with cold water plunges and hot yoga... And he's just achieved a lifetime ambition: recording a song with Kylie Minogue.

"I've been a huge fan ever since I went to the Féile [festival] in Cork in '95 and saw Kylie on that bill with the Prodigy and Blur," he says.

"I'd heard on the grapevine that she was looking for a song or two, so I set about writing some."

The one that caught Kylie's attention was These Alarms. Released last week, it finds Snow Patrol at their best, with a singalong chorus that bounds over like a puppy and charms you into submission.

Rather than trading lines back and forth, Lightbody and Minogue sing the entire song in unison. He says it shouldn't really be considered a Snow Patrol song at all.

"The song was always called KYLIE – in all capital letters - all the way through the recording.

"I don't even know if you could call it a duet. It's more like we formed a band for this one."

Singing together makes sense. The song is all about connection. Given the state of the world, it's tempting to withdraw, the lyrics admit, but what we really need is each other.

"The title, These Alarms, can mean a lot of things," explains Lightbody.

"For me, they're the ones that were ringing in my head when I wasn't sober. I spent my whole life playing concerts, but not really being 'in concert' [with other people] in a meaningful way.

"I was always searching for something, but I didn't really know what it was... And then it turned out I had it all along."

The answer was simply friendship. And the people Lightbody needed most were there on the stage with him.

"The natural state for bands is entropy. Everything falls to chaos. But it's kind of amazing, because it's happened the other way around for us," he says.

"We're not Emerson, Lake and Palmer travelling in separate buses. We're closer than ever."

You can hear it in the music and see it at their concerts.

After more than 30 years, people still want to feel the feelings that Snow Patrol make them feel. When they played an outdoor show at Liverpool's Pier Head last month, thousands of fans who'd been unable to get tickets turned up anyway.

"There was an enclosure for the 12,000 people that bought tickets – but at one point, I said, 'put your lights up', and I looked down the street, and it was just lights all the way down," says Lightbody.

"I think that's the key to our music, in a general sense. It's an invitation. There's no jackets for this club, there's no secret codes. It's like, 'just come and be with us'."

'A story of sex, strategy and power': How women shape the plot of Homer's Odyssey

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260708-how-women-shape-the-plot-of-homers-odyssey, 3 days ago

The epic 2,800-year-old poem – now adapted for the big screen – is so much more than a straightforward tale of heroism. The protagonist Odysseus is a heroic male – but the story is shaped by the stratagems, subterfuge and seductions of the women, nymphs, sorceresses and goddesses he meets along the way. It's what makes him seem so human.

The epic poem The Odyssey tells of the mythical Greek soldier Odysseus's quest to return to his kingdom of Ithaca after years of fighting in the Trojan War. His perilous, decade-long voyage home is full of gruelling challenges and hazards – which this month play out on the big screen in Christopher Nolan's adaptation, starring Matt Damon among many other stars.

The protagonist may be male, but The Odyssey is a story in which women predominate. Our hero's quest to return to and regain his kingdom is shaped at every turn by the stratagems and seductions of the women, nymphs and goddesses he meets along the way. The Odyssey is not a straightforward tale of heroism, but a story of sex, strategy and power that still resonates today.

The poem begins in medias res – in the middle of things – with Odysseus weeping on the coastline of Ogygia, where he has been living with the nymph Calypso for the past seven years. For all that he proved himself a hero on the Trojan battlefield, he now looks utterly powerless, an impression that is reinforced by the fact that it takes a council of the gods to secure his release from the island.

But Odysseus is not a prisoner of Calypso so much as of himself. The modern reader might reasonably diagnose his inertia – his inability to press on and fulfil his homecoming – as a symptom of PTSD. Which is not to diminish the hold that Calypso has on him. As Odysseus readily admits to the nymph, his wife Penelope cannot compare to her in beauty, for she is a mere mortal.

Odysseus's wife Penelope has been far from passive during her husband's long absence. She has valiantly and cleverly resisted the advances of 108 suitors who have descended upon the palace in their eagerness to marry her and become the new king of Ithaca. Penelope's weaving of a funeral shroud for her father-in-law Laertes – and her unpicking of the tapestry by night – is one of the most memorable episodes in the poem. She is, so to speak, a moving target, whose success in warding off the suitors will have a direct bearing upon Odysseus's ability to reclaim his kingship.

It is significant that Odysseus's chief supporter among the divinities is a goddess. The strategic Athena aided him at Troy and took the initiative in urging his homecoming. Then when he washes up in a vulnerable state on the Phaeacians' land, she cleverly orchestrates his rescue, masks his vulnerability and enhances his appearance so that he appears god-like and worthy of their legendary hospitality. This helps him to win over the seafaring Phaeacians, who then provide him with shelter, treasure and a safe passage home to Ithaca.

Tellingly, in most instances in which she appears to Odysseus and his son Telemachus, Athena disguises herself as a man. She poses, for example, as Mentes, a king friendly to Ithaca, and as a male herald of the Phaeacians. Athena knows only too well that it is men who hold power on earth, but women who shape events through subterfuge.

One need only consider the characters Odysseus meets along the way. Having landed among the Phaeacians, he narrates his own encounters so far – from the Lotus Eaters to the Cyclops – to his royal hosts. Odysseus's tales of mythical women often prove the most eerie owing to the non-threatening nature of their appearance.

Sweet facades

Odysseus readily admits to his hosts, for example, that he has been eager to hear the song of the Sirens, who inhabit an isolated, perilously rocky island in the western sea. In later tradition and Greek art, the Sirens would be represented as bird-like women or mermaids, but Odysseus focuses on describing their honey-sweet song, which has the power to seduce men to their deaths.

In front of the Sirens sprawls a meadow containing the bones of the many men who had paused to hear their song in the past. Odysseus is prepared to take the risk: he has his men tie him to the mast of his ship so that he could not jump overboard in pursuit of the haunting music. As beautiful as they sound, the Sirens are deadly.

Circe was another dangerous beauty. Few who first met her would consider her threatening, but like the Sirens, her sweet facade concealed magical powers. Homer cast her as a sorceress: she had herbs and potions with which to transform Odysseus's companions into pigs.

Like so many of the strange beings Odysseus encounters on his travels, however, Circe is there to help as well as hinder. Although she makes a lover of him, she also enables his descent to the Underworld, where he meets with the prophet Tiresias, who has advice to impart for his homecoming to Ithaca.

The enduring message is that the female monsters and seductive nymphs cannot simply be ignored. In order to prevail, Odysseus must surrender to them to a certain point – but not too far. The people he meets repeatedly test his resolve and ability to achieve moderation, a quality much aspired to by the ancient Greeks.

Readers who cast a sceptical eye on his adventures and suspect them of being pure invention – stories he made up to win over the Phaeacians in the hope that they would agree to sail him home – will be the first to embrace such an allegorical reading. Odysseus was not, perhaps, battling physical monsters so much as his own inner demons, many of which prove far more insidious than they look.

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• The centuries-old origins of current faerie fiction

• The ancient wisdom in Ovid's 2,000-year-old tales

The slipperiness of Odysseus's stories – their magnificence and colour and ability to stretch the bounds of credulity – is a large part of the magic of the poem. It is also what defines Odysseus as a hero. He is, as Emily Wilson puts it in her translation, "a complicated man". Slippery and complicated because he is a master of deception, he changes his story and identity as it suits him.

Clever, imaginative, flawed, Odysseus is, ultimately, the most human hero of the ancient Greek world. His susceptibility to the seductions of women – and of majestic worlds such as that of the Phaeacians – is both his power and his undoing. Little wonder he still speaks to us today.

Daisy Dunn is an award-winning classicist and author whose books include The Missing Thread, and the Ladybird Expert Book on Homer.

The Odyssey is released on 17 July in US and UK cinemas.

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'The perfect football song': Why England fans and players love Wonderwall

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2wllrlrxgo, today

"Cmon England cmon Wonderwall."

That was the message once again from Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher on Sunday morning, after England's travelling supporters - including Sir David Beckham - sang his band's most famous song with the players at full-time following their World Cup quarter-final win over Norway in Miami.

It has become a new tradition in recent weeks, being belted out after all five of the men's team's wins across the US and Mexico.

Speaking to the Sun after their opening win in Dallas, the man who wrote it, Liam's brother and bandmate Noel Gallagher said: "Wonderwall belongs to the people, and it was a magical moment between the people and the players."

And he claims not to be an England fan.

Captain Harry Kane told the Lions' Den podcast that the first impromptu singalong was one of his "favourite ever moments in an England shirt".

His old teammate and now BBC Sport pundit Joe Hart said after the DR Congo game that such "phenomenal" moments of unity allow players to "drop the mask, just for a few minutes, of being an elite professional".

Norway fans and players may have combined similarly to do the "Viking row", but (after all) it's Wonderwall that "resonates with being English", one fan told BBC Sport.

While traditional England anthems including Three Lions, Vindaloo, World in Motion, as well as Sweet Caroline - the accidental breakout hit from Euro 2020 - have still been heard in pubs around the country, Wonderwall appears to be the song of the summer so far.

The number two hit, taken from Oasis's all-conquering 1995 album (What's the Story) Morning Glory, re-entered the UK top 40 singles chart last week as a result of the initial viral moment. And on Friday it shot up from number 32 to 11.

In 2008, shortly before the Manchester band split up, Liam declared that he "can't stand singing that song" - the acoustically-driven ballad that launched a thousand buskers.

But since then he has done exactly that, many times and to great effect for adoring fans around the world throughout the band's big-selling reunion tour last year.

'Song for the moment'

Author and broadcaster PJ Harrison, who last year released the biography Gallagher: The Rise and Fall of Oasis, finds the process of pop songs being adopted by football fans fascinating.

In the 1960s, the Evertonian tells BBC News, there was a tradition for fans simply singing pop hits of the day.

He thinks what is happening now with England and Wonderwall could not have been contrived.

"You have the long lifespan of Wonderwall, then you have the renewed interest with the tour," he notes. "And obviously, if you've got to put one song on from that tour, that fits.

"Then it's just a case of the DJ having the situational awareness to think, 'This is the song for the moment', put it on and everybody just embrace it."

He adds: "Once it takes root and it becomes melded to an emotional moment, like winning a first World Cup game, it just takes on this emotional life and quickly gathers an immediate nostalgia."

As for the song itself, Noel told Uncut magazine around the time of its release that it was a musical love letter to his then-wife Meg Mathews. But he subsequently changed his story, telling Q Magazine it was about "an imaginary friend who's going to come and save you from yourself".

The ambiguity in the lyrics allied to the familiar, easy melody, Harrison believes, allows fans to "express an outpouring of love without necessarily specifying what it's towards".

"What is a Wonderwall? I'm not really sure what it is but I can sing about it and it can be whatever I think it is," says the former Plymouth Argyle director and co-founder of the LA-based City of Angels FC.

"If I think it's Jude Bellingham or if I think it's England winning, it can be that, or it could be my girlfriend or whatever."

Unlike some of the other more upbeat, hopeful England songs, he feels the reflective nature of Wonderwall means it "would also still work in consolation if the team get knocked out".

'Euphoria and melancholy'

The term Wonderwall is originally taken from the psychedelic and surreal 1968 film of the same name.

It stars Jane Birkin as the object of obsession for a man who lives next door, slowly making holes in his wall so he can watch her through it (not creepy at all).

George Harrison provided the soundtrack - the first solo album by a Beatle - which is where avid record collector Noel came across it.

The original working title for his tune had been Wishing Stone, but a smart tweak to the lyrics resulted in his best-selling song - millions of records and billions of streams - and probably paid for his swimming pool.

Louder Than War writer and Membranes musician John Robb, who also released an Oasis book last year titled Live Forever: The Rise, Fall And Resurrection Of Oasis, tells us Wonderwall is the perfect song for football fans due to it's heady mix of "euphoria" and "melancholy".

"There's something really melancholic about being a football fan because any second you're about to lose but any second you're about to win," says the Blackpool supporter.

"The song captures both - it's the perfect football song."

He continues: "It has that thing where you can sing along to it but it's got that undertone of sadness, it's also got that lift in the chorus."

Although not written as a football song, Noel has spoken of the influence of his time spent on the terraces at the old Maine Road watching Manchester City on his songwriting, Robb recalls.

"Football is about community and camaraderie and everybody being together in the moment, and those kinds of songs are perfect for it," he adds.

"The ultimate choir is a football terrace, because it's a lot of people who can't really sing, singing together and in harmony.

"That's quite a beautiful thing."

England fans will be hoping their team is on song next month so they can continue their new tradition all the way to the final in New York.

All the roads that lead them there are winding, though, on to Atlanta for Wednesday's semi-final.

Wonderwall lost its own final of sorts, back in November 1995. It was cruelly kept off the top of the chart by Robson and Jerome's double A-side, I Believe and Up On The Roof - which remain unsung by hordes of England fans as far as we're aware.

If England do win the World Cup for the first time in 60 years, look out for the song maaaaaybe ending 30 years of chart hurt too.

"Let's keep the biblical vibrations going," as Liam put it on X.

If not, supporters may be crying their hearts out instead.

Tributes paid to TV presenter Dermot Murnaghan

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20yvg13nqpo, today

Broadcasters and politicians have paid tribute to TV presenter Dermot Murnaghan, who has died a year after he revealed he had been diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer.

The former BBC, ITV and Sky News journalist was 68.

"It is with great sadness that the family of Dermot Murnaghan announces that he passed away at home in North London earlier this morning," his family said in a statement posted to his X account. "He died peacefully with his family at his side."

A fixture on British TV news across five decades, he presented flagship programmes including the ITV Evening News and the BBC News at Six and Ten.

Murnaghan was a main presenter of BBC Breakfast from September 2002 to December 2007 and also hosted quiz show Eggheads.

After revealing his diagnosis last summer, he became an outspoken advocate for men to get tested for the condition.

"Needless to say my message to all men over 50, in high risk groups, or displaying symptoms, is get yourself tested and campaign for routine prostate screening by the NHS," he said.

"Early detection is crucial. And be aware, this disease can sometimes progress rapidly without obvious symptoms."

His family thanked the public "for the many, many kind messages of goodwill that he received over the last year since his diagnosis of Stage IV prostate cancer and his subsequent campaigning to raise awareness for screening programmes for the disease".

Common prostate cancer symptoms can include needing to urinate more frequently, particularly at night; difficulty starting to urinate, weak flow and it taking a long time; and blood in urine or semen. However, there may be no sign or symptoms for years.

Born in England, Murnaghan's family moved to Northern Ireland when he was a child. He went to primary school in Armagh city and attended secondary school in Holywood, County Down.

After graduating from Sussex University, he completed a postgraduate course in Journalism at City University.

Murnaghan started his career at local newspapers, before later moving to Channel 4 News and fronting ITV shows including The Big Story and the News at 10 from 1993 to 1997, and the channel's Evening News and Nightly News from 1999 to 2001.

In 1998, he won a Royal Television Society award for his interview with Peter Mandelson over a secret loan of £373,000 he received from his ministerial colleague Geoffrey Robinson. Mandelson resigned from government the following day.

Murnaghan moved to the BBC in 2002, as one of the main hosts of BBC Breakfast, the Six O'Clock News and the Ten O'Clock News.

He presented Eggheads for 11 years from 2003, and was one of the faces of Sky News from 2007 to 2023.

Murnaghan also hosted the documentaries Crimes That Shook Britain for Channel 5 and Killer Britain for the Crime + Investigation UK channel.

He later launched his podcast Legends of News, speaking to other seasoned journalists and correspondents about major stories they had covered.

'A legend of news'

Tributes have been pouring in for Murnaghan.

"He was peerless in the presenter chair," Sky News' political editor Beth Rigby posted on X.

"I loved being on set, or in Downing Street, with Dermot because he was always in absolute command but so cool too. He made handling the most high-pressure moments look effortless."

Sky News presenter Anna Botting said he would "always be a legend of news".

Jonathan Munro, interim CEO of BBC News, said: "Dermot was a true gentleman, and a brilliant journalist and broadcaster who was much-loved by viewers and by his BBC colleagues."

"He was a consummate professional and someone who really had a natural ability to connect with audiences," he added.

Broadcaster Piers Morgan said it was "very sad news", adding that "Dermot was a terrific journalist, and a lovely man".

Channel 4 News lead anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy said: "What a sad loss so young."

"Dermot was a very fine journalist and presenter whose career spanned all the main British broadcasters. He was also very kind," he said, referencing his charity work.

MP Andy Burnham, the likely incoming prime minister, said he was "so sad", adding: "Dermot was an exceptional broadcaster and a truly decent person. I always enjoyed being in his company."

Former Prime Minister David Cameron, who has also been treated for prostate cancer, said the presenter's decision to highlight the importance of testing will have helped many men.

"I think it's really important that Dermot came out in the way that he did - as in his broadcasting life, he did it with incredible clarity and just simplicity," Lord Cameron told Sky News.

"And as someone who was so well-known to people through his broadcasting career over 40 years, it will have had a huge impact."

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said Murnaghan was a "broadcasting legend who we have lost far too soon".

"His tireless advocacy, encouraging more men to get tested for prostate cancer, will no doubt have saved lives."

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean make UK chart history with Rein Me In

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn94rdz3e59o, yesterday

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean have made chart history after their song Rein Me In became the longest-running number one single of all time by a British act.

With 16 weeks at the top of the UK charts, the duet has surpassed Wet Wet Wet's Love is All Around from 1994 and equalled Canadian singer Bryan Adams' (Everything I Do) I Do It For You.

Fender, who originally released the track on his third solo album more than a year ago, said watching the song break chart records has "been ridiculous" and "an excuse to party".

He also credited Grammy winner Dean, saying: "Olivia putting the alternative narrative on it made the song really universal – that opened the floodgates. There's two sides to the story. And, it's a toe tapper! It's officially a banger!"

The duet was released in June last year as a remix of Fender's solo album track.

It is a two-way conversation about the end of a relationship, with Fender noting previously that the song is "all the better" for Dean’s input.

Fender and Dean debuted the collaboration in early June during one of Fender's London Stadium shows, with the video of their performance going viral on social media.

Rein Me In is Fender's first number one, while the pop-rock ballad is Dean's second chart-topper after the success of her single Man I Need.

The pair also broke more records on Friday, achieving the longest consecutive run in the UK top 40 and the most weeks in the UK top 10 for any non-Christmas single.

There is one record left for the pair to break - the record for the longest running number one by any artist, which is currently held by American Frankie Laine, whose song I Believe spent 18 weeks at the top of the charts in 1953.

Top Boy actor Micheal Ward found not guilty of rape

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cewq9vznzz5o, yesterday

British actor Micheal Ward has been cleared of raping a woman who claimed he had attacked her in the back of a car.

Ward, 28, denied two charges of rape and three of sexual assault, and a jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court acquitted him on all counts on Friday.

He had met the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, at an east London nightclub on 2 January 2023.

Bafta winner Ward, who is best known for the film Blue Story and Netflix series Top Boy, said: "Everything we did was wholly consensual."

During the trial, Ward told the jury he thought they were "having a great time" during the encounter.

The court heard the actor - who played gang leader Jamie in Top Boy - thought the woman was "very cute" when he met her and sensed "there was interest there".

He asked her to join him in a car, where there was a "continuation of the flirting".

"She was reciprocating the energy. She was pulling me close. For me, that was an inviting act and we were both enjoying that moment," Ward said, adding that she "never mentioned anything about wanting to leave".

He told the jury she had seemed "absolutely fine" and had a "nice and engaging general conversation".

Later they exchanged messages, he sent a smiling emoji with a heart and she told him to enjoy the rest of his night.

In court, the woman broke down as she gave a different account.

She said she would have "never would have got in that car with him" if she had known what would happen.

She denied to Sallie Bennett-Jenkins KC, defending for Ward, that it was consensual, telling the court that "Micheal raped me".

The woman said she "completely shut down" and "did not use the word no" during the alleged attack.

She said she repeatedly told Ward she needed to leave "on multiple occasions". On the way home with a friend, she ordered an STI kit, ticking a box asking if she had been sexually assaulted.

When Ward was arrested on 18 January that year he told police in a prepared statement: "I deny the allegation of rape. I want to put on record that we had consensual foreplay and consensual sex."

Career 'put on hold'

The actor was given the Bafta Rising Star Award in 2020 and was later nominated twice for roles in the BBC's Small Axe and the 2022 film Empire of Light.

Speaking outside court, his solicitor Humzah Ilyas said: "It has been three and a half years since the police started investigating this matter, during which time Micheal's life, as well as his successful career, has been put on hold. This has, inevitably, had a profound impact on him and those closest to him.

"Micheal is thankful this process has now reached a conclusion. He looks forward to getting back to the doing work he loves and focusing on the future.

"As he starts to rebuild his life, Micheal would like to acknowledge those who have experienced sexual violence and abuse. They deserve to be heard, treated with compassion, and have their allegations taken seriously.

"Micheal would like to thank God and his family. He is very appreciative of everyone who stood by him. Their support, prayers and love helped carry him."

'Inescapably epic': Why Total Eclipse of the Heart is the most dramatic pop song ever written

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20230209-total-eclipse-of-the-heart-the-most-epic-song-ever-written, 3 days ago

With the news of Bonnie Tyler's death at the age of 75, we assess what made her melodramatic song about obsessive love a global smash hit that endures to this day.

One day in the summer of 1982, Canadian vocalist Rory Dodd was summoned to the Power Station recording studio in New York City to lend his vocals to a song, written and produced by his colleague and friend Jim Steinman for Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler. "Jesus! Where's the kitchen sink?" Dodd cried, when he heard the final, jaw-dropping mix of the track.

The song was Total Eclipse of the Heart. Released in February 1983, this gothic aria became an unprecedented international success that pushed the boundaries of melodrama in pop music. It topped the UK charts, unseating Michael Jackson's Billie Jean, was an even bigger hit in the US, and soared to number one in several countries. Tyler was an unlikely candidate for this level of chart dominance, her career having stalled since her 1977 hit It's a Heartache.

Impressed by his work composing and producing the Meat Loaf opus Bat Out of Hell (1977), Tyler asked CBS Records for Steinman to collaborate with her on her next album. "The record company at the time thought I was mad," she told the BBC. "They never in a million years thought that this would come off." But Steinman agreed to work with Tyler, hearing untapped potential in her voice, which he compared in its rasping power to Janis Joplin. He has described Total Eclipse of the Heart as a "fever song" about the darker, obsessive side of love and as "an exorcism you can dance to".

The song is considered one of history's most iconic "power ballads", often ranking highly in retrospective listings alongside such evergreens as Heart's Alone, Journey's Faithfully, and Foreigner's I Want to Know What Love Is. It is easy to understand why: the full-length album cut is seven minutes of unfettered bombast. Dodd, who delivers the haunting "turn around" vocal parts, describes the marriage of his plaintive tenor with Tyler's raspy howl as "Beauty and the Beast" but in reverse.

"I don't know what to do / And I'm always in the dark / We're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks," Tyler laments, singing about a romantic infatuation that overwhelms her to the point of collapse. After the first chorus, a maelstrom of drums and explosions take the song to apocalyptic heights. "Together we can take it to the end of the line / Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time," Tyler roars. On the word "shadow" her voice cracks like a flash of lightning. As the dust settles, Dodd soothes the listener with falsetto repetitions of the "turn around bright eyes" refrain. It is inescapably epic.

But is Total Eclipse of the Heart a "power ballad"? The term is commonly invoked to describe a subset of rock and hair metal popularised in the 1980s – slow-tempo songs that climb musical, vocal, and emotional heights, fuelled by guitar riffs and thunderous drums.

However, the term has been assigned to non-rock songs too: The Telegraph's list of the 21 best power ballads includes Sinead O'Connor's Nothing Compares 2 U; Smooth Radio's list includes Whitney Houston's I Have Nothing; and in a recent piece for BBC Culture, Nick Levine described Houston's recording of I Will Always Love You as "the ultimate power ballad." Calling powerful ballads "power ballads" has occasionally attracted the ire of music and culture writers, but this is an inevitable result of unclear etymology. Power ballad expert and academic David Metzer identifies that the term was used as early as 1970 in Billboard Magazine – to describe the music of Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck – and has never been exclusively applied to "rock" music.

"Power ballad" is better understood as a genre-agnostic term to describe songs that adhere to a particular formula. Key to this formula is "continual escalation", writes Metzer in the Popular Music journal, identifying Barry Manilow as an early adopter via his '70s pop output. Indeed, Manilow songs such as Weekend in New England and Looks Like We Made It are marked by humble openings that lead to orchestral crescendos and climactic key changes. Other '70s pop hits such as Eric Carmen's All By Myself and Leo Sayer's When I Need You also harness these conventions. Moving into the 1980s, this formula was more eagerly exploited and interpreted through the prism of (soft) rock and hair metal (a pop-influenced sub-genre of heavy metal).

Prior to the release of Total Eclipse of the Heart, these rock-orientated power ballads were present but not dominant in the UK charts. Only a few had cracked the top 10 in the early '80s, including Styx's Babe (1980, peaked at number six), REO Speedwagon's Keep On Loving You (1981, peaked at number seven), Phil Collins's In the Air Tonight (1981, peaked at number two), Chicago's Hard to Say I'm Sorry (1982, peaked at number four), and Toto's Africa (1983, peaked at number three). Barbra Streisand's chart-topping soft rock hit Woman in Love (1980) skirts on the edge of power ballad status, but lacks the sufficient escalation. This would make Total Eclipse of the Heart, which reached number one on 12 March 1983, the first chart-topping rock "power ballad" of '80s Britain.

Yet, categorising the song as a "power ballad" feels unsatisfactory. In execution, drama, and audaciousness, it trumps all the aforementioned songs floating around the charts before and after its release. Whereas power ballads tend to follow a linear path of escalation, Metzer notes the "sudden harmonic turns" in Total Eclipse of the Heart. "Epic in length, form and passion, [Steinman's compositions] create their own kind of musical and emotional grandeur… They exceed the category of the power ballad," he told the BBC. Tom Breihan argued in Stereogum that "the term 'power ballad' doesn't adequately describe Total Eclipse of the Heart, if only because the word 'power' just doesn't have enough power."

'Inherent theatricality'

Those involved in the record also concede the limitations of the "power ballad" label. "It's one thing to make a big power ballad but there was something unique about the songs that Jim would write," bassist Steve Buslowe told the BBC. Studio engineer John Jansen concured, considering the song "more quirky" than the "corporate" power ballads of the era. "I don't know how to describe it," Tyler said. "I just love singing it!" According to the archive held by Newspapers.com, it seems the song was never described by contemporary press as a "power ballad" – unlike the music of Journey, Foreigner and Night Ranger. This label has been applied retrospectively, perhaps to make sense of the nonsensical.

Maybe there is no better term, accepting that most musical categories are somewhat reductive. But there is a case to be made for the song's uniqueness. Dr Freya Jarman, from the University of Liverpool's department of music, told the BBC that the song "clearly stood out from the general soundworld of early 1980s radio, but it wasn't completely out of the blue; rather, it's the culmination of a few lines of influence, all converging on a single song in a way that makes it particularly distinctive." Jarman identifies "prog rock", a genre known for its episodic song structures, as one of these influences.

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The song also owes to Steinman's fondness for the orchestral outpourings of Richard Wagner and the symphonic, reverb-laden production of Phil Spector. "It makes you feel like you're a Norseman in a blizzard," Jansen said about the song's headiness, remembering how he and fellow engineer Neil Dorfsman exploited the Power Station's echoey stairwells for optimum reverb. Steinman also drew upon his own background in musical theatre, repurposing the song's melody from an abandoned musical adaptation of Nosferatu he was scoring.

This inherent theatricality is what makes Total Eclipse of the Heart such a profound intervention in chart history. Other than Steinman's material for Meat Loaf, it is difficult to identify many high-charting songs of a similar ilk. Perhaps the closest is Queen's 1975 hit Bohemian Rhapsody, whose operatic intensity parallels the Wagnerian excesses of Total Eclipse of the Heart. Steinman's theatricality also made him a popular target for critics.

In a review of Tyler's Faster than the Speed of Night album, released in April 1983 and produced by Steinman, rock critic Trevor Dann decried its lack of subtlety and wrote in the Sunday Telegraph that "Bonnie should be taken to see a Joni Mitchell concert." The Guardian deemed it an "amusing, mildly camp curiosity." But the album went to number one, its other highlights being the brilliantly manic title track and a thrilling cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's Have You Ever Seen the Rain?.

Steinman's death on 19 April 2021 precipitated a flood of tributes acknowledging his impact. "Such great songs. Such a great songwriter," tweeted fellow songwriter Diane Warren, whose own power ballads for Cher, Céline Dion and Aerosmith would dominate the late '80s and '90s. Dion, who recorded his It's All Coming Back to Me Now, tweeted that Steinman was a "musical genius". Tyler remembers that, after her second album with Steinman (1986's Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire), "people used to write songs for me, and you could tell they were trying to copy [Steinman's] style – but it just didn't work."

'Powerful emotionality'

Power ballads had a more visible presence in the UK charts after the success of Total Eclipse of the Heart, even if few would reach the dizzying heights of Steinman's melodrama. In the following years, songs such as Foreigner's I Want to Know What Love Is (1985), T'Pau's China in Your Hand (1987), Starship's Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now (1987), and Robin Beck's First Time (1988) all reached number one. Perhaps Steinman and Tyler's smash whetted the appetite for similarly big and dramatic sounds? You can hear the influence of Steinman in the bombast of more contemporary power ballads, such as Jordin Sparks' Battlefield, Lady Gaga's Hold My Hand, and Olivia Rodrigo's Drivers Licence. "He also had a broader contribution in terms of helping to put powerful emotionality on the musical map," notes Jarman, identifying how Steinman even paved the way for tracks like Metallica's Nothing Else Matters, The Scorpions' Wind of Change, and Nickelback's How You Remind Me. "It's not a direct line, and he's not the only influence, but I do think he's a key figure in that fusion between emotionality and rock."

Whatever the label or categorisation, Total Eclipse of the Heart has endured through the years. In 1995, British singer and future Eurovision contestant Nicki French found success with a high-charting dance cover. She contends that it is possible to love both recordings, telling the BBC, "if you fancy a bop around the room, you put on mine; if you fancy just sitting there and wallowing in the great drama of it all, you go for Bonnie's."

The song has been covered in more recent times. Chloe mk performed the song on The Voice (US) in 2017, which she won. Speaking to the BBC, she explained that "the lyrics 'cause we'll never be wrong' capture perfectly what it means to desperately want and need someone... So much so that it can only be right." Total Eclipse of the Heart has also been performed on the hit television show Glee, used in advertisements, and a Welsh family went viral in 2021 with their lockdown-inspired re-write of the song (as "Totally Fixed Where We Are"). "It's so cool that the song doesn't seem to want to go away. People keep using it!" said Buslowe.

However, it is the original recording that remains etched in the public consciousness. This is partly because of the unintentional genius of Steinman's lyric in future-proofing the song: its streams soar whenever there is a solar eclipse. Tyler also credited the impact of the song's confounding and homoerotic music video, wherein Tyler runs frantically around a gothic boarding school surrounded by ninjas, bare-chested men and levitating choirboys. When asked if she still has no clue what all that was about, she says "I don't think anybody does!"

It is ultimately the pairing of Steinman's epic writing with Tyler's ferocious delivery that continues to enthral listeners. Total Eclipse of the Heart exceeded the category of the power ballad before the power ballad had even established itself as a dominant musical idiom. "I can't think of any other songs of that era that bit so much as that," Dodd told the BBC. "It was a totally different concept of a song. It's a story, it's theatre, and it worked!"

This is an updated version of a story that was originally published in 2023.

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What went wrong with Disney's live-action Moana

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260708-what-went-wrong-with-the-live-action-moana, 4 days ago

The latest of Disney's live-action remakes, of its beloved 2016 animation, opens this week – and could be a surprising flop. From the moment it was announced, it has been ill-fated.

When a trailer for the new live-action remake of Disney's Moana went online in March, one of the main talking points was the sight of Dwayne Johnson's long, curly and weirdly unconvincing wig. The Rock's locks prompted countless unkind comments, but the most damning insult came from the accordion-playing, pop-parodying Weird Al Yankovic, who posted a photo of the bewigged Johnson on Instagram, alongside the caption: "We've told all the casting agents that the Weird Al biopic sequel is currently on hold, but they just keep sending in headshots."

Ouch. Yankovic's assertion that he and Johnson were lookalikes may have been a jovial wisecrack, but it was part of a mocking trend. Moana just wasn't getting the reverence that Disney might have hoped for. Well before its release, the new version of the Polynesian princess's ocean-going adventures was hit by wave after wave of criticisms.

Now various cinema tracking specialists have predicted that Moana will earn between $50m and $85m (£37m and £64m) in its opening weekend in the US: that's less than half of what another Disney remake, Lilo & Stitch, earned in the same period a year ago – and a long way from what the studio might have expected from one of its most popular pieces of IP. As it turns out, the quality of the film itself could be the problem.

The live-action Moana is uncannily similar to the cartoon – but at no point does it ever match it. While the cartoon's animation was dazzlingly bright and rich, with joyous character design and luminescent views of turquoise waves and verdant island scenery, the live-action rehash has lots of relatively ordinary-looking actors standing around in blurry CGI settings.

How the bad buzz started

Even before the new film was screened to critics, though, there was a sense that Moana was running low on Disney's signature magic. The first grumblings were heard as soon as the project was officially unveiled by Johnson in April 2023. Tim Robey, film critic for The Telegraph and author of Box Office Poison: Hollywood's History in a Century of Flops, notes that some of the hostility directed at it has included a bigoted element. "The live-action Disney remakes focused on female, non-white main characters – look at The Little Mermaid – have a habit of doing particularly badly, and being bullied online more than the ones with boy heroes," he says. But there have been plenty of other non-political reasons for all the Moana moaning too.

For one thing, the cartoon came out just a decade ago in 2016, so it's not as if anyone was crying out for the new film. One selling point of Disney's remakes is nostalgia. But there simply hasn't been enough time for anyone to feel nostalgic about Moana.

That particular issue became even more pressing early in 2024, when Disney announced that a nearly-finished Moana television series wouldn't be shown on Disney+, after all, but rejigged as a feature film with a cinema release. This proved to be a financially savvy decision. Moana 2, which came out in November 2024, was the third-highest-grossing film of the year, raking in just over $1bn (£784m) worldwide. But it made the live-action Moana seem a lot less like a momentous event.

"I feel like [the remake] is just too soon after Moana 2," says Tim Robey. "People didn't particularly like [Moana 2], and thought it was a kind of cash-in. So for Disney to release a remake of the first film straight afterwards, it felt like such a production-line decision." The sequel also confused potential audiences about what was going on with the franchise. One common comment beneath trailers for the live-action Moana is: Didn't this come out already?

What's more, the prospect of seeing Johnson on screen as Maui, the character he voiced in both of the cartoons, has lost some of its attraction. In 2021, Johnson was a box-office colossus who was talked of as a future US president. But his subsequent succession of flops – Jungle Cruise (2021), Black Adam (2022), Red One (2024), The Smashing Machine (2025) – shows that his gleaming grin and boulder-like pecs aren't enough to sell tickets anymore.

As for his co-star, the initial rumour was that the actress who voiced Moana in the cartoons, Auli'i Cravalho, would play the title role again on screen. But Cravalho confirmed in May 2023 that she would be stepping aside to let a younger actress take over. Her decision was well received, and Cravalho's successor, Catherine Laga'aia, is well cast, but some of the live-action film's unique appeal was diluted. The intriguing Johnson-Cravalho reunion wasn't going to happen.

The problem with its visuals

The trailers dampened enthusiasm, too. There were CGI monsters, CGI animals and CGI waves – all of which suggested that much of the live-action film was essentially going to be an animated film. "It seems like audiences are growing restless with sloppy-looking CGI as a half-measure," Kyle Meikle, author of The Live-Action Animated Film, and Associate Professor of English and Communication at the University of Baltimore, tells the BBC.

"This summer, practical effects have ruled: Backrooms, Obsession – heck, even The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Michael [have limited digital trickery]. And now I'm seeing Christopher Nolan talking up The Odyssey's practical effects in the press. Compare that with Supergirl's reception, or audiences' distaste for the dismal, half-CGI Masters of the Universe. Either fully commit to computer animation, as in Toy Story 5 or Minions & Monsters, or go practical."

Maybe the reliance on CGI was inevitable, given that Moana features so many supernatural creatures. But the result is that the digitally rendered creatures in the new film are more or less identical to the digitally rendered creatures in the 2016 cartoon. And, crucially, it's all too easy for people to make that comparison.

The original Moana is so fresh in its fans' minds, and so frequently rewatched on Disney+, that commenters kept pointing out the same punchlines, the same character designs, and the same camera angles in the trailers. Instead of anticipating a fabulous reinvention of a beloved film, they complained that they were being offered a faded photocopy. And as it transpires, that is pretty much what they're getting.

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Disney's executives probably aren't worried: for every one of the studio's live-action remakes that sinks without trace, there's another one that triumphs. The Little Mermaid flopped in 2023, whereas Mufasa: The Lion King (a prequel to the photorealistic remake of the 1994 animated classic) was a huge hit in 2024. Last year, Snow White bombed so badly that Disney lost $170m, whereas Lilo & Stitch (one of the biggest films of 2025) made them $1bn.

It's no wonder that remakes of Tangled and Hercules are being planned, along with a sequel to the live-action Lilo & Stitch. But Moana is an example of how careful Disney should be. Each of their remakes has to feel comfortingly familiar yet excitingly new. The source material has to be recent enough for audiences to be fond of it, but not so recent that they know it off by heart. And if the wigs aren't right, then they should scrap the whole enterprise and start again.

Moana is released in cinemas on 10 July.

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'A distinct Canadian character': The 1920s paintings that changed how the world saw Canada

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260706-the-1920s-paintings-that-changed-how-the-world-saw-canada, 5 days ago

The Group of Seven was Canada's first internationally recognised national art movement, and they helped create a distinct, modern Canadian identity in the 1920s. As the official Group of Seven Day is celebrated in Canada, what is their legacy – and are their ideas in harmony or conflict with the so-called "Indian Group of Seven", founded later in the 1970s?

In the 1921 painting Stormy Weather, Georgian Bay, a lone tree perches perilously between a rocky outcrop and a vast, churning lake, buffeted by the elements yet refusing to yield to their force. Executed in rough brushstrokes and simplified lines, it celebrates not only the resilience of Canadian settlers and their ability to survive against all odds, but also the dramatic, untamed landscapes with which they joyfully communed.

The painting by FH Varley is one of the most iconic works by The Group of Seven, a groundbreaking art collective who broke with the dominant tradition of European academic painting to create a uniquely Canadian style that revelled in the country's vast natural beauty.

The group's most celebrated works are "almost like what the Statue of Liberty is for the United States," says Katerina Atanassova, senior curator of Canadian art at The National Gallery of Canada. So beloved are they that 7 July is now celebrated as Group of Seven Day. What is it about their paintings that, for many, embody the Canadian spirit and identity? And where does the group's work stand in relation to the country's Indigenous art?

The group which – in addition to Varley – comprised Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, AY Jackson, Franz Johnston, Arthur Lismer and JEH MacDonald remains hugely popular today, as does Tom Thomson, a major influence, who died before its official formation. Their most acclaimed paintings, which include Thomson's The Jack Pine, The West Wind and Harris's North Shore, Lake Superior, have become, for many, the national paintings of Canada – embodying the country's spirit.

A turning point

They began painting in the 1910s, an era when Canada – a self-governing dominion of the British Empire since 1867 – was beginning to find its own social and political identity, but had yet to find an artistic voice. The nascent group was intent on providing just that. A turning point occurred when MacDonald and Harris visited a landmark exhibition of contemporary Scandinavian art in Buffalo, US, in 1913. Norway, Sweden and Finland were all forging their own independent paths at the time. In their sparse landscapes, vividly depicted in flat, bright colours, the two artists saw an expression of national identity that was unequivocally modern.

The aesthetic and intellectual inspiration they took from the Scandinavians was strengthened by the influence of Thomson, a self-taught artist and graphic designer who frequently embarked on lengthy trips into the wilderness, often by canoe, to paint and sketch. "He embodied that ideal, that direct experience that every artist wants to have," Atanassova tells the BBC. It was Thomson who "started the images of the solitary tree", and inspired the future Group of Seven artists to see that the Canadian wilderness "can be viewed as modern and painted as modern", says Atanassova.

Thomson's death in 1917, at the age of only 40, turned him into a cultural legend, and when the group officially formed in 1920, "the goal was defined that they ought to follow in his footsteps," says Atanassova. Their intention "was not to portray what nature looked like, but how it made them feel, the emotional state created by the starry sky, the windswept pine or the barren coastal line on the north shore of Lake Superior." The initial response to their innovative approach was anything but favourable. One review of their first exhibition compared their work to "the contents of a drunkard's stomach".

Somewhat ironically, it would take the approval of the very people from whom they were trying to distance themselves to change public opinion. The group's work was selected for the British Empire Exhibition, held at Wembley in 1924, where it received a rapturous response with the British press praising its "distinct Canadian character. " Recognition abroad meant that it "suddenly became popular in Canada", explains Atanassova.

The fact that this "distinct Canadian character" excluded the Indigenous population has led to criticism of the group in some quarters, although Atanassova feels that this is unfair. "You don't see any signs of civilisation in [the Group of Seven's] paintings," she says. They were "looking for untamed nature in the tradition of modern Scandinavian art", which meant that they also excluded any sign of industrialisation.

While that may be true, we are now painfully aware that in the areas the group were travelling to, they could not have painted Indigenous populations if they had wanted to. The government's brutal policies, begun in the late 19th Century, had seen them forcibly removed to reservations or residential schools where their movement was restricted and their cultural practices suppressed.

'The Indian Group of Seven'

These policies had a devastating effect on all aspects of Indigenous life, including artistic production and recognition, a fact that led to the formation of another group of seven in the early 1970s, the Professional Native Indian Artists Incorporated (PNIAI). Jackson Beardy, Eddy Cobiness, Alex Janvier, Norval Morrisseau, Daphne Odjig, Carl Ray and Joseph Sanchez first started meeting in Odjig's craft shop in Winnipeg.

"They were quite distinct in that they were the first self-organised Indigenous-artists-run arts advocacy group that was formally incorporated that ever existed in Canada," says Michelle LaVallee, Director of the Indigenous Ways and Decolonization Department and Curatorial Initiatives of the National Gallery of Canada. She herself is Ojibway and a member of the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation.

Although they all had different styles and opinions, they wanted to band together to support other artists and challenge exclusionary practices and the narrow view of what "native" art actually was. "We had no one to show our work, so we had to do it ourselves. We acknowledged and supported each other as artists when the world of fine art refused us entry… Together we broke down barriers that would have been so much more difficult faced alone," Odjig later said.

"At that time, there were no Indigenous curators, no Indigenous people working in institutions," LaVallee tells the BBC. And where Indigenous art was collected it tended to be relegated to ethno-centric galleries rather than the contemporary fine art collections in which the artists felt they deserved to be exhibited. "It really wasn't held in the same esteem as [work by their] non-Indigenous peers, even though it is the first and the most authentic art that can be and should be called Canadian," says LaVallee.

Although the media soon dubbed them "the Indian Group of Seven", LaVallee isn't sure they would have appreciated the name. "They were very intentional about what they called themselves," she says. It was very important for them to have "Professional" and "Native Indian" present in the name of the group.

While LaVallee herself likes the paintings of the Group of Seven, she points out that their approach to landscape is vastly different to the PNIAI. "A lot of the PNIAI's works you would look at and not necessarily call it a landscape." They are different ways of referencing the land". Alex Janvier often incorporated maps in his works, while Norval Morrisseau "draws those connections between land and animals and spirits". It is art by "somebody from the land versus settlers coming and appreciating the land", she says.

Even if the Group of Seven weren't conscious of doing so, they "would have contributed to the circumstances around how Indigenous people were being perceived and treated", says LaVallee. This was largely down to the way their art was used to "create this popular narrative of Canada" which was picturesque but "excluded the Indigenous populations", she says.

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The PNIAI played a vital role in correcting that, and LaVallee credits her own position – as one of the senior management of the National Gallery of Canada – to their activism. "For me to get to a place like that would not have happened had these earlier artists not fought for these types of rights and opportunities and created avenues of support and camaraderie between Indigenous peoples," she says.

The National Gallery now displays Indigenous and non-Indigenous art side by side in the same galleries. LaVallee emphasises that this is not meant to "erase or discredit any existing histories".

"Part of the change we're trying to assert is the idea that, yes, within Canada, it's very multicultural, but the first art of this land was Indigenous, and the first people of these lands were Indigenous, and that needs to be acknowledged and respected and recognised."

In the 1970s, the Group of Seven's work may have been interpreted by some as exclusionary and colonial, but in the 21st Century it is largely viewed differently. For today's outdoor-loving Canadians, the group's art is a celebration of the country's outstanding natural beauty. It embodies, says Atanassova, "that raw connection with nature – and it's exactly the nature you see [in the paintings]. The lakes are the same, the skies are the same. It's an expression of your own experience. What you see and what you feel and what you live."

Art by the Group of Seven is displayed at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

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'I never had the feeling that I was flush in cash': How J Paul Getty became the world's richest man

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260703-how-j-paul-getty-became-the-worlds-richest-man, 6 days ago

The US oil billionaire's 16th-Century English mansion was home to a stunning art collection and a lion named Nero. In 1963, the BBC visited him there to discuss his "great success".

In July 1960, J Paul Getty hosted a £10,000 (£300,000 or $400,000 today) house-warming party at Sutton Place, the 16th-Century Tudor mansion in Surrey he'd bought a year earlier. More than 2,000 socialites, aristocrats and celebrities attended, and the event made headlines when a pushy press photographer was thrown into the swimming pool.

Afraid of flying or travelling by ocean liner, the US oil tycoon was to live there until his death in 1976 at the age of 83, installing coin-operated payphones for his house guests to prevent them from running up high long-distance bills. In 1963, the BBC's Alan Whicker interviewed Getty, who was famously elusive, in the manor house that had been Henry VIII's summer residence.

The archive footage reveals the billionaire's inner sanctum inside a heavily fortified mansion, as he roams past Old Masters and eats at a 16ft-long dining table, accompanied only by his Alsatian guard dog. And it was from that rambling British country house, rather than a skyscraper in Manhattan or a potentate's palace in the Middle East, that Getty managed his vast oil business empire in his final years.

Getty entered the Guinness Book of Records as the world's richest man in 1966: he'd made his first million at the age of 24, when a field he owned in Oklahoma struck oil. By the time of his death, his fortune was estimated at around $4bn ($23.5bn or £17.5bn today), and he earned more each day than the average man earned in a lifetime. One of the tycoon's maxims for success was "Rise early, work hard, and strike oil". In a series of articles for Playboy magazine that were later published as a book called How to Get Rich, Getty expounded on "the importance of having an independent view on things, not being influenced by what everybody else says".

Yet reflecting on his wealth in 1963, he was unable to determine exactly what had made him his billions. "The difference between a successful businessman and one possibly not so successful is that maybe 37 different qualities are required for a great success, and [if] a man has 35 of those qualities, he makes a more modest success. But just what those two missing qualities might be, I don't know."

When asked by Whicker why he'd succeeded when others had failed, he replied: "I really don't know of any quality I have that many others don't have." Naming elements that he shared with others, including work ethic, intelligence and imagination, he added self-deprecatingly: "I always wish that I had a better personality, that I could entertain people better, was a better conversationalist. I always worried I might be a little on the dull side as a companion."

Despite his reluctance to single out a key to success, he did credit his father as a crucial component. "It happened because my father had built up a very substantial business, a flourishing business. I was the only child, and I had to carry on the business."

Turning a manor house into a fortress

Getty's father had started from poverty, but in 1903 bought the lease to 1,100 acres of Oklahoma Indian Territory for $5,000 ($190,000 or £140,000 today) and struck oil. When he died in 1930 at the age of 74, he was worth $10m ($200m or £150m today). A Methodist and a more religious man than his only son, he left Getty only $500,000 ($10m or £7.5m today), displeased that he'd already been married and divorced.

During his five short-lived marriages, Getty had five sons, who went on to father 19 children. One of those grandchildren, John Paul Getty III, was kidnapped in Italy in 1973. Asked to pay a $16m ($120m or £90m today) ransom, his grandfather refused, saying, "I have 14 other grandchildren and if I pay one penny now, then I'll have 14 kidnapped grandchildren." Getty's 16-year-old grandson was held for five months and his captors cut off his ear, sending it to a newspaper. A ransom of $2.8m ($21m or £16m today) was eventually paid, but Getty's contribution wasn't disclosed.

The billionaire discussed his miserliness in 1963, including waiting outside a dog show for the entry fee to come down by two or three shillings, and eating late in restaurants to avoid paying the supplement for the orchestra. "I never had the feeling that I was flush in cash," he told Whicker. "If I ever sold out… then I might have some money."

Getty did surround himself with emblems of wealth, though – the Old Masters at his 72-room Sutton Place included paintings by Veronese, Gainsborough, Renoir, Rembrandt and Rubens. His collection of more than 600 items was also housed at his ranch home in Malibu, which was opened to the public in 1954 as the J Paul Getty Museum.

And he felt sufficiently at risk to fortify his Tudor mansion after buying it in 1959, following years of running his business from hotel suites in London and Paris. Every room, including each of the 14 bathrooms, was wired up to an elaborate security system, and windows and doors barred. "No Trespass" signs were put up across the 700-acre, two-swimming-pool estate, which also featured 30 cottages and lodges, tennis courts and a trout stream.

Getty was evasive on exactly what it was that he feared, telling Whicker: "I wouldn't say that I'm frightened of anything in particular. Just, I suppose, a necessary precaution." When pressed, he explained that there could be "crackpots… dynamiting the place", adding, "I have the police dogs mainly because I like them."

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His grandson John Paul Getty III discussed those fears in a 1974 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, shortly after the kidnapping. "A lot of things scare him. That's why he stays in his castle all the time dressed up in his three-piece suits and stuffed shirts. He's got attack dogs patrolling his grounds and a pet lion named Nero stomping around and bodyguards and aides. The fences around the castle are electric with barbed wire on top of them."

Can money buy you happiness?

Apart from his entourage, the reclusive billionaire was a solitary man. Yet, he said in 1963, "I wouldn't say that I've ever felt particularly lonely. I've been too busy to feel lonely… like the squirrel in the cage. You race to stay where you are." He was not a particularly upbeat person, however, arguing that "large financial responsibilities are not any key to cheerfulness".

Told by Whicker that he often looked so miserable that people must believe his money had not brought him happiness, he replied: "Well, I suppose that's the effect of responsibility. I think that ever since my father died, and left me the responsibility of the business, that I haven't had quite the buoyant feeling that I had before."

On the burden of wealth, he explained: "I think some of the best times I ever had didn't cost me any money… down at the beach, on the surfboard, waiting for a big breaker to come in, ride it into shore, not spending any money there. The breakers are free. The sunshine is free."

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'Real missiles and bombs were going off': How Saddam Hussein made an epic Hollywood-style film in Iraq

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260626-how-saddam-hussein-made-an-epic-hollywood-style-film-in-iraq, 13 days ago

In July 1983, Clash of Loyalties was screened for the first – and almost last – time. In 2020, its producer told the BBC about conscriptions, interrogations, and a drunk Oliver Reed.

The biggest threat to Saddam Hussein's epic Hollywood-style film Clash of Loyalties was not the outbreak of war between Iran and Iraq in 1980, a few weeks after filming began in the desert near Baghdad. It wasn't the steady stream of cast and crew being called up to fight, disappearing from the film set without notice. It wasn't the challenge of transporting World War One prop weapons across the border of Turkey, where customs guards stopped the film's lorries, believing they were importing a real arsenal to aid Iraqi troops.

Instead, the film was closest to being derailed by a drunken incident in a hotel restaurant involving the film's star Oliver Reed urinating in an empty wine bottle. "He asked the waiter to take it over to the next table, and said, 'With my compliments,'" the film's Iraqi-born British producer, Lateif Jorephani, told the BBC's Witness History in 2020. "The authorities were absolutely flabbergasted… I had Telexes from ministers in Iraq telling me, 'Pull this guy out, we don't want him here now.' How do I, as the producer of a multi-million-pound picture, pull the major star out of it halfway through production?"

Jorephani managed to persuade the authorities to let him keep Reed, rather than having to reshoot the whole film – but it was a close call. "I had to fight it tooth and nail," he recalled. The incident was just one jaw-clenching moment in a production that spanned three years and cost $30m ($100m or £76m today), roughly the same budget as its contemporary, Return of the Jedi. And when it was finally completed, Clash of Loyalties was only screened a few times – winning an award after it premiered at the Moscow Film Festival in July 1983 – before being consigned to canisters in Jorephani's garage in Surrey, England.

Its ignominious end was a long way from the ambitions of Hussein. Soon after the Iraqi dictator came to power in July 1979, he set out a vision to establish an Iraqi film industry that could make patriotic blockbusters for a Western audience. "Hussein was very enthusiastic about encouraging Iraq to become a centre of international film productions," Jorephani told the BBC. "Perhaps he'd thought that one day Baghdad could become Bollywood on Tigris."

Hussein envisaged a series of projects that would boost the image of Iraq globally. To start, he wanted to make a motion picture of Hollywood proportions connecting his Ba'ath party to the Iraqi revolutionaries who overturned British rule in 1920. Clash of Loyalties, or Al-mas'ala Al-Kubra (The Great Question), told the story of Iraq's formation out of Mesopotamia, and was described by one of the actors as "Saddam's version of Lawrence of Arabia".

"It's based on a real incident in 1920," said Jorephani. During a nationalist movement to rid Iraq of colonial occupation, the British Lieutenant Colonel Gerard Leachman was killed by a rebel near the city of Fallujah. Clash of Loyalties would be Hussein's epic retelling of the birth of a nation.

Jorephani had worked in the film business since the 1950s, making several low-budget films in the Middle East, and was approached about the project by his contacts in Hussein's government. With Iraq bolstered by an influx of cash from the booming oil prices of the 1970s, finance was not a problem. "Our friends in Baghdad went to the big man and they said to him, 'To get into the international film business, we have to talk money'. He said to them, 'Whatever it takes'."

The big-budget Clash of Loyalties had Hollywood-style sets, special effects, and hundreds of cast and crew members, all transported to Baghdad. And then Hussein invaded Iran. "I had 140 people out in Iraq during a war," Jorephani recalled in the 2016 documentary Saddam Goes to Hollywood. "These people were accustomed to making movies in Shepperton, Pinewood, Hollywood – not being in the middle of nowhere while real missiles and bombs were going off all over the place."

Filming in a war zone

The invasion led to a few hiccups. "We had to stop production, but the word came from upstairs that you must give the impression that life goes on as normal," Jorephani told the BBC's Outlook in 2016. "As far as the Iraqi leadership was concerned, 'It's fine, it's going to be over in a few weeks' time, carry on, boys, and everything would be OK.'" Filming resumed after a fortnight.

Despite the authorities' desire to pretend that there was nothing to be concerned about, there were clues, according to the cast. One actor recalled flying out to Iraq with Reed and other cast members, and noticing a fighter jet accompanying their plane when they entered Iraqi airspace. They landed without lights to avoid a missile attack. Scenes had to be reshot after local actors were called up to the army suddenly, and there were logistical problems in delivering military props from the UK across the Turkish border.

According to Jorephani, "The Turks said, 'Hang on a second mate, we are neutral in the war, you can't get this stuff through.'" He tried explaining to them, "Look, this is First World War film stuff, you can't shoot with it, this is a gun for film-making." But to no avail. Instead, recalled Jorephani, they had to send their lorries "through Greece, on ships, across Lebanon, across Syria, which was then more friendly with the Iranians than the Iraqis, and across the desert to Baghdad. I was really quite frustrated by then."

But the most notorious episode in the production involved a sequence with an exploding train. "It's supposed to be a troop train with ammunition… attacked by Iraqi rebels," said Jorephani. Although they were mostly filming in locations away from the real-life fighting, the only disused railway line they could find was close to the Iranian border. "The day after the shoot, Iranian media claimed that the Revolutionary Guard attacked inside Iraq and destroyed a military train, killing many Iraqi soldiers."

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Events were almost as dramatic among the actors. Beyond the incident with the wine bottle, Reed's antics included arm-wrestling, kicking in doors and picking fights. Fellow cast member Marc Sinden, son of actor Donald Sinden, said in a 2014 Esquire interview that the first time he saw Reed, he was being dangled by his ankles out of a fifth-floor window of the Al-Mansour Melia Hotel in Baghdad, after upsetting his minder, a French ex-special forces soldier. Reed was apparently screaming with laughter. "We never did find out what Olly said," recalled Sinden. Another actor in the film, Virginia Denham, said: "Oliver Reed was a weapon of mass destruction."

Sinden had a memorable experience of a different kind while shooting Clash of Loyalties. He said in the 2014 interview that before he flew out to Iraq, he was recruited to take photographs of Baghdad for a shady British secret agency. "I was visited by two gentlemen in suits. They claimed they were from the Foreign Office… They asked if I was going to Iraq, and I said yes. I didn't have to tell them the date. They already knew when I was leaving."

Shown then shelved

Sinden was told that security services would be interested in seeing his holiday snaps – anything that looked like it might have military value, such as communications antennae, government buildings, or palaces. Unfortunately, Sinden said, these photos landed him in an interrogation centre in Iraq, after Hussein's secret police followed him. Soon after his arrival, he was taken for questioning – but managed to talk his way out, telling his interrogator: "I'm here at the behest of your glorious leader, Saddam Hussein. He is funding the film I am doing. Look, I had supper with him a week ago." They quickly released him, and Sinden flew out of Iraq the next day, dressed in his costume of a 1920s military uniform, complete with pith helmet and pistol.

Jorephani edited Clash of Loyalties back in London, but after a few festival screenings, it was shelved. After Hussein's occupation of Kuwait in 1990, the UN imposed international sanctions on Iraq that lasted until Hussein's fall from power in 2003, and the film was never shown again. The dictator's grand vision of a series of major international productions made in Iraq was reduced to one film that was viewed by only a few hundred people. "Had things worked out as the Iraqis hoped it would, we would have been in our sixth or seventh major picture of this kind," Jorephani told the BBC's Nick Erikson in 2016.

He was disappointed that he never got to make another film with the Iraqis, although he told the BBC in 2020: "After 30-odd years of war and bombs and destruction and killing and sectarianism… What is film-making? It's nothing really compared to that."

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Whaling artefacts to feature in maritime museum

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2jdrg7zyyo, today

Artefacts from one of Hull's great whaling ships will go on display when the city's maritime museum reopens following a £20m renovation.

An engraved whale tooth and an American flag will help tell the story of the Truelove, a three masted merchant vessel, which was based for a time in Hull.

The museum is due to reopen on 8 August, with people encouraged to book free tickets from Monday due to high levels of interest.

A spokesperson said the online booking system would help to reduce queuing and secure entry times for visitors.

Built in Philadelphia in 1764, the Truelove survived capture during the American War of Independence before she was refitted as a whaling ship, based in Hull.

She completed more than 70 Arctic voyages and escaped one of the worst ice disasters in whaling history.

In 1873 the Truelove returned to Philadelphia, where she was presented with an American Flag.

The ship was broken up in the 1890's, but the flag and a whale tooth engraved with an image of the vessel are going on display in the museum.

The gallery said the flag has undergone "painstaking conservation" and will displayed in a case in the new atrium space, while the engraved whale tooth will be in the museum's Age of Sail gallery.

Hull Maritime Museum is a Grade II* listed landmark, which first opened in 1871.

The building is located in the former Town Dock offices in Queen Victoria Square, where ships once sailed directly past its doors.

While walk-up visitors will still be welcome, the museum said pre-booking was recommended to avoid waiting times. Tickets can be booked from 10:00 BST on Monday.

Eilish McGuinness, Chief Executive at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, which supported the Museum's regeneration, said: "It's fantastic news that people from the city and further afield can now get their hands on tickets to visit the revamped attraction."

The redevelopment has been funded by Hull City Council and The National Lottery Heritage Fund as part of the wider Hull Maritime project.

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Mining museum celebrates 25th birthday

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0ryd5e9v9jo, today

Volunteers and former mine workers have celebrated the 25th anniversary of a mining museum which tells the stories of mining history in Cornwall, with the unveiling of a restored mining headframe.

The 12m (39ft) tall structure now stands on the skyline at King Edward Mine (KEM) at Troon, near Camborne. Trustee Peter Snodgrass said the amount of work volunteers put into the project had "been fabulous".

It was donated from the site of a mine near Blackwater and has replaced a headframe which collapsed at KEM in 1934.

A headframe sits above a mine shaft to lift mined ore to the surface, allowing miners to enter and exit workings, and directing fresh air into a mine, dispelling hazardous gases.

Lord-Lieutenant of Cornwall Colonel Sir Edward Bolitho unveiled a commemorative plaque at the celebrations on Saturday 11 July.

KEM was developed as a training mine by Camborne School of Mines (CSM) in 1897 and was a teaching facility for more than 100 years.

Snodgrass told the BBC the newly-erected structure was "one of the last wooden headframes in Cornwall and the first one to be erected in many many years".

He said: "What makes it special is its history".

'Invaluable'

Among the team of volunteers was Mike May, who was an apprentice at Geevor in 1962 and helped build the headframe.

KEM said his expertise "proved invaluable" to the restoration.

Volunteers put in thousands of hours of work, including dismantling, cleaning and retaining as much of the original fabric of the headframe for reuse as possible.

They also repaired and installed timbering, concreted foundations and reassembled the structure to its historic design so a headframe could tower on the Troon skyline "proudly" for the first time in 92 years, KEM said.

The headframe was originally built at Geevor in west Cornwall and erected at Cligga Head, near St Agnes, in 1962.

It was later moved to Nangiles in the Wheal Jane area near Chacewater, then to Wheal Concord near Blackwater in 1980.

The site was later taken over by Cornish Firewood, and owner Jason Thomas and his family offered the the headframe on long-term loan to KEM.

KEM's chair of trustees John McDonnell said the loan "helps us to highlight the relationship between mining underground and the winding mechanism and ore processing in the mill, which our museum so aptly demonstrates".

He added the museum was on the look out for more volunteers for a variety of roles.

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How smaller music festivals keep the show on the road

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1ky12zezr9o, today

Music festivals have been under threat for years, with dozens calling it a day and many others seemingly just about hanging on for dear life.

The trend shows no sign of ending. Red Rooster, which was held for more than 10 years near the Norfolk/Suffolk border, called in the liquidators earlier this year.

Kernowfornia Festival, which was due to take place in Cornwall in September, has been cancelled after just a year, blaming "recent financial developments". Kernowfornia was the successor to Making Waves, which itself pulled the plug back in 2018 because of debts.

But the picture is not just doom and gloom. Among the bad news are success stories, with some independent festivals thriving.

Nene Valley Rock Festival will be held at Grimsthorpe Castle, near Bourne, Lincolnshire, in September, with FM and Focus two of the headliners.

"We limit our tickets to 1,000 a day," says director Tony Castle.

"We've all seen pictures of Glastonbury where most of the crowd might as well have stayed at home and watched it on TV because they are only watching it on a big screen. Limiting our tickets is a bit of a risk because of finances, but we want to provide a boutique, intimate experience.

"Our success is based on providing our customers with what they actually want as opposed to being a large organisation that is in it for money. We are non-profit making and none of us draws a penny. That allows us to plough every penny we get back into the festival itself."

Things such as providing decent loos with an on-site cleaning team have proven popular, Castle says, as have the free shower facilities. Meanwhile, feedback from the first years prompted the organisers to introduce glamping tents, including some that come with real beds.

It has all helped create "a hardcore of supporters" who will buy tickets before the first bands are announced.

"We have their trust that we'll put on enough bands that they want to see," says Castle, who adds that a cut in VAT for independent festivals would help.

Another festival that is relatively new on the scene is Maid of Stone in Kent, which takes place next weekend for the fourth time.

The 5,000-capacity jamboree in Maidstone – which this year will feature the likes of Saxon and Uriah Heep – is on the site of the former Ramblin' Man Fair, which went bust and never restarted after lockdown.

Ramblin' Man had a bigger capacity and attracted bigger acts – Whitesnake and ZZ Top were among its headliners – but it was always going to be tricky keeping it alive without the tens or even hundreds of thousands of attendees that the likes of Glastonbury, Reading and Download pull in.

"Festivals are struggling, there's no denying it," says Maid of Stone's Chris Wright.

"The UK alone has lost over 100 since 2024, and I expect the impending recession and fuel shortage issues will add to that this summer."

Wright adds: "Standing as an independent is hard in any industry, but when you're in a niche industry a few companies have way too much say and control, and it's difficult to navigate around that."

It means "smart business decisions" are crucial.

"As a company, we have had 10 years of creating small community type events and reinvesting any money made back into the company," he says.

"This has allowed us to purchase and own a fair amount of equipment and infrastructure. This helps massively, as the cost of that equipment has doubled in recent years, and it gives us an advantage over someone, say, who is starting out on a year-one show."

John Rostron, chief executive of the Association of Independent Festivals, says there have been 30 cancellations or postponements so far this year but about the same number of events have started up.

"The good news is that many independent festivals are thriving, having had their strongest sales in a long time (for some, ever)," he says.

"There has been a record number of sell-outs and [festivals] selling out early, driven by factors such as how more easily affordable it is to buy a festival ticket with a payment plan.

"But the emerging narrative this year is how tough it is for those independent festivals financially. Margins remain tight, and the biggest challenge is cashflow – so even sold-out festivals are struggling to find the money to get their gates open."

Artists and their management don't always help, Rostron says.

"Topline talent is charging up to double what they were in previous years, and agents are trying to push for payments earlier without good reason.

"More established festivals are able to hold their ground and are able to split payments… but some agents are pushing independents, particularly newer events, for 100% upfront fees, which is crippling promoters who buckle to those unnecessary demands."

A bit of help from the taxman would also help, he says.

"The external intervention we need is from government in the shape of grassroots music festival tax relief. Festivals eat and drink risk, but tax relief mitigates some of that risk."

Karen Johnson is the spokeswoman for Rock N Roll Circus, which will be held in Norwich and Sheffield next month with James, The Streets and Richard Ashcroft among the bill-toppers.

She says there has been "a creeping dominance" of the larger festival promoters, and the increase in large arena shows for big-name artists has also taken up a greater share of people's spending power.

So what can independent festivals do to help keep the show on the road?

Rock N Roll Circus, as its name suggests, mixes the traditional elements of a music festival with the thrills of high-wire and fire displays.

Johnson says: "Offering value for money seems to be a thing this year, providing choices – day festivals in parks, for example, where the costs of travel and camping are less and where audiences can cherry-pick the artists/genres they like best but still have a festival-style experience."

None of this is to lay the blame at those festivals that have had to call it a day. It is a tough environment, and when a venture fails the biggest losers are often the people behind it, who sometimes lose millions of pounds.

It no doubt keeps the brains behind many of these events awake at night as they work tirelessly to thrive – or, as Nene Valley's Castle says, to "just survive".

'David Bowie stayed in our house in Hull'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crm09xvv0mro, today

"How much?" gasps John Cambridge as David Bowie tells him the cost of getting his car serviced in London.

It is 1970 and Cambridge, Bowie's drummer with The Hype in the early days of his career, has persuaded the fledgling rock star to drive up to Hull to get a cheaper MOT on his Rover 100.

Cambridge even persuades his parents to put Bowie up at their home in Brisbane Street – a working-class area near the city centre.

"He was going to get it serviced for a ridiculous amount of money. I said in Hull you can buy a car for that," he recalls.

Cambridge went on to help form Bowie's iconic band, The Spiders from Mars, which saw three more working-class lads emerge out of the humble streets of East Yorkshire into a world of daring glam-rock outfits and iconic music.

Artefacts from that time, including costumes and instruments, will be among those on display when a touring exhibition about Bowie's life and music – announced earlier this month – comes to Ferens Art Gallery early in 2028.

Almost six decades on, Cambridge still has fond memories of his time living with Bowie at Haddon Hall, a sprawling villa in Beckenham, south London, along with producer Tony Visconti.

Cambridge had been part of a band called Junior's Eyes that worked on Bowie's self-titled 1969 album (often known as Space Oddity).

"We had water pistols and all sorts at his house. That's how daft we were," he recalls.

When Bowie needed a new guitarist, Cambridge asked Mick Ronson, a council gardener with whom he had played in Hull band The Rats.

He says Ronson was painting lines on a rugby pitch on the Greatfield Estate when he convinced him to go to London to meet Bowie.

Trevor Bolder, a bassist from Driffield, also joined, while Cambridge was sacked and replaced by fellow Hull drummer Mick "Woody" Woodmansey.

While The Spiders from Mars were rocketing towards stardom, Cambridge was forced back down to earth and returned to his day job in plastering.

"When they took off and they were on Top of the Pops and going to America and Japan, I was thinking no one had even heard of me," he says.

"It did bother me I was still plastering on the building sites, having the radio on, hearing the songs and thinking here we go again, but what will be will be."

Today he is "just glad I was a little bit of a part of Bowie's history".

His memories include taking the star, along with Bowie's first wife Angie, around Hull pubs.

"In one pub we were walking out the door, a girl looked at him and said 'you look just like that David Bowie'.

"He just said, 'Yeah, a lot of people tell me that'."

One person who found herself caught up in the whirlwind of Bowie's Ziggy Stardust era was his hairdresser and wardrobe mistress Suzi Ronson – then going by her maiden name Fussey – who went on to marry Mick Ronson in 1977.

"David was really lucky he bumped into Mick, they blended perfectly on stage together," she recalls.

"It took off like a rocket ship. We just sold out all over."

She says Ronson, Bolder and Woodmansey were "boys from Hull who were just normal blokes, like bloke blokes".

Nevertheless, they embraced the flamboyant, daring and androgynous stage outfits "quite quickly".

"After three weeks you'd walk in the dressing room and someone would say 'where's my mascara? Have you got the blush David?'

"I think they realised girls still came after them."

She says Bowie once told Woodmansey: "It takes a real man to wear pink".

"I think Woody was a bit surprised, but he did it, he was good," she adds.

Cambridge acted as best man for Bowie when he married Angela Barnett in 1970.

He attended the star's 50th birthday and continued to receive Christmas cards from up until Bowie's death in 2016.

"David could be looking round Nasa and talking to a rocket scientist, he could talk on that level.

"Then he could go into a building site and see someone putting cement in a mixer and get on that level," he says.

Bowie broke up The Spiders from Mars in 1973. By then, Ronson was a highly respected musician in his own right and had co-produced and played on Lou Reed's influential album Transformer.

Suzi Ronson says: "I was heartbroken when they broke up, but my story didn't end there, it ended up with me and Mick and our fabulous time together."

Ronson went on to work with the likes of Bob Dylan and Morrissey while also recording several solo albums. He died of cancer in 1993 aged just 46.

Rupert Creed co-wrote Turn and Face the Strange, a stage show about Ronson and Bowie, with Garry Burnett.

"It was really the Spiders from Mars that cemented the sound of David Bowie," he says.

"Hull at the end of the line often gets overlooked and actually the whole element in David Bowie's success really shouldn't be underestimated."

The David Bowie exhibition, curated by the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum as part of a national tour, has brought together 100 highlights from Bowie's archive, many that have never been on public display. It will open at V&A Dundee on 4 November.

It will run at the Ferens, in Hull, from February to May 2028.

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Children's reading challenge takes musical theme

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c14yd4ne6l8o, today

A children's summer reading challenge with a musical theme has got under way at a Guernsey library.

The Guille-Allès Library in St Peter Port has challenged children to read six books during their summer holidays.

Every year, nearly 2,000 bookworms join in to earn stickers and rewards as they turn the pages, and every child who completes the challenge is awarded with a medal and a voucher for a free swim at Beau Sejour.

The library said there would be music-related books, activities and events throughout the summer to bring the theme Read to the Beat to life.

Children would be encouraged to explore the "powerful connection" between stories and song, it added.

The challenge was aimed at children aged three to 11, but everyone was welcome to take part, organisers said.

It runs until Saturday 12 September and families can sign up online.

Reading volunteers from children's charity Bright Beginnings' literacy programme, The Next Chapter, will talk to children about the books they have enjoyed, listen to them read and celebrate their progress.

Reading 'makes a difference'

The charity's literacy coordinator, Andrew Bichard, said the challenge was "a brilliant way to inspire children to read".

He added: "We see first-hand the difference that reading can make to a child's confidence and progress."

Jodie Hearn, the library's head of children and young people's services, said they were "pulling out all the stops" as 2026 was the National Year of Reading.

"The challenge is a fantastic way to encourage children to keep reading throughout the holidays, which is so important for both their learning and their wellbeing.

"Most importantly, it's a lot of fun."

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I'm dyslexic and avoided reading until BookTok got me hooked - now I run a book club

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg744p7ddyko, today

Romance is the key that finally unlocked the world of reading for Amelia Lord after she had avoided it throughout her life.

Love was all over her TikTok feed in the form of BookTok – the app's literary subcommunity - just as she was searching for a new hobby to take up after moving from her home in Newport to Gloucester.

The 28-year-old social media and events coordinator did not read at all before she was 21.

Although "intrigued", a dyslexia diagnosis made her think she couldn't do it.

"I kept seeing BookToks on my TikTok," she said. "I was seeing loads about it and it piqued my interest."

She made her first ever New Year's resolution, to read just one book, Colleen Hoover's It Ends With Us, which was released as a film starring Blake Lively in 2024.

"I didn't want to set the boundary too high," she laughs.

"I'm a dyslexic girl and I've always thought, can I do it? Then I read it and I was hooked straight away.

"I went into town two days later and started buying loads of romance books."

Amelia, now living in Cardiff with her partner and young daughter, has used books to build a very local community.

She said: "When I came back [to Wales] I didn't really have many friends around me anymore.

"And then I became a mum and hobbies which I had before I wasn't interested in or didn't have the time for anymore. So I feel like books were the only thing that was still a part of before I had my little girl."

She established Booked Up Book Club after her boss gave her space at the play café where she works in the suburb of Whitchurch.

There is a monthly meeting to discuss whichever book the group has chosen and another "scrap and yap" session, which focuses on book journalling and craft.

Amelia combines discussion of the books with quizzes and games, and events such as book bedazzling.

"I was so nervous when I launched the tickets," she admits.

"I thought 'what if nobody comes to this'? But it's going well."

The club mainly focuses on different aspects of the romance genre – this month's pick is a cowboy romance, although she is open to other types of books such as thrillers.

"One of my friends had only ever read one book before book club. She started coming and now she reads all the time."

Romance - always a solid performer in the publishing world - has rocketed in popularity in recent years, with sales figures in 2024 reaching record levels in the Romance and Saga category, according to industry analysts NIQ.

It was women like Amelia who helped inspire another Cardiff reader to open the city's first bookshop dedicated solely to romance.

Unlike Amelia, Aimee Cummings has always loved books, with stories about love central to her enjoyment.

"I've been reading romance since I was old enough to borrow my mum's books when I probably shouldn't have been," she said wryly.

Her shop, Love Stories in Cardiff's characterful Castle Arcade, nestles among a group of other independent businesses.

Aimee, 31, was on a steady path to a career in academia when she had her "road to Damascus" moment.

After doing a degree, two masters and a PhD in psychology and social sciences, while applying for jobs in the field, she realised: "I don't really want to do this for the rest of my life."

An "off-hand" comment to her husband of "why don't I just open a bookshop?" prompted the response "let's do that".

During a trip to the US, she visited the New York outpost of The Ripped Bodice bookshop, which was originally set up in Los Angeles as the first bricks and mortar romance bookstore in the US.

Now she wondered if she could make it work in Cardiff.

"This is borne of passion rather than practicality I guess," she said.

Despite her love of romance, Aimee did question whether focusing on one genre would be the right move.

"It's all well and good saying 'this is something I love', but it's finding the market for it as well.

"But I am, first and foremost, a researcher, so I did the research into it. And romance has the highest portion of sales in the publishing industry, it's growing exponentially since Covid and it's taking over publishing."

She's not the first to think this could work.

In Edinburgh, Caden Armstrong, 26, a Los Angeles native who spent her teenage years visiting the original Ripped Bodice, studied publishing and worked in a bookstore but struggled to find romance books when she first moved to the UK.

She said: "One day I just researched it and found out there wasn't a single bricks and mortar one in the entire UK and thought, 'that's crazy. That needs to change'."

Partly financed by crowdfunding, she opened Book Lovers Bookstore and will celebrate its two-year anniversary next month.

Aimee came for a visit while planning her own venture to look for tips and advice, something Caden was "very excited" about.

At the time, Book Lovers was the only physical romance book shop in the UK.

In the time between their meeting and Love Stories opening, others have opened their doors.

Both Caden and Aimee aimed to create a space for people, particularly younger women, who are looking for a community to feel comfortable and supported in.

They both say online spaces like BookTok have made an enormous difference to how women now feel able to express their interest in romance.

Caden said: "A lot of people around my age or going on to their 30s as well who are going onto BookTok and saying 'you know what, I love reading this, and I don't want to feel shamed just because a) the books have a happy ending and b) there's some adult sexual content written by women in it'.

"I think romance has been shamed for a very long time and I think it's primarily because it's a genre that's been dominated by women writers talking about women's pleasure. That in and of itself is a very radical act, and a very powerful act."

Although romance is a defined genre, Aimee says it is still a broad church that . "means a lot of different things to different people".

"You think bodice rippers, contemporary things, fantasy. It covers a broad spectrum. So it's not maybe as niche as you think initially."

But how does she define a romance novel?

"If you were to take the love story out of the book, would it change it significantly? If it would, I'd say it is considered a romance."

The rise of romantasy – the blend of fantasy or science fiction with romance – has been well-documented, and bestselling authors such as Sarah J Maas and Rebecca Yarrow will certainly feature heavily in the shop, but Aimee also points to other growing areas.

"Sports romance has gone huge recently. Rachel Reid's Heated Rivalry [now a hit TV show] is absolutely incredible. The Off Campus series by Elle Kennedy.

"But for me, I really want part of the ethos of the business to champion inclusivity and community. Queer authors, black authors, smaller authors who you wouldn't see in Waterstones."

Caden concurs - describing Book Lovers Bookstore as a queer and disabled-owned business, she added: "Our entire ethos is creating a fun, creative and safe space for romance fiction but also for uplifting, diverse voices within romance fiction."

Caden thinks the nature of the genre helps bring people, especially women, together.

"I think a lot of the times we're told when we're adults that we can't enjoy things with this sense of childlike joy any more," she said.

"That kind of joy of enjoying life and connecting with people is a huge aspect of romance.

"That might be because for the longest time it has been a community really built by women, for women."

Cricketer secretly pens thriller before his death

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq819kepl8vo, today

The family of an amateur cricketer who died of cancer were stunned to find out he secretly penned a book during his final months.

Matt Murray, from Colchester, wrote the thriller while undergoing chemotherapy, and only told his relatives about it a fortnight before his death on 16 December.

The 30-year-old accountant, who captained the 2nd XI at Eight Ash Green Cricket Club, had asked for the profits to be donated to charity.

"It shows the sort of human he was," said his younger brother, Jamie, adding: "I'm particularly proud of him for doing it."

Murray was diagnosed with a wilms tumour - a form of kidney cancer - as a child and, despite getting the all clear, it reappeared in 2013.

Remarkably, he managed to continue playing cricket and achieved a first-class economics degree at Loughborough University.

His book, called A Transfer of Consciousness, follows a police officer who gets wrapped up in a shadowy medical world after being diagnosed with cancer.

"He got it edited without us knowing or anything like that, so it was a right old surprise," Jamie Murray said.

The younger sibling was tasked with getting the 164-page book published and spent hours overseeing this with his brother's best friend.

It finally got over the line in May and was unveiled during a memorial match at the cricket club in June.

"I think people are very quick to give excuses because they don't have time or don't have the ability, but look at him," Murray said.

"He was going through quite a hard life and dealt a pretty torrid time, but he still managed to do this, still managed to do the things he loved and didn't really let the disease define him."

The family hope it will raise vital funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust as a thank you for the support they have received.

Paying tribute to his brother, Murray added: "He was this person who always looked beyond the disease and always seemed very positive.

"He was certainly one of the best brothers you could ask for."

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The alt-pop rockers putting inclusivity centre stage

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c862x7j2y63o, today

It has been a busy few months for Renegade Zoo, a band formed through a creative arts project for young adults with learning disabilities in Londonderry.

A debut album showcasing their brand of alt-pop launched earlier this year, a summer performance at the Foyle Maritime Festival followed, before taking to the stage at this year's Stendhal Festival.

All students at Derry's Tuned In Project, the band describe themselves as a group of neurodivergent and physically diverse musicians.

Rapper Donna Marie Duddy, known as DM, says Renegade Zoo is "about not putting limits on ourselves".

She adds that is is about friendship and having the opportunity to write songs.

Before joining the band, songwriting was not something she had much chance to explore.

"The lyrics come much easier than the melodies," she says.

Philip 'Wally' Wallace is the Tuned In Project's music media teacher in Derry.

He says Renegade Zoo emerged from the project's wider work encouraging students to get involved in music.

"We realised we had a drummer and a few different players. Once we started meeting regularly, we realised we had the makings of a band."

He says being in a band has helped the young people grow in confidence and develop self-esteem.

"What we try to do is help the students find their voice through music and make sure they know that voice is being heard.

"Everyone in the band loves it, me included. It's hard work, but they put so much effort into the songwriting, recording and performing."

In March, Renegade Zoo launched their debut album, Eyes on the Road, at Derry's New Gate Arts and Culture Centre.

Singer and percussionist Sarah Jane Murray, who goes by SJ, said the album launch was one of the highlights of her time in the band.

"It was great to see everybody getting up dancing these songs that we created ourselves."

SJ also enjoys the songwriting process and says some songs emerge spontaneously during rehearsals.

"We'll sit together, come up with melodies and guitar riffs.

"Sometimes Wally or somebody else will bring in a guitar riff and we'll build a song around it."

For SJ, Renegade Zoo is about "confidence and creativity".

"There's times that I might sing a wrong note or it might be a bit dodgy here and there and I just know for a fact that it's just a process, that it is alright."

The band's album reflects the eclectic approach to songwriting that members say defines Renegade Zoo.

Their sound draws on a range of influences, including rock, pop, alt-country and hip hop.

"A lot of our songs aren't typical break-up songs or romance songs," explains singer Sorcha Friel.

"A Renegade Zoo song either has a great message or can just be a bit silly."

She says one of the tracks, Waggledance, was inspired by an unlikely source - a "random conversation about bees one day".

Performing at this year's Stendhal Festival has been a particular highlight of her time in the band.

"The bigger the crowd the better. I get more nervous with a more intimate crowd."

'More new songs, more just being ourselves'

After a busy early summer Renegade Zoo are back in the rehearsal room writing new material.

Plans are being formulated for the months ahead and the band's members have different ambitions for the future.

DM dreams of a UK tour, while SJ believes a tour of Northern Ireland may be a more realistic next step.

Sorcha's hopes are simpler still: "More new songs, more just being ourselves."

Public art event aims to bring community together

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crely0drxgeo, yesterday

A public art event is being held in Wolverhampton city centre with the aim of bringing communities together.

Smithgate Social will celebrate creativity and culture with murals being created throughout the day along with workshops, live music, craft activities and DJ sets.

It will be hosted around Market Square on 14 August, from 11:00 to 18:00 BST to help "give people a voice" in shaping the future of the Smithgate development, organisers say.

Developer ECF said the event was the "first opportunity to share the vision" of Smithgate with the public.

More than 1,000 new homes are planned for the 12-acre site, along with shops, bars, restaurants and a revamped public square.

Chris Burden, the city council's cabinet member for development, jobs and skills, described it as a "once in a generation" scheme.

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'Brilliant' mural of Bellingham and Rogers appears

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8r2zm03g4vo, yesterday

A mural of England stars Jude Bellingham and Morgan Rogers eating orange chips has appeared in Birmingham.

The artwork depicting the Black Country-born footballers tucking into the local delicacy, also called battered chips, has been put up on the side of the Classic Fryer chippy in Quinton.

It was created by Dudley artist Dion Kitson, who posted a video on his Instagram account on Friday, which showed him pasting it to the wall of the Hagley Road building.

"From the heart of the Black Country," he said on the post and in a subsequent one he described the artwork as "two star boys", adding that Classic Fryer were "great sports".

It came as the Three Lions prepare to take on the Norway in the quarter final of the World Cup, with the match due to kick off in Miami at 22:00 BST on Saturday.

Commenting on Kitson's Instagram page, people described the mural as "brilliant", with one saying: "Saw this yesterday and wondered who it was, great work."

Born in Stourbridge, Bellingham has been one of England's star players during the tournament, scoring two goals in 98 seconds as the team defeated Mexico in the round of 16.

He started off at Stourbridge Juniors as a child and went on to join Birmingham City's youth side before breaking into the first team.

The now 23-year-old then moved to German side Borussia Dortmund, where he played until he signed for Real Madrid in 2023.

Rogers, also 23, was born in Halesowen and attended Sandwell Academy, where he was part of the side that won the National Schools Cup in 2017.

He spent his youth career at West Bromwich Albion, making his professional debut for the first team in 2019.

Rogers signed for Manchester City later that year before loan spells at Lincoln City, Bournemouth and Blackpool.

He went to Middlesbrough in 2023 and spent seven months there before signing for Aston Villa, where he has since made 85 appearances and scored 21 goals.

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Jersey Post releases book written by children

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy0znl1760o, yesterday

Jersey Post has launched its first book - a collection of short stories written by children on the island.

Once Upon a Letter features more than 30 stories from Jersey Post's writing competition, held last autumn for children aged five to 11.

Each story had been written in the form of a letter and aimed to showcase the creativity of young Islanders, organisers said.

All proceeds from book sales would support the Friends of Jersey Oncology (FOJO), which works with the hospital oncology unit to support cancer patients and their families throughout their treatment journey, they added.

Mark Siviter, CEO of Jersey Post, said: "There is something incredibly special about receiving a handwritten letter.

"It can make us feel connected, transport us into another world, and leave a lasting impression in a way that digital messages often cannot.

"The creativity shown by Jersey's young writers has been truly inspiring, and we are delighted to showcase their stories in this beautiful collection."

The competition was launched to encourage children to rediscover the joy of letter writing in an increasingly digital world.

More than 300 children took part, with entries judged on creativity, plot and originality.

The standard of writing was so inspiring that Jersey Post decided to publish a selection of the stories in a special book for the community to enjoy, bosses said.

Local children's author Penny Byrne and Nicola Mackereth, education programme manager from Every Child Our Future, were among the competition judges, alongside representatives from Jersey Post.

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Calvin Harris homecoming show to be broadcast live on BBC

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgl3wgl434eo, yesterday

Calvin Harris's Scottish homecoming show at Hampden Park in Glasgow next month will be broadcast live on the BBC.

Harris will deliver a 20-year career-spanning set at Scotland's national stadium on Saturday 1 August, to go out on BBC One, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 1 and BBC Sounds.

The DJ and producer, from Dumfries, released his debut album I Created Disco in 2007, with later songs including One Kiss with Dua Lipa and We Found Love with Rihanna topping charts around the world.

He said: "Coming back to Scotland to headline two dates at Hampden Park is a huge moment for me."

He added: "I'm excited to play live in front of a home crowd and amazing to be partnering with the BBC and Sony Music Vision on the Saturday show."

BBC Music has covered Harris throughout his career, from early performances at Radio 1 in Ibiza through to seven appearances at Radio 1's Big Weekend, including Glasgow in 2014 and Coventry in 2022.

Jonathan Rothery, head of BBC Popular Music TV, said: "There are few artists who have shaped contemporary dance music quite like Calvin Harris.

"We are delighted to bring his landmark homecoming show from Glasgow to audiences right across the UK, giving millions of fans the chance to be part of what promises to be a truly special night."

Tom Mackay, president of Sony Music Vision, said: "Calvin Harris is one of the defining artists of dance music, and this performance captures a truly special moment in his career."

Calvin Harris: Live from Scotland forms part of the BBC's Summer of Music 2026.

Other highlights include coverage from UK festivals and live music events, documentaries celebrating Madonna, Wham! and David Bowie and performances from artists such as Charli XCX and Sam Smith.

In pictures: Glitz and sparkle at Henley Festival

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2xd3jyl2lo, yesterday

Bow ties and plenty of sparkle and glamour are out in force at the Henley Festival.

The five-day music and arts festival kicked off on the riverside in Henley-on-Thames on Wednesday, headlined by Boy George & Culture Club.

With heat health alerts in place, the festival has relaxed its black tie dress code - dinner jackets do not have to be worn.

Alex James' Britpop Classical are headlining on Saturday, with The Bootleg Beatles closing the festival on the Oxfordshire-Berkshire border on Sunday.

'A powerful piece of propaganda': The bloody 1770 image that fuelled the American Revolution

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260629-the-bloody-1770-image-that-fuelled-the-american-revolution, 11 days ago

How a gory depiction of the 1770 Boston Massacre by Paul Revere ignited fury against British rule, becoming arguably the most effective example of propaganda in US history.

On the evening of 5 March 1770, in Boston, Massachusetts, icy snow coated the ground, and a lone British sentry stood guarding the Custom House, his breath forming clouds of white mist in the freezing air. Stepping out of the darkness, a teenager began taunting him and pelting him with snow, soon joined by a growing crowd.

Warning: This article contains a graphic image that some readers may find upsetting.

When soldiers were called to the sentry's aid, the confrontation escalated. The crowd hurled oyster shells, coal and hunks of ice at the soldiers, until the disturbance took a devastating turn. The British opened fire, leaving three men killed and two mortally wounded.

In Britain, the event was known euphemistically as "the incident on King Street", but locally it was named "the Boston Massacre". It proved a major catalyst for American Independence, which marks its 250th anniversary on 4 July and is being commemorated by cultural institutions across the US.

Three weeks after the massacre, a copperplate engraving made by the prominent silversmith Paul Revere, appeared for sale in Boston newspapers. It was titled The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street, Boston on March 5, 1770, by a party of the 29th Regiment.

Its gory depiction of felled patriots streaming with blood being fired on by a line of smirking soldiers served to stoke anti-British sentiment and fan the flames of the rebellion.

One of 29 existing prints of the engraving resides at the Wichita Falls Museum of Art in Texas. The museum is marking the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence with the exhibition Printing the American Revolution, which explores the role print media played in American Independence.

"Revere's rendering of the Boston Massacre was a powerful piece of propaganda, especially in a world where literacy rates ranged across regions and populations," Mary Draper, co-curator of the exhibition and associate professor of History at Midwestern State University, tells the BBC. "By arranging the British soldiers in an orderly line and capturing the chaos of the unarmed colonists, he conveyed a clear message about who was at fault and who were the victims. It rallied colonists to resist British rule."

Hidden messages

The work also contains hidden messages about who is at fault: a "Butcher's Hall" sign hangs over the British soldiers, while a dog, a symbol of loyalty, is prominent among the colonists. "This image is obviously intended to incite in the viewer outrage at what is happening because it's showing defenceless citizens being gunned down by soldiers," Constance McPhee, co-curator of Revolution! at The Met Fifth Avenue, New York, tells the BBC.

The engraving is a highlight of the show, which unites artworks that provide insights into the origins of the American Revolution and the ensuing events. The image implied that the British were no longer "a friendly, paternal force" but an "oppressive force", she says. "It starts changing people's minds."

For those who could read, Revere's impassioned inscription beneath the image hammers home the brutality of the British, who are described as "fierce barbarians", acting with "murd'rous Rancour". And it urges patriots to "appease The plaintive Ghosts of Victims" who are listed beneath the text. As the historian Steven L Danver notes in a 2022 essay on the engraving, the work "played a pivotal role in shaping colonial attitudes towards British rule" and "succeeded in uniting colonists under a common cause and fostering a sense of urgency for independence".

Crucial timing

The timing of the engraving was crucial. Tensions were running high among American colonials, embittered by a growing British military presence, eroded civil liberties, and a series of unelected taxation policies that had Americans plugging the British national debt. This incident outside Custom House, the very symbol of unfair taxation, was too good an opportunity to miss.

Revere was a member of the patriot resistance group The Sons of Liberty. He was later hailed a national hero for his "midnight ride" of 1775, where he helped defeat the British army by riding ahead to warn patriots of their advance - one of several riders to do so. He seized on the Boston massacre to galvanise support for the group's mission, capitalising on the heightened emotion. Plagiarising a sketch of the event made by Henry Pelham, Revere rushed his engraving to market. He neither credited nor compensated Pelham, who sent him a bitter letter deploring his "dishonourable actions".

'It whipped up fury'

Part of the artwork's impact stemmed from its rarity. "It's one of the few prints by an American printmaker," says McPhee, and its wide and speedy distribution, she adds, "indicated how important people felt it was". During that era, she says, "there's no other work where so many copies were created". As the engraving spread news of the massacre, it whipped up fury.

Broadsides of it were displayed in shops and taverns or sold as prints to raise money for the Sons of Liberty, whose numbers swelled as this once-underground group became a standard bearer for the patriot cause. Meanwhile, plagiarised versions of the engraving circulated, such as Jonathan Mulliken's, giving Revere a taste of his own medicine but echoing his call to action.

Revere's engraving also became the frontispiece for the 1770 pamphlet A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston. The propaganda travelled thousands of miles when the pamphlet, and versions of the engraving, were printed in London. The horror and injustice of the Boston massacre now confronted the British people on their home soil.

'The fervour of our zeal'

With its aim to hammer home a strong message, the image is full of exaggerations and falsehoods. It sets the event in daylight and omits any evidence of patriot aggression. Even the snow that was hurled at the soldiers in provocation has melted without trace. Most importantly, as witnesses would later testify in court, it incorrectly depicts the British as initiating the conflict, with Captain Thomas Preston (on the right) giving the command to fire on a powerless crowd – something he denied and was later acquitted of.

The word "fire" was heard, reported some, but from the mouth of patriots, daring the soldiers to shoot. In his opening statement, the defence attorney Josiah Quincy appeared to caution the jury on the engraving's power to influence and mislead. "The prints exhibited in our houses have added wings to fancy," he declared. "And in the fervour of our zeal, reason is in hazard of being lost."

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The engraving's propaganda lingered in the public consciousness long after its creation. When, on the massacre's first anniversary, Revere incorporated it into a giant illuminated display in the windows of his home, thousands of spectators flocked to see it. A century later, portrayals of the event by artists such as W L Champney and Alonzo Chappel made factual adjustments but kept the main narrative alive.

According to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, "Paul Revere's historic engraving… was probably the most effective piece of war propaganda in American history." It is certainly one of the most recognisable images of the American Revolution, and its effect is still felt today. "Despite its small size, the piece still evokes emotions among viewers," says Draper.

"Part of its power lies in its continued relevance. Each generation can interpret this piece in ways that reflect their own ideas about authority, violence and protest." It's also "a striking reminder", she says, "that the past is just as contested as the present."

Revolution! is at The Met Fifth Avenue, New York until 7 September 2026.

Printing the American Revolution is at the Wichita Falls Museum of Art until 22 August 2026.

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Major theatre revamp approved despite concerns

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq51ne4qyyeo, today

A theatre is to be refurbished and the size of its bar area doubled despite neighbours raising concerns it could cause "disruptive noise" in the area.

Norwich City councillors approved the changes to the Norwich Theatre Playhouse in St George's Street.

The 300-seat fringe venue opened in 1995 and has had actors including Sir Ian McKellen and Timothy West perform on its stage.

Councillors approved the scheme at a meeting on Thursday, but there was concern that a piece of art known as the Ceilingopolis - a cityscape made out of cardboard attached to the ceiling - could be lost in the redevelopment.

The refurbishment project will extend the playhouse's existing bar area by turning it into a two-storey building and the theatre, front and back of house areas will also be refurbished.

Ahead of the decision on Thursday, planning agents for Norwich Theatre said the plans represented an "evolution of a much-loved cultural venue".

Stephen Wright, the theatre's commercial director and chief operations officer, previously told the BBC the theatre had become "tired" and was in need of some "TLC".

Neighbours living in Dukes Palace Wharf wrote to the council to complain once the plans emerged. One objector said noise levels were currently modest but said future disturbance was "our greatest anxiety".

The Broads Authority also said it was concerned about plans to have digital signage on the front of the building.

Matters such as noise and digital signage would be further decided through the licensing process, the council said.

Councillors ultimately were supportive of the scheme and voted to approve it, but some raised concerns.

Tammy Searle, a Green Party councillor, said they were "very excited" about the project but questioned what would happen to the ceiling artwork. Planning officers said they were unable to answer.

But another councillor noted previous refurbishment work did not result in the loss of the artwork Ceilingopolis.

Construction could start in 2028 but the theatre hopes to stage shows while work takes place.

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New theatre plans winter season before transformation

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ced4jn6z92po, today

The theatre company behind a project to create a new venue in a 17th Century barn plans to temporarily perform in the space before it is converted.

OVO has permission to turn the derelict Grade II listed St Germain's Barn in St Albans, Hertfordshire, which dates back to1649, into a cultural hub with a new repertory company to encourage young and emerging talent.

The project is supported by British actors Ralph Fiennes, Dame Joanna Lumley, Brian Cox and Zoe Wanamaker, who the company said had been "very supportive".

Adam Nichols, the company's artistic director, said: "We're hoping to open in October and programme a season over the winter before we do any of the major work... I think there will be a certain interest [and] intrigue in coming into the building before it's been refurbished."

The Hertfordshire venue, which sits near Verulamium Park, will then close before reopening fully converted, hopefully later in 2027, he said.

It will include a cafe and bar next door to the main venue, above which will be bedrooms to house actors during their contracts.

"Visually it's probably not going to be that different," Nichols said, "we're going to keep all of the lovely features and exposed wood so when people come in for the first time before we do the work, they will get the full experience in terms of what it's going to look and feel like."

The autumn productions have still to be finalised but Nichols said the output would be "aligned with what we've always done which is reimagined classics done in innovative ways".

The company currently uses the studio theatre in the Maltings Arts Theatre and has an annual summer season at the Roman Theatre in Verulamium, where this year it has assembled a repertory company.

This is due to be replicated in the new venue as the project will be based on the "rep" theatre model, which aims to bring long-term employment to theatre creatives with a year-round programme.

Nichols, who worked in youth and education before turning to theatre full-time, said the current structure of the theatre industry makes it "really difficult for people from less well-off backgrounds to build a career".

"The industry is very unpredictable with very short-term contracts," he said, "if you don't have the means, it's very difficult and that has led to a real decline in the diversity of the kind of people who are able to work in the industry."

Nichols said the group wanted to create a model where performers had much longer-term contracts than usual, would be housed and essentially given an apprenticeship and "the opportunity to really hone their craft".

"Even people who have been to drama school often struggle to actually practice because jobs are few and far between," he said, "so being employed here for a year, being in 10 productions and working alongside other more experienced actors, we think is really important and really needed."

Nichols added there was also a place for a "high quality producing theatre" in the area as most local professional venues bring in productions as opposed to creating shows.

"Creating work here will have a strong local flavour both in terms of people you see on the stage and behind the scenes, and will also bring in people from other parts of the country - we think that's going to be exciting and beneficial."

The project patrons - Fiennes, Lumley, Cox and Wanamaker - were recruited by OVO chairman and former actor, Kiffer Weisselberg, who said their involvement had shown people they were "serious" about the project.

"Many I had not seen for years," Weisselberg said, "but when I contacted them to say what we were doing they immediately said 'yes'.

"They've been very supportive and I think there's no doubt that having those names has made everyone sit up."

As such, nearly £1m of the £1.2m needed for the project has already been raised with a third of the figure coming from mainly local investors.

About another third of the funding is from the government's Community Ownership Fund with another from the Architectural Heritage Fund which specialises in helping to bring disused buildings back to life.

But Nichols said they planned to keep the renovation simple.

"We know that the productions we produce will animate the space, it will be comfortable and beautiful but it doesn't need all the bells and whistles," he said.

Weisselberg added: "Very often less is more in creative terms and audiences are very happy to use their imagination.

"The barn has great potential in terms of development, [but to start with] we just need to do the bare minimum, get people in and get people excited about what we're doing."

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'It's 50C in the polytunnel' - workers tackle the heat

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy5vdvlq1z9o, yesterday

Workers in kitchens, farms and other hot environments across the Channel Islands and South West have adapted their routines during a period of record-breaking temperatures.

Guernsey had its warmest June since records began in 1843, according to Guernsey Met, with 25 June becoming the island's hottest day on record at 36.4C (97.5F).

Plymouth in Devon recorded its fifth hottest day in a century at 31.5C (88.7F) during this week's heatwave and Bude in Cornwall saw a high of 31C (87.8) .

There is no legal maximum working temperature in the UK, Guernsey or Jersey, although guidance says employers should manage risks and improve comfort where possible, with ventilation, cold drinks and breaks.

Excavation operator Adrian Riley from Guernsey Electricity works outside operating diggers fixing network services.

"You just have to get on with it as if it is any other day," he said.

"We look after each other a lot out here, water and hydration but sometimes it's too hot," Riley added.

"Nobody is a hero in this heat."

Guernsey Electricity's health and safety lead, John Tostevin, said: "People pay money to go to a sauna but these are the temperatures we're dealing with here when working with the engines, and the worst thing for us is we have to wear black overalls to protect ourselves.

"We have to manage the heat, even if it's really hot, taking half a day off work because the sun is out just isn't an option for us.

"If there's a power cut our employees have to work."

Tostevin said they give employees extra rest and have lots of water on site.

"We are now coming up with new ideas to allow us to work safely that we haven't had to think about before because we cannot work in the sun."

'50C in the polytunnel'

In Jersey, Ollie Griggs, from Lomah Farm where they grow vegetables and flowers, said the lack of rain between heatwaves had made conditions harder for crops and staff working in polytunnels.

"At the moment it's 42C (107.6F). We did hit the maximum in the last heatwave, which was 50C (122.0F)," he said.

Griggs said the farm had been starting earlier and finishing earlier on the hottest days, while chickens were being given shade and cool water every two to four hours.

Paul Belhomme has been at Jersey Post for more than 30 years starting as a postman and working his way up to director of operations.

"In all the years I have been here, I would say that I have not had hot conditions for as long a period as what we're seeing now," he said.

"Records have been broken, so it's definitely climate change we're seeing and we're actually predicting this to happen more and more, which is why we've got to be prepared for this."

Belhomme added postal workers are beginning to move their start times earlier, "which has made the staff happy and it means we can keep them out of extreme hot conditions later in the afternoon or from lunchtime".

At the Rocquettes Hotel in Guernsey, pastry chef Lornah Ongechi said staff were able to keep working because management provided drinks and the kitchen doors were kept open.

"We are really hydrated in terms of water," she said.

Ongechi said chefs still had to adapt in the heat, adding: "If you were used to wearing a heavy jacket, like me, today I'm wearing a long jacket but it's still hot."

At Anni's Hideaway, Moores Hotel in Guernsey, chef Freddie Pereira, said working over hot pans in summer was "part of the job but can still be difficult".

"I just have water with ice and some juice, take some fresh air," he said, when asked how he cooled down.

"Sometimes it's too much, but we still have to do it," he added.

In Jersey, A&A Scaffolding Solutions Ltd managing director Alex Wareham said it was hard managing a busy schedule and heavy deadlines during the heatwave, but they have no choice but to carry on.

Mr Wareham said: "We have set a few rules, allowing staff too start early and then finish early if they want to.

"As much as we'd like to say to our workers, 'let's go home for a week', we just can't afford to do that."

Architectural Ironworks' blacksmith and fabricator in Jersey, Joseph Evans spends his job welding, forging and making gates and railings.

Evans said during a heatwave "its like being in a sauna most of the time, it gets pretty warm".

"We have one fan at the moment, we just sweat it out and wait till the end of the day, or have a few minutes break and carry on."

'Hiding water on set'

Cornish theatre company Ha Hum Ha are touring their period drama the Scarlet Pimpernel which sees the cast donning wigs, heavy skirts and frock coats.

Producer and actor Ben Kernow who plays multiple roles in the show said: "We can't do much to the costumes, without going on naked, essentially.

"We're taking things a little bit slower (with fight sequences) at half speed if it's a very hot evening."

He added: "We hide water around the sets in places where people might not spot it."

"The main thing is keeping hydrated so that we keep our energy levels up, and we're not kind of running into a burnout zone."

He said most of the costumes are "quite breathable" as they are made from cotton and linen, apart from the heavier coats.

"The show is naturally fast-paced and multi-role so we're changing out of costumes fairly quickly anyway, so we get moments of respite through that."

Kernow said costume changes are challenging in the heat "because you might be a bit sweaty and a little bit bigger than you would be usually."

The team at Amary Farm at Lincombe near Lee Bay in north Devon were also working round the weather and said temperatures peaked at 52C (125F) in the polytunnel.

Will Davis said: "We're having to shift the work from being able to do it in the day to early mornings and late evenings."

He said they are picking produce at 05:00 and keeping it in fridges, "packing it later in the day" ready for the veg boxes they deliver each week.

He said he was picking basil at 08:00 and "it's wilting as you're going".

"So you're really having to change the day and how you approach the day to be able to deal with the heat."

The Hay Wain arrives in Suffolk for first time in history

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c992z0j4d1ko, yesterday

For the first time ever, John Constable's Hay Wain painting has arrived in Suffolk to mark the 250th anniversary of the artist's birth.

The oil painting created in 1821 has been exhibited at Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich, on loan to Colchester and Ipswich Museums from the National Gallery in London.

The famous work depicts a rural scene near the River Stour in Flatford, but it was actually painted in Constable's London studio.

It is on display until October and exhibition curator Emma Roodhouse said she had a "mini cry" when the painting was finally placed on the wall.

Constable was born in 1776 in East Bergholt and pursued his passion for art in 1799.

During his career, he produced many paintings of the Suffolk countryside and around the River Stour, which helped give the area the name Constable Country.

Despite his many works, he struggled with recognition and sold very few pieces due to his scenic paintings not being considered fashionable at the time.

He died in 1837 in London aged 60.

The Hay Wain sits on a 6ft-wide canvas and depicts a scene at Flatford with a horse and cart in the river and Willy Lott's Cottage on the bank.

Roodhouse said the exhibition had been years in the planning.

"When the anniversary loomed on the horizon to celebrate 250 years of John Constable's birth, I thought it was only right to be able to put exhibitions and events together," she said.

The Hay Wain exhibition is the second of three to celebrate the artist.

The first ran from March to June and introduced visitors to the people who inspired and supported him.

The third, after this current one with The Hay Wain, runs from October to February and looks at the artist's relevance today.

But Roodhouse said people had been "amazed" by the fact The Hay Wain had not been in Suffolk before.

"I did have a mini cry after it was safely on the wall out of relief and joy," she continued.

"The team that helped us install it were really overjoyed.

"I think it just brings this exhibition together with the sort of earlier pictures that show how Constable progressed as an artist.

"[It was] really radical painting outdoor scenes that were fresh to a lot of people and being able to bring it here to Suffolk is a real once in a lifetime [experience]."

Carole Jones, a Labour councillor in charge of museums at Ipswich Borough Council, said the "magic" of the exhibition was the very fact The Hay Wain had not been in Suffolk before.

"When I walked through the door and saw, at the end of the gallery, The Hay Wain there and the rest of this wonderful exhibition, I was thrilled," she said.

She added it was important to fund things like this for "people to have pride in the place they live in".

She hoped people from far and wide would visit to see Constable's work.

Peter Harrap is an artist and the curatorial advisor for the exhibition.

"I love the way that you can just learn from him, interact and just have this personal encounter in the way that you can move through the landscape in exactly the same way," he said of Constable.

"So it becomes a handshake across time."

Adwoa, 11, and Ella, 10, are both in year six at St Margeret's Primary School in Ipswich and were given a preview of the painting on Friday.

"I think it's amazing because it has so many details and it must have taken a lot of hard work to make it that big and remember every detail of it to paint it all," Adwoa said.

"It's very inspirational... I haven't seen a famous picture in real life before.

"You see it online on your phone, but if you see it in real life, it's more amazing than online."

Ella added: "Looking at all these pieces of art makes me more inspired to do more creative paintings like this at home.

"It's really fascinating to see how detailed it is in person."

Millie, 11, and Benny, 11, from the same school also saw the painting.

"I thought it was really interesting because just the fact that it got so popular over the years is really fascinating," Benny said.

He added: "It would have been really cool for him to see that it got famous.

"I think he would actually be really proud of himself and I think his family should be proud of him as well."

Meanwhile, Millie said: "It's really fascinating and it's really detailed.

"I've seen a small painting of it, but I've never seen it anywhere else."

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Small hurdles left in clubbing mural plan, say DJs

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0rye9qyl85o, 2 days ago

Two former DJs who aim to create a mural honouring a city's clubbing heritage say they only have "small hurdles" to overcome after raising the money they need for the project.

Phil Johnson and Bob Leigh announced their plans to install a 5m (16ft) by 25m (82ft) artwork in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, in January.

Their aim was to pay tribute to the city's venues and its DJs, with the mural potentially featuring a timeline running from the 1960s to the present day.

The pair confirmed they have since raised the £11,000 needed and have chosen an artist, as well as a location.

"It will bring a lot of people into town to come and see it, we just need to get over these small hurdles we've got at the minute," Leigh told BBC Radio Stoke.

He said one of the main issue was the fact Hanley town centre was a conservation area, meaning planning permission would be more difficult to get.

The duo said they had enlisted artist Tom Edwards, who has designed other murals in the city, and the artwork would be installed at the Victoria Lounge bar.

On the support from the public, Johnson said: "It's been incredible. We've got 600 members on the Facebook group and they all want to nominate their favourite DJs and favourite clubs.

"It's going to be hard to accommodate them all, it'll be impossible. Everyone would be the size of a postage stamp."

Well-known Stoke-on-Trent DJs include artists like MC Ragga, who was instrumental in the early days of rave back in the late 80s and was a regular in clubs like Entropy in Longton.

'Everyone is waiting'

The city was also home to The Place – believed to be the UK's first discotheque – which opened in Hanley in 1963.

Other notable venues included Shelleys Lazerdome, Club Kinetic, The Antelope and Valentino's.

Leigh said an independent committee would vote on which clubs and DJs featured on the mural, adding that choosing the musicians was "where it gets tricky".

"Everybody is waiting for it," he added. "I think on the day it is finished we might have a party across the road."

Last year, Leigh and Johnson put up a series of unofficial blue plaques marking where former venues once stood and hosted tours to visit them.

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Artist recreates city's past to help discover family history

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8r5ll2ngno, 2 days ago

A Coventry artist has been retracing the footsteps of his great, great-uncle, recreating scenes of the city first captured more than a century ago.

Christopher Sidwell's project, After Bunney, combines family history, local heritage and contemporary art.

For his book he revisited locations painted by his relative, Sydney Bunney, comparing the city of today with the one his ancestor knew.

Using Bunney's watercolours and sketches as a historical blueprint, Sidwell returned to the exact locations to produce his own interpretations.

The artworks reveal how some parts of Coventry have changed, while others have remained "frozen in time," said the artist.

"This project began as research into my family tree but ended as a book about my mysterious great, great-uncle, the artist Sydney John Bunney," Sidwell said.

His grandmother, Carrie Bunney, was the artist's niece but the family knew little about him.

"I couldn't understand why there wasn't even a photograph," he said.

"You know how you're drawn to mysteries? Well, this was a mystery in my own family.

"It started as a hunt for some photographs because our family didn't have any, but then it grew into the book."

Although Bunney produced hundreds of miniature watercolours of the city, he was not recognised as an artist in his lifetime.

Born in 1877, he studied at the Coventry School of Art, then became secretary of the art school's sketch club.

He only showed his art in public twice, Sidwell explained, working as a clerk at ball bearing factory Auto Machinery most his life, and only painting in his spare time.

A 1999 book produced by the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Sydney Bunney's Coventry: Impressions of a Graceful City, helped spark renewed interest in his work.

"His paintings don't actually come up for sale very often, but they are fetching huge sums," Sidwell said. "He is a popular artist."

"I'd always loved his artwork, but I wanted to find out something about the man.

"He was considered a late impressionist, although we don't actually agree with that assessment and during the course of the book come to other conclusions about what style he was."

The artist also managed to track down a photograph of Bunney and locate his grave "which was very, very exciting", he explained.

"We also found out that he had attempted at various times to make a living as an artist, but sadly failed," he said.

In 1964 the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum purchased a collection of more than 500 miniature watercolours of the city.

These included panoramic views, glimpses of streets, details of doorways and records of buildings.

For Sidwell, recreating the scenes also highlighted the scale of change in Coventry over the last century.

"Sadly, a lot of the views are actually lost to us now," he said.

"If the bombs of the Second World War didn't destroy a lot of the buildings, then the planners did during the redevelopment of the city centre."

Bunney spent his later life living in Albany Road, Earlsdon, with his wife Eliza and two children. He died, aged 51, in June 1928.

After Bunney by Christopher John Sidwell with Stephen John Mayo is published by Hutch Bucks and available from the author's website.

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Bayeux Tapestry arrives in UK for first time in 900 years under police guard

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly9r54e5r4o, 2 days ago

The Bayeux Tapestry has arrived in the UK, for the first time since it is believed to have been created here nearly 1,000 years ago.

At 02:50 BST, chaperoned from a secret location in northern France by a police guard, it was driven into a loading bay at the British Museum, which will put it on display in September.

The 70m-long 11th Century embroidery depicts in 58 scenes events leading up to the Battle of Hastings and Norman Conquest of England in 1066 - the moment that changed the country forever.

The heavy-looking crate, encased in an aluminium frame, was lowered out of the lorry in front of a select crowd including the French ambassador to the UK and the director of the British Museum.

Nick Cullinan, the director of the British Museum, told me: "We've just witnessed something rather extraordinary, which is the arrival of the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum but specifically it is returning to England for the first time in almost 1,000 years.

"It feels like a really remarkable thing not just to witness but to be part of, and we're so excited to share it with as many people as possible."

A big black crate being removed from a lorry in the dead of night may not sound that exciting but this is a historic moment - and BBC News was also there to witness it.

Millie Horton-Insch, project curator of British Museum Bayeux Tapestry exhibition, said: "It probably sounds a bit strange to be that excited at seeing a lorry reverse into a loading bay and a box removed, but when you consider the object within it, how old it was, how close to the events it depicts it was made, by people who lived through those events, it's really profound.

"I did well up a little bit when I saw it coming off the lorry so I imagine I'll probably be in floods of tears when I actually see it."

French President Emmanuel Macron said in the Times that the loan was "a gesture of trust, a tangible expression of a long-standing friendship and a sign of our shared desire to see France and the United Kingdom build their future together".

He earlier posted a photograph of an image of the Bayeux Tapestry which the British Museum had projected on to the white cliffs of Dover. On the image was "merci" (thank you).

But in France ever since the announcement, there has been some disquiet that a work of such fragility and historical importance was to go on loan more than 300 miles away. A French petition to stop it called it a "heritage crime".

Even artist David Hockney, before his death, said that he did not think it should come to the UK because moving it could put it in jeopardy. "Some things are too precious to take a risk with," he wrote.

Shock absorbers and practice runs - how it was moved

To ensure it travelled safely - and without damage - the folding stand, which the tapestry has been kept on since it was taken down from display in Bayeux last year, was put inside a crate, with temperature and humidity regulation. That crate was then placed into an outer cage, in which metal springs acted as shock absorbers to protect it from bumps in the road.

The work travelled across the Channel on the Eurotunnel before making its way to central London in the dead of night.

Cullinan told me: "If anybody had said on the other side, especially on the French side as the lenders, 'I think this is too risky to do', it wouldn't be arriving now. That's the reality. A museum would never do something that imperilled the objects in its care."

No damage is "the goal", he added. "That's what all the care has gone into trying to achieve and we feel very confident about that. And the thing to say too is much more fragile things travel all the time. We lend more fragile things."

Two practice journeys with a textile copy were previously made, to test the route and the crate. The point was to measure the vibrations and reduce any major impact or shock.

Peter Ricketts, the UK special envoy for the loan of the tapestry, said: "everything possible" had been done to avoid damage.

"No-one would want to bring the tapestry to the UK if they thought there was any damage or danger to this extraordinary object. I'm not worried, I'm relieved. It looks like all those meticulous arrangements for the transport are working very well."

He described the loan as "two old nations coming together to look at their shared history and that is very special".

The Bayeux Tapestry's epic story

The Bayeux Tapestry is not actually a tapestry at all: it is linen with embroidered pictures of the tussle between William, Duke of Normandy then Conqueror of England, and Harold II, King of England, stitched on in coloured woollen yarn.

An embroidery of immense significance - 58 scenes, 626 characters (but only six women), 202 horses - ships, swords and arrows (including one hitting the soldier believed to be Harold II - although there are questions about whether this was added later).

Horton-Insch said it was a "miracle" that the artwork had survived for more than 900 years. "Moths, mice, damp, mould, fire any number of things" could have wrecked it.

"It is just an extraordinary survival.

"It tells the story of one of the most consequential moments in English history, British history, in the most incredibly vivid way that just can't be captured in written sources."

The Bayeux Tapestry is an epic depiction of the end of Anglo-Saxon England.

The Norman Conquest changed everything, reshaping the country entirely. English lands were handed over to the Norman nobles. The Normans built hundreds of castles which secured their control and projected royal power.

English earls were replaced with Normans, as were senior members of the Church.

And thousands of French words that we still use today entered the English language - everything from law, parliament and justice to mutton, beef and pork.

The tapestry gives an account of the medieval period in Normandy and England like no other. It provides information about civil and military architecture, armour and seafaring in the Viking tradition, as well as precious details of everyday life.

Before 1066, the nation's cultural and political ties were to Scandinavia and the North Sea. After the Norman conquest, it became part of a Norman realm stretching across the English Channel. It is sometimes said to be the start of England's involvement in continental European politics.

The nine-month loan is backed by the French government in an agreement finalised between Macron and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer last year. The museum in Bayeux, Normandy, where it has been exhibited since 1983, is closed for renovation.

At the time the loan was announced, former chancellor George Osborne, chair of the British Museum Trustees, said: "Once in a generation there's a British Museum exhibition that eclipses all others. Think in previous ages of Tutankhamun and the Terracotta Warriors. The Bayeux Tapestry will be THE blockbuster show of our generation. I know it will capture the imagination of an entire nation."

In return, the British Museum is loaning treasures including from the Sutton Hoo hoard as well as the Lewis chess pieces, made from walrus ivory in the 12th Century.

The excitement about the tapestry going on display saw the British Museum sell a record 100,000 tickets on the first day of sales. The work will be displayed flat - a requirement of the loan. A mezzanine will allow visitors to see the work in its entirety as they walk into the gallery - for the first time in history.

But before that come weeks of painstaking examination of the work following its journey.

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Threatened snooker club backs bid to have site listed

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1ey1gxq6w2o, 2 days ago

A snooker club which has been threatened with closure after plans were unveiled to demolish its building is hoping plans to have the site listed will be approved.

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council (TWBC), which is the landlord of the Victoria Snooker Centre's building, is seeking to revamp the area and build a new cinema.

However, plans to demolish the snooker club's building as part of the regeneration could face a barrier if the site becomes protected with a listed status.

The council said its proposals recognised and respected the architecture and historic streetscape of the area, and that it had engaged with the stakeholder groups.

The emergency application for listing was submitted by The Royal Tunbridge Wells Civic Society to English Heritage.

The body says it is reviewing comments and writing a report to send to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, which will make a decision.

Graham Martin, who owns the club, says the Victorian building it is housed in on Camden Road has "the wow factor".

A campaign had been launched to save the club as Martin said it would not survive if it had to move from its current site, on two floors of the Former Friendly Societies Building, which was built in 1878.

Mr Martin added "We have all sorts of people come here for a game, including a couple of community groups.

"We don't charge, and we give them three tables on a Tuesday. Where will these vulnerable people go if we close?"

Alastair Tod from the Royal Tunbridge Wells Civic Society, has backed the site becoming a listed building.

"It was where the various voluntary organisations of the 19th century came together to form a place where they could meet," he said.

"There were more than 20 of them. They were self-help organisations of the Victorian type, in the days before national insurance, where the members of any particular trade supported one another if they were unemployed or sick."

Tod, who supports a new cinema being built in Tunbridge Wells, said the society believed the building to be "the only one of its type surviving".

"It was a very strong movement, particularly in the north and it's terrifically important that Tunbridge Wells has such a fine example," he added.

The council said it had applied for a certificate of immunity from listing and was awaiting a decision from the government.

It said its development would "deliver a new cinema, food and drink and leisure facilities which residents have told us they want to see in order to increase the vibrancy and evening economy of the town centre".

The local authority said it continued to "seek constructive discussions" regarding the future of the snooker club.

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Motherhood not all warm and fuzzy: Bollywood actor's play spotlights messier side

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c04yxnlkdxzo, 3 days ago

The birth of a baby is celebrated as a moment of joy. But motherhood is not always warm and fuzzy. It can also be messy and untidy.

That's what Bollywood actor Kalki Koechlin and well-known theatre director Sheena Khalid have tried to tackle in their new play Belly of the Beast.

Adapted from Kalki's 2021 book, The Elephant in the Womb, which she wrote just months after giving birth, the play takes an unflinching look at motherhood and the myriad emotions mothers go through.

It tells stories of five women at different stages of motherhood - from pregnancy and labour to raising young children as the new mums come to terms with bodily changes, and struggle though sleepless nights while attempting to deal with work demands.

Along the way, it also tackles darker aspects - abortions, miscarriages and postpartum depression.

In India, where marriage and motherhood are regarded as the ultimate goal and a sacred duty for most women, a play talking about the discomforts of a mother comes as a refreshing change.

"Women are rarely allowed to express the dark feelings - the difficulties they face, the hormonal changes they go through, the loss of identity or postpartum depression," Kalki told the BBC.

"The conversation in India is all about the gift of motherhood and how beautiful motherhood is and how blessed we are to be mothers. But that life-giving process is so transformational that there is a certain part of you that's also grieving and losing identity, that's losing who you were before," she said.

As a society, Kalki says, we take mothers for granted and raising children is a thankless job. "If we were to say how exhausting and mind-numbing it can be, then mothers might quit and then society would collapse. So, there is this tendency to walk on eggshells around these issues."

At its recent premier in Delhi, the cast and crew received a standing ovation once the curtains came down. Despite the grim issues it tackled, the two-hour-10-minute play was appreciated for its pace and humour.

"We are talking about some very heavy things such as miscarriages and there are moments where we're talking about personal experiences," says Khalid.

"We felt there needed to be a sense of relief and levity for the audience. So, we can ease in and out of it. Otherwise, it's a lot."

Her book, Kalki says, was born out of her personal experience of pregnancy and parenting and was written in the middle of the Covid lockdown.

"I was going through postpartum [depression]. We were quite isolated, I couldn't meet other mothers, there was no community around me. That was a tough time. But it was very cathartic for me to write the book and speak about the sort of psychic landscape that mothers go through post giving birth."

After the lockdown was lifted, Kalki said she "met mothers who have had vastly different experiences".

"Yet there was a certain universality that we all experienced. There are some challenges which every mother can relate to. And I wanted to capture that in this play," she said.

So, the play is the story of Kalki and the actors on stage, but it is also the story of a majority of Indian women for whom childcare is primarily their responsibility, all the heavy-lifting they are expected to do and how the endless hours they devote to rearing the young is taken for granted.

In a scene that a majority of mothers would see their lives reflected in shows a young couple discuss how their day went when the man returns from work. He's weary, but at least has a story to tell about his day.

And then he asks his wife how her day went. She opens her mouth to speak, and then mumbles: "I just looked after the baby."

According to the latest government data reported in the Times of India, childcare and housework keep around 69% women out of the labour force in Indian cities - for men, it's only 1%.

And mothers who choose to have careers have to work doubly hard, says Kalki.

"There's so much pressure today because we're told we're very lucky to live in this age where we can work and be mothers and we can have it all. But at the same time, there's this expectation to be some kind of a supermum. And we don't get slack on the domestic front. We have to be the CEOs of the house at all times," says Kalki.

Some of the pressure though, Kalki says, women put on themselves mostly because it's expected of them to be good mothers.

"Many times I'll be in the middle of a shoot and I'll be calling my daughter's nanny and organising her tiffin. I think it comes from this expectation to be the perfect mum.

"But I think allowing for the fathers or other family members to fill in that space is important. And we wanted to let women know that if we do that, everything isn't going to fall apart. It's okay to drop the ball and not feel like you are responsible for all of it."

The play's most powerful theme is miscarriage. In the world's most populous country, struggling to have children still carries a heavy social stigma.

And a woman who's lost a baby doesn't deal with just grief and trauma, but also shame and pity.

Shruti Vyas, who plays a young woman trying - and failing - to have a child says her part is based on her own experience. "I wanted to just put it out there that there is some pain that might not be visible from the outside, but that doesn't mean that you're not experiencing it."

When Shruti suffered a miscarriage, she said a reaction she often got was "but you're looking fine. you don't look like you have had a miscarriage".

"It's one of those common things that people say. I understand sometimes they say it because they're awkward and don't know what is the right thing to say. Also people don't know exactly what is the right time for grieving. And you yourself can't tell them until what point in time you will feel the pain.

"So, I wanted to tell the world without any blame, without any judgement, without any expectation that if someone is not looking fine, don't tell them you're fine. It's okay to not be fine as well."

It was a message that seemed to get through to the audiences in Delhi.

As Shruti's character goes from saying "hey don't worry, I'm okay, it's okay, you don't have to worry about it" to saying "actually, I'm not okay, and that should be okay, right?", many in the audience responded: "yes, it should be okay."

Crucible's £45m revamp to keep snooker in Sheffield

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm20rmvg2pyo, 3 days ago

Sheffield City Council is set to agree a new long-term contract with World Snooker Limited to ensure the city continues to host the sport for the next 15 years.

A report recommended proceeding with a new "staging agreement" with World Snooker, securing the world championships beyond 2027 when the current arrangements come to an end.

Plans to transform the Crucible Theatre will also take a significant step forward with the next phase of a landmark £45m project.

A study commissioned by the council concluded the Crucible capacity could be increased from its current 964 seats to around 1,500.

Earlier this year, the council, Sheffield Theatres and World Snooker announced an agreement in principle to keep the event in Sheffield until at least 2045, with the option to extend for an additional five years.

The council has now published a report setting out the next steps, including proposed contractual arrangements.

It would provide an initial 15-year term, with the option to extend for a further five years by mutual agreement, subject to the future redevelopment of the Crucible.

Sheffield City Council leader Fran Belbin said: "This sets out the formal arrangements needed to secure the Championship in Sheffield beyond 2027 and provide long-term certainty for the city, spectators, businesses and partners.

"The Championship has been part of Sheffield's story for almost 50 years. It brings visitors from around the world, supports local businesses and showcases our city to a global audience. We want future generations to continue enjoying those benefits."

The World Snooker Championship has been staged at the Crucible since 1977 and contributes around £6.5m annually to the local economy.

The council has also given an update on plans to renovate the Grade II listed theatre including improvements backstage.

Officers said they have a "credible route" to securing the £45m needed with contributions from public sector partners alongside private, philanthropic and strategic funding.

Tom Bird, chief executive of Sheffield Theatres, said: "It will allow for a more flexible auditorium while also increasing accessibility for our audiences, creatives, performers, and staff. It will also enable us to become significantly more environmentally sustainable.

"We continue to work closely with Sheffield City Council to ensure the Crucible is redeveloped in a way that is sympathetic to this much-loved building while also being innovative and future-facing."

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Musical hopeful inspired by mum returns to stage

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce957lk4rl3o, 3 days ago

A young woman who put her dreams of a career in the arts on hold following the death of her mum has won a place at the London School of Musical Theatre seven years on.

Lowri Anderson, from Woodseats in Sheffield, lost her mum Siân Davies just days after she had taken to the boards of Sheffield's Crucible Theatre in a leading role.

Siân, 51, died suddenly from liver failure in 2018 after a long battle with mental health problems and alcohol addiction.

"After losing my mum, I found it really difficult to reconnect with performing," Lowri said.

Musical theatre had been centre stage in her life since childhood after she joined a week-long course at a drama academy when she was 12.

"I got the bug. Every single decision I made was all about musical theatre," said Lowri, now 25.

It was around this time she also found out about her mum's struggles with alcohol.

Siân had worked as the artistic director of Brewhouse Arts Centre in Burton on Trent, and shared her enthusiasm for the stage with her daughter.

For Lowri, musical theatre provided an escape from home life, from social workers coming round every day, from interventions at school.

But after losing her mum her interest waned.

Instead of focusing on the stage she worked to support those struggling with addiction and homelessness in the criminal justice system.

"I really cared about this group of people and really valued what they thought and their opinion," she said.

Lowri explained her mum's struggles had led her to this line of work.

"I think she could have definitely done with a lot more support but she didn't really want the support because of the stigma surrounding it.

"I feel proud that I can talk about the issues that my mum had and how important it is to talk about it because people don't talk about addiction enough."

Despite building a successful career in Sheffield, she could not forget the bright lights of the West End that she had dreamed of since childhood.

"I just woke up one day and was like, I've tried all these different things, something is still missing.

"The second that I started dancing, I started doing singing lessons again, I was like, oh my god, where has this been?"

Dad Neil Anderson has welcomed seeing her returning to her old passion.

"There were times when I thought that part of her life had gone forever," he said.

"Seeing Lowri rediscover something she loved so much has been one of the greatest joys of my life."

In September Lowri will start intensive training at the London School of Musical Theatre.

Its graduates have gone on to star in West End shows including Wicked and Les Miserables.

She has taken the difficult decision to head south, sold her house and quit her job.

She said it would not be easy but she felt she would make her mum proud.

"I think she'd be absolutely thrilled and I think she'd be really pleased to see the path that I've taken."

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Mauritania: A rare glimpse at one of the world's least-visited nations

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260710-mauritania-a-rare-glimpse-at-one-of-the-worlds-least-visited-nations, today

Located almost entirely in the Sahara, Mauritania is home to centuries-old cities, desert oases and a coastal spectacle so vast you can see it from space.

In an age when it's increasingly easy to explore the furthest reaches of the world – from the tallest mountains to the most remote islands – there are still entire countries that few travellers ever see. One such place is Mauritania.

With approximately 90% of its land located within the Sahara Desert, Mauritania is one of the world's least-densely populated and least-visited nations. Because of a lack of tourism infrastructure and security concerns, fewer than 10,000 international travellers arrive each year in the sand-swept, sun-bleached country, compared to several million who visit neighbouring Algeria and Senegal. But Mauritania hasn't suffered a terrorist attack since 2011, and according to the Global Terrorism Index, the nation is less affected by terrorism than most European nations.

During a recent three-week solo journey, I used a mixture of public transportation and 4x4 hired pick-ups to crisscross the nation, and never once felt unsafe. Along the way, I discovered mythical desert oases, fabled cities that once flourished along trans-Saharan trade routes plied by camel caravans and a fishing culture along its Atlantic coast so rich you can see glimpses of it from space.

A sea of boats

After crossing the border from Western Sahara, my Mauritanian odyssey started in Nouadhibou, the country's second-largest city and its most important fishing port. Thanks to the Canary Current, which pulls deep, nutrient-rich waters up towards the surface along Mauritania's northern coast, huge concentrations of sardinella, mackerel, sabres and octopus thrive here. As such, thousands of fishing pirogues dock along the harbour, waiting for the right conditions to cast their nets. The concentration of boats is so vast that it even is visible from space.

A capital rising from the Sahara

"Welcome to Mauritania!" a man in a small black sedan said to me when I flagged down a taxi in Nouakchott after a seven-hour bus ride south from Nouadhibou. The man refused to accept payment for the ride and then clarified: "I'm not a taxi. I only picked you up because you're a foreigner and I wanted to know what you think of my country."

Roughly one-third of Mauritania's five million people live in its coastal capital, Nouakchott. Dynamic, noisy and vibrant, Nouakchott reminded me of many African capitals at first glance, but with one important exception: it seems to rise magically from the Sahara. Beyond the city centre, where modern government buildings and mosques line paved roads, most streets remain covered in sand, giving the 1.6-million-person capital the feel of an enormous, welcoming village.

Camel culture

A 30-minute taxi drive east from Nouakchott's modern sprawl, a more traditional side of the nation emerges. There are roughly two million camels in Mauritania, and residents have long relied on them for everything from meat and milk production to transport. Members of the Mauritanian military even ride them to patrol the border in remote desert areas.

The Beila dromedary camel market is the second largest in Africa and a popular day trip from Nouakchott. Here, hundreds of camels are exhibited and shown to potential buyers, with would-be purchasers paying upwards of $1,000 (£748) per animal.

A bus-camping odyssey

Starting in the 1970s, the remote regions in the far east of Mauritania were gradually connected to the new capital Nouakchott when construction started on the Route de l'Espoir (Road of Hope). By the early 1980s, the road had reached the city of Néma, roughly 1,100km into the desert, and while it now serves as the nation's main east-west artery, it still takes more than a day to reach Néma from Nouakchott.

Néma is the gateway to the historic caravan town of Oualata, which is part of a Unesco World Heritage site encompassing four other ancient Mauritanian cities. So from Nouakchott, I piled into a bus and headed east into the desert that regularly stopped so Muslim passengers could pray. Near midnight, we suddenly stopped in the middle of nowhere and the driver told us it was time to sleep. Instead of falling asleep on the bus, people laid their mats out in the Sahara and we slept under the Milky Way.

A striking desert outpost

When we finally arrived in Néma, I hired a seat in a shared 4x4 to reach Oualata. After the driver navigated through a maze of tracks in desert sand (and 51 hours after setting out from Nouakchott) I finally arrived in Oualata. Once there, I unexpectedly met the mayor, Sidaty Dieh, who told me that tourists once flocked to the city en route to Mali and Timbuktu, but since crossing the border is now dangerous, fewer than 30 international travellers now come to Oualata each year.

Oualata is one of the most striking places in the country, both for its historic importance and its geographical isolation. The town is famous for its red-earth architecture decorated with intricate geometric paintings made by local women. Sadly, there are not many economic opportunities for the new generations, and many leave for Nouakchott and other cities, leaving these stunning old houses partially abandoned. Some others rely on the informal economy, such as working as itinerant bread sellers with a wooden board that operates as a fully mobile storefront.

Ancient texts

In Oualata, ancient manuscripts from the trans-Saharan caravans survived, not because of institutions or formal libraries, but because families hid and preserved them across generations in their private homes. Many families still keep these documents, and after asking a few residents if they knew of any who still have them, they pointed me towards this family, which welcomed me into their living room to show me their ancient manuscripts.

A centuries-old desert city

Alongside Oualata, Chinguetti is another Unesco World Heritage site and one of Africa's most historic caravan cities. Yet, the easiest way to get there is from the capital, so after bumping back to Nouakchott from Oualata, I hired a seat in a 4x4 and climbed into the Adrar plateau and towards the Ebnou pass, where 720m (5,643ft) elevation and cooler temperatures awaited. After descending into the rocky desert again, I eventually saw the city rising from the sand.

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Founded in the 8th Century, Chinguetti rose to prominence during the 13th Century as a fortified trading centre for Saharan caravans transporting salt, gold and manuscripts. But after more than a millennium, Chinguetti is now threatened by the Sahara's advancing sea of dunes that engulf it. Houses are built from local stone and mud, causing the town to blend seamlessly into the desert landscape. Some abandoned houses are already half-buried by dunes.

An Islamic pillar

The minaret of the ancient mosque of Chinguetti is said to be the second oldest in continuous use in the Muslim world, and the town is often called the "seventh holiest city of Islam". Starting in the 13th Century, it became a major centre of Islamic scholarship, with pilgrims and scholars coming here to study. Today, non-Muslim visitors can only see the mosque from outside a walled enclosure, where this photograph was taken.

Ancient libraries

Chinguetti is home to several libraries that preserve ancient manuscripts and books on astronomy, geometry, medicine, poetry and Islamic law. Many of these centuries-old texts arrived via trans-Saharan caravans from North Africa, while others were authored by local scholars. According to local librarian Saif al-Islam, Chinguetti used to have many more libraries, but over the years, many families have left the city and taken their books with them.

In 2000, after a failed attempt to build a museum to preserve the most important documents, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) decided to restore the traditional libraries within Chinguetti's medieval ksar (fortified village), preserving the fragile texts right where they have been protected for centuries. Unlike Chinguetti's ancient mosque, these libraries are open to everyone. With so few international visitors, owners are often happy to open their doors to visitors for a small tip, and explain local history while showing you ancient scripts.

A desert oasis

After so much driving, I decided to rest, recover and eat dates in a desert oasis before leaving Mauritania. Within the nation's vast interior, oases offer a rare stroke of green amidst the nation's monotonous earthen colours. Famous for their clusters of palm trees, these oases sometimes grow in the innermost depths of canyons where they're shielded from the Sun's rays.

This is the case of the oasis of Terjit, located just 45km (28 miles) south of the regional capital Atar. In many ways, Terjit represents the beauty and resilience of life in the Sahara – and Mauritania in general. For centuries, even amidst some of Earth's most extreme conditions, travellers, scholars and wanderers have been lured to this land to share stories, ideas and discover a distant corner of this vast desert.

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Seven things you shouldn't do when eating in Italy

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260709-seven-things-you-shouldnt-do-when-eating-in-italy, today

From ordering a cappuccino after breakfast to sprinkling cheese on your fish, avoid these common traveller mistakes on your next Italian holiday.

It is a balmy night in Rome. I'm deep in a plate of pasta alla carbonara and my friends are choosing our next wine when a phrase in English cuts through the restaurant like the scratching of a record. A cappuccino, please. Our forks hover in mid-air and judgement ripples between us in an electric current. It's 22:30. Are they serious?

Every year, millions of travellers flock to Italy, many lured by its beloved cuisine. But while Italian food is found across the globe, few visitors fully understand the distinct food culture that governs meals here.

Italian food is actually quite simple. It's not highly spiced, and its dishes are flavoured by seasonal, local ingredients. Meals are never rushed and are considered one of life's chief pleasures. As a result, we have a series of unwritten rules which help enhance these flavours and ensure that each meal is savoured properly.

Can we be dramatic about them? Maybe. Travellers who unwittingly break our rules will likely earn a horrified stare. But those who understand them will gain a window into Italy's food culture – and maybe even an approving nod.

If you want to eat like an Italian on your next visit, here are seven things you should never do in our restaurants.

1. Don't order a cappuccino after breakfast

You might have heard that Italians don't drink cappuccino after a certain time of day, but there seems to be confusion about the hard cutoff. Is it 10:00? Noon?

Here's the hack: don't ask for a cappuccino at a restaurant at all. Cappuccino is enjoyed at the coffee bar with breakfast. Italian breakfasts are light, typically a brioche or pastry, which pair well with a creamy cappuccino. But that same frothy beverage is considered too rich to have with heavier, savoury meals, hence why we raise an eyebrow when you try to order it for lunch or dinner. When Italians drink coffee after our first food of the day, it will be espresso or macchiato.

2. Don't upset the order of the meal

Like a symphony, Italian restaurant meals unfold in crescendoing movements: antipasto (starter course), primo (pasta course), secondo e contorni (meat or seafood course and seasonal vegetable side dishes), dolce (sweet), caffè e amaro (coffee and digestive). The order allows the flavours to build from lightest to richest, ending with a digestion-boosting caffeine or alcohol shot. You can skip courses, but you can't change the order. Contorni are served on separate plates. "Bring it all out at the same time" is a highly irregular request.

In Italy, salad (insalata mista) doesn't come out first. Instead, it's a side dish eaten alongside the main meat course, and it will be mixed greens dressed with oil, salt and lemon juice. In more casual eateries, some stews like ribollita (Tuscan bread and vegetables) or pasta e fagioli (pasta and beans) are classified as a pasta course. Pasta is not a side.

3. Don't mix sea and mountain

"But why can't I have Parmesan on my seafood if I want it?" In Italy, we tend to think of mare (seafood) and monti (cheese and meat) as distinct culinary traditions. They developed separately, and our habit of keeping their ingredients apart has continued. Their distinct flavour profiles are believed to compete, so seafood is rarely paired with strongly flavoured aged cheeses. You wouldn't mix the flavours in your courses, either. Follow insalata di mare (seafood salad) with spaghetti alle vongole (spaghetti with clams) and a frittura di calamari (fried calamari), not fettuccine alla bolognese and suckling pig.

On menus, you may find dishes that deliberately feature seafood and cheese, like pasta con cozze e pecorino (pasta with mussels and pecorino cheese). These are culturally sanctioned recipes, however. The general tradition is to keep the two culinary worlds separate, which is why asking for Parmesan on your spaghetti alle vongole will make the Italians around you wince.

4. Don't ask for substitutions

Sorry, but in Italy, restaurant dishes are not customisable. Specific ingredients traditionally belong together, or don't (see "sea and mountain"). Short pasta formats typically go with chunkier sauces that can be "gripped" by the pasta's ridges, while long or stuffed pasta shapes are generally paired with silkier sauces. You would never ask for a dish to be made with a different ingredient. This is seen as undermining the dish – and the chef's judgement.

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It is fine to mention allergies and dietary requirements, and to ask whether an ingredient that may cause gastrointestinal distress (onion, peppers, tomatoes, garlic) can be omitted. Many chefs will be happy to dream up something special for you. What's frowned upon is redesigning a dish.

5. Don't leave the region

Outside Italy, restaurants serve "Italian food". But the very concept of "Italy" didn't exist until the late 1800s, when what was then a patchwork of independent kingdoms and states were unified. "Italian" identity is still evolving, and many of us identify first with our region, then with the nation.

Italian cuisine is also fiercely regional. We prize endemic dishes and culinary products like jewels. For us, visiting an Italian city without sampling its famous local foods would be a missed opportunity. Would you visit Cornwall and not get a pasty?

Our regional foods are breathtaking in scope, and the discovery is part of the fun. A quick cheat sheet: head to Naples to eat pizza in its birthplace, then go further south to delight in limoncello made from Amalfi lemons on the Amalfi Coast. Pesto is native to Genova. For cacio e pepe and carbonara, go to Rome. Florence is renowned for its thick, juicy Florentine steaks, while Venice is the epicentre of aperitivo culture, which unfolds in its bacari (rustic bars) with cicchetti (bite-sized tapas) and rounds of Aperol Spritz.

But this is just the tip of the delicious culinary iceberg. Each village and town has a famous dish, a treasured bread or cherished fruit. Ask what the town is known for before ordering.

6. Don't rush it

Eating at a restaurant in Italy is a social ritual, not a digestive transaction. Thanks to our large, languorous scope of courses, lunch or dinner can take hours, allowing for breathing room between dishes, or maybe even a palate-cleansing sorbetto al limone (lemon sorbet). The lulls are filled with lively conversation. We laugh, we debate, we choose more wine.

If you arrive for dinner when Italians do, typically after 21:00, expect to be done close to midnight.

7. Don't skip the amaro

The end of an Italian meal is marked with a sweet, coffee (espresso or macchiato, obviously) and an amaro.

Amaro literally means "bitter". Commonly made with citrus peel, walnut shells or medicinal herbs, amari are indeed an acquired taste but there's nothing better to bring you back to baseline after a gut-busting meal. Amari are highly regional, so ask about the local specialty or better yet, if they have anything homemade. Sip, release, start again tomorrow.

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How tacos became Norway's national comfort food

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260709-how-tacos-became-norways-national-comfort-food, 2 days ago

An oil boom, a supermarket opportunity and decades of adaptation transformed the taco from a Tex-Mex import into one of Norway's most beloved traditions.

It is Friday night in Bergen, Norway. Emil has rushed home from work and is busy laying the table while his wife Sofie sprinkles seasoning over a dish and their children carry bowls of toppings to the dining room. Like many families across the country, they're gathering for a cherished weekly ritual.

But they aren't eating dried cod or fresh Atlantic salmon. They're eating tacos.

The start of Norway's weekly taco obsession

Every Friday, millions of Norwegians take part in tacofredag (Taco Friday), a custom that has become a fixture of Norwegian family life.

This distinctly Norwegian tradition began thousands of miles away, in the US state of Texas. When Norway started drilling for oil in the North Sea in the late 1960s, it needed expertise from abroad. Among the arrivals were Texan oil workers and consultants, who brought not only knowledge of drilling but a taste for Tex-Mex.

A canny Norwegian shopkeeper in Stavanger began importing international food to serve this new community, and over the following decades supermarkets started stocking Old El Paso and Santa Maria Tex-Mex supermarket kits. What began as an expatriate craving slowly became a national ritual.

Today supermarket aisles across Norway are full of pre-packaged Tex-Mex food, stocked with brightly coloured boxes of taco shells, seasoning mixes and mild salsa. Tacos are now so embedded in Norwegian food culture that the country's statistics bureau has even created a "Taco Index" to track the price of typical taco ingredients. The obsession even extends to Norway's most famous footballer: in a "day in the life" video, Erling Haaland says tacos are "one of my favourite things".

"The Norwegian taco is a state of mind – it's like asking a Swedish person what fika is," says food writer Helle Øder Valebrokk, journalist and author of Taco!, an award-nominated Norwegian recipe book featuring a taco recipe for every Friday of the year. "I call it the Norwegian Happy Meal: on Taco Friday, you make your own tacos with the meat, vegetables and salsa, so everyone gets what they want."

The result is a food tradition that is neither Mexican nor entirely Texan, but something Norway has made unmistakeably its own.

The Norwegianisation of the taco

What made tacofredag take hold while other imported foods remained occasional novelties was how neatly they solved a Norwegian problem – how to make Friday dinner feel communal and low-key after a busy week. Supermarket kits made tacos simple, bowls of toppings made them customisable and the loose Tex-Mex definition of "taco" made them easy to adapt to local tastes.

"In everyday life in Norway, a family dinner is not an event," says Valebrokk. "People are busy, children go to sports clubs and many families will not sit down together to eat. On a Friday, that changes: it is a holy day for Norwegians when they finally relax together."

The Norwegian taco is a far cry from traditional Mexican tacos. It is typically hard shelled, filled with minced beef, and topped with cheese, sour cream and lettuce. It's less about culinary authenticity than simplicity and participation.

But there is room for creativity. Over time, Norwegians have adapted the taco to local tastes and ingredients. In the hunter-led northern reaches, reindeer and moose can appear in place of beef, while smoked salmon, shrimp and other fish versions crop up along the coast.

At the Bocuse d'Or in Trondheim in 2024, chef Siriyaporn Mymint Rithisirikrerg created a tortilla filled with stockfish, the historic produce of the Lofoten Archipelago where she works, in tribute to the Friday taco.

Valebrokk's own book includes recipes with reindeer, Norwegian cod and vegetarian fillings, with pickled redcurrants as a topping. She is now working on a Norwegian version of tequila, made from citrus-flavoured aquavit, to accompany them.

The authenticity debate

Not everyone sees the Nordic version as a taco in the traditional sense. Mexican chef Montserrat Garza, who has lived in Norway for nine years and runs Oslo restaurant La Mayor, was surprised when she first encountered Taco Friday.

"The first time I ate a Norwegian taco was at my ex-boyfriend's house," she said. "It was really nice to enjoy sharing food in a family style in Norway – it's not so common to do that here – and I find it a really beautiful tradition. But I would never do it myself."

Her objections are less about the ritual than the toppings like lettuce – something that, as a Mexican, she would never add – and the Norwegian habit of calling almost anything "taco" if it contains taco seasoning.

"I've seen a taco pizza on sale," she said. "It does not make any sense!"

Valebrokk, however, sees the Norwegian taco not as failed authenticity but as adaptation – a dish absorbed, altered and made local. She points to the lomper, Norway's soft potato flatbread, as evidence that the country had its own taco-like traditions long before Tex-Mex arrived.

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"You could say we have been eating tacos for longer than the Mexicans if you consider the lomper," she said. "At Christmas – in a kind of Christmas taco if you like – we serve them rolled up with fermented fish, sour cream and onion inside them."

Today, some Norwegians are making their own tortillas and seeking out more authentic versions. But after half a century of adaptation, the Norwegian taco remains unmistakably Norwegian: not quite Mexican, not quite Texan, and now as much as Friday-night ritual as a meal.

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The return of Canada's 'breathtaking, must-see hike'

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260708-a-return-of-canadas-breathtaking-must-see-hike, 3 days ago

With its glacier-fed waterfalls and turquoise lakes, the Berg Lake Trail is one of North America's most spectacular alpine treks. Now, a long-awaited backcountry hut is changing the way visitors experience this Canadian classic.

Mud squelches beneath my boots as I move through a tunnel of trees. After climbing a series of steep switchbacks up a valley wall, my legs are burning when spray from a thundering waterfall I can't see hits my face.

The steady roar of water has rung in my ears since I passed White Falls, the first in a series of cascades cutting through the Robson River Gorge and spilling into the aptly named Valley of a Thousand Falls below. When I finally emerge through an opening in the forest, I see it, rising in the distance behind the powerful rush of Emperor Falls: Mount Robson, the tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies.

I'm 9.3 miles (15km) deep on the recently reopened Berg Lake Trail in Mount Robson Provincial Park, located just west of Jasper National Park in British Columbia. This 26-30-mile (42-48km) round-trip route is one of Canada's most famous backcountry trails and reveals some of North America's most spectacular alpine scenery. I've hiked the trail three times, but now, a new alpine hut is letting travellers experience the area in a whole new way: by spending the night in Mount Robson's shadow.

Beginning at the Mount Robson Visitor Centre, the route rises from towering old-growth forest into a dramatic alpine valley filled with tumbling, glacier-fed cascades. Here, hikers are treated to unforgettable panoramas of Mount Robson before arriving at the turquoise Berg Lake.

In May 2026, after decades of planning, and a year after the Berg Lake Trail reopened after a catastrophic flood, the brand-new Robson Pass Hut opened near the northern end of the trail. Set directly beneath Mount Robson at Robson Pass, the two-storey backcountry hut offers an intimate, close-up view of the iconic mountain that hikers don't see from most of the trail.

From the building's front door, Mount Robson rises almost directly overhead. The hut's opening means backpackers no longer need to carry their camping gear some 12 miles (20km) up the mountain if they wish to spend the night. It also allows them to spend more time in the trail's upper reaches rather than rushing back down the valley on a day hike. And in winter, it provides would-be campers a much more comfortable base for ski touring.

For Calgary hiker Amanda Elia, the experience of hiking the trail is difficult to put into words.

"It's simply breathtaking," she says. "A must-see hike."

During the three- to four-day journey, travellers pass icefields tumbling into azure alpine lakes, glaciers calving with the force of an avalanche and snowcapped peaks dwarfed by the iconic Mount Robson itself.

Few mountains dominate their surroundings quite like this 12,972ft (3,954m) behemoth, which is capped by glacial fields that plummet some 2,625ft (800m) into the turquoise Berg Lake below. In fact, the first glimpse of the peak from the highway as you approach the park's visitor centre, can feel almost unreal.

"You need time to process how beautiful it is," says Elia.

For veteran hiker Matt Sombert, who has backpacked the trail five times, the views also inspire reflection. "It's poignant, though it is fleeting" he says. "With [the] glaciers retreating… these views are not expected to last another 100 years."

Traditionally, trekkers would sleep at one of six backcountry campsites located along the trail. Though hikers gain 2,624-3,280ft (800m-1,000m) of elevation during the hike, the initial 5-mile (8km) stretch to Kinney Lake (where the first backcountry campsite is located) is accessible to bikes, prams, wheelchairs and walkers.

The hut itself began as an early-2000s proposal to BC Parks, to increase and improve lodging options as the trail swelled in popularity. With space for 12 guests, it offers a more intimate alternative to the larger, often-crowded Berg Lake Campground. But the build was repeatedly stalled by funding gaps, shifting priorities and the pandemic.

Then in June 2021, a heat dome settled over Western Canada, accelerating snowmelt before heavy rains triggered devastating floods. More than 600 people died across the country, while the Berg Lake Trail was so badly damaged that hikers had to be evacuated by helicopter and the route was closed for the 2022 hiking season.

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The trail reopened in three phases between June 2023 and June 2025. Throughout its restoration, the aim was to rebuild the trail with climate resilience in mind. BC Parks staff, engineers and contractors worked together to reduce river crossings and limit time spent in floodplains, creating a more sustainable path up towards the new hut.

For hikers returning after the floods, the rebuilt sections have been thoughtfully executed. "All the work put into it is very apparent and well done," says Sombert, who first backpacked the trail in 2000. Walking alongside him for the first time, Stephanie Dean notices the same attention to detail, reflecting that "it was clear that a lot of effort was put into making it as safe as possible while going over different terrain".

That care is especially evident in the stretch between Kinney Flats and Whitehorn where the trail moves through a section of inland temperate rainforest. As Sombert describes it, the path "twists and undulates", following the natural contours of the forest rather than cutting through it.

Only after the trail fully reopened could the hut construction move forward. Ahead of its May opening, reservations sold out almost immediately. "I think it surprised even us how quickly it went," says Krista Robinson, from the Alpine Club of Canada, which built and runs the hut.

The hut itself is a shared, bunk-style refuge with communal spaces designed for hikers and climbers. It faces the surrounding alpine peaks and valleys, keeping the landscape constantly present and making the environment the main experience. Sleeping quarters are located downstairs for cooler, quieter rest, while the upper level opens into a light-filled common space and a large deck with sweeping alpine views of the Emperor Face wall, Robson Glacier and Mount Resplendent.

First impressions at the opening ceremony were immediate and unfiltered.

"Honestly, it was just – wow, this is nice," recalls Robinson.

Following the ribbon-cutting ceremony, guests quickly gravitated to the hut's deck before gathering inside, where "it turned into a very classic hut experience", says Robinson. "People sitting together, sharing stories and reconnecting."

I also feel this sense of reconnection while treading along the newly remodelled trail, catching my first glimpse of Berg Lake since the flood. The cerulean water is an open door, quietly inviting me in. I wade into its icy water, letting the cold wash away the distance the disaster had created between me and this place.

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The view that inspired America's most beautiful song

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260701-the-view-that-inspired-america-the-beautiful, 9 days ago

In 1893, a teacher scaled Pikes Peak in Colorado and penned one of the US's most cherished songs, "America the Beautiful". Today, travellers can retrace her historic ascent.

The tip of my trekking pole bites into the rocky path. "Hang on," I wheeze to my husband, who is plodding several paces ahead. Pausing to gulp water, I survey the landscape below. Pine-stubbled peaks surround us, dappled in cloud shadows and sloping downward to meet a lush valley criss-crossed with roads.

"Ready?" my husband asks. I reluctantly get back to my feet, and our trekking poles resume their clacking rhythm. The mountaintop is still hours away.

We're hiking up to America's most-visited mountain summit: Pikes Peak in Manitou Springs, Colorado. One hundred and thirty-three years ago, the view from the top inspired Katharine Lee Bates to pen "America the Beautiful," a poem that became one of the nation's most well-known patriotic songs, played at sporting events, recited on the Fourth of July holiday and taught to American school children. But not all of us know about the author or why she wrote it.

Having moved to Colorado just a few years ago, I too was unaware of the backstory. But in honour of America's 250th anniversary, I'm attempting to follow Bates' journey up this 14,115ft (4302m) high peak to see if the view of our country's landscape still inspires the same way.

A teacher goes West

In 1893, 33-year-old Katharine Lee Bates was teaching English literature at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, when an exciting opportunity arose: the chance to lead a summer session at Colorado College.

Colorado had only become a state 17 years earlier, and the college was then barely two decades old. It was a period of social and political unrest – Grover Cleveland was in his second presidency, the US stock market was nosediving and unemployment was at a high. Nonetheless, Bates was eager to see the expansive views of the American frontier. She boarded a steam engine train and headed west.

In Melinda M Ponder's biography of Bates, Katharine Lee Bates: From Sea to Shining Sea, she writes that upon arriving in Colorado Springs, the intrepid teacher was instantly charmed by the progressive energy of the young city. She and her companions made the most of their free time. "We were driven to Manitou, to The Garden of the Gods… to canyons... and cascades innumerable, all so marvelous that our stock of exclamations gave out," Bates journalled. "An enchanted summer!"

Leah Davis Witherow, curator of history for the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, explains that many travellers at the time were captivated by the American West. "This was the era of the picturesque, so this scenery would have been wildly fascinating to her," she says. "It would have been exciting and strange, and it must have inspired awe."

It wasn't long before Pikes Peak tempted the group of adventurers. Forgoing the ease of the recently built Cog Railway in favour of a more nostalgic, pioneering journey – a horse-pulled wagon up the carriage road – Bates and her colleagues started their bumpy ascent.

My journey begins

Today, the Cog Railway still runs along its original 1890s path, but the tracks have been replaced and the steam locomotives swapped out for diesel-electric trains. For an experience that more closely resembles the slow, arduous uphill climb of Bates' wagon we also chose to skip the train and take the journey on foot.

At 05:30, we pull into one of the last spaces at the parking lot for Barr Trail, which leads to the summit. Gaining 2,255m in elevation over 21 uphill kilometers, this route is one of the region's most strenuous hiking trails. We apply suncream and begin our pilgrimage. The trail glows pink from the rising Sun, a crimson orb peeping over the hills. Hummingbirds trill and alight on spindly branches to watch our ascent. Half an hour flies by, and my sports watch chimes the one-mile (1.6km) mark. Just 12 more (19km) to go!

After three miles (4.83km) of steep, sweaty climbing, we spot two local hikers ambling down the trail and strike up conversation. One of them, Ben Johnson, shares that he has ridden his bike to the top of the mountain twice. "Getting up high on Pikes Peak and looking out, it's beautiful," he says. "America is phenomenal. E pluribus unum: out of many, one. I still believe that."

His words energise us. Less than two hours later, we arrive at the hike's halfway point, Barr Camp, a rustic backcountry lodge and campsite.

The camp host heats up some coffee for us. "You've got six miles (9.7km) left and that last climb is rough," he warns. I shrug – it can't be much worse than our exerting ascent up to this point.

From sea to shining sea

Bates' wagon also paused halfway up the mountain, where its tired horses were swapped out for sure-footed mules. Her final ascent was a slow upward slog, as the mules strained up the frozen carriage road. At last, they reached the summit.

Exhausted from the jostling ride, Bates and her friends were nonetheless awestruck by the views. Alas, one professor in the group promptly fainted from the altitude, and the visit was cut short. Before their hasty retreat, Bates drank in the sight of vast golden plains and rugged mountaintops rippling into the distance. "Most glorious scenery I ever beheld," she journaled.

"Combined with her journey across America on the train – seeing the plains of Kansas, the corn fields, the wheat fields – coming to the top of Pikes Peak and looking out on this vastness deeply impressed her," says Witherow. That picturesque vista at the summit galvanized Bates to write a four-stanza poem titled "America." In July 1895, it was printed in Boston's weekly newspaper and in 1910, it was paired with a musical arrangement by Samuel A. Ward, re-titled "America the Beautiful."

While the lyrics begin as an ode to the American landscape –

O beautiful for spacious skies/ For amber waves of grain/ For purple mountain majesties/ Above the fruited plain! – Bates balances praise with critique, urging the nation to uphold its principles of freedom, equality and unification – America! America! God shed his grace on thee/ Till selfish gain no longer stain the banner of the free!

Witherow notes that it is both a song of exhortation and a song of praise. "She's calling out imperialism, Gilded Age wealth and inequities in America," she explains. "Because she loves America, she wants it to live up to its ideals."

My view at the top

At 14:30, nine hours after our start, we finally reach the summit. Our friend at Barr Camp had not exaggerated: the final third of the hike was a series of cruelly steep and rocky switchbacks. Panting, I manage a triumphant grin as my husband takes a photo. Then I turn to behold the hard-earned view.

On a clear day you can see five states – Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Wyoming. But heavy clouds are rolling in, and haze shrouds the horizon. Our pride of achievement is tinged with disappointment. Like Bates and her friends, our time on the summit must be cut short. We find the Cog Rail conductor in the visitor centre and request a ride down.

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Once aboard, we collapse gratefully into our seats. I've been told that the view from Pikes Peak is different each time, so naturally, I didn't see exactly what Bates saw when she looked out. But here on the train, I observe the variety of ages and ethnicities present on the train, people who have travelled from near and far to see "America's Mountain," seeking a reminder of what unites us.

One hundred and thirty-three years after her historic summit – and 250 years after the United States was founded – much has changed and much hasn't. The nation is still wracked with upheaval, uncertainty and inequities. And yet it remains our beautiful home despite hazy horizons.

As we descend, a cog train going up the mountain chugs past, packed with faces eager to take in the famous view. They wave to us through the windows. I wonder what they'll see.

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'Gut-wrenching': UK gap year students lose thousands after tour operator closes

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3dy7jgx5jno, yesterday

UK students have shared their "gut-wrenching" loss and "disappointment" over a volunteer travel company going out of business.

GVI offered conservation and development placements all over the world, including in Fiji, Cambodia and the Maldives.

But gap year students have told BBC Newsbeat they have been left thousands of pounds out of pocket after paying to go abroad with the group.

Bosses say they "deeply regret" the effect on customers, after confirming GVI would be formally closing and going into liquidation on 1 July.

GVI was popular with school leavers and gap year students who would pay to take part in placements.

The company was part of the "voluntourism" sector, which combines voluntary work with adventure travel.

Amy Taylor, from Manchester, says her three-month conservation internship in South Africa is cancelled, with no clarity on if she will get her £4,000 back for the trip.

She describes it as "gut-wrenching" to receive the email from GVI at the start of the month.

For Amy, the South Africa internship was more than just a once in a lifetime trip - but a chance to get hands-on experience in her dream job.

"I was so happy within myself when I got accepted," the 21-year-old student tells Newsbeat.

"I was just so excited about the future that I might have."

After finding out about the programmes at university - where she is studying wildlife conservation and zoo biology - Amy decided to book one in September 2025.

"[The idea was] when I graduate, I'd go to employers and say: 'I have this much experience, I've got this under my belt'."

She hoped her GVI experience would help her "stand out" in the job market and secure her dream job.

But now, "there's essentially absolutely nothing I can do about it."

Amy says potentially losing the money is bad, but not the worst thing about the situation.

It's the "disappointment" of losing the opportunity, she says.

Linus Rowland-Bell, from Liverpool found out about GVI through a university careers fair.

He planned to complete a programme in Peru, billed as an internship in the Amazon rainforest.

The 23-year-old thought it would help his career prospects after finishing his degree in biology and bio-technology.

He paid the full £2,258 up-front after GVI advised him there would be a discount for doing so.

"To save up that money I worked two days a week alongside my studies," he says.

Linus planned to make the trip this summer but says a series of "concerning" events, documented in a series of emails shared with Newsbeat, raised his suspicions.

By May this year, he still had not completed an online training course due to be done in April.

He was told Canvas, the software used to administer the module, was down - something he found "a bit dodgy" because he uses the same platform at university "with no problems whatsoever".

On 28 June, Linus received an email from the centre in Peru advising it could not take on any new participants because GVI had not paid them for six months.

The next day he received an email from GVI saying it was working on a resolution, with an offer to reschedule the planned trip or obtain a credit certificate "for future travel".

Two days later Linus received the liquidation email sent to all customers.

"The thought of all that money, all that time that I've saved up, that excitement completely vanishing into the ether, it was terrifying," he says.

Linus was able to get a full refund via his bank, and says he's exploring last-minute options for this summer.

But the episode has "created a big paranoia in trusting any companies that are in charge of travel bookings," he says.

GVI's website has been replaced with a statement from chief executive Andrew Valentine, who said that closing its doors after 28 years is a "deeply sad conclusion to a remarkable journey".

He added that they "regret the effect that GVI's closure will have on staff, projects and customers, and we are committed to providing clear information to those affected as GVI goes through a formal liquidation process".

When a company goes into liquidation, its assets are used to pay off its debts and any money left goes to shareholders.

All current and future GVI programmes have been cancelled and travellers have been directed to liquidators for the claims process.

BBC Newsbeat has approached the company for more information, but received a reply from the company's liquidators, directing us to their case documents published online.

'It's just really disappointing'

Amy says she is relying on her bank to reclaim her money as her travel insurance was booked through GVI.

"If I don't get the money back, I can't go anywhere else and I don't really trust anyone at the moment to be able to go anywhere else.

"It didn't seem like they were struggling - everything looked professional."

Another customer, Anna, tells us she was set to fly to Cambodia on 3 July with GVI for a four-week research fellowship.

She says she found out about the GVI closure from a group chat, just as she was getting ready to leave.

"It's just really disappointing."

The university student from Cheshire says her trip cost more than £2,500, and that she has so far only been able to claim back part of her flight.

"Obviously it's quite anxiety-provoking, not knowing where all that money is going."

Anna says she's awaiting more information from the liquidators.

"I know some people have booked six-month or even one-year programmes - it must be really, really tough."

Like Amy, Anna had heard of GVI through university and had no reason to doubt it.

"That's why it was such a shock."

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

Man nearly sucked out of window mid-air on Ryanair plane, passengers say

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgk65knkyzdo, yesterday

A man was nearly sucked head-first out of a cabin window in mid-air on a Ryanair plane, passengers have said.

Tracking data shows the plane was in the air for about 10 minutes when it abruptly descended 9,000ft (2,700m), with passengers telling local media they heard "some kind of explosion".

A Greek hospital official said a 61-year-old Serbian national was being treated for friction burns. "His wife held onto his legs for around five minutes to stop him from being sucked out," Michalis Giannakos said.

In a statement, Ryanair said its Friday morning flight from the Greek city of Thessaloniki to Germany's Memmingen returned "shortly after take-off when a passenger window dislodged in flight".

"The aircraft landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal. One passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground in Thessaloniki," the Irish budget airline said.

It added that "a replacement aircraft was arranged to bring passengers to Memmingen" several hours later.

Passengers have told local media the man was left hanging head first out of the window as far as his shoulders before other passengers managed to pull him back inside.

Those on board have also said the window was smashed by pieces of the jet's engine - although Ryanair has not commented on this.

"We immediately realised there had been a decompression. There were screams... for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door," Christina, a fellow passenger, told Radio Thessaloniki.

"The masks dropped and there was a strong smell. The head and shoulders of one passenger were outside the window. Fortunately, he hadn't taken off his seat belt."

Another passenger, Sofia, told Radio Thessaloniki: "When the oxygen masks dropped, we had no idea what was going to happen. We didn't know whether we would make it back. We were sitting at the back of the aircraft, and we realised there had been some kind of explosion.

"We thought the plane was going down. The decompression was extreme. It felt like we couldn't breathe. The man who was injured was bleeding and then lost consciousness several times, most likely because of the lack of oxygen and the shock," Sofia added.

Michalis Giannakos, president of the Panhellenic Federation of Public Hospital Employees, later said that a 61-year-old Serbian man was being treated in hospital with friction burns.

"He is in shock, remains conscious" he added.

The aircraft - believed to have been an 18 year-old-plane - was operated by Ryanair's subsidiary Malta Air.

Thessaloniki airport's operator Fraport Greece said "the incident is currently under investigation by the Hellenic Air and Rail Safety Investigation Authority".

Fraport Greece added that it "is fully co-operating with all relevant stakeholders and has activated the established emergency response procedures following the aircraft's forced return".

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) earlier told the BBC it was aware of the incident and would provide any assistance to investigators.

Chris Brady, a retired airline pilot, told the BBC the incident "could have been worse" had the seat belt been not fastened.

"We do, as captains always say to the passengers, please keep your seat belts fastened as a precaution in flight, even when we switch the belt signs off.

"And it's for exactly this sort of thing or for turbulence encounters or whatever. So it is good practice to leave your seat belts on," he said.

In 2018, a passenger died when debris from a damaged engine caused a window to break on a Southwest Airlines flight in the US, and she was partially sucked out.

Additional reporting by Mark Allison and Nikos Papanikolaou

Never-before-seen Concorde test flight film found

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz9lzj2vjxxo, 2 days ago

Never-before-seen footage filmed from inside the cockpit of a Concorde during a test flight in 1970 has been unearthed.

The footage was taken by the late Bristol MP Tony Benn who was technology minister for the Labour government at the time.

He sat in the cockpit for the supersonic test flight on a Concorde prototype, while wearing a parachute.

Years later, Benn told a BBC Radio 4 documentary he had offered the footage to the BBC soon after the flight but it had been rejected as its quality "was not good enough".

Benn filmed on board the fourth supersonic flight in 1970 which took off from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire with chief test pilot Brian Trubshaw and co-pilot John Cochrane.

Concorde 002, which is now on show at the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton, Somerset, was undergoing performance and handling checks as it increased speed over these tests from Mach 1 - which is equal to the speed of sound - to Mach 2, which is twice the speed of sound.

It had successfully gone supersonic on 25 March 1970 and would reach Mach 2 later that year on 12 November.

Aviation expert and author of Concorde: The Rise and Fall of the Supersonic Airliner, Jonathan Glancey, described the footage as "a piece of history".

"It's remarkable to find footage of that age, it's the real thing," he said.

"Tony Benn flying in one of the first supersonic test flights with Brian Trubshaw at the controls.

"It's a historic moment. It's a glorious piece of film that captures the sense of adventure and flight in just a few seconds."

The film has spent decades in the private collection of the Benn family which has given the BBC access to the footage.

Benn's son Hilary, who is a Labour MP, said: "It was my brother who found it in boxes, he's been archiving his dad's work."

He said Concorde was a "huge part" of his father's political life.

"Many of his constituents worked there," he added. "He had responsibility for the project, he famously put the 'e' back on Concorde.

"He fought really hard to make sure the project prospered, he was determined to make sure it flew and it was a success."

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Cruise ship fumes spread viruses, study suggests

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c75y04x537ko, 2 days ago

Air pollution from cruise ships may be helping to spread viruses such as Covid-19 and the common cold, a study has found.

Researchers traced the source of pollution components in Southampton to cruise ships at the city's port.

Elements in tiny pollution particles were found in laboratory tests to increase inflammatory signals and weaken cells' resistance to infection, the University of Southampton said.

Associated British Ports (ABP), which runs the port, said it was proud of its pollution record, adding that it had concerns about the study's methodology.

The researchers, led by Dr Nat Easton, identified metals, including vanadium, nickel and cobalt, as a fingerprint of air pollution from cruise ships.

The study compared six sampling sites in the port and at the university, 5km (3 miles) away.

Southampton's cruise terminal was found to have higher concentrations of the elements than the rest of the port.

"We see increases in concentration when the wind was coming from the direction of the cruise ships, and when cruise ship presence was higher," Dr Easton said.

In the lab, researchers tested the effects of the ultrafine air pollution particles on human lung lining cells.

They found an increase in signs of an inflammatory response and a decrease in antiviral gene expression.

Further tests, on lung tissue and a Covid-19 model, suggested vanadium may boost concentrations of the viruses, the researchers said.

Prof Matthew Loxam, who supervised the study, said: "In this research, we've identified a clear air pollution 'signature' coming from cruise ships burning fuel in ports.

"The ultrafine particles contained in these ships' emissions... are essentially unregulated and generally not monitored.

"We found that exposure of cells to these particles, and vanadium – the most enriched element in the particles – was both pro-inflammatory and facilitated the replication of viruses."

In a response, ABP said it was proud of its record on reducing emissions and its £1bn annual contribution to the local economy.

In a statement, it said: "Emissions like nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter are well within National Air Quality Objective mean annual limits.

"We are concerned about some important aspects of the methodologies of the study and the strength of inference of some of findings that have been presented to the media."

The British Ports Association added: "Southampton has led the way in providing shoreside power for cruise ships, allowing vessels to plug in and reduce their emissions while at berth."

It said ports were investing tens of millions of pounds every year to reduce emissions through cleaner fuels, new technologies and electrification.

Cruise companies, including Carnival and the Cruise Lines International Association, have been approached for comment.

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A sweet bun so good it inspired a national holiday

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260630-a-sweet-bun-so-good-it-inspired-a-national-holiday, 10 days ago

Each summer, Poland awaits bilberry season in order to eat jagodianzki, traditional berry-filled buns. But this humble comfort food has had a glow up, and is more desired than ever.

As the days grow warmer in Poland, our forests teem with beautiful fruits like strawberries and plums, which we will eagerly fold into light, delicious summer dishes. By far, the most anticipated seasonal crop is the bilberry, the blueberry's smaller and tarter European cousin.

So essential is this little summertime staple that we call it jagoda, which simply means berry. "Bilberries hold a sentimental value for us," says Basia Starecka, a food journalist and former editor-in-chief of the Polish food magazine Kukbuk. "[They] appear right after the school year is over and symbolise the start of the summer holidays."

We eat them fresh off the bush with sugar and sour cream, in sweet pierogi or in a fruit sauce for various kinds of dumplings. But our most beloved bilberry treat is the jagodzianka (pronounced ya-go-jan-ka), a bilberry-filled yeasted sweet bun.

They have been a summer-time bakery staple for decades, dusted with sugar, covered in icing or crumble. "There is no person in Poland who hasn't eaten a jagodzianka," Starecka says.

But in the years since the Covid-19 pandemic, the humble jagodzianka has been given a modern makeover, in turn becoming something of a social media star. Influencers now post content of the fruit-filled buns they've either made or bought, and offer bakery recommendations. The classic move: tearing a jagodzianka in half to show off the filling.

But can perfection be improved upon? Thousands of Polish people are clamouring to find out.

A star is reborn

During the lockdowns and uncertainty of the early 2020s, Starecka says that Polish people naturally turned to familiar comfort foods. At the same time, an artisanal baking revolution was brewing.

"It all started with a new generation of bakers who wanted to make bread that required long fermentation times, which is much healthier for us," says Starecka. When they succeeded with basic breads, they began reinterpreting and redefining the whole spectrum of sweet, yeasted pastries. This naturally included the jagodzianka.

Monika Walecka, owner of the award-winning Warsaw bakery Cała w Mące and a pioneer of Polish artisanal breadmaking, adds: "We started looking at seasonal Polish pastries and making them in true artisanal style. With a lot of fruit, with good quality dough, with good-quality streusel. Made the same day, without rushing the process."

While some bakers preferred to keep things traditional, other creators experimented with the dough, fillings and toppings to get the consistency and flavour they wanted. The results were untraditional, but eye-catching and palate pleasing.

For example, contemporary baker Agata Stankiewicz, known online as SugarLady, uses the Japanese bread-making technique of tangzhong to make the dough softer, while Walecka relies on long fermentation times. Walecka also brushes her freshly baked jagodzianki with brown butter flavoured with tonka beans. Other bakeries, like Warsaw-based Bread Morning, pride themselves on using the same amount of berries as dough, resulting in an especially richly filled pastry. Urszi Cakes in Warsaw tops off the finished bun with fresh bilberries rather than the more traditional crumble or frosting, while the Warsaw-based Blacha adds so much crumble to their yeasted buns that people can ask for a bag of crumble to take with them.

The responses to the pastry's renaissance have been mixed. "It’s a good thing because the jagodzianka are made from Polish bilberries and you have to promote what’s good and Polish," says jagodzianka aficionado Kamil Augustyn. Maks Krajewski has a different perspective: "They used to be more seasonal, available for a short time, but supermarkets have begun selling them year-round, filled with jam or American blueberries. But they’re best during bilberry season."

The new wave of artisanal jagodzianki are considered superior to the supermarket version, and the high quality has a price. The cost of jagodzianki keeps increasing with every year, which turned the yeasted bun into something of a status symbol. Many bakeries now have lines forming in the early hours, before they even open, and jagodzianki disappear quickly.

"We had a situation where a gentleman bought the last jagodzianka. And he was feeling so sorry for the other people in line that he paid for everything ordered by the woman behind him," remembers Anna Frelak, owner of the Warsaw bakery Ciastko z Dziurką. She adds that such situations are a common occurence.

"I compare them to a Birkin bag; the emotions you get from scoring such an expensive jagodzianka are similar, you boast about it, you post photos of it like a fashion trophy," Starecka says. "I think it underlines our status, it means I can afford a jagodzianka for almost 40PLN (£8) and I'm in on the trend. I'm in the know about what's happening."

Poised to go global

But despite becoming a status symbol in Poland, the jagodzianka has also become a community experience. This is one of the reasons why Starecka started Jagodzianka Day in 2022, an homage not only to the pastry itself but to the many people who are involved in its creation, from the foragers looking for bilberries in the woods to the bakers experimenting with new ingredients and techniques to the people enjoying them every summer. The unofficial holiday's website lists rankings of the best buns as well as recipes so people can try their own hand at making the sweet.

Starecka chose 2 July because it's right in the middle of jagoda season, believing a summer food-related holiday would provide a great counterpart to Fat Thursday (Pączki Day), which is usually celebrated in winter.

"You can eat a jagodzianka by yourself, but in that large, richly filled version, it's a dessert for more people and there is a happy atmosphere of celebration," says Starecka of the holiday’s community aspect. "People get together, they go to a bakery, they stand in line, they bring different kinds of jagodzianki as gifts – with cream, with farmer's cheese or with tonka beans, they organise jagodzianki tastings."

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But Starecka's main reason for creating Jagodzianka Day was her desire to improve the image of Polish food worldwide. While Polish cuisine is changing, old stereotypes still remain. And even if tourists have heard of pierogi or pączki, jagodzianki remain largely unknown outside Poland.

"Cinnamon rolls are great and croissants are great, but jagodzianki are a typical Polish thing. No one else knows them. Nowhere else is the bilberry so popular," says Frelak - also noting that she has seen an increased number of tourists from all over the world coming to her bakery accompanied by their Polish friends, asking for this summery treat. Mouthwatering videos and images of crumbly jagodzianka bursting with bilberries continue to proliferate on social media, and Polish bakers keep stretching the limits of the traditional recipe, even using freeze-dried bilberries in the dough to give it a vibrant purple hue or creating a Georgian-influenced khachapuri version. Perhaps most tellingly, English language jagodzianka content is creeping into the algorithm. Is it just a matter of time?

Though the jagodzianka wave shows no signs of slowing down, for Starecka, a lot of work still remains to be done.

"I started this holiday because I wanted people around the world to know about our jagodzianka," she says. "It is definitely worth the journey from the most faraway parts of the world."

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Is the World Cup ranch craze real or hype?

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260630-the-truth-about-the-world-cup-ranch-dressing-craze, 11 days ago

This creamy, herby salad cream has existed overseas for decades and visitors to the US are now allegedly shipping cartons of it home. But is there any truth to the reports?

Kev Footitt of Gainsborough, England, was in Dallas, Texas for the World Cup, when his server suggested he dip his chicken strips into ranch dressing. "I gave it a bash, and it was to die for," he said. Footitt later purchased a carry-on bag, which he loaded with 20 bottles, paying nearly $300 (£227) to ship it home. "I'll be having it on my roast dinners and fish and chips for the next two months."

For the past few weeks, ecstatic World Cup visitors like Footitt have chronicled their appreciation for all-American foods like tater tots, Texas brisket, buffalo wings and free drink refills. But it's ranch dressing that has dominated World Cup tourism discourse. Visitors have become so enamoured with the creamy, herbaceous condiment that they're not just lugging it home, they're discussing, photographing it and arguing about it on social media.

But is the World Cup ranch fandom real or an online-only sensation?

The ranch-sanity

Ranch's World Cup break-through moment likely occurred 8 June when Swede Elsa Thora posted on X, "Why did no one tell me ranch sauce is like crack? EUROPE WE NEED RANCH ASAP". The tweet received thousands of likes and reposts and later that day, the US's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) issued a playful advisory to visitors that they couldn't actually smuggle four bottles of ranch home in their luggage.

For more than a week afterwards, ranch ruled the TSA's social media accounts. Along with imploring travellers to pack it in their checked luggage (and refrain from chugging it outside security lines) the agency shared pictures of bottles abandoned at checkpoints.

Americans, both confused and bemused, shared recipes with ranch-obsessed World Cup fans. More earnest social media users suggested visitors buy packets of powdered ranch and just add liquid at home.

Meanwhile, brands dived into great ranch exchange. Applebee's posted a video of a driver dipping a chicken wing into a ranch-filled car console. Kraft announced plans to release TSA-compliant ranch packets. Heinz even launched a ranch giveaway for fans returning to the UK.

Why the decidedly commonplace ranch? Why now? After all, the dressing has been sold abroad for decades.

The American difference

There's nothing inherently American about ranch dressing's ingredients, said KC Hysmith, a food historian based in North Carolina. Mayonnaise, buttermilk, sour cream, lemon, dill, parsley and garlic all originated in the Old World. Heinz Salad Cream (ranch's English cousin), developed in 1914, predates the US condiment by more than three decades. "Ranch comes from a long line of salad dressings," said Hysmith. "It was just branded in a very American way."

In the early 1950s, while working as a plumber in Alaska, Steve Henson put ranch's familiar ingredients together for the first time. Later, he and his wife purchased property in the Santa Barbara mountains, which they transformed into a combination dude ranch, steakhouse and country club named Hidden Valley Ranch. Visitors were so smitten with Henson's dressing that the couple sold it to-go and eventually started shipping dried packets of it across the country.

This was the height of the Spaghetti Western era, the Marlboro Man and cowboy-themed packaged goods, so the name added cachet, said Hysmith. "[The dressing] grew popular because it had this association with dudes, cowboys and ranches."

Clorox bought the Hidden Valley brand in 1972 and started bottling the dressing 11 years later. Ranch is now ubiquitous in America – the stuff of fast-food joints, diners and even pedigreed restaurants. It tops iceberg salads and serves as a zesty sauce for chips, chicken wings and crudités. Home cooks pour it into casseroles and pasta salads.

Ranch's true talent is making foods more palatable. The crust of a mediocre pizza is transformed by the bright and creamy condiment. Parents use it to convince children to eat vegetables.

There are ranch dill pickles and dill pickle ranch. In US supermarket aisles you'll find ranch-dusted tortilla chips, popcorn, crackers, potato chips, pretzels and rice cakes. It's that versatility that gives the dressing its essential American-ness.

"If there was an alien who dropped out of the sky, landed here and said, 'Tell me about your people', I would give them a bowl of ranch," said Ham El-Wally, chef of New York City's Strange Delight seafood restaurant. "This is everything you need to know about us as a society."

So yes, the dressing may have lived on Tesco shelves for years, but American restaurants are presenting overseas travellers with ranch in its full and creamy context.

"Visitors are experiencing ranch the way Americans actually consume it, and that makes a difference," said Suzy Badaracco, owner of Culinary Tides, Inc, a food trends think tank. "It also travels well as an idea. You can buy a bottle, take it home, show friends or recreate the experience after the trip."

But is the hype real?

However, an informal survey I conducted of England fans in New York City's Times Square casts doubt. Phil Nichols said that though his wife and daughter asked him to bring home a bottle, he did not plan on hauling any ranch back to Northamptonshire.

Had a group of four friends I spoke to eaten ranch dressing? No.

One Englishman I met said he'd tried ranch, but wasn't falling for social media hype. "I'm not some kind of moron."

On 26 June, Londoner Dave Chambers slathered his first-ever taste of ranch onto a slice of pizza. His verdict: "It was like a confused mayonnaise and mustard with a bit of cheese in it that was a bit sour." Would he bring any bottles home? "No." Would he eat it again in America? "No."

Even online, ranch's virality isn't straightforward. Seizing on the trend, content creators are harvesting and reposting ranch videos recorded years ago. A popular clip of a woman chugging ranch was first posted in 2020, as was this video of a red-headed Brit sampling the dressing.

There was also a fair amount of branded ranch chatter in the months leading up to the games. In May, Hidden Valley announced a "Ranchbassador" programme that would pay American ranch fans to promote the condiment abroad. Heinz launched a UK ranch dressing in April 2026; it has since reminded England football fans that there's no need to buy it overseas. "It's already home," the brand posted on Instagram. Hellman's, fresh from a 2025 UK release of Creamy Ranch and Spicy Ranch, introduced Blue Cheese Ranch and Buffalo Ranch this March.

Whether it's coincidence or savvy marketing, there are conspiracy theories on Reddit, pointing to a global ranch psyop. Would it be the most American play of all for a federal agency to funnel customers into the hands of Big Ranch?

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Badaracco, however, insists that the World Cup ranch enthusiasm is real. "The viral videos aren't creating interest in ranch so much as amplifying an experience that people are already eager to have," she said. "Mega-events like the World Cup expose millions of people to foods they might never have tried otherwise. While most visitors won't become daily ranch consumers, some will develop a genuine preference for it and look for it when they return home. That's how international food adoption often begins – not through advertising, but through memorable experiences."

Ranch sales in the UK are indeed climbing. Hellman's is on track to break ranch sales records in June, and Heinz reports a 5% uplift in sales since the start of the tournament.

Aditi Hilgers, director of taste elevation at Kraft Heinz, also notes demand from retail shelves to pubs, where ranch is becoming this summer's staple. "We're actually ramping up production to keep pace with demand, which is a good sign of where things are heading."

Whether or not ranch is maintains its saucy stardom, for many World Cup fans it will forever remain the quintessential taste of the United States.

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What it's like to live in the world's most liveable cities in 2026

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260706-the-worlds-most-liveable-cities-in-2026, 5 days ago

The Economist Intelligence Unit's latest Global Liveability Index names the world's top cities. We asked residents to share the everyday experiences that make their hometowns such exceptional places to live.

Copenhagen has retained its title as the world's most liveable city for a second consecutive year in the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2026 Global Liveability Index.

The annual ranking assesses 173 cities worldwide across stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure to identify those offering the highest quality of life. Vienna, Melbourne, Sydney and Zurich rounded out this year's top five, reflecting both Europe's enduring dominance and Australia's continued strong showing.

To find out what life is really like in the top-ranked cities, we asked residents why they love living there – and where they take visitors to experience the city like a local.

1. Copenhagen

Taking the top spot for the second year in a row, the Danish capital earned perfect scores in stability, education and infrastructure, and one of the highest culture and environment scores of any city. For residents, that translates into a lifestyle where simple pleasures are built into the movement of the city.

"You can bike to work, jump in the harbour after and be home for dinner. It's not a special day, it's just Tuesday," said Laura Amira Kassem, an MD and PhD student who has lived in the city for eight years. "That combination of cycling infrastructure, swimmable urban water and a genuinely walkable, bikeable scale is something I haven't found anywhere else."

Kassem starts her days with an early run somewhere quiet, such as Utterslev Mose or along the lakes, followed by breakfast, coffee and, in summer, a swim.

She starts any visitor tour in Nørrebro, her culturally mixed neighbourhood. "Greengrocers, kebab shops and gold shops sit next to sourdough bakeries, natural wine bars and small dinner spots," she says. From here, she recommends grabbing bikes for a swim and coffee by the water in Nordhavn, followed by a lunch of smørrebrød, the traditional Danish open-faced rye bread sandwich, at Det Lille Apotek.

In the evening, runners can join Loopet, a 3km (1.8-mile) loop around Fælledparken where the city's running community gathers. "All are welcome," Kassem says. "Run, catch up with friends and finish with dinner sitting outside."

2. Vienna

The Austrian capital may have ceded first place to Copenhagen last year, but its perfect scores in healthcare and education keep it at number two. For residents, Vienna's liveability is found in the ease of getting around, either via public transportation or walking, and appreciating the details along the way.

"My daily ritual is my commute to work along the Ringstraße, taking one of the iconic trams," said Franziska Hochmüller, who works at the Vienna Tourist Board. "Instead of scrolling through my phone, I love to read a book or simply watch the beautiful buildings pass by. It's a small detail that reminds me every day how extraordinary the 'ordinary' in Vienna really is."

"You hardly need public transport within the 1st to 9th districts," adds Roland Eggenhofer, who works in sales and marketing at Hotel MOTTO. He likes to take visitors to the 6th and 7th districts, especially around Neubaugasse and Spittelberg, for cafes, boutiques and a relaxed atmosphere, along with the Naschmarkt for its international food scene. In autumn, he suggests a traditional Heuriger, a wine tavern in the vineyards on the city's outskirts, for a glass of local Viennese wine.

To see more of the Vienna locals live in, Hochmüller directs visitors to the Kutschkermarkt in the 18th district for its Saturday farmers' market, restaurants and cafes. "Seeing families, couples and elderly locals shopping for the week or simply enjoying their coffee is so Vienna to me," she says.

After several years in the city, the pace still wins Hochmüller over. "Even though it's a metropolis, you always have the possibility to slow down," she said. "No matter if it's in a coffeehouse, a park or at the Danube, time just runs different in Vienna."

3. Melbourne

Ranked third, Melbourne edged out its harbourside rival Sydney on the strength of its combined culture and environment score of 96, one of the highest in the index. For residents, that cultural depth comes to life in its neighbourhoods, where each suburb has its own distinct character.

"Melbourne is a big city that somehow behaves like a village," said Anne Marie Lennon, general manager of the Crowne Plaza Carlton, who has worked across the UK, Ireland and Australia. "People here are genuinely curious about you. And then there's the culture, the food, the music, the fashion, the art. Every suburb has its own vibe and identity."

Lou McGregor, a Scot who has lived in Melbourne for 20 years, agrees. "Footscray is my local [area] and one of the best places to eat and drink in the city – every culture, every cuisine and always buzzing. Fitzroy has cool little bars and vintage shops, St Kilda is perfect for a walk along the beach and Carlton is hard to beat for Italian food and a wander through the beautiful old streets."

When McGregor has visitors, she takes them to the State Library's domed reading room, Hosier Lane's ever-changing street art, the National Gallery of Victoria and the iconic laneways and arcades. "That's Melbourne to me – a city that's curious, creative and full of unexpected little moments around every corner," she says.

For a glimpse of everyday Melbourne, Lennon points visitors to the 39-hectare Princes Park. "Dog walkers, joggers, families, people just sitting and breathing. It's unhurried and real. That's the Melbourne I live in daily, and it never gets old," she said. "You can move 2km (1.2 miles) and feel like you've stepped into a completely different world."

4. Sydney

Matching Melbourne's overall score of 97, Sydney took fourth place with perfect scores in healthcare and education. But residents say it's the easy access to nature, multicultural neighbourhoods and outdoor lifestyle that make the city so liveable.

"Sydney makes it easy because wherever you are, you're never too far from a great view, whether it's the harbour, the Blue Mountains or the beaches," said Steve Kamper, the New South Wales minister for jobs and tourism. "The mix of cultures, the neighbourhoods, the incredible food and the lifestyle make Sydney special. It's a global city, but it still feels like a collection of local communities."

Venture beyond the usual tourist spots like Harbour Bridge or Bondi to see this, said Kamper, to an inner west suburb. "Burwood is the Sydney locals know and love," he said. "It's full of life, packed with incredible food and it's one of the best places to experience Sydney's multicultural character." He'd also be sure to take visitors to a [Australian rules] footy game. "Very few places in the world do sport like Sydney," he said.

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After living on four continents, French jewellery designer Julie Livni still finds herself surprised by Sydney. "People don't wait for the weekend to go to the beach or have a swim, they make it part of their daily routine," she said. For her, liveability begins with daily sunrise walks from Bondi to Bronte with her girlfriends. "As a business owner and mum of two, life moves pretty fast, so that hour by the ocean is my reset," she said. "It's the best way to start the day."

She would take visitors to Tamarama Beach for sunrise, followed by coffee in Bondi, and the ferry from Rose Bay. "Not necessarily to get anywhere, but just to enjoy seeing the Opera House and the harbour from the water," she says, stopping for lunch at Uncut Seafood.

"Sydney is also incredibly multicultural, with amazing food and people from all over the world, yet it still has such a relaxed, laid-back atmosphere," she added. "It's a rare combination for a major city."

5. Zurich

Despite slipping from joint-second spot in 2025 to fifth this year, residents say Zurich's combination of efficiency and easy access to nature underpin its exceptional quality of life.

"Zurich wouldn't be the same without the lake and the rivers. Every day I pass by either Lake Zurich, river Limmat or river Sihl and take some time for myself," says Manuela Leonhard, a Zurich native and content creator. "The waters are fresh and clear and we have more than 1,200 fountains throughout the city you can drink water from."

To show visitors why she loves Zurich so much, she takes them to Lindenhof, a once-Roman fort that is now a hilltop square with views over the Limmat and the Old Town on both banks of the river. She also recommends the terraces at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich for sweeping views across the city. "And I always walk with them through Old Town, the heart of Zurich, with its narrow streets and little shops," she said.

Even after a lifetime in Zurich, Leonhard is still surprised by how immaculately the city is maintained. "No matter what big event takes place in Zurich, the next morning you can't tell what happened the night before," she said. "That amazes me every single time."

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Walk the Scottish coast that changed science

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260703-walk-the-scottish-coast-that-changed-science, 6 days ago

The one-mile coastal walk, launched to mark the 300th anniversary of James Hutton's birth, leads visitors across the Berwickshire cliffs to the outcrop where the Scottish geologist found the evidence that Earth was vastly older than anyone had imagined.

I am standing on the grassy cliffs above Siccar Point, a rocky outcrop on Scotland's east coast, looking out over the steel blue of the North Sea from the final viewpoint of the new Deep Time Trail. This gentle one-hour return walk leads to the site of one of the most important discoveries in scientific history – a place that transformed our understanding of Earth.

The route has been created to mark the 300th anniversary of the birth of James Hutton, the founding father of geology, who was born in nearby Edinburgh in 1726. Long before Hutton set eyes on Siccar Point in 1788, he developed his radical theory that the Earth's surface was formed by cycles of erosion and renewal. But it was this rock formation – known as Hutton's Unconformity – that provided the evidence he needed to convince the world.

At Siccar Point, ancient rocks standing upright are capped by much younger, horizontal layers of sandstone, revealing a vast gap in Earth's history that couldn't be explained by 18th-Century ideas. This immense span of geological time is now known as "deep time" – the concept at the heart of the new trail.

"Hutton discovered geological time," said Professor Mark Wilkinson, president of the Edinburgh Geological Society. By doing so, he laid a canvas for future scientific revelations. "You can't have evolution if you haven't got a lot of time. Hutton gave us that time."

Walking through deep time

Starting near Pease Bay, the Deep Time Trail follows the cliffs past stones engraved with Hutton's writing and interpretation panels that link out to expert audio commentary. So, as you walk, the story of the Scotsman unfolds.

The first voice I hear on the audio narrations is Dr Elsa Panciroli, a scientist, author and former chair of the Scottish Geology Trust, welcoming me to the trail, and introducing Hutton and Siccar Point. "Geology can be challenging," she later tells me. "A lot of it takes place underground, on scales beyond our comprehension. So having a person to hook the story to, like Hutton, is really useful."

As I continue, I pass St Helen's Kirk, a red sandstone church that was already in ruins when Hutton visited 238 years ago. The kirk is surrounded by dykes (impressive stone walls) made of greywacke – a hard, dark-coloured variety of sandstone that also runs up the coastline.

I make an exception to my usual no-phone rule while walking, as scanning the QR codes along the route unlocks a fascinating audio companion. As I stroll, I listen to stories about Hutton the polymath; farmer, chemist, naturalist. A figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, he established a social club with the economist Adam Smith and chemist Joseph Black, who discovered carbon dioxide. It was a time, the narration says, when "all sorts of new and intellectual ideas were being discussed" in Edinburgh.

Walking on, a craggy dyke guides me to a bench with idyllic views. The scenery on Scotland's east coast is softer than that of the west, which is sculpted by the full force of the Atlantic. Looking along the coastline, rolling green hills and farmland descend to Borderland cliffs, which tip over and plummet to golden beaches and secluded coves. "In nature there is wisdom, system and consistency," reads a quote by Hutton, engraved in a stone block and embedded in the wall.

Hutton took an observation-led approach to his research, something that was uncommon at the time. He turned his two nearby farms – between which the 51km James Hutton Cycle Trail now runs – into working laboratories and observed how soil washed away and renewed in gradual cycles.

He also travelled around Scotland gathering rock samples. On the Isle of Arran and in nearby Jedburgh, Hutton found other notable unconformities, but Siccar Point would be his prize example.

Hiking to Siccar Point

On the sunny June day of my visit, Siccar Point is backdropped by a blaze of sun-splashed blue, stretching into the horizon. Skylarks and swifts call over the lapping waves. Standing at the clifftop, I have the feeling of reaching a threshold: where water meets rock, and rock meets human comprehension. The stylish semicircular viewing point at the trail's end, which looks down on the rocks and explains how they changed the world, is built from the same stone and stacked to mirror the famous outcrop below.

When Hutton came here in 1788, he arrived by boat with friends Sir James Hall of Dunglass and John Playfair. It's easy to imagine them sailing along the coast, notebooks in hand, scanning the site. Hutton believed he'd find an unconformity here, washed clear by the sea, and was ecstatic with the result. After they docked, he explained the significance to his friends while scrambling around the rocks. Playfair later wrote that "the mind seemed to grow giddy by looking so far into the abyss of time".

When I look down from the viewpoint, it's clear that the famous outcrop is made from two types of rock. The dark greywacke stands almost vertical, sticking out of the ocean like defensive spears, while the red sandstone lies flat on top like a stack of pancakes.

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Hutton realised that for those darker rocks to have formed in horizontal layers, then tilted upwards, eroded away and buried beneath the younger sandstone, immense spans of time must have passed. So Earth, he concluded, couldn't possibly have been created in 4004BC, as was the Biblical view at the time. Rather, it must be unfathomably older.

In fact, we now know the greywacke rocks formed 435 million years ago on the floor of an ancient ocean. As tectonic plates slowly collided and that ocean disappeared, they were – as Hutton theorised – squeezed upwards into a mountain range. What remains are the eroded remnants of that range. The sandstone on top formed another 65 million years later when what is now Scotland sat south of the Equator.

The next interpretation board is in a quiet spot, looking out over boulder-strewn shorelines beyond Siccar Point that twist out of sight to the south. A QR code on the board links out to art about Siccar Point. "Sharp grey ribs rise up through horizontal bands of red sand," sings folk artist Karine Polwart. "A lost seabed lifted to the stars."

Bringing geology to everyone

One aim of The Deep Time Trail is to make Siccar Point more accessible to the public. Despite being an international pilgrimage site for geologists, it's still off most tourists' radars – even in Scotland.

"I went to high school in Eyemouth, which is literally just down the coast, but I didn't know about Siccar Point until I was at university," says Dr Katie Strang, geology curator at The Hunterian, University of Glasgow. "Hopefully this will lead to engagement with people who might not have thought about walking a geology trail. It's a beautiful part of the coast."

Looking out over Siccar Point, I feel a sense of immensity, standing on the stub of an ancient mountain range, on rocks hundreds of millions of years old. It's easy to understand why this landscape inspired one of science's greatest leaps. As Hutton concluded in his Theory of the Earth, there was "no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end".

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The travellers who go on holiday to hunt cult sun cream

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260702-travellers-are-now-stuffing-their-bags-with-sunblock, 7 days ago

From Seoul to Paris, pharmacies and beauty stores have become must-visit stops for travellers hunting cult sun cream formulas.

Before her last trip to Seoul, Caitlin Francis-Agnew spent weeks crafting her itinerary, including stops at Olive Young, South Korea's premier cosmetics retailer. Her objective: to buy as much Korean sun cream as she could haul back to Canada.

In Lakeland, Florida, Anna Clark is preparing for her family's summer trip to Cartagena. She sends me a Google Maps screenshot, where she's highlighted the route to Colombian pharmacy chain Farmatodo. "An eight-minute walk from our hotel. I will be stopping by," she writes. She will buy viral EU sun cream formulas available abroad but not in the US.

Gone are the days of bringing home destination-themed fridge magnets. For a growing number of beauty enthusiasts, sun cream has become the must-have holiday souvenir.

Why, of all things, sun cream?

According to behavioural psychologist Carolyn Mair, attitudes towards sunbathing have shifted drastically since the 2010s. While tanning was once associated with vitality and leisure, "today, sunscreen is increasingly viewed as part of everyday self-care and healthy ageing". Skincare culture on social media, she adds, has helped reinforce this mindset – and introduce conscious consumers to innovative sun cream formulas from around the world.

The most coveted options come from the Asia-Pacific region and the Mediterranean, where summer temperatures can be intense. Rena Kim, Olive Young's global communications lead, told the BBC that foreign visitors from over 190 countries accounted for more than 25% of the company's offline revenue in 2025, with sun care emerging as a standout K-beauty staple, particularly among US and Brazilian shoppers. Olive Young's new Central Myeongdong Town location is reportedly flooded with tourists who arrive with suitcases and large shopping bags.

In 2023, EuroNews reported that TikTok had turned French pharmacies into tourist destinations. Three years on, beauty magazines call visiting them a "must", citing products their beauty editors restock when in Paris. Sun cream is always on the list.

American consumers, in particular, are drawn to other countries' sun creams because FDA regulations mean their advanced filters aren't available in the US. "Sunscreen is one of the easiest things we can do every day to prevent [cancer and premature ageing]," says Patrick Coleman, a dermatologist based in New Orleans. "[Overseas sun creams] are decades ahead."

But sun cream fever spans nations and ages. Zoe Karlis of Melbourne, Australia, visited Greece last year and delighted in buying sun cream at Greek pharmacies. "Overall, I have a lot of confidence in Australian sunscreens because our regulations are so strict," she says. "[But] I love browsing the pharmacy aisles for brands we can't get at home. It's less about one being 'better' and more about the joy of discovering what's out there. Losing an hour in a Greek pharmacy is half the fun of the holiday."

Meanwhile, social media buzzes with hauls and recommendations. "It's a rabbit hole," says Francis-Agnew. "What's available in Canada is very limited. Our regulations around UV filters are really restrictive, so we're stuck with options that leave a white cast or feel greasy."

The timeless allure of global beauty

Coveting other cultures' beauty secrets is nothing new, says Mair. "French beauty has long been associated with effortless elegance, while Korean skincare has become linked to flawless skin and innovation. Admiration in one area spills over into perceptions of products and lifestyles."

EU sun creams are renowned for using newer generation UVA filters not approved in the US, like Mexoryl 400 and Tinosorb M. Korean sun creams have a reputation for superior cosmetic elegance. "Korean SPF is coveted largely because the user experience is exceptional," says Chriselle Lim, founder and creative director of PHLUR. "They blend seamlessly into the skin without leaving the heavy or chalky finish that people historically associate with sunscreen."

American dermatologist Ellen Gendler, a longtime proponent of international sun creams, educates her patients and Instagram followers on which sun creams to try and which UV filters are most effective. Because some international skincare companies have expanded to the US but altered their sun cream formulas to comply with FDA regulations, both Gendler and Patrick also tell their American patients where to buy the original overseas products. Popular online purveyors include Care to Beauty, Stylevana and Cult Beauty, but there's often a high markup, and "the last few months with the tariffs, it's pretty much impossible", says Gendler. "[So] I tell them they should take a trip to Canada, Mexico, Europe, Asia and buy them."

Markups and tariffs equal far less than flights and hotels. But Patrick's wife, skincare educator Melissa Coleman, believes that adventure trumps surcharges.

"You get a vacation out of the deal!" she says. It's traveller maths.

The thrill of the hunt

Like international supermarkets and convenience stores, pharmacies and beauty retailers are havens of the everyday, yet thrilling in their novelty. Shelves of gleaming bottles bear unfamiliar brand names and indecipherable writing, but the promise of beauty needs no translation.

In the EU, La Roche-Posay and Spain's ISDIN produce some of the most Insta-popular sun creams. Tourists in Korea look for Beauty of Joseon and RoundLab, to name a scant few. Japanese sun creams are renowned for their watery feel.

An avid tennis player, Clark is constantly under the searing Florida sun. High factor sun cream, she says, is non-negotiable. "There's a joke in my family that no matter where we are, I can spot a pharmacy from a mile away," she says. "The green cross that represents European pharmacies might be my favourite sight while travelling."

She sends a photo from Cartagena: I count 11 bottles from La Roche-Posay, Eucerin and ISDIN. "Round one," she reports. "I tried the ISDIN Fusion Water [MAGIC SPF40] today. I like the consistency and smell. We're having a boat day, so I'll see how well it holds up."

Clark's family doesn't share her sun cream proclivities. "My daughters laugh at me," she says. "If I see a pharmacy sign, I'll say, 'I'm just going to stop in real quick.' Because if they come in with me, I will be rushed. I cannot be rushed when sunscreen shopping."

She'd planned to buy a particular spray formula, but Farmatodo didn't stock it. She'll wander Cartagena's candy-coloured colonial streets in search of more pharmacies: "I'll keep popping in until I find what I want."

Thrills aside, buying in situ is practical. Seeing products in person allows shoppers to feel the textures before they buy, and assures a fresh product. Buying in the brand's country of origin also gives travellers access to the original formulations and entire product line.

And strategy is key. "I always research weeks before," says Francis-Agnew. "I'll go through Reddit posts, check what's new on beauty blogs and build a list in my Notes app." She avoids shopping on her last day so she doesn't feel rushed, and targets Seoul's Myeongdong Olive Young flagship for their frequent sales. Go on weekday mornings, she suggests. "Evenings and weekends are absolute chaos."

In Paris, queues at Citypharma – a discount pharmacy renowned for its massive selection – are often around the block. "I never go because it's a madhouse," says Melissa, who travels overseas three or four times a year. "It's cheaper, but not that much cheaper." In Paris, she prefers Pharmacie de la Mairie and Pharmacie Des Archives. "No matter how many times I see those walls of pretty European products I think, 'This whole wall is going to make me a better person.'"

Lim builds her holiday around skincare shopping: "A perfect travel day for me might look like coffee in the morning, a museum or gallery, lunch, then a pharmacy or beauty stop in the afternoon before dinner."

She considers skincare shopping in vibrant cities like Seoul, Tokyo, Paris or Sydney a "reset" that helps her connect to the culture. "Beauty reflects how a place thinks about wellness, aesthetics and self-care. I always come home with products, but also with inspiration."

Memories that run skin deep

Melissa has already been to Rome this season and is now in Greece. Each trip, between glamorous selfies on cobblestoned streets she photographs her sun cream hauls. She brings home as much as 60 bottles. "I don't keep most of them," she assures me. "I wouldn't have the cabinet space!" Instead, she gifts much of it to loved ones and holds giveaways for her followers.

On her most recent trip overseas, Francis-Agnew brought home 15 SPF products – some for herself, some for friends. "Customs haven't flagged me yet!" she says.

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Though Gendler has spent two decades championing the superiority of overseas UV filters, she believes that the recent appeal is partly due to the chase and exclusivity. "It gives [travellers] something to do. It's like waiting online for a movie that just came out. You feel like you're part of something." Nonetheless, when she travels, she, too, brings back various formulations to test for patients and followers. "I usually go with a carry-on and come home with a checked bag," she admits.

But whether the goal is to protect your skin or be part of a cultural zeitgeist, overseas sun cream is both a practical and indulgent travel souvenir, says Lim – one that reminds you of where you discovered it each time you use it. "Emotionally, it becomes tied to the trip itself. It's the same reason people bring home a fragrance or a box of chocolates," she says. "It becomes part souvenir, part ritual, part memory."

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New Sweden: The US's long-lost 'secret' colony

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260629-new-sweden-the-uss-long-lost-secret-colony, 12 days ago

It was the smallest, least-populated and shortest-lived colony in the US. But despite being virtually unheard of today, it helped shape the nation's birth 250 years ago.

The 125-year-old elevator wheezed to a halt somewhere above Philadelphia's skyline. When the door creaked open, I was inside the clock tower of the US's tallest municipal building, gazing down at "The Birthplace of America" from a 500ft (152m) observation deck atop City Hall.

From my glass perch, I could make out City Tavern, where the Founding Fathers plotted the American Revolution. Just west, I spotted Carpenters' Hall, where the Colonies united against the British at the First Continental Congress. Nearby was Independence Hall, where the US Constitution was signed in 1787.

Squinting, I then followed a parade of red-white-and-blue American flags down Market Street, towards the Delaware River and New Jersey in the distance.

"So, everything I can see from up here was once part of… Sweden?" I asked our guide.

"I think so," he said, hesitantly. "Though you're the first visitor to ever ask about that."

Ask most Americans and they'll tell you that the United States started in Philadelphia on 4 July 1776 when the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. Fittingly, the city is the epicentre of the US's 250th anniversary celebrations this week, and as many as 1.5 million people are expected to descend on it for what will be the nation's largest Fourth of July festival.

But chances are, almost none of those coming realises that the US's political and ideological birthplace was once part of a little-known Swedish colony known as Nya Sverige (New Sweden). In fact, very few Americans (or Swedes) have any idea that there ever even was a Swedish colony in America.

From 1638-1655, this forgotten Swedish settlement extended across the Delaware Valley, encompassing parts of modern-day New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. In addition to being the smallest, least-populated and shortest-lived European colony in the US, it was also the most clandestine.

"It started as sort of secret colony," said Deborah-Jean Hoffman, a board member at the New Sweden Centre, which promotes the Delaware Valley's colonial history. "The Swedes weren't flag-planting like the French or the Spanish. The idea was to create an under-the-radar colony where the Dutch wouldn't see them."

Despite lasting just 17 years, New Sweden would play a pivotal role in forging the nation's culture to come. New Swedish settlers introduced the most iconic of American frontier buildings: the log cabin. They also brought Lutheran Christianity to the New World, led one of the earliest civilian uprisings in the US colonies and left their mark on two future US cities.

And as I was discovering, there are still traces of this long-lost Swedish outpost scattered across the Delaware Valley – if you know where to look.

A covert colony built on revenge

By 1637, European powers had already carved up much of the US's Atlantic coast when Peter Minuit, the disgruntled former governor of the New Netherland colony, approached the Swedish Crown. Minuit had famously purchased the island of Manhattan for the Dutch and spent years scouting the Mid-Atlantic for a place to establish New Netherland. But after being abruptly dismissed in 1632, he sought revenge against his former employers.

"To get back at the Dutch, Minuit went to Sweden and essentially said: you are the only major power in Europe without a colony and you're missing out on the beaver and tobacco trade. I know where you can start one," Hoffman said.

With map in hand, Minuit showed Swedish officials that in between England's claim to Virginia and New Netherland, there was a vast area unoccupied by Europeans. Minuit knew that even though the Dutch claimed the entire Delaware River, they had only actually purchased one side of it along their southern border from the Lenape. He also knew that they were far more concerned with defending New Amsterdam (modern-day Manhattan) than the Delaware Valley.

So in December 1637, Minuit led two ships out of Gothenburg with 25 would-be settlers to covertly cut in on the Dutch's trade lucrative trade monopoly with the Native nations. After four months at sea, they quietly dropped anchor along a narrow, winding tributary of the Delaware River claimed by the Dutch in present-day Wilmington, hoping its secluded location wouldn't draw too much attention.

There was only one problem: "The Dutch found out about it almost immediately," said historian and best-selling author Russell Shorto. "From the beginning, the Dutch considered [the Swedes] to be squatting in their territory, but Minuit knew the Dutch didn't have the manpower to kick them out, so he ignored them."

Soon after landing in March 1638, Minuit purchased a 67-mile (108-km) stretch of Delaware riverfront land from five Native American tribes, and the settlers built a stronghold that they christened Fort Christina, after the 12-year-old Queen of Sweden. It was the first permanent European settlement in the Delaware Valley, and the first permanent European structure in what would become the US's first state.

Mutiny and a 'Swedish Nation'

Just five months after Minuit founded New Sweden, he drowned in a Caribbean hurricane while searching for tobacco to make his new colony profitable. Broke and hungry, the 25 settlers he left behind likely wouldn't have made it through the winter were it not for their Indigenous neighbours.

"The Swedes got a lot of help from the Native people. They knew that if you got along, you could not only trade, but survive," Hoffman said. "Unlike the Dutch and English, Swedes understood and respected the Native tribes. About 80% of the settlers were actually 'Forest Finns', because Finland was then part of Sweden, and they had a deep appreciation for living off the land."

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The colony remained little more than a fledgling, far-flung outpost until 1643, when a 7ft-tall, 400-pound (2.13cm, 181kg) mammoth of a man named Johan Printz was appointed governor. Nicknamed "Big Belly" by the Lenape, Printz had a commanding presence and set out to secure Sweden's foothold in the Americas.

During the next 10 years, Printz built two more bastions along the Delaware River (Fort Elfsborg and Fort New Gothenburg); expanded the colony from present-day Cecil County, Maryland, to Trenton, New Jersey; and established a new capital just south of Philadelphia on Tinicum Island – all while issuing strict orders to maintain peaceful relations with Indigenous tribes.

Despite its territorial expansion, New Sweden never became the profitable venture it was conceived to become because it was chronically under-populated and neglected. The colony never counted more than about 400 people, and from 1648-1654, the Swedish Crown didn't send a single supply ship. Interest in emigrating was so low that the Swedish Empire resorted to sending petty criminals and military deserters as a form of punishment.

With the colony all but abandoned by the Swedish government, Printz ruled with an iron fist to keep his few settlers from deserting. In 1653, when one-quarter of the colony's male population signed a petition accusing Printz of abusing his powers, he declared it a "mutiny", but stepped down – marking one of the first successful political protests in US colonial history.

By 1655, New Netherlands' hot-tempered governor, Peter Stuyvesant, had had enough of the Swedish squatters and sent seven armed ships down the Delaware. The outnumbered Swedes surrendered without a shot, marking the end of Swedish sovereignty in the Americas. New Sweden was soon absorbed into New Netherland, but Stuyvesant allowed it to continue as a "Swedish Nation", and settlers were allowed to choose their own government, form their own militia and keep their land.

When William Penn arrived in 1682 after creating his namesake Pennsylvania colony for the English, he found Swedish and Finnish farmers living alongside the Lenape in Philadelphia. "That's why, on top of City Hall, directly below the statue of William Penn, there are four statues: two are Lenape and two are Swedes," Hoffman said. "Have you seen those?"

I hadn't. In fact, despite growing up near New Sweden's former territory, I had never seen or heard anything about it. So, I set out on a road trip to discover it for myself.

New Sweden today

"The first three log cabins in America were built right here," said Herb Conner, the lead interpreter at Fort Christina Park in Wilmington, Delaware, where the Swedes' first fortress once stood.

As we walked under a tree-lined path towards the Swedes' original landing spot, known as "The Rocks", Conner said that even as a kid growing up in Wilmington, he had also never learned about the area's Swedish history in school. Later, he discovered that New Sweden was the only European colony in the US that never went to war against the Native people.

"One of the most important lessons [New Sweden] left us is the importance of living peacefully with your neighbour," he said. "We could stand to learn a lot from them today."

A short walk from the park, a 141ft (43m) replica of that 17th-Century ship, called the Kalmar Nyckel, now bobs on the river and offers narrated cruises. The three-masted merchant vessel is sometimes called the "Swedish Mayflower", but as we plied through Wilmington's newly revamped Riverfront neighbourhood, Captain Lauren Morgens explained why that nickname isn't really apt.

"The Mayflower barely made it across the Atlantic once," she said. "The Kalmar Nyckel made four round-trip crossings with Swedish and Finnish settlers." During the 90-minute trip, you can help hoist the sails, peer into the captain's quarters and see the cramped spaces where the would-be settlers slept. Visitors also get a crash-course in New Swedish history.

Back on land, I explored three storeys of that history at the adjacent Copeland Maritime Center and Museum. Stepping inside a reconstructed log cabin, I learned that it was actually the "Forest Finns" who introduced this most quintessential of "American" buildings later adopted by so many pioneer families – including future US President Abraham Lincoln.

After a short drive down Swedes Landing Road in Wilmington, I arrived at the aptly named Old Swedes' Church. Built in 1698, it holds the distinction of being both the first Lutheran church in the New World and the oldest church in the US still used for worship in its original state. As we strolled through a cemetery towards the colonial-brick structure, the church's director of communications, Betsy Christopher, directed my attention below.

"This burial ground dates to 1638 and is where many of the original Swedish and Finnish settlers from Fort Christina are buried," she said. Christopher explained that nearly 400 years later, many of the area's Swedish descendants still pack the pews each December for the church's candlelit Sankta Lucia Christmastime celebration.

Just 30 miles (48km) separate Wilmington and Philadelphia. As I headed north along I-95, I spotted signs for Governor Printz Park in Tinicum Township, where Fort New Gothenburg and New Sweden's last capital once stood. Today, a reconstructed Swedish farmstead, the foundations of Printz's royal residence and a life-size statue of "Big Belly" himself are scattered along the seven-acre waterfront. But heeding Hoffman's advice, I had an appointment atop City Hall that I couldn't miss, so I kept moving.

Like the relics of New Sweden itself, the two bronze-cast Swedes standing atop Philadelphia are easy to miss unless you know where to look. But there they are on the tower's southern side, gazing back towards the river that brought them here, and watching over the city that grew from their farms.

"You know, it was a descendent of New Sweden [John Morton] who cast the deciding vote here in Pennsylvania to support the Declaration of Independence and separate from Britain," said Tracey Beck, the executive director, as she led me through the American Swedish Historical Museum in Philadelphia the following day.

The sweeping, 12-gallery mansion in South Philadelphia's FDR Park chronicles the nearly 400-year history of Swedish and Finnish influence in the US – starting with the surrounding area's first settlers. And while it's designed to educate Americans about their little-known colony, it often proves to be just as revelatory for Swedes.

"This is a lost part of our history," said Allan Elfström, a Swedish immigrant to the area, while eyeing a timeline of New Sweden. "When I tell many of my [Swedish] colleagues about all of this, they're baffled."

After exploring the museum's halls, I followed some 300 people clad in flower crowns, flowy dresses and traditional folkdräkter costumes outside for the museum's annual Midsommarfest. As the Carlsberg beer flowed and I tucked into smörgåstårta sandwich cakes and lingonberry sherbert, I soon found myself following a fiddler towards a towering maypole topped with Swedish flags.

"This is like our Fourth of July," said the Swedish woman next to me, reaching for my hand. As we spun around in a giant circle, singing Swedish songs under a Nordic cross, I looked up at the Philadelphia skyline in the distance, and thought about something Beck had told me earlier.

"It's so interesting to wonder what-if. There was this whole other European colony we were never taught about that once lived here. How would this country have been different if it had survived?"

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This 123-year-old air-con system has lessons for managing today's sweltering heat

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260709-this-belfast-hospital-pioneered-air-con-for-the-public-in-1903, yesterday

As climate change roasts cities around the world, air conditioning can be the difference between life and death for vulnerable people – but it comes with heavy costs. The long history of air conditioning in public spaces shows what is at stake.

There is a giant six-blade fan in the brick wall before me. The fan, painted a glossy red and set neatly into a circular hole in the wall, must weigh multiple tonnes. But when I put my hand on one of its blades, it turns easily – without so much as a squeak, as though it were installed yesterday. The slightest breeze wafts down from the contraption as it slowly decelerates, returning to a halt.

"Amazing isn't it," marvels Alan Luney, senior estates officer at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital in Northern Ireland. "After all these years, that you can spin that. I mean, there's not a noise out of it."

I'm standing inside a 123-year-old air conditioning system made of brick and iron. Installed in 1903 to cool now-demolished original wards, this system made the Royal Victoria Hospital one of the first mechanically air-conditioned public buildings in the world.

The fan once drew air across a jungle-like arrangement of coconut fibre ropes that were regularly moistened with cool water in the summer. That air then flowed along a 150m-long (490ft) corridor with an upwards-sloping floor. Openings in the corridor's walls allowed temperature- and humidity-controlled air to reach hospital wards above, through hidden ducts.

The aim? To improve patient recovery times and, ultimately, save lives.

With global temperatures rising and heatwaves becoming ever more extreme, the role that air conditioning plays in public health has become increasingly important. The need is clear. High temperatures, besides sometimes being deadly, may also make people more aggressive, or adversely affect their decision-making. Heatwaves can even reduce the efficacy of certain medicines. Public access to cool spaces is being promoted by many cities worldwide, with some even installing purpose-built, air-conditioned climate shelters.

But to really understand the significance of air conditioning as a health-preserving intervention, you should turn to its historical origins.

Although the Royal Victoria Hospital's giant fan and coconut fibre cooling system has since been superseded by more modern and more hygienic technology, it remains a testament to the life-saving power of air conditioning. Access to air-conditioned buildings drastically reduces the risk of heat-related mortality and one study found that each year, air conditioning averts around 195,000 deaths globally among people older than 65.

"Cooling is the number one most important approach to reduce the health risks of heat – and often what's required is air conditioning, or active cooling," says David Eisenman, a physician and health researcher at the University of California Los Angeles' Fielding School of Public Health.

In hospitals, air conditioning can play a vital role, reducing the risk of patients dying by up to 40% in extreme heatwaves. Hospital cooling equipment failures are treated as "critical incidents" during hot weather.

The origins of air conditioning

Florence Nightingale, nursing pioneer and social reformer, promoted various hygienic interventions, including the freshening of air in 19th Century hospitals. Most doctors and nurses achieved this at the time simply by opening the windows.

The architects of the Royal Victoria Hospital's wards in 1903 sought to create a healthy environment in a city where infant mortality was high and pollution from factories and mills was diabolical. The water-soaked coconut ropes not only cooled incoming air, they captured soot and dust, too.

"It was about creating what we would call a hygienic environment," says Nigel Keery, head of estates operations at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. "That involved not having to open windows where coal dust and soot was coming in."

The resulting system – parts of which were made by the same company that manufactured ventilation fans for the Titanic – was "very effective", he adds. Doctors working at the hospital reported outdoor temperatures of 26C (80F) in the shade during the summer after the facility opened to patients. But the air conditioning system kept the wards inside to a far more comfortable 18C.

In the 1860s, an American inventor proposed an ice-based air-cooling system for a hospital, though this did not include humidity control.

Hospital designers and medical professionals of the early 20th Century had clearly recognised the benefits of indoor air control as health-boosting. Gradually, people began to promote such interventions in other places.

Cooling stations for overheated cities

Today, in the Indian city of Jodhpur, there is a public cooling station – a cabin-like building that, for the past two years, has offered relief to people during periods of extreme heat.

Residents of Jodhpur must sometimes endure outdoor temperatures of around 50C (122F). To combat this, the cabin's walls are partly made of fibrous panels made from a dried grass called khus that is misted with water. It's a traditional way of cooling indoor spaces – and very much like the moistened coconut ropes in the Royal Victoria Hospital.

Electric fans powered by solar energy pull air across the damp khus curtains at the Jodhpur cooling station, lowering the temperature inside by as much as 12C (22F).

"It has been actively used since it was inaugurated in 2024," says Prima Madan, director of cooling and climate resilience at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a non-profit advocacy group that was involved in the cooling station's design. The facility is frequently used by people who spend significant time outdoors including women, delivery drivers and street vendors.

This concept of providing publicly accessible cool spaces fitted with air conditioners is catching on. Spain recently announced a national programme to establish a network of climate shelters – air-conditioned spaces that will generally also provide drinkable water and places to sit.

"If you know that five minutes from your house or your workplace, or on the way from the market, you start to feel too hot but you can reach a climate shelter within 100m (328ft) – I think that's essential," says Ana Terra Amorim-Maia, a climate adaptation scientist at the Basque Centre for Climate Change in Spain, who has studied climate shelters in the country.

Maps for cooler spaces

Cities that have previously not had to worry much about high temperatures are also now turning to public cooling in order to help citizens cope. Officials in the city of London have launched an interactive map identifying libraries, museums, concert venues and other locations that are reliably cool. Churches, which are often naturally cool during hot weather due to their stone construction, are also listed.

Some people are seeking their own answers to the question, "Where can I cool down?"

One London resident, Tianyin Pan, recently made an online map, highlighting businesses that have, or are likely to have, air conditioning. He created Stay Cool, an online directory of restaurants, pubs and cafés compiled using publicly available data on, for example, building energy performance. Pan cautions that the website is not 100% accurate but says he is working to update and improve it.

Public access to cool spaces is only going to become more sought-after as global temperatures rise, says Niamh O Regan, senior researcher at the Social Market Foundation, a think tank based in the UK. "I think people haven't maybe adjusted to the fact that this will become much more normal."

Learning from past disasters

To see just how disastrous extreme heat can be for human health and the difference air conditioning can make, the devastating heatwave that struck Europe in 2003 offers a stark example. It killed more than 20,000 people – some of them in the intensive care unit at Fondation Hôpital Saint-Joseph in Paris, where intensive care doctor Benoît Misset worked at the time.

"I remember very well the heatwave of 2003," says Misset, who is now retired. "Each day was very difficult."

He recalls specific cases. A baker who collapsed in front of his bread oven as temperatures rose. A worker on a construction site. A young postman, whose car lacked air conditioning. The temperature inside the vehicle must have reached 50C (122F) or more, estimates Misset. "He got out of the car and [collapsed] in the street. He was transferred to the hospital – and he died."

Misset and his colleagues were also struggling in the sweltering conditions. Back then, their intensive care unit didn't have air conditioning. Some patients were arriving severely dehydrated but the worst cases were in a kind of heat-induced coma. Desperate to offer patients relief, Misset's staff attempted to cool down water bottles in fridges before placing them on patients' bodies. "The refrigerators were not able to refresh enough litres of water," he says.

In 2006, Misset and colleagues published a study gathering together data on more than 340 heatstroke patients admitted to 80 different intensive care units around France during the 2003 heatwave. While other factors influencing patient survival cannot be completely ruled out, the study noted a striking correlation: "Patients managed without air conditioning had a 76% increased risk of death."

The environmental cost

Despite his experience, and the study's results, Misset remains somewhat cautious about air conditioning because of its environmental impact, along with the cost of installing and running it.

Air conditioning already accounts for 7% of the world's electricity use, and releases 2.7% of the world's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuels and industry. Some research indicates that the significant energy demands of air conditioning systems will intensify global warming, and release more climate-warming CO2 than the United States by 2050. Then there are the refrigerants used inside air conditioners. Some of these gases are thousands of times more potent for global-warming than CO2.

There are other problems. If electricity generated with fossil fuels is used to power air conditioners, that could also increase air pollution-related deaths, counterbalancing the health benefits of air conditioning, according to a study from Greece.

However, alternatives such as passive cooling – achieved by shading buildings and windows, painting roofs white to reflect heat or adding insulation to block heat from getting inside – may not be enough in many places, says Catherine Noakes, an environmental engineer at the University of Leeds in the UK.

"We've gone past being able to do it all passively, particularly in cities," she says. "When it's really, really hot outside, it's very challenging."

Many hospitals, for example, still struggle without air conditioning – more than 120 years after Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital got its pioneering system. Noakes points out that hospital staff today often turn to electric fans, which can be effective for cooling people down at a low cost so long as temperatures don't exceed roughly 40C (104F). Fans also risk spreading airborne pathogens around a ward, says Noakes.

There is huge demand from hospitals around the world for air conditioning systems at the moment, says Jose La Loggia, EMEA group president at Trane Technologies, which has many clients in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors.

The French Government recently allocated €100m (£86m/$114m) in emergency funding to buy 30,000 air conditioning units for healthcare facilities while the country struggled with a brutal heatwave at the end of June. And a May 2026 report by the independent Climate Change Committee, which advises the UK government, has warned that £144m ($191m) per year will need to be spent on cooling healthcare facilities in England and Wales over the coming decades.

Today, even Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital is not 100% air conditioned. It's "too expensive" says Keery.

He says that interest in the hospital's original, pioneering air conditioning system has only grown in recent years, though. "We kept it going as engineers," he says. "It was in a forgotten corner."

Preserved almost in its entirety, but no longer connected to functioning wards, it serves as a reminder of why air con matters so much for public health. "Amazing, isn't it?" says Luney.

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Life in a heat dome: The American West is figuring out how to keep cool

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240613-how-to-cool-down-urban-heat-islands-in-americas-heatwaves, yesterday

From planting trees to painting streets white, US cities are fighting extreme heat.

In 2013, Los Angeles became the first large city to pass a law requiring all new homes to have a cool roof. Since then, the city – where the number of days at 35C (95F) is expected to soar by 2050 – has rolled out numerous other keep-cool initiatives, including painting pavements white and expanding its Green Standards Building Code to include cool roofs on non-residential buildings and retrofits.

Despite the mitigation efforts, however, the population is still suffering from issues linked to excess heat. A study found the number of extreme heat-related emergency calls in Los Angeles between 2018 and 2022 directly correlated with the number of days that were 32C (90F) and above.

"The opportunities for heat mitigation in the US are huge," says Steffen Lehmann, director of the University of Nevada's Urban Futures Lab. "The knowledge is there, but the things that need to be done are not being done. It is extremely frustrating."

This year, extreme heat warnings are in place across much of the western US from 11 to 13 July, as a heat dome brings dangerously hot temperatures of 100-106F (38-41C). The extreme conditions come after a heat dome led to 4 July celebrations being cancelled in parts of the eastern US due to extreme heat.

This latest heatwave is making it even more vital for cities to ready themselves for hot weather. But some experts say that cities are inadequately prepared – even though the science behind how to cool cities down is well known.

Around 80% of America's population lives in urban areas – where the heat island effect can drastically worsen the impact of hot weather. Urban heat islands are densely populated, built up areas with few trees and large areas of dark concrete and asphalt that absorb the sun's energy. As the sun goes down, the manmade materials release the stored heat – ensuring that the city stays hot, even at night. Urban heat island temperatures can be up to 11C (20F) hotter than less populated areas.

Vulnerable communities, such as the elderly, children, and low-income populations, are disproportionately impacted by the heat – with hotter temperatures even taking a toll on newborn babies.

As US cities continue to experience record-breaking, life-threatening triple-digit days, researchers like Lehmann say many areas are still underprepared. In 2022, a group of scientists examined 175 municipal city plans from the 50 most populous cities in the US. Although the majority mentioned heat, "few included" strategies to address it, the report found.

"If cities are not painting a complete picture of heat — how chronic it is, and its disparate impacts on the ground — we're not going to be able to fully protect residents, and we could end up exacerbating existing social and environmental injustices," says co-author Emma French, a doctoral student in urban planning at University College of Los Angeles.

Another study found 41 million people live in areas with extreme urban heat island temperatures. The report, by Climate Central, found 14 cities had an extreme contrast between temperatures in urban areas versus surrounding less-developed areas. These included Albuquerque, Bakersfield, Fresno and Las Vegas.

The problem is "too much talking and not enough action", Lehmann says. "It's extremely difficult to effect change." It is hard to hold one city up as a model case study when it comes to heat mitigation, Lehmann continues, because there's nowhere in the US doing it well.

"But", he continues, "I am optimistic. Because there are things cities can do to cool down. And I do think there is a mindset-change happening."

Green over grey

Tree-planting is widely known to lower surface and air temperatures by providing shade, and cooling by evaporation and transpiration. Research has shown that urban forests have temperatures that are on average 1.6C (2.9F) lower than unforested urban areas.

As a result, cities across the US have rolled out their own greening initiatives. Austin, Texas, requires 50% tree canopy coverage in the city by 2050. In Phoenix, Arizona – a place with the reputation for being the hottest city in the US – a tree-planting drive is bringing shade to some of the city's warmest neighbourhoods. More than $1.4m (£1m) has been approved to plant up to 1,800 trees across the city to provide cool corridors.

In Tuscon, Arizona, drought makes tree-planting even harder in low-income neighbourhoods, where residents often can't afford to plant or maintain trees in their gardens. The city runs a rebate programme to reimburse residents up to $2,000 (£1,563) for installing rainwater collection systems, where the water could be used for trees and green areas. This includes zero-interest loans and grants for economically challenged communities, as well as providing workshops in Spanish.

Plants are not just being planted on the ground, though, but also on roofs. In 2017, San Francisco mandated that at least 15% surface area of roofs on new buildings bigger than 2,000 sq ft (1,858 metres) must be covered by either solar panels or vegetation. A number of large buildings in the city have already installed green roofs, which not only remove heat from the air through evapotranspiration, but reduce surface temperatures of the roof surface. On hot summer days, a green roof's temperature can be cooler than the surrounding air, whereas a conventional rooftop can be over 40C (72F) warmer.

Paint it white

A recent study found that a clean white roof that reflects 80% of sunlight will stay about 31C (56F) cooler on a summer afternoon.

The idea isn't new – cities in North Africa and southern Europe have been doing this for centuries. Lehmann helped spearhead painting white roofs in Australia back in 2012, where community projects have been found to cool the insides of buildings by up to 2.5C (4.5F). Now, he says, the movement is finally making its way over to the US.

The city of New York has recently coated more than 10 million sq ft (930,000 sq metres) of rooftops white, which is reducing internal building temperatures by 30%. California, meanwhile, has updated building codes to promote cool roofs, which are seen as an important way to save energy.

Scientists around the world have been developing cool paint coatings for pavements, roofs and walls that contain special additives to reflect the sun's heat. White paint can reflect sunlight, but paint coating contains high concentrations of pigments which means the paint also has water-resistant and reflective properties. The coatings have been proven to help pedestrians feel 1.5C (2.7F) cooler.

The paint reduces surface heat absorption, meaning that at night, the lighter surfaces are not releasing heat they would have stored during the day. Los Angeles has been trialling cool paint, but there are drawbacks; the paint the city is using costs $40,000 per mile (£31,268) and lasts seven years. Also, as Lehmann points out, "white roads don't stay very white for long".

Cooling a city down at night is extremely important because it gives residents a chance to cool down too – staying hot at night can lead to serious health problems. Night time is also when the urban heat island effect can be at its most severe.

Painting pavements with cool coatings is being trialled at various locations in the country. In 2020, a study in Phoenix found coating pavements with cool paint lowered the surface temperature of the streets. After the study's findings, the city made it a permanent programme.

But it's a complicated solution; reports also show white pavements can actually make people feel hotter, as the sunlight is reflected off the white ground, and is instead absorbed by the people walking on it. And although the surface temperature of the pavement in Phoenix was 5.5C (10F) cooler, the air temperature 6ft (1.8 metre) away from the pavement measured just 0.16C (0.3F) cooler.

Community participation

Data-gathering plays an important role in planning for the future when it comes to heat.

In 2022, 60 volunteers measured the morning, afternoon and evening temperatures across Clark County, where Las Vegas sits, as part of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-funded heat mapping study. The map produced from that data shows that elevated temperatures are worst in North Las Vegas, East Las Vegas and downtown, which can get up to 6C (11F) hotter than other parts of the city. The county is now using the data to inform heat mitigation policies which include community cooling centres and tree-planting initiatives.

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, the city worked with local volunteers to map temperature and humidity by handing out specially-designed thermal sensors. Residents drove or bicycled around prescribed routes twice daily to record more than 67,000 temperature points. The maps showed differences of up to almost 9.4C (17F) in different portions of the city, with hottest temperatures in downtown and neighbourhoods adjacent to highways. Again, the neighbourhoods worst affected were low-income communities. The city then teamed up with Nasa to take satellite images, which were overlaid with social vulnerability data to target frontline communities.

The city had never done something like this before, and the data allowed the city government to plan for heat accordingly, according to who needed help the most. "It led to two important strategies we're implementing right now," says Albuquerque's sustainability officer Ann Simon. One is a community energy-efficiency programme, where low-income families are helped to maximise their energy efficiency in their home and lower their energy bills by around £233 ($300) a year. To date, the city has made improvements in 104 homes.

"We're a small programme but we did just receive a large $2 million grant to help more families so we can help the number of families we serve by sixfold," says Simon.

Nasa will also be imaging the neighbourhoods again, which Simon hopes will inform future planning.

Planning for the future

Planning is also crucial for cities like Las Vegas, which is the second fastest-warming city in the US behind Reno, Nevada, and where temperatures this June hit around 46.1C (115F).

"Just a couple of years ago, very few cities were talking about preparing for rising temperatures, so it's an important step that heat is becoming a larger part of the conversation," says V. Kelly Turner, professor of urban planning and co-director of the University of California's Los Angeles Luskin Centre for Innovation.

Lehmann been working with Las Vegas city officials for the past six years developing a master plan for how to cool the city by 2050. In 2021, the city's Clark County released its 2050 Master Plan, which features plans to mitigate heat. Planting low maintenance and drought-tolerant plants to provide shade, reducing hardscaped areas, and designing buildings that provide shade are just some of the policies laid out. "But I believe we'll see change," says Lehmann, "now that the city wants it."

Las Vegas has already started on other initiatives, such as opening public cooling stations for the homeless during heatwaves, and beginning a project to plant 60,000 trees by 2050 to provide shade. At the parking lot of a large basketball stadium, 1,000 parking spaces are being removed in order to plant 1,000 trees. It's a controversial move though, says Lehmann, in a city that is so car-dependent. The city is also working with engineers at the University of Vegas to develop a reflective roof coating for the hundreds of casinos and hotels in Las Vegas – but its application will be voluntary, Lehmann notes.

There is certainly a plethora of science and research on how cities can cool down. However, as with most things, the science is complex; trees can make the air feel more humid – which can also lead to dangerous health impacts – and white paint on pavements can still leave streets feeling hot.

As always, it comes down to implementing a multitude of solutions, and thinking outside the box. Despite his frustrations, Lehmann remains positive. "As architects, our job is to reimagine the future," he says. "I don't need to see what Las Vegas looks like now, I need to see what it looks like in 20 years time."

This story was originally published on 13 June 2024, and updated with details of another heat dome over the western US on 10 July 2026.

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The twilight zone: Every night trillions of tiny creatures rise from the ocean depths

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260706-the-deep-sea-creatures-that-rise-every-night, 5 days ago

In the ocean's twilight zone, where the reach of the Sun fades to nothing, the world's largest migration begins every time night falls. It could also have an outsized effect on our climate.

During World War Two sonar technicians made an extraordinary discovery. The pings from their echo sounders reflected off what they thought must be the ocean floor. But the sea was much shallower than they had expected and – even more puzzlingly – the seabed seemed to move up and down throughout the day.

This wasn't the undulating ocean floor, however, but the many inhabitants of the twilight zone making their nightly migration to the surface to feed. This concentrated "deep scattering layer" of marine organisms, suspended in the water column, was so extraordinarily high that it scattered the sound, reflecting the sonar pings as if it was a solid object.

Beneath the waves, the twilight zone – or mesopelagic zone – starts at a depth of 200m (656ft), where the ocean is bathed in perpetual twilight. Sink deeper and the reach of the Sun's rays fades rapidly. The last remnants of sunlight vanish completely around 1,000m (3,280ft). There, the only light is the eerie glint of bioluminescence, produced by creatures that glow in the dark.

This vast layer of water spans the globe and is teeming with an astonishing diversity of life. It is home to an estimated 95% of all fish biomass, and around 10,000 million tonnes of fish.

Every night trillions of zooplankton that inhabit this zone rise from the deep to feed under the cover of darkness. This phenomenon, known as diel vertical migration (DVM), is the largest natural migration of animals on the planet, with an estimated biomass of 10 billion tonnes. As the Earth spins on its axis, diel vertical migration takes place throughout the world's oceans. "I like to think of it as a Mexican wave," says Laura Hobbs, lecturer in Arctic Marine Science at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, describing the swell of animals rising and falling, following the night around the globe.

"Zooplankton go to the surface to feed because that's where the phytoplankton is," says Hobbs.

"Zooplankton", she explains, is an umbrella term for many different species of tiny animals that live in the ocean. "These critters are just millimetres long, they're tiny. And they're swimming hundreds of metres every single day, up and down again. It would be like running multiple marathons." (Read about Jailing Cai's incredible experience of photographing animals of the twilight zone.)

Phytoplankton, meanwhile, are the plant-plankton. "Phytoplankton need the sunlight [to grow]. That's why they're restricted to the surface layers."

"As the Sun rises," says Hobbs, "the zooplankton become threatened by visual predators, bigger zooplankton or fish [that can see them now in the light]. So, they migrate back down into darker waters and stay there to digest. Then they excrete their waste, get hungry again and, as the Sun sets, they come back up for more."

One of the first direct observations of DVM, says Jon Copley, professor of ocean exploration at Southampton University, UK, was made in 1966 by the legendary ocean explorer, Jacques Cousteau when diving in his UFO-shaped "diving saucer" submersible. Almost half a century later, Copley himself was also lucky enough to see the phenomenon up close.

Copley has explored the deep ocean all over the world and the big realisation, he says, is how much of the Earth rests in perpetual darkness. "We're told it's an ocean planet, a blue planet. Well, 71% of the surface is blue – but actually the blue comes from the sunlight reflecting off the sunlit upper layer. Most of [the ocean] is beyond the reach of the Sun's rays. It's not only an ocean planet, it's a deep, dark ocean planet."

Copley was in the Gulf of Mexico, ascending at dusk from exploring a brine pool at 650m (1,970ft) depth, when he passed through the deep scattering layer. "We were in a Johnson Sea Link submersible, which is an acrylic sphere sub. So, we had a really good view," he says.

To save battery power on the sub, all the lights were turned off. The only light was that of tiny glowing sea creatures. "It looked like a blizzard, with these flashes of light." That's when he realised they were coming up through the vertically migrating layer – countless animals also making their way to the surface.

Copley couldn't distinguish the different species that were emitting light as, he says, often it's just a single organ that glows "or different bits of their bodies". "It was like playing dot-to-dot to guess the animal," he says.

As they rose higher, the pilot put on a strobe light so the ship would be able to locate the sub when they surfaced. And each time the strobe flashed, "everything else flashed back", says Copley. At this point, Copley realised he had only been seeing a fraction of the life that surrounded them. "Suddenly I thought, 'wow, we're really in a soup!'. It's not a just a watery ocean, it's a living soup."

The creatures of the mesopelagic play a critical role in oceanic food webs. Many of the species in this zone are important prey for larger predatory species, including ones we humans rely on for food such as tuna and swordfish. And it is thought that these tiny swimming animals may contribute to biomixing too, that is the churning of ocean waters and transportation of nutrients from deep to shallow waters and vice versa.

However, many of these animals are so tiny that they live in the "viscous world", says Copley. "The world we're familiar with is what we call the 'inertial world'. So, if we dive into a swimming pool, do a stroke and stop, we will glide through the water, "because we live at the inertial scale".

"When you get really small, you enter the viscous world, where the physics is quite different. If we were to dive into a swimming pool full of molasses, we'd do a stroke and we'd stop." That, he explains, is what the ocean feels like for the smallest of sea creatures.

More like this:

• When deep sea creatures rise to the surface

• The strange deep-sea creatures that eat whales

• The sharks emerging from the deep

Copepods – tiny crustaceans sometimes called the "insects of the sea" – make up a huge proportion of the deep scattering layer.

"Copepods are one of, if not the most abundant animal in the sea, by biomass and by number," says Hobbs. "They are absolutely everywhere in the world's oceans. When you look at them under a microscope, some of them are sort of cute and funny. They're darting around, and they're just like nice little insects. Then you come across some that are really big. They're the predatory ones. They've got massive, aggressive mouthparts. They're ferocious looking."

Many copepods live right on the boundary between the inertial and viscous worlds, says Copley. "Sometimes they can move fast enough that they break into the inertial world and they will glide. But a lot of the time their feeding appendages are within the viscous world. When they capture a food particle, they can't throw it to their mouth – because as soon as they let go of it, it will stay where it is, stopped by the viscosity of the water. So they have these amazing appendages for catching food particles and bringing them to their mouths.”

A single copepod – trapped in its viscous world – might not have much effect on ocean mixing, but imagine trillions of these minute creatures all waggling their little limbs at the same time. "When you get enough of these animals together, they might start to produce larger effects," says Copley. "It's such an interesting possibility, and something we've overlooked in our understanding of the oceans."

Diel vertical migration is also thought to transport up to six gigatonnes of carbon – more than double the emissions from all cars worldwide – from the upper ocean into the deep sea per year, where it can be stored for centuries. This plays a crucial role in regulating the Earth's climate as it keeps carbon locked away and out of the atmosphere. If they survive the night, these tiny travellers will carry any organic matter they've consumed at the surface back down to the depths as night turns to day.

"Rather than [the organic matter] sinking and getting eaten on the way down, now it's inside whatever's swallowed it," says Copley. "It's carried back down to the deep, where it may be released, or that animal might be eaten by something else. This gives us a kind of a shortcut for getting carbon down into the ocean, and that's really important."

Once carbon moves below roughly 1,000m (3,280ft) depth in the ocean, it can remain out of the atmosphere for millennia. "This migration has these really important consequences for what the ocean does as part of our planet's living system," says Copley.

The twilight zone and its many inhabitants, however, face a multitude of threats. Climate change-driven sea-ice decline means sunlight can reach deeper into the ocean for longer periods of time, trapping zooplankton in the depths as they wait for darkness to come. And ocean warming is altering the habitat range of species, impacting the food chains that rely on them. Fisheries, too, have begun peering into the darkness in the hope of expanding their catch.

Some areas of the deep ocean are protected, though. These include the marine protected areas (MPAs) off Hawaii, the South West coast of England, Nova Scotia and the Azores. But, however far these MPAs stretch into the deep ocean, they are only designed to protect the seabed.

Now, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has called for a pause on expansion of mesopelagic fishing until we better understand this crucial portion of the ocean. The IUCN's Motion 035 is a radical idea that would protect whole of the water column and not just the ocean floor.

Despite over 200 years of research into this epic daily migration, many questions remain. "We don't understand what the variability within the zooplankton community is," says Hobbs. "Are the smaller versus bigger zooplankton doing something different? Are species behaving differently? Understanding this variability is really important. For example, a change in the dominant species in a certain area [due to ocean warming], could have implications for the carbon flux and for predator-prey interactions. There is still so much to find out."

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'Hotter and hotter and hotter' - Europe's new climate in seven charts

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8e2j0j87reo, 9 days ago

We might only be a few days into July, but two record-breaking summer heatwaves have already provided the UK and Europe with a snapshot of their new climate.

Hot on the heels of May's heat, June saw temperature records not only broken but smashed in what the UN's weather agency called an "extraordinary" event across the continent.

And after a brief period of respite, another heatwave is on the way.

If this feels unusual, that is because it is. But it is also exactly what scientists predicted in our warmer world, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels releasing heat-trapping greenhouse gases into our atmosphere.

"Human-induced climate change has made events like this more likely and more intense," said Prof Stephen Belcher, chief scientist at the UK Met Office.

The intensity of these heatwaves is evident from how far temperatures were above normal in May and June averaged across the UK, marked here in red.

While the June heat was strongest in southern England and south Wales, few areas escaped the warmth.

Temperatures peaked at 37.7C in Lingwood, Norfolk, according to provisional figures. It was one of several stations to surpass the UK's previous June high of 35.6C, set in 1957 and tied in 1976.

"To see temperatures like this in the UK in June is sobering," said Belcher.

Not every weather station has data as far back as the famous summer of 1976, but even some of the longest-running stations saw their previous records broken by 2C or more.

"We normally expect the records broken by small amounts – tenths, maybe up to a degree or so," said Ed Hawkins, professor of climate science at the University of Reading.

"So to have it shattered by such a large amount is noticeable and extraordinary, and of course this comes after a similar event in May."

June's heatwave may have felt particularly oppressive because it brought a double whammy of high temperatures and humidity. High humidity means it is harder for our bodies to cool down by sweating.

It also stayed very warm even after the Sun had set, making it difficult to sleep. Our bodies rely on cooler nighttime temperatures to recover from the heat of the day.

In Cardiff, temperatures did not drop below 23.5C on the night of Wednesday 24 June into Thursday – the warmest June night ever recorded around the UK.

Most of England and Wales experienced at least one tropical night in June, where temperatures do not fall below 20C. Historically, these have been very rare in the UK.

"We would definitely expect to see more and more tropical nights, as global temperatures keep rising," said Hawkins.

The same "heat dome" that brought extraordinary heat to the UK in June also saw records tumble across Europe.

The German weather service, Deutscher Wetterdienst, named it "a heatwave for the history books". The French weather agency, Météo-France, described it as "exceptional" and "historic".

More than a dozen countries across western, central and eastern Europe broke their June temperature record – with gaps of up to two or three degrees between old and new highs.

Some countries faced temperatures above 40C and set a new record for any time of year - even though June is typically cooler than July.

France and Spain also recorded their hottest June days in terms of a national average, although higher temperatures had been reached before at individual weather stations.

"Compared to historical measurements, this was obviously very unusual," said Sonia Seneviratne, professor at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science at ETH Zurich in Switzerland.

The Alpine nation reached 39C, surpassing the previous June record by more than 2C.

"[But] I would say as a climate scientist, I was not that surprised to see this happen... when you know that we have a warming climate," she added.

Global temperatures have been rising over the past century due to humanity's emissions of greenhouse gases, but local or regional geography shapes the speed at which different places are warming.

And as Europe is warming particularly quickly, it is more exposed to frequent and stronger spells of extreme heat.

Europe's rapid warming is partly the result of the melting of bright snow and ice, and a drop in the number of tiny polluting particles in the air. This means that less of the Sun's energy is reflected back into space, leaving more energy to heat the Earth's surface.

Some scientists also argue that the warming climate may be changing atmospheric circulation patterns around Europe in a way that brings more of the high-pressure systems that can lead to heatwaves, although this is not certain.

Europe's seas are exceptionally warm this summer too. Marine heatwaves conditions around the UK's coast have strengthened partly because of last week's record-breaking air temperatures.

But as water takes longer to cool down than the air, sea heat can be longer-lasting. This can help to intensify future heatwaves on land by reducing the cooling effect from sea breezes.

Scientists are certain that climate change has already made warm spells like the June heatwave significantly hotter than the same weather systems of the past.

"The only way to explain [such strong heatwaves] is to taking into account this [long-term] warming," said Seneviratne

"When you have a high-pressure system, this heatwave will tend to be much hotter [now]. This is very well understood."

And scientists warn that as average temperatures continue to rise, hot spells of the future will be able to reach even higher temperatures.

Only a few decades ago, the UK reaching 30C in June was a relatively rare event. Now it has become the norm.

The long-term warming trend across the UK and Europe does not mean that the next heatwave will be hotter than the last, nor that next summer will necessarily be hotter than this one.

But scientists warn that UK and European summers will inevitably keep getting warmer on average as carbon emissions continue to heat up the planet.

"Our heatwaves will get hotter and hotter and hotter until we get to global net zero greenhouse gas emissions [and] we stabilise the climate," said Hawkins.

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Villagers advised to evacuate due to mountain wildfire

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg7280qwxpo, today

People have been advised to evacuate their homes in a rural community due to the spread of a wildfire.

Firefighters have been tackling the blaze on Conwy Mountain and the Sychnant Pass in Conwy county since Sunday morning.

Penmaenmawr town council advised householders at Capelulo, particularly those around the Fairy Glen public house, to "leave safely and follow the instructions of the emergency services on scene".

"This remains a precautionary measure due to smoke being carried by the wind," it said in a Facebook post.

The Gladstone Inn has been deemed a place of safety for evacuees and those unable to return to their homes.

The Conwy Old Road, Dwygyfylchi, has been closed due to the blaze.

North Wales Police advised other householders to "keep all doors and windows closed for the time being".

North Wales Fire and Rescue Service said it was alerted to the fire in the early hours.

Crews still tackling hot spots at heathland fire

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c79y2ny8llno, today

Firefighters are continuing to tackle hotspots at a heathland fire.

The wildfire broke out at Blackwater, in Hampshire, on Saturday at about 13:30 BST and has spread across about 10 hectares (25 acres) of heathland near the Surrey border.

More than 60 firefighters in nine fire engines, along with three water carriers and numerous specialist wildfire vehicles, have been working overnight to bring the fire under control and prevent further spread.

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire & Rescue Service (HIWFRS) said crews would remain at the heathland throughout Sunday and urged people to avoid the area.

Fire services across the south of England have warned that a few days of hot weather have "greatly increased" the risk of wildfires as the country experiences its third heatwave of 2026.

Preschool warns heat is negatively impacting pupils

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgevw1x3d17o, today

The manager of a pre-school playgroup has said the negative impact that hot weather has on children cannot be ignored any longer.

Elaine Kilner has worked at Sunnyside Preschool Playgroup in Kingsthorpe, Northamptonshire, for 26 years and said this summer's record temperatures have made it increasingly hard to keep children cool.

She said that children heat up four times faster than adults and they often do not realise they are overheating.

"[The heat] has a negative impact on children's ability to engage in activities, it's very difficult for them to concentrate in this heat, so it's been really difficult to maintain an effective learning environment," she added.

The manager has started a community fundraiser to help pay for air-conditioning at the preschool, which she said would improve the environment for students and staff.

"Although many years ago we just had to get on with it, we need to take better care of our children now," she said.

"It's a mobile classroom, so the materials used to construct the building are not suited to the hot weather. It's like trying to work in a greenhouse," Kilner said.

"We've noticed that [the heat is] beginning to impact the children, reducing concentration, increasing fatigue and general discomfort," she added.

Kilner, who works with children aged two to four, told the BBC that methods the preschool uses to keep pupils cool - such as turning on fans, staying in the shade, drinking water and wearing a hat - were not effective enough anymore.

"We needed to find a long-term solution because we can't close, we can't do reduced hours because all our parents are working families and obviously they can't take time off either."

Kilner added: "With climate change, the heat feels more intense and it's lasting a lot longer. I think we're more aware of child development and how heat, and low attendance, impacts them.

"We need to make sure that [students and staff] are in an environment that's suitable in all weathers to be educated."

Kilner said children can go pale and lethargic when the heat gets too much.

"We have to be really mindful and really vigilant watching them, making sure that they're hydrated to avoid fainting.

"Like the football, we keep having hydration breaks," she added.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, who visited Beanfield Primary School in Corby, Northamptonshire, last month, said: "There's been a big job of work left in order to really make sure that all our schools are modern buildings that are able to deliver a brilliant education for our children.

"We are investing a lot of money in making that a reality, but I think the challenges that schools are facing around the extreme weather at the moment demonstrate that there's more to do."

She said the government had allocated £2.4bn in 2025/26 to improve the condition of school and college estates.

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How can Jersey adapt to a changing climate?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c892kj08qezo, yesterday

Before July and August, traditionally Jersey's two hottest months, had started, the island had already experienced a pair of heatwaves and record temperatures.

Climate change caused by humans has made heatwaves more frequent, intense, and last longer.

While some people enjoyed spending time on the beach during the hot weather, for many others temperatures over 30C (86F) in May and June were more of an endurance.

With Jersey now in the middle of its third heatwave in less than two months, and more hot weather increasingly likely, how can the island prepare its public buildings and homes?

'Unprecedented heat'

Jersey had its hottest ever May and June this year, when it hit by what Jersey Met described as "unprecedented heat".

Temperatures peaked at a record 39.3C (102.7F) in June and May brought the island's first ever five-day period of temperatures above 30C (86F).

More than half of the hottest 20 days ever recorded have been during this century, and seven since 2020.

Head of meteorology at Jersey Met Paul Aked said May had been the earliest there had been a heatwave, and the earliest in a year temperatures had been above 30C (86F).

He said: "Temperatures are indeed getting warmer or hotter in line with what we know about how our climate is changing.

"We're seeing these events happen more often in recent years... into the future we should expect to see and experience more hot weather."

The world has already warmed by about 1.1C (34F) since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.

Nearby France recorded more than 2,000 excess deaths during June's heatwave.

Jersey's new infrastructure minister deputy Jonathan Renouf said he will need to consider how to future-proof the island.

He said many buildings, such as schools and hospitals, had been built for a climate that "no longer exists" and is "only going to get more extreme".

"You can't plan infrastructure without the climate as a key variable.

"I think any infrastructure project has to have climate resilience built into it," he added.

He said that included the design of buildings, the implications of rising sea levels on sea defences and the water supply.

Jersey Water said June's heatwave led to the highest weekly demand for water since a drought in 2022.

The company said 35 million gallons (59 million litres) had been used, which had been nearly 5% of the island's stored water.

It said reservoir levels at Queen's Valley and Val de la Mare were in a "good position" but "could drop fast".

Is air conditioning the answer?

As people scrambled to keep cool in record temperatures, portable air conditioning quickly sold out in many shops.

Air conditioning has been in hot demand, with retailers seeing their stock fly off the shelves and units online sell out across the UK.

In two days in May, Romerils department store sold the same number of air conditioning units as it had the whole of 2025.

It reported sales in the last two months had been 70% higher than during the same period last year.

Carla Martini, who works at the company, said suppliers would not have more until next year.

She said there had not been more desire for built-in air conditioning in domestic homes but there had been extra demand for commercial premises.

Meanwhile, The Powerhouse shop said it had sold a year's worth of portable air conditioning units in the last few weeks.

Panther Office Products secured more stock of the units but said suppliers had set higher prices.

Managing director Anna Davies said demand had significantly increased.

She said: "Most summers people would buy fans and they could cope... we have been having people call non-stop looking for aircon units."

A new University of Reading study found 4.3% of homes in England used air conditioning, but that "groups most at risk from heat use it least", including over-75s and single-parent families.

During the heatwaves, deputy Louise Doublet raised concerns about the impact on patients in hospital and asked people to donate fans to help the wards cope.

She said the new government needed to take the issue of extreme heat "very seriously".

Doublet said some specific measures could be taken to help people access fans and air conditioning, adding that costs "shouldn't be a barrier" to health and safety, especially when involving the welfare of very young children.

She said there were other solutions which could help reduce the heat.

"Planting trees is really important because the shade that trees provide will lower the temperature by a few degrees and that can make all the difference in a heatwave," she explained.

Architect Anna Robertson agreed and said designs with more shade, shutters and greenery could keep temperatures down.

She is from Bermuda and said islanders there "survive on air-conditioning" but she was concerned Jersey and the UK lacked the infrastructure to deal with the amount of energy air conditioning would consume if everyone used it.

Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Birmingham have warned air conditioning "significantly worsens global warming".

An author of the paper, Hongzhi Zhang, said: "In regions with cleaner electricity systems, the same amount of cooling demand would have a much lower climate impact."

Jersey imports almost all of its electricity from France, which is generated through low-carbon nuclear or hydroelectric power systems.

As temperatures soared in June, vulnerable islanders in care homes were kept cool with ice lollies and fans.

Home manager at Stuart Court Residential Home, Elaine Jackson, said: "They are sweating so much, like us all, and the staff, we're all sweating.

"We do need to replace those fluids and replace those electrolytes and make sure people are kept cool."

Resident Beryl Butel said: "We're very lucky because we've got the fans going and I've got one in my room, but it's the staff, really, because they're very hot."

People in the hospital and outpatients centre said they had struggled to keep cool and the health minister has promised those problems would not continue when new health facilities had been built.

Renouf said the island need to start planning "now" for the fact the island will not return to previous, cooler climates.

He said he wanted to consider how developers could design methods of capturing rainwater to reuse and if older buildings could be retrofitted with cooling systems.

"I don't think we can wave a magic wand, we can't immediately address every single one of those problems in one go, but I think we need to start having the conversation now about what changes we make to building regulations, so that new buildings are future-proofed," he added.

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Climate group saddened as council stops support

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgdyr5wgpxo, yesterday

The chairman of the Essex Climate Action Commission said the group was "saddened" its work would probably pause after Essex County Council severed its support.

Prof Jules Pretty said the staff and administrative support from Essex County Council, to deliver projects, was going to be removed.

He said while the commission would not close, the activities undertaken would have to be cut back substantially.

A spokesperson for Essex County Council, which has been run by Reform UK since May, said the authority planned to step back from the commission.

But they said the council was committed to continue work across Essex on environmental issues such as water and air quality, local nature recovery and flood resilience.

Pretty, who is also an environment academic at the University of Essex, said the commission's work had been superb and had helped to deliver environmental improvements across the county.

The commission is an independent organisation launched in 2020 by the last Conservative administration of Essex County Council, with cross-party support.

It produced a 100-point action plan to make Essex carbon neutral.

Sixty-four of those actions are in progress or in place - the commission says - including new planning and building regulations that will see more energy efficient homes with lower bills built in Essex.

Laura Mansel-Thomas, a senior partner at building design company Ingleton Wood, is one of the commissioners.

She said "tough targets for carbon and energy reduction" had delivered "low-carbon and resilient school buildings".

Roger Morris, who is Bishop of Colchester and is also a commissioner, added: "This is not just bad news for the environment, it is bad news for Essex."

He warned it "will cost the people of Essex millions of pounds in new investment and jobs".

Labour district councillor Ivan Henderson, based in Harwich, warned it could undermine plans for a clean, green energy investment in the East of England.

Conservative Lee Scott, opposition leader on Essex County Council, said: "We cannot deny climate change.

"It is not an answer to say it has been going on for millions of years. Whatever the causes may or may not be. If we ignore it, what are we doing to our children and our grandchildren?"

Reform Essex County Council leader Peter Harris has promised to end "net stupid zero" policies and claims to have found £3m of savings by addressing this.

Net zero refers to an equal balance between the amount of gases or carbon being produced and the amount we are able to remove from the atmosphere by changing the way we do things, like driving electric rather than fossil-fuel powered vehicles.

Scientists say that while the planet has been hot before, even as far back as 92 million years ago, human activity has accelerated warming rapidly since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.

Reaching net-zero CO2 emissions is essential to limit global warming, according to the United Nations.

An Essex County Council spokesperson said: "As the council continues to review its priorities, we plan to step back from the Essex Climate Action Commission from the end of July.

"The council is committed to continuing work across Essex on environmental issues such as water and air quality, local nature recovery and flood resilience."

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Too hot to work? What Channel Island laws say

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20ylv9w7nvo, yesterday

A union representing Channel Island workers says it supports the introduction of maximum temperature limits in workplaces to protect staff, as the islands experience their third heatwave of 2026.

There is no law in Guernsey, Jersey or the UK that says a given temperature is too hot to work, although each place refers to guidance from the UK's Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Citing this, the States of Guernsey said no meaningful upper limit could be imposed "because in many indoor workplaces high temperatures are not seasonal but created by work activity".

The Government of Jersey said it encouraged all employers to work closely with staff to manage the risks associated with extreme heat.

Temperatures were forecast by Jersey Met to reach up to 34°C (93F) on Friday, a fortnight after Jersey experienced "the hottest day on record for the island", when the temperature soared to a record-breaking 39.3°C (102.7F).

Unite the Union in Jersey's James Turner said it supported any proposed maximum workplace temperature limits "in the interests of workplace safety."

He added: "All employers must ensure under current legislation that the workplace temperature is 'reasonable' to ensure they are following their 'duty of care' to all its employees."

He said he would welcome "mitigation" measures like blinds on windows, open doors and windows for airflow, fresh drinking water and extra breaks for workers as well as fans and air-conditioning where applicable.

"It is vital that if anyone feels unwell or unsafe in such conditions, they report it immediately to colleagues and management as a formal safety concern."

On its Facebook page, Unite the Union Guernsey said that it was "campaigning for a legal maximum working temperature because no one should risk their health just to earn a living".

It said that there was "ambiguity around what is 'reasonable'" and added that it was "time for stronger protections to keep workers safe on the job".

The union said that its health and safety representatives could inspect workplaces, challenge unsafe conditions, demand risk assessments and negotiate agreements to protect workers during extreme weather.

"Remember, employers still have a duty to protect your health and safety so it's important you know your rights," it continued.

Meanwhile, the executive committee of the AGCS branch of the Prospect union said that it supported the introduction of legislation that expands workers' rights in Guernsey.

"People should not have to worry about excessive and oppressive heat while at work," it said.

"We believe the States of Guernsey should be giving due consideration to a strategic island wide plan which helps to mitigate the changing climate and resultant extreme temperatures which are affecting our members in the workplace."

'Cultural change' needed

The States of Guernsey said that heat was classed as a hazard, and that it came "with legal obligations like any other hazard".

It said that under Guernsey law, the minimum temperature in an indoor workplace should normally be at least 16°C, or 13°C if work involved rigorous physical effort.

But Robin Gonard, the States of Guernsey's Chief Health and Safety Officer, said: "Before we just apply a blanket maximum temperature, we probably want to be thinking about the built environment much more, and also thinking about how working patterns may need to be changed or how we can adapt already the way that we work, so that we don't just look at temperature as the only marker."

Gonard added that in countries in southern Europe, workers were accustomed to taking breaks during the hottest hours of the day, before again starting work in the late afternoon.

"That's why there's a cultural change that's needed in relation to heat," he said.

"We're just not used to doing anything which is not our typical 09:00 - 17:00 or 08:00 - 16:00, standard working hours.

"But breaking the day halfway through so that we avoid working at the hottest hours - that's a perfectly reasonable way to work."

A Government of Jersey spokesperson said that under the Health & Safety at Work (Jersey) Law 1989, all employers should assess risks to their staff, and ensure that they put necessary controls in place to protect them.

The spokesperson said that best practices included encouraging regular hydration, providing access to cooler environments where possible, adjusting working arrangements where operationally appropriate, and reminding employees to take regular breaks and report any concerns.

"Guidance relating to workplace temperature is available for all Island businesses online, via the Health & Safety Executive, and we encourage employers to review Jersey's Approved Code of Practice for health and safety at work," the spokesperson added.

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East Asia braces for destructive typhoon as landslides kill 15 in Philippines

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c04y6wr03gxo, 2 days ago

Landslides triggered by one of the strongest storms in decades have killed at least 15 people in the southern Philippines, as parts of East Asia brace themselves for the looming storm.

Typhoon Bavi, which spans 1,000km (620 miles) at its widest point – roughly the width of France - is sweeping across the Pacific towards Taiwan.

It is expected to dump rain on Taiwan's north and east, and on a chain of remote Japanese islands, before making landfall in south-eastern China on Saturday.

Dozens of flights have been cancelled while schools have suspended classes across the region. Supermarket shelves have been wiped clean as residents stock up on supplies ahead of the typhoon.

On the Philippine island of Mindanao, families have been buried overnight by landslides, and rescuers are still searching for those missing.

Moderate to heavy rains will continue to drench parts of the country throughout the weekend, officials say.

Taiwanese authorities have warned that Bavi could bring up to 1m (39 inches) of rainfall. Some 29,000 soldiers have been put on standby to help with relief efforts, according to the island's defence ministry.

Bavi is set to be the largest storm, by size, to hit the island since 1987, Taiwan's Central Weather Administration told Reuters.

Farmers across the region rushed to harvest or protect their crops while the weather held earlier on Friday, while fishermen made sure to secure their vessels tightly.

"Don't be fooled by the nice and calm weather now. A storm like this could be the most terrifying," 60-year-old fisherman Chen Ming-hui told Reuters.

Thousands of sandbags have been distributed to residents and shop-owners in flood-prone areas.

Across the strait, China has also warned of "significant impact" from the typhoon that could move northward after smashing into the south-eastern Fujian province.

"Bavi's large size and abundant energy mean its remnants and outer rainbands could move from Jiangsu and Anhui provinces toward the Bohai Sea region," said Ma Jun, director of China's Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs.

The northern provinces, which have "less experience" dealing with typhoons in comparison with the south, should "strengthen preparations", he warned.

Some forecasts suggest Bavi could make landfall twice in China.

In Japan, residents on the remote Sakishima Islands are also on high alert. Photographs shared online show some of them taping up windows and draping windproof nets across their homes and shops.

Various airlines have grounded flights in the region. Japan Airlines, for instance, has axed more than 100 flights for Friday and Saturday, disrupting travel for nearly 20,000 passengers.

All Nippon Airways, another Japanese carrier, has cancelled more than 160 flights through Sunday, also affecting about 20,000 people, according to Reuters.

Thai Airways and Malaysia Airlines have also grounded flights to and from Taipei.

Parts of southern China are still reeling from the devastation brought by Typhoon Maysak earlier this week.

Maysak left at least 39 people dead, with rescuers still combing through wreckage for missing people. More than 130,000 were evacuated, mostly in the Guangxi region.

Maysak killed large swathes of livestock and resulted in massive agriculture loss. It also spurred two rare tornadoes in the central Hubei province.

How cows are helping one of Britain's rarest butterflies

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c621jgepljvo, 2 days ago

With its brilliant orange wings and black markings, the high brown fritillary butterfly was once widespread in Wales and England.

But now it's one of the rarest of all British butterflies, with it numbers declining by 62% since 1970.

One reason is its incredibly specific requirements to survive.

"They are the pickiest," says Paul Dunn, who for more than 30 years has been working hard among the bracken of the Alun Valley at Old Castle Down, in the Vale of Glamorgan, to revive the butterfly's fortunes.

And now, the volunteers have enlisted the help of a far more common animal, by allowing cows to graze on the site.

"Almost everywhere else in Britain it's dying out and yet here we seem to be hanging on and doing very well. It's very positive," he said.

High browns need a delicate combination of bracken and common dog violet.

"Traditionally bracken was used as animal bedding, but less and less people use it now they can get straw," says Richard Smith, who has been with Paul since the start, in 1993.

Too much bracken inhibits the growth of the dog violet, the food source for the caterpillars. But the plants also serves another purpose.

"It hasn't been able to adapt its life cycle away from this need from a certain temperature on the ground. The cutting of the bracken is essential."

When this coarse fern is trimmed it is "litter", the dead leaves on the floor that create a warmer ecosystem underneath which is essential for the growth of the high brown caterpillar.

The volunteers, over the years, have been hard at work coppicing - hard pruning the overgrown hedges - on this common land in order to create the specific ecosystem needed for the high brown's survival.

For the first time in more than half a century, the volunteers have for the past three years encouraged local commoners' association members to graze their cows on the site, to help maintain the habitat.

"Cattle are great because they trample bracken without eliminating it and create an uneven ground structure which is also good as it creates little niches then where the temperatures can be higher than the surrounding area," Smith said.

As this is common land there are no fences. So as part of National Lottery grant funding the team has secured solar-panelled collars for the cows to create a "no-fence grazing" perimeter to stop the cattle from leaving the land.

Yearly weather patterns can affect the high brown population, but overall their numbers have increased thanks to the efforts of the team, and their furry recruits.

Richard and Paul began this operation on their own, but the team has grown over the years from two to more than 40.

'A beautiful obsession'

For the past 11 years, Dot Williams has become another integral part of the group.

"After my husband died I needed to get out and do something and I got involved with the Wildlife Trust, met Richard and Paul, and the Butterfly Conservation.

"We're a social group - as well as the whole benefit of saving nature and working outdoors".

The same evening I meet this enthusiastic team, they are holding their monthly curry club - and now the weather is dry, they feast on jalfrezi and poppadoms among the trees.

"It's the butterflies that brought them together, but it's grown into much more than that, it's a community," she says.

Over the past 10 years this small part of Wales has seen more than 37 species of butterflies, the high brown among them - and finally back on the rise.

So, after 33 years, for Paul, has all this volunteering all year around been worth?

"Fantastic, yes it's become a beautiful obsession to be honest."

Seagrass restoration aims to restore key habitat

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8r4j3gz6do, 2 days ago

Conservationists are hoping Cornwall's waters will be revived as they unveil a £1.8m project aimed at restoring marine habitats, rebuilding native oyster populations, and creating thriving underwater ecosystems.

The Mor Nature initiative will be the largest seagrass restoration project ever undertaken in the UK, with plans to restore 10 hectares of seagrass meadow in Falmouth Bay over the next three years.

Led by Cornwall Wildlife Trust (CWT) in partnership with the Ocean Conservation Trust (OCT), the project hoped to breathe new life into some of Cornwall's most important coastal habitats.

It also aims to tackle biodiversity loss, improve water quality and strengthen coastal resilience.

CWT said it would be delivered through partnership between OCT and Mor Nature - Cornwall's first seascape-scale marine restoration initiative.

The trust said the three-year initiative led alongside OCT would bring partners including Falmouth Harbour, Cornwall Council, the Zoological Society of London, the University of Exeter, the Duchy of Cornwall, Falmouth Marine Conservation Group and other local organisations.

Andy Cameron, OCT conservation project manager, said Mor Nature represented "a major milestone for marine restoration in the UK".

He said: "We're not simply planting seagrass; Mor Nature represents the holistic cultivation of an entire underwater garden, nurturing the relationships between interdependent species and habitats that will allow a plethora of marine life to thrive.

"We're helping to rebuild an interconnected marine ecosystem that supports wildlife, strengthens coastal resilience and delivers benefits for local communities."

CWT said seagrass meadows were among the most important habitats in the ocean supporting biodiversity, improving water quality, storing carbon and protecting coastlines from erosion.

The restoration site will stretch between Swanpool and Pendennis Castle in Falmouth Bay, building on protection measures introduced by OCT in 2022, including Sensitive Habitat Marker Buoys and voluntary no-anchor zones designed to safeguard fragile seabed habitats.

CWT said the project also built on its work in the area to map and monitor the existing seagrass meadows which it would expand on, working alongside fishers and community groups to create new oyster nurseries in the Helford.

'Opportunity to restore'

The conditions will support marine species including seahorses, spider crabs, cuttlefish, bass and sharks.

Dr Dan Barrios-O'Neill, CWT's head of marine conservation, said: "Native oysters were once a defining feature of Cornwall's seas, creating thriving underwater habitats that supported wildlife, fisheries and coastal communities.

"Through Mor Nature, we have an opportunity to restore not only oyster populations, but the ecological functions they provide."

Follow BBC Cornwall on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.

Pressure builds on Europe's biggest port to be greener

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c39y78rwrmno, 3 days ago

Standing on a grassy verge in the Hook of Holland, I'm overlooking the Port of Rotterdam.

At the delta of the Rhine and Meuse in the Netherlands, on land largely reclaimed from the North Sea, it's the biggest port for freight in Europe.

By some measures, Rotterdam alone handles almost as much cargo as all UK ports combined.

The horizon is dominated by cranes, bulk carriers and container stacks – the visible parts of a vast energy and chemicals hub.

Five refineries, including Shell's largest in Europe, process hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil a day, while a tight cluster of chemical plants feeds factories across the continent.

According to research by CE Delft, the fossil fuels flowing through the port are ultimately linked to around 600 megatonnes of CO2 a year – many times more than the CO2 output of the Netherlands' biggest airport, Schiphol.

That scale has made Rotterdam a test case for a difficult question: can a port built on fossil fuels ever truly become green?

Pressure is building on the port to do something.

A lawsuit brought by environmental group Advocates for the Future argues that the Port of Rotterdam Authority is not doing enough to phase out fossil-based energy, and wants a concrete plan to wind down the coal, oil and gas flows whose emissions dwarf those of most countries.

Rotterdam's own industrial cluster currently emits about 29 million tonnes of CO2 a year – roughly half of the Netherlands' domestic emissions, says Mark van Dijk, head of external relations at the Port of Rotterdam Authority.

That's the equivalent of tens of thousands of return flights from Amsterdam to Los Angeles. "It's not good," admits van Dijk.

The Port Authority has a plan to cut the emissions of its own activities and encourage businesses on the site to be greener.

It has set targets to cut its own direct and purchased energy emissions by 90% between 2019 and 2030.

The plan includes developing a hydrogen hub where companies can test new fuels, investing in onshore power so ships can plug into the grid instead of burning fuel at berth, and supporting bunkering of alternatives such as LNG, biofuels and methanol.

There is also an effort to mitigate CO2 emissions.

"In the short term we're focusing on CCS [Carbon Capture and Storage] – capturing CO2 and storing it in depleted gas fields," van Dijk says, referring to the Porthos project that will pipe industrial emissions offshore.

Buffeted by the wind, Advocates for the Future director Maikel van Wissen argues that a port of this scale shouldn't just be managing the flow of fossil fuels. Instead, he argues, it has a responsibility to use its clout to speed up the shift to cleaner operations.

"A state-owned enterprise should take legal obligations on states to reduce emissions," Van Wissen says.

"We are asking in the lawsuit to phase out that dependency, to create alternatives. It takes time, but if you don't have a plan, you always choose cheap short-term solutions. This is an important hub, if you do it in a controlled way, you offer an alternative, that will stop industry from moving elsewhere."

The port says it is making efforts to shift its business model.

"We try to work together with the polluters, and slowly phase them out," says Oscar van Veen, director of innovation at the Port of Rotterdam, speaking on a small boat in the harbour. He pauses, then corrects himself: "As fast as possible, of course."

But many of the biggest emitters in the port answer to headquarters in the US or China.

Their loyalty lies with boardrooms abroad. If the rules in Rotterdam become too tight, they can simply move – as Shell shifted its headquarters to the UK and Unilever left Rotterdam altogether.

"The Port of Rotterdam is a key player in this sustainable transition but their sphere of influence is limited," says Bettina Kampman, from environmental consultancy CE Delft, which works for governments, companies and NGOs.

Even transitioning their own activities to lower emissions comes with challenges.

"New developments need physical space. They can speed up the energy infrastructure developments - the electricity needed to electrify the processes. That's all limited at the moment due to the lack of power cables," Kampman says.

Emeritus professor Harry Geerlings, of Erasmus University Rotterdam, has spent more than three decades studying sustainable transport and ports.

He is sceptical that any single port authority can drive a full transition on its own. What is needed, he says, is a global level playing field – the kind of framework provided in Europe by the Emissions Trading System and past rules on sulphur in marine fuels.

He points out how EU sulphur limits changed behaviour: ships calling at European ports had to switch to cleaner fuels or fit scrubbers to reduce pollution.

China initially resisted, he says, but when its ships could no longer enter US and European ports without complying, it followed suit. "If you have the right incentives, you change the behaviour of these companies."

But there are limits to what regional rules can do. Many ships now sail with dual fuel set ups, burning cleaner, low-sulphur fuel as they enter European waters, then flipping back to cheaper, high sulphur heavy fuel oil once they are out on the high seas.

Geerlings believes Rotterdam's port authority genuinely wants to change and is building the infrastructure for a smoother transition.

"But their biggest income is still tied to fossil fuel industries," he notes. "It's not simply a switch you turn on or off. A port needs activity as a logistics node – otherwise it's no longer a port. It's a real dilemma."

The geopolitics are not always helpful. Across the Atlantic, US President Donald Trump has cast doubt on climate policy and railed against wind power, while offering incentives that favour fossil fuels over renewables.

That contrast sharpens Rotterdam's concern about losing energy intensive industry to regions with looser rules and cheaper power.

Advocates for the Future argues that as a publicly owned company, the Port of Rotterdam Authority should be held to a higher standard.

It wants a detailed phase-out plan for fossil activities, not just a long-term promise of climate neutrality by 2050. "We are not asking for anything extraordinary," says director Maikel van Wissen. "We're asking for a plan that really contributes to a sustainable future for the port."

"We do want the same thing," insists Van Dijk. Sharing an electric taxi back towards the city, a 45-minute drive from the edge of the sprawling port. He stresses that Rotterdam and its critics are, on paper at least, heading for the same destination: net zero around mid century. The disagreement is over how fast, and how radically, to change.

Viral squeaky frog now at risk of extinction

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq819y09g2lo, 3 days ago

A frog that became an internet sensation because of its trademark squeaky defensive call has been added to a global list of species at high risk of extinction.

It is found only in a narrow strip of sand dunes in southern Africa, where it burrows into the sand.

Conservationists say diamond mining and planned energy developments are threatening the desert rain frog's home, with numbers expected to decline by 20% over the next two decades.

And like many frogs, even its appeal can become a threat, with some species targeted for the pet trade.

This is part of a broader assessment looking at thousands of species at risk of extinction across the world.

Scientists are concerned the frog's "cute" looks could increase demand from collectors.

"Frogs that are so unique looking as this can become victims of their own fame," said Benjamin Tapley, curator of amphibians and reptiles at the Zoological Society of London.

But it is the mining industry that is currently threatening the desert rain frog and its exceptional habitat.

It lives in sand dunes just 6 miles (10km) wide only coming up to feed and breathe. It depends on this specific environment, which is why it is not found anywhere else on Earth.

"If the habitat was transformed, there's no room for this species to move further up the coast or further down the coast," said Alex Lawrence, a scientist with the conservation group Anura Africa.

But he remains hopeful.

"While it is now at risk of extinction, it is still far from being lost entirely."

The most important thing is to ensure that once the mining has been conducted, the habitat can be returned to a state where the desert rain frog can inhabit it, he said.

"Because they're so rare, it's exciting when you finally find one," he added. "They're extremely cute."

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which tracks the status of the world's plants and animals, warns that species adapted to extreme environments, like the desert rain frog, are increasingly coming under pressure as nature loss accelerates across the planet.

And there is also increased concern about a tiny snail found only around superheated springs on the ocean floor. It has now been listed as Critically Endangered.

Conservationists say this and other extraordinary deep-sea snails, limpets, mussels and clams could be threatened by plans to mine valuable minerals from the deep seabed.

Although large-scale mining has yet to begin, companies and governments are awaiting international rules that could pave the way for extraction.

Governments and mining companies are increasingly interested in mining the deep ocean for minerals needed for green technologies such as batteries.

Supporters say deep-sea mining could be less environmentally damaging than mining on land, but many scientists warn it could harm fragile and poorly understood marine ecosystems, and are calling for a pause until more research is carried out.

The warning signs are not confined to animals.

Among them is Wilmott's whitebeam, a rare tree found only in the Avon Gorge near Bristol that is now reduced to fewer than 50 individuals in the wild.

Emily Beech of the plant conservation charity, Botanic Gardens Conservation International, said it is being lost because of railway works and an unknown disease.

"I think most people will not know about the real UK treasures that are hiding in plain sight," she said.

The IUCN has now assessed 175,909 species of plants, animals and fungi, of which 49,505 are threatened with extinction.

But it is not all bad news. The numbat, a small Australian marsupial once reduced to just a few hundred animals, is making a remarkable comeback thanks to decades of conservation work.

Its recovery shows that with enough support, even species on the brink can find their way back.

How beachgoers are turning snaps into science

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn59n10qnqzo, 3 days ago

Beachgoers are being invited to become citizen scientists to help track how our coastline is changing.

Armed with nothing more than a smartphone, visitors to Tyrella Beach in County Down can now take part in a global project by snapping a photo through a fixed frame and logged via a website.

Each picture becomes part of a growing record that scientists will use to monitor how the beach shifts over time, helping them understand the effects of coastal erosion, rising sea levels and climate change.

Open days will be held to show people how to get involved.

As a geomorphologist with Geological Survey Northern Ireland, Melanie Biausque studies how coastlines change over time.

She is leading the project in Northern Ireland and said people who regularly visit the beach have the power to transform scientists' understanding of how it is changing.

"We're trying to understand how the coastline changes now and how it will evolve in the future, what can we do now to protect it so it's not too impacted by the changes that are going to happen in the environment."

Why Tyrella?

The shifting sands at Tyrella beach are home to the first CoastSnap photo spot in Northern Ireland.

CoastSnap, which began in Australia, is part of a project called CoCor - Co-creating Coastal Resilience.

Tyrella was chosen because of the work local volunteers have already carried out to restore its sand dunes.

Biausque first learned about their work after seeing a presentation to Newry, Mourne and Down council, where volunteers spoke of how they had collected seeds to plant new marram grass, and installed fencing and signage to protect the seedlings.

"When I heard that, I realised that I had never had any idea that was happening - and I really wanted to put that on the map and to say, things are happening," she said.

"But one thing that we don't do is to see how that evolves."

How is the coastline changing?

Coasts are designed to move - waves, tides, currents and wind are always shifting sand around, while dunes grow and erode naturally over time.

However, Biausque and other scientists are preparing for "big" changes, in the form of sea level rise and more frequent storms due to the effects of climate change.

"If we want to understand how it's going to happen and what's going to happen on the coast, we need to understand what is happening now and how it works."

That is where CoastSnap comes in.

By comparing multiple photos taken from exactly the same position over months and years, researchers can build up a detailed picture of how the coastline responds to different weather conditions and seasons.

The Northern Ireland branch of the project is funded by the Department for the Economy, with more sites across soon to be equipped with the photo cradle and signs to explain how to take part in the project.

'Easy-peasy'

Taking part is simple - the only equipment needed is your phone.

Just one specific part of the coastline will be photographed, so that the team has many pictures of one spot that can form a database of evidence to be studied.

A steel cradle, designed to hold your phone horizontally, has been placed on a fence post.

It holds your phone in exactly the right position, ensuring every photo is taken from the same angle.

An opening in it frames the specific area that the team are interested in - the upper part of the beach where the volunteers carried out their work.

After taking the photo, visitors simply scan the QR code on the sign below and upload it to the CoastSnap website.

Biausque said the process is entirely anonymous.

"You don't have to leave your name or anything, unless you want to."

The project will run throughout the seasons and there are options on the page to record what else you notice.

"If you're coming in the winter and you can see coastal erosion or you can see vegetation change, you can click on those and you can add comments - though you don't have to," she added.

While people like Biausque cannot visit Tyrella every day, regular visitors can help the scientists answer their questions by sending photos.

"Why do we have algae standing here? Why sometimes you can see the vegetation progressing? Why do you come in the winter and the beach is so different?

"All of this is the interaction between the sand or the sediment and the waves, the currents, the tides, and at the minute we know that all of those processes are going to change in the future.

"But to understand how we can live with it and adapt around that, we need to understand better how it works today. So that's why we need to collect."

Why heatwaves hit women harder

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gyp1knzzxo, 4 days ago

Overwhelmed, irritable, dizzy, bloated, exhausted.

These are the words coming up frequently in comments sent to the BBC by women who, having barely recovered from the record-breaking heat in June, are bracing for more hot weather.

Extreme heat can affect anyone. But heatwaves are a "stress-test" for women's cardiovascular systems, and hit them harder than men, Dr Nighat Arif, an NHS GP who specialises in women's health, told the BBC.

Women may also be marginally more vulnerable to heatwave-related death than men, though more evidence is needed, said Dr Cat Pinho-Gomes, an academic public health consultant at UCL's Institute for Global Health.

So as climate change drives increasingly intense and frequent heatwaves to the UK, experts are calling for better awareness of the risks to women and more targeted efforts to protect them.

Hormone levels and body response to heat

Biologically, women’s greater risk comes down to two things: the natural rise and fall of our hormone levels and our body's response to heat, which are different to men's, Dr Arif said.

Women produce less sweat and start sweating at a higher temperature, research – including this 2025 study – shows.

This impairs our ability to quickly shed excess heat and makes it harder to judge when our bodies are under burden, simply because we can't see as much sweat on our skin or clothing.

The same research found that women also have a higher core body temperature and body fat percentage than men, which acts like an extra insulating layer.

Now combine this with the natural fluctuations of women's hormones, which already put our brain's temperature regulation systems "out of kilter", according to Dr Arif.

Our levels of oestrogen and progesterone shift most substantially during the menstrual cycle, perimenopause, menopause, pregnancy and while breastfeeding – which can make you less able to regulate your temperature.

All of this is hard work for our cardiovascular systems, especially in hot weather.

But it's not just biology that puts us more at risk, said Dr Pinho-Gomes, co-author of a review into sex differences in heatwave-associated deaths.

Our socioeconomic circumstances – such as being lower paid or the most likely caregiver to loved ones – can have an even greater impact on how well we are able to look after ourselves in hot weather, she said.

Age is another factor. The older you are, the more vulnerable you are to heat – and since women live longer on average than men, we are more at risk of health impacts, Dr Pinho-Gomes explained.

Elderly people are also more susceptible to dementia, which can limit the ability to recognise thirst, or conditions that require diuretics, used to lower blood pressure – both of which can further expose you to heat stress, she said.

Your period might feel more uncomfortable

As hormone levels dip and rise throughout your menstrual cycle, so does your sensitivity to heat, Dr Arif explained.

Progesterone rises during the second half of your cycle, before your period begins. This can raise core body temperature, only adding to the discomfort when you're already hot, she said.

Then the period hits and oestrogen – the hormone which drives your thermoregulatory system – drops to its lowest level, putting more pressure on your heart to cool down.

"I bled a normal amount but noticed a big increase in fatigue, dizziness, anxiety and sleepless nights," said Michaela Finn, from north London, who was on her period during the late June heatwave.

"My shifts at work landed on the same days, too. During my morning shower, I felt faint; I had to be realistic and call in sick. My body was completely exhausted, aching and cramping."

Charlie Paddock, 27, from south London, also said she "nearly fainted twice and the hot flushes were unreal", while Jess Allingham, 26, said she was "absolutely exhausted, more than normal", and had "total brain fog".

When you lose blood through menstruation, you also lose iron, which can affect your sleep, Dr Arif highlighted.

Low iron – which studies show is especially common for women with heavy periods – also affects oxygen delivery, giving our cardiovascular systems even more work, she said.

Hot flushes and night sweats may worsen for menopausal women

Hot flushes and night sweats are common for perimenopausal and menopausal women due to lowering oestrogen, according to Dr Arif.

The same can happen for women put in a chemical or surgical menopause, which is used to treat hormone-sensitive cancers and major gynaecological conditions, such as endometriosis and polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS).

During a heatwave, you may have more frequent and severe hot flushes and night sweats, Dr Arif said - which, according to a study on the impact of climate change on menopause, could be further exacerbated by global warming.

"Truly horrendous, especially at night time," is how Hilary Serif, 57, from Cheshire, characterised her hot flushes during the June heatwave.

"You're dozing off and then it hits you from nowhere. You're already warm, there's no relief at all. It's like a double whammy. The good old HRT helps a lot but doesn't control it."

Dr Rosaline West, 41, from Kettering, who is perimenopausal, said enduring the heatwave "was just about survival".

"I was regularly changing my underwear, and by the end... my friend and I had just given up on bras altogether because of that sweatiness, that discomfort."

Pregnancy can make you more prone to heat stress

Pregnant women have a harder time regulating body temperature due to increased metabolic heat and fluid needs, which can make you more prone to heat stress, according to research published in the Lancet earlier this year.

Cue the hormones.

Fluctuating progesterone levels during early to mid-pregnancy can make you hotter, the same study shows. It then rises, along with oestrogen, during the latter stages, bringing your body temperature back down.

Your size also makes a difference. "Obviously, there is more cardiovascular burden on the body the bigger you are, because you're carrying a human inside you," Dr Arif explained.

The research also suggests that heat stress may increase the likelihood of adverse outcomes for the mother and child, particularly in higher-risk pregnancies.

Jess Bloom, 35, is expecting a baby at the end of July. "Being heavily pregnant in the thick of summer, it's hell – it's literally hell," she said.

She's explored sleeping on the kitchen floor and having a cold bath every night. "Sometimes a Mars ice cream would join me," she added.

Know the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke

Heat exposure has been linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, especially among women, a major review of studies on the effects of heat exposure found.

During heatwaves, the added strain on our hearts can cause our blood pressure to lower, which combined with the loss of fluids and salt from sweating, can lead to heat exhaustion.

If blood pressure drops too low, the risk of heart attacks also rises.

Dr Arif advised: "Know the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke... drink plenty of fluids, have your fans, your cooling stuff. Make sure you do your exercise before sunrise or after sunset. Use sun cream, track your periods.

"Treat the heat like a cardiovascular stress-test," she said. Slow down, take care of your body.

She also urged employers, colleagues and policymakers to be "more mindful" of women's sensitivity to hot weather.

Dr Pinho-Gomes agreed, adding: "We need more women sitting at the decision table... in positions of power and influence", who will be more aware of women's needs than men.

"This is not a woman's problem," Dr Arif said. "This is a societal problem. If we get it right for women, we get it right for everyone."

With additional reporting from Alix Hattenstone and Mary Litchfield.

Landmark US housing bill becomes law despite Trump protest

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn8qwj611qxo, yesterday

President Donald Trump allowed landmark housing legislation to become law overnight on Friday without his signature.

He had earlier refused to sign it in protest over Congress's failure to pass voter ID legislation but did not veto the housing bill.

Experts have said the legislation marks the most comprehensive action from Congress on lowering house costs for renters and homebuyers in the 21st Century. Americans have been frustrated with housing costs.

Trump, who has repeatedly made false claims of widespread fraud altering the results of US elections, wanted Republicans to prioritise the voter ID bill ahead of the November midterm elections. Without his veto, it became law automatically.

In June, both chambers of Congress approved the housing bill - called the 21st Century Road to Housing Act - in a rare moment of bipartisan agreement.

"This bill becoming law is a genuine milestone—and I don't use that word lightly," Dennis Shea, of the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), said. "Getting Congress to move on housing supply and affordability has been a long time coming, and the American people made clear they were ready for it."

A survey from the BPC earlier this year found that 89% of voters from across the political spectrum wanted action from Congress to make housing more affordable.

After Congress passed the Road to Housing legislation, Trump cancelled a ceremony to sign the bill and said he would not do so until the voter ID law was passed.

As recently as Friday, he reiterated his call for passage of the The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE), which would require Americans to provide ID and proof of citizenship to vote.

"I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in protest over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing the Save America Act," Trump posted on social media.

Republicans, who control the House and the Senate by slim majorities, have said there is not enough support to get the measure over the finish line. Democrats say the SAVE legislation disenfranchises eligible voters.

After Trump's Friday post about not signing the bill, several Democrats attacked the move on social media.

House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote on X that Republicans "would rather make it harder to vote than easier to afford a home".

What does the housing bill do?

The housing bill aims to both reduce costs and increase housing supply, as Americans have faced housing shortages for years.

It includes more than 40 provisions, including making it easier to build new homes and limiting how many single-family homes institutional investors can buy nationwide.

The bill comes as the median price of existing homes hit an all-time high in June: $440,660 (£328,000), up 1.8% from $432,700 a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors.

A US family needs an income of about $117,000 a year to afford an average home on the market, according to the real estate brokerage Redfin, but that is nearly $30,000 more than what most US households earn, according to Census data.

Potential homebuyers also face high inflation and interest rates, making homeownership even more out of reach for many Americans.

US pays out $3m to victims of mystery Havana Syndrome condition reported by spies

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr7xyl78vnko, yesterday

The US government has paid nearly $3m (£2.2m) in compensation to victims of so-called Havana Syndrome, a mysterious neurological condition reported by spies, diplomats and their families.

The payments are the first to be made to US agency staff in relation to the illness, reports of which began emerging a decade ago by CIA officers working in the Cuban capital.

Since then, American staff based elsewhere, including China, have reported "anomalous health incidents".

Sufferers have described symptoms such as hearing a low hum, clicks, squeals and "grinding metal" while others reported intense pressure on the skull, dizziness and nausea.

The US Department of Defence said it would continue to prioritise "the care of affected personnel" as it announced the compensation, paid out under the Havana Act which was signed into law in 2021.

There has been widespread speculation for many years over what - and who - is responsible for Havana Syndrome.

Some have claimed the illness is caused by microwaves, prompting further speculation that a foreign power may have used some kind of sonar weapon to attack US overseas staff and their dependants.

"My brain is broken," former CIA analyst Erika Stith told CBS News in 2022.

"We got this as a result of serving our country. And we deserve to be taken care of," she said.

Last year, most US intelligence agencies and departments surmised that it was "very unlikely" that a foreign actor used "a novel weapon or prototype device to harm" US personnel and their families.

Although, a small component of the US intelligence community did not completely dismiss the theory.

The report, by the National Intelligence Council, said none of the agencies or departments it spoke to "call[ed] into question the experiences or suffering" of US workers and their families.

The community believed that they "experienced genuine, sometimes painful and traumatic, physical symptoms and sensory phenomena and honestly and sincerely reported those events as possible anomalous health incidents".

What is Havana Syndrome?

Havana Syndrome was first publicly reported in 2016, when US diplomats in Cuba reported getting sick and hearing piercing sounds at night.

Other cases have been reported around the world, from Washington to China.

It was these reports that sparked speculation of an attack by a foreign power using a mystery sonic weapon.

In 2017, the US government pulled more than half of its staff from its embassy in Havana after employees and their families reported dizziness, nausea and difficulty concentrating.

Canada's government also heard of similar symptoms from its embassy employees in Cuba, leading to a sharp reduction to its personnel in Havana in 2019.

While Havana Syndrome cases began to emerge around a decade ago, some claim the illness has been around for much longer, spanning the Cold War years.

Trump administration subpoenas New York Times journalists over Air Force One reporting

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpd3g8q51g7o, today

Several New York Times journalists were summoned to testify under oath after they reported alleged security concerns involving President Donald Trump's new Air Force One plane, the US newspaper said.

Federal agents delivered subpoenas to reporters' homes demanding they appear before a federal grand jury investigating a potential crime, the Times said.

The New York Times had published stories alleging that the Qatari-gifted plane being used by Trump was not secure enough, and the Secret Service urged him to switch planes on his way home from a Nato summit in Turkey.

The Justice Department said in a statement to the BBC that it is investigating illegal leaks of national security information.

David McCraw, the Times's top newsroom lawyer, called the summons a "brazen act" and "nothing more than an attempt to prevent the public from knowing what is happening in their country by intimidating journalists from doing their jobs".

The subpoenas - a legal requirement from a court or government agency that compels a person to appear or produce records or evidence - say the reporters' testimony is required "in regard to an alleged violation of federal criminal law", the Times reported.

The summonses require the reporters to appear before a grand jury in Manhattan on Wednesday, the Times said. Grand jurys are composed of members of the public and convened by the US government to examine evidence and decide if there is enough to charge a person or persons with a crime.

The New York Times reported on security concerns about the president's plane citing unnamed sources. While speaking to media about classified information is a crime, the US Constitution protects the freedom of the press to report information in the public interest.

"We value and appreciate the important role that the press plays in this country, but DOJ also plays an important role to make sure that the people entrusted with our nation's secrets do what they're supposed to do with that information, which means not sharing classified information," the Justice Department (DoJ) said in a statement provided to the BBC.

The Times reported on Wednesday that while Trump flew to the Nato summit in Turkey on the new Air Force One, he left the summit on an older plane on the advice of the Secret Service. The next day, the newspaper reported that security officials were concerned the newer plane did not have advanced security features, including antimissile capabilities.

"Our journalists report the facts and advance the American public's right to know how their government is operating and their taxpayer dollars are being used," McCraw, the Times' lawyer, said.

Other outlets published similar reports, including CBS News, the BBC's US news partner. A former US government official told CBS that there was not enough time or money for the plane to be updated with the security requirements to serve as Air Force One.

While these reports were surfacing, tensions with Iran over a negotiated ceasefire deal were growing, and the US was launching strikes.

Trump brushed off concerns about the plane when asked by reporters this week and said: "I have a threat all the time. I'm No. 1 on their list".

Last month, Trump unveiled the new Boeing 747-8 jet that the Qatari government donated last year as an "unconditional" gift to the US to act as the new Air Force One.

The luxury jumbo jet was modified to transport the president and included upgrades in security, mission communications, logistics support, and advanced technology, the Air Force said. Any potential threats identified with the use of previously owned aircraft were "neutralised" in the new one, it added.

It has been valued at an estimated $400m (£300m).

'Devastating' evidence against Charlie Kirk murder suspect laid out in court

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gy12gqzpvo, yesterday

"Devastating" evidence, including DNA on a rifle and a text confession, shows a 23-year-old should be tried for murdering Charlie Kirk last year, prosecutors told a court this week, as the defence team tried to poke holes in the case.

The preliminary hearings gave prosecutors a chance to outline probable cause to try Tyler Robinson, 23, on charges including aggravated murder, a death penalty offence in Utah.

They painted a vivid picture of his movements in the 48 hours surrounding the murder of Kirk - using CCTV, witness testimony, a taped interview with Robinson's roommate and messages between the pair.

The defence for Robinson, who has not yet entered a plea, sought to sow doubt on all of it.

Kirk, a key Trump ally, founder of conservative youth organisation Turning Point USA and a 31-year-old father-of-two, was shot once in the neck as he addressed a crowd on the campus of Utah Valley University on 10 September last year.

For the past five days, lawyers for Robinson, a trainee electrician, raised repeated objections to evidence and testimony on arguments including hearsay and the tainting of potential jurors.

They questioned the credibility of experts, DNA and ballistics reports with prolonged cross-examination about testing, interpretation and protocol.

But Chief Deputy Utah County Attorney General Chad Grunander told the judge: "Your Honour's heard four days of testimony now.

"The evidence is overwhelming. It's devastating."

Now Robinson's fate lies in the hands of Utah County Judge Tony Graf, who will determine if the case proceeds to trial.

Few details were actually known about Robinson or his actions until this week's court hearing.

Proceedings drew intense interest from the public, and some lined up overnight to earn a wristband for one of just 14 seats allotted for spectators.

Families of both defendant and victim were emotional in court. At one point on Friday, while video was shown of the suspect running across a rooftop on the day of the shooting, Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, reportedly hugged her tearful mother-in-law, then both looked away from the footage.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, spent the week painting a picture of a college dropout gamer who used his grandfather's rifle to assassinate a national political figure, then sought to cover his tracks to get away with it.

Much of what was learned came from Robinson's former roommate and romantic partner, Lance Twiggs, through a video interview with a prosecutor, recorded in April.

Twiggs told how the pair first met through friends in 2023. They were roommates before starting to date.

According to the taped interview, the suspect would talk about Trump or current affairs, although they did not discuss LGBT issues and Twiggs had never heard Robinson mention Kirk.

On the morning of Kirk's killing, Twiggs said Robinson left earlier than usual, around 04:00.

Robinson showed up three-and-a-half hours north that day at Utah Valley University campus in Orem, prosecutors said.

They played surveillance footage they said showed Robinson sauntering through campus, buying and eating Chick-Fil-A and even interacting with representatives from Kirk's Turning Point USA organisation.

The court saw footage of a man prosecutors say is Robinson returning to campus in different clothes from the ones he was pictured in earlier - as well as changing his gait, holding one leg straight.

Surveillance showed the suspect heading to the rooftop of the Losee Center, the building from which investigators say Kirk was shot from about about 415ft (126m) away.

According to State Bureau of Investigation Agent David Hull, who testified over two days, surveillance video shows Robinson rolling over a railing on to the Losee rooftop, lying prone and later dropping down off it with an unknown object in his hand.

In texts between Robinson and his roommate from the night of the shooting, the suspect said he'd hidden his grandfather's rifle in bushes near campus - and returned while an intense manhunt was underway.

Robinson texted Twiggs complaining that "there is a squad car parked right by it.

He added: "Again, I am sorry for roping you into all of this. You should not have to worry about this."

When Twiggs asked Robinson whether he was the shooter, the suspect admitted it and apologised, according to texts presented by prosecutors.

"I had enough of his hatred," Robinson texted. "Some hate can't be negotiated out."

The suspect wasn't even sure what model of gun he'd used, according to messages with his roommate.

"I don't fully know what the gun was, because it was old... and Gramps did some modifying," he wrote.

Twiggs testified that Robinson had asked weeks earlier about using an engraving tool in advance of an upcoming hunting and camping trip with his family.

After the shooting, however, he texted Twiggs: "Remember how I was engraving bullets?"

He said the messages were "mostly a big meme".

The court saw pictures this week of inscribed bullets and cartridges found both at the crime scene and Robinson's residence - with messages such as "Hey Fascist! Catch!"

Robinson eventually gave up trying to retrieve the rifle, he texted Twiggs, and made his way back to their home in St George.

Authorities did discover the firearm, law enforcement testified this week, and found DNA matching Robinson on both the rifle and a towel it was wrapped in.

Robinson, meanwhile, was nervous and regretful in the apartment he shared with his roommate the day after the shooting, Twiggs said in the recorded interview.

"He started crying a little bit and said he wishes he hadn't done it and then kept going around and just doing stuff, I think to keep himself busy or distracted or something," Twiggs said.

The hearing featured lengthy debates over the admissibility of evidence - with media lawyers and Kirk representatives arguing passionately for everything to be displayed publicly or at least in the courtroom.

Robinson told his roommate the day after the killing that he intended to turn himself in, Twiggs said.

The court heard how the suspect arrived at Washington County Sheriff's Office the day after the shooting, accompanied by his parents and a family friend.

Prosecutors played soundless footage of him that night, wearing a maroon shirt, dark hat, jeans and Converse shoes, and he was transported back to Utah County and formally booked on 12 September.

This week, Robinson appeared in court clean-shaven and wearing light-coloured suits. His parents and two brothers were also there.

The US president's son, Donald Trump Jr, and his wife were in court, too.

Both sides must now submit lengthy written briefs, and Judge Graf set the next hearing date for 1 September.

The Kirk family released a statement shortly after court adjourned.

The family wrote: "Nothing will ever undo the loss of our beloved Charlie.

"As this case moves into its next phase, we pray that truth will continue to be heard through a process that is fair, transparent, and grounded in the facts."

What to know about 'explosive diarrhoea' parasite outbreak in US

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c621m66qm76o, yesterday

An outbreak of a diarrhoea-causing parasite is hitting more than half US states, with thousands of cases reported in recent weeks.

Cyclosporiasis is an infection caused by a microscopic parasite, with the main symptom being frequent, watery and explosive diarrhoea. People can become infected by consuming food or water that contains the parasite.

The outbreak now spans 31 states. It has hit Michigan particularly hard, with the state reporting on Friday that more than 1,000 people were diagnosed in a two-week period.

No deaths from the recent infections have been reported in the US. While the source has not yet been identified, past outbreaks have been linked to foodborne illness in raw produce.

Where have cases been reported?

Between 1 May and 9 July there were 843 confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis in the US, according to data released on Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

There are possibly hundreds more, with the public health agency saying on Friday it was aware of more than 1,500 cases that require further analysis to confirm the illness.

No deaths have been reported, and 86 people were admitted to hospital, the CDC said.

After Michigan, New York has seen the highest number of cases so far. Nearly 300 cases were reported there, state health officials said on 8 July.

In Illinois, public health officials reported 141 cases on 7 July, calling it a "higher-than-average" figure, and 177 cases of cyclosporiasis have been reported in Ohio, according to officials there.

The number of people sick with cyclosporiasis is likely higher than the number reported because some people recover without medical care and are not tested for the illness.

The CDC said it anticipates the case counts will continue to rise as new data comes in.

What is cyclospora?

Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal illness caused by a microscopic parasite, according to the CDC.

People can become infected by consuming food or water that contains the parasite.

The illness is not usually life threatening, according to the CDC, and is less common than other foodborne illnesses such as salmonella and E. coli.

People who are infected with cyclospora may or may not experience symptoms. The illness usually causes diarrhoea "with frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements", says the public health agency.

If untreated, the illness may last from a few days to over a month, and symptoms may return after appearing to dissipate.

It usually takes about one week after infection to become sick.

Person-to-person transmission does not occur, according to Dr Caitlin Rivers, of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

The epidemiologist wrote in an 8 July newsletter that transmission was exclusively faecal-oral via ingestion of contaminated food or water.

What's causing the outbreak?

Those who were infected "became sick after eating food in the United States", the CDC said, and did not report any travel during the 14 days before they got sick.

No specific type of produce or any grower or supplier has been identified as the source.

"Contamination typically occurs at the farm or irrigation level, making traceback investigations difficult," Rivers wrote.

Previous cyclospora outbreaks in the US and Canada have been linked to bagged salad mixes and kits, fresh cilantro, fresh basil, raspberries, snow peas and green onions.

How to stay safe

Given the large and increasing number of cases, Michigan's health department has recommended restaurants and kitchens preparing or serving raw produce reduce risk by thoroughly washing greens, cooking raspberries and leafy greens when possible, and removing outer layers of lettuce and green onions.

While the US Food and Drug Administration says rinsing produce is unlikely to be effective, the CDC still recommends it.

People who are experiencing diarrhoea are urged to contact a health provider and ask about possible infection, officials said.

Man fatally shot by ICE in Houston was not intended target, DHS says

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2rm66xd17o, yesterday

A man who was fatally shot by immigration agents at a traffic stop in Houston on Tuesday was not the intended target, US officials say.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, was stopped at 07:00 local time (12:00 GMT) while driving to work and was killed shortly afterwards.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Thursday the stop was initiated because they saw "a white van with an individual who resembled the target" of an operation. They have said the officer shot in self-defence.

Passengers in the van and the victim's family have disputed the department's account and the agency's legal watchdog has opened an investigation into the fatal shooting.

The agents involved in the shooting were not wearing body cameras and officials have not released any images or videos related to it.

A DHS spokesperson said in a statement to the BBC's US partner, CBS News, that half of its field officers were now equipped with body cameras and the other half were expected to receive them in the next 60 days.

Salgado, 52, had been working as a builder for three decades in the Houston area after coming to the US as an undocumented migrant, his family said.

They said he had no criminal record and was close to obtaining a work permit. He was driving himself and three co-workers to a site when the incident took place, they added.

In an earlier statement on Tuesday, DHS, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said agents had "attempted to conduct a vehicle stop as part of a targeted enforcement operation to arrest an illegal alien".

It alleged Salgado "attempted to evade arrest" and rammed an ICE vehicle and the officer "fired his weapon in self-defence".

He was taken to hospital, where he died of his injuries, the statement said.

On Thursday, DHS said agents had seen two white vans weeks prior to the incident at an address they had surveilled. When they returned on Tuesday, they saw "a white van with an individual who resembled the target" and initiated the traffic stop.

The attorney for the men inside the van with Salgado Araujo said their account of what happened contradicts the Department of Homeland Security's version of events, CBS reported.

"All three of my clients reiterated that at no point was there ever an agent standing in front of the vehicle, nor was an agent ever placed in the line of danger," the attorney said.

Salgado Araujo's sons have also disputed DHS' accounts.

The incident has prompted protests in Houston - the most populous city in the state of Texas - and four Democratic members of Congress have demanded an independent investigation into Salgado's death.

In a letter to DHS, Sylvia Garcia, Al Green, Lizzie Fletcher and Christian Menefee wrote, wrote that the incident was "not the first time ICE agents have used unnecessary, deadly force".

They urged Markwayne Mullin, head of the Department of Homeland Security, to not forget the cases of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two US citizens killed by federal agents in Minneapolis in January.

Referring to Salgado's shooting on Tuesday, they wrote that "instead of answers and accountability, DHS and ICE released a statement echoing the same stories we have heard before, claiming an evasion of arrest, weaponization of a vehicle, and that the fatal shooting was a result of self-defense".

Federal investigations have already begun, but according to the Houston police chief, there are restrictions on a state probe.

The Office of Inspector General for DHS, an internal watchdog, is investigating the shooting death and FBI Houston is leading an investigation into the potential assault on a federal law enforcement officer, an ICE spokesperson said in a statement to the BBC.

The BBC has contacted the FBI for comment.

At the request of the Houston mayor, the head of the Houston Police Department (HPD) also sent a letter to DHS on Friday indicating that he will make resources available to support the investigation into the fatal 7 July shooting in "a timely, transparent, and thorough manner".

"The HPD recognizes the seriousness of the matter and supports a thorough investigation," Chief Noe Diaz's letter said.

Diaz also said that, under federal law, local law enforcement has no independent jurisdiction to investigate federal agencies or federal law enforcement personnel who are acting in their official duties.

In the wake of the shooting, the Mexican government said it would file criminal complaints in the US over the deaths of more than a dozen of its citizens in US custody.

Mexican Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco said 14 Mexicans had died while in ICE custody and another three during ICE "arrest operations".

Velasco said that he had been instructed by Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum to file the complaints and that their aim was to have the deaths of Mexicans in ICE custody or operations investigated "as criminal matters".

Salgado Araujo is at least the eighth person to die during the Trump administration's immigration operations, according to the Associated Press. No immigration officers have been charged in the deaths.

Nolan Wells' family demands answers about US teen's death after boating trip

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx238gzzy74o, yesterday

The family of Nolan Wells, a Mississippi teenager who was found dead after going missing last weekend, is demanding answers about what happened to him.

Wells, 18, did not return with friends from a boating trip to Horn Island on 4 July and his body was found in the water two days later.

The Jackson County Sheriff's office said "no foul play was suspected", but is calling on the public to come forward if they have any information.

Ben Crump - a lawyer hired by the family - said there have been conflicting witness statements. He added that he has ordered an independent autopsy to be carried out.

"The family has distrust of the Mississippi law enforcement officials giving them a fair investigation where their black son ended up dead after going out on a boat with three young white men," Crump said during a press conference on Friday.

The emotionally charged event held in New York City was also attended by Al Sharpton and Wells' parents, Christine and Elmore Wonsley.

"We just want to know what happened and why our baby didn't come home. That's our biggest thing," Christine Wonsley said through tears.

"We just want an honest and thorough investigation."

An initial autopsy was carried out earlier this week, but the results have not been released. Dental records confirmed the body was Wells, Jackson County coroner Bruce Lynd told the BBC's US news partner CBS News.

Crump has questioned what he says are conflicting reports about whether Wells was going to leave Horn Island with friends or whether he asked to stay behind, and said in a statement that Wells' family also "have serious, unanswered questions about the circumstances that left Nolan alone on the island and about how he died".

The Wells family said police initially suggested their son accidentally drowned, an assertion his mother Wonsley said made her "uncomfortable".

"This is a kid who knew how to swim," said Crump, a civil rights and personal injury attorney who specialises in wrongful death lawsuits.

Wonsley also said she was bothered by the fact her son's mobile phone and car keys returned from Horn Island in the possession of his friends, without her son.

Wonsley was the first to raise the alarm that her son, who played American football at Southwest Mississippi Community College and was described by his coach as a "happy-go-lucky kid", had gone missing after he did not return on the evening of 4 July.

Authorities discovered his body off the coast of the island on 6 July, following a search that included multiple local, state and federal agencies.

The National Park Service described Horn Island as having "no staff, drinking water, shelter, facilities, or communication".

Wells' parents told CBS Mornings that they don't believe their son would have decided to stay back on the island by himself.

"That's not in his character," said Elmore Wonsley.

The Jackson County Sheriff's Office has put out a press release "asking anyone who was on or near Horn Island on July 4" to contact the department and also requested any original, unedited photos and videos of "alleged altercations" or images of Wells.

On Friday, Sharpton said a funeral service for Wells was being arranged in Mississippi with the help of Hollywood filmmaker Tyler Perry.

A GoFundMe created for the family has raised over $388,000 (£283,000).

Eight charged over alleged conspiracy to attack White House UFC event

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy091zzgpdo, yesterday

Eight people have been charged with terrorism offences over an alleged plot to kill government officials and other high-profile figures, including President Donald Trump, at last month's UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House.

The men, aged 19 to 32, are all charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, as well as conspiracy to commit murder on federal government territory and to murder a federal government official.

This week, one of the accused was arrested in West Virginia, adding to a list of suspects already detained.

The accused could face life in prison if convicted on the murder charges and up to 15 years if they are found guilty on the terror offences.

The alleged plot was discovered after the mother of one of the suspects, Tycen J Proper, called local authorities on 10 June - days before the televised mixed martial arts event on 14 June, which was part of celebrations for the nation's 250th anniversary.

Proper's mother was concerned about his large firearms purchases and what she had seen of his online communication with a group that claimed to be made up of former military members and Christian-based.

They had specifically discussed "grievances about government corruption, the handling of the Epstein files, data centres taking up all the water in communities, and other government actions," prosecutors previously said.

According to the FBI, Proper said the group wanted to "jumpstart a revolution in the United States" by attacking the event.

Part of the plan involved striking nearby buildings with explosive-laden drones and firing on "high value targets", prosecutors alleged.

By using the drones, the alleged plotters aimed to spark panic and draw the fleeing crowd toward a sniper team, according to federal prosecutors. A "second wave" of attackers was then allegedly supposed to storm the White House gate.

An estimated 4,300 people including the president, Vice President JD Vance, senior cabinet officials, and lawmakers were present for the invite-only event on the South Lawn of the presidential compound.

Court filings related to another accused, Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, said the group allegedly eyed potential targets that included Trump and Vance, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Elon Musk, and several elected officials - though not all attended the UFC event.

Proper reportedly admitted to being part of planning the attack, telling law enforcement officials the group began communicating with one another in March and that members were primarily recruited through TikTok.

Officials said the men used online platforms including Signal, Instagram, TikTok, and Discord to plan the attack.

It is unclear if the group is affiliated with any larger, established organisation.

As well as Proper and Alvarez, US officials identified the accused as Daniel K Eskridge, William LS Falkner, Jordan W Rincker, Bryan O Roa, Michael A Thomas, and Chandler D Scaggs, who was arrested this week in West Virginia.

Law enforcement documents show they were based all over the country from California to Missouri and Nebraska.

A ninth person, Alexander Iniguez Mercado, was arrested last week and charged with obstruction of justice.

Mercado is accused of deleting the Signal app from his phone after being contacted by an FBI agent - wiping evidence of an alleged connection to the group. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The UFC event coincided with Trump's 80th birthday, and came two months after a shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner that he attended and one month after a man was killed by Secret Service agents after opening fire at a White House checkpoint.

Ex-Olympian pleads not guilty to Reflecting Pool vandalism charges

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c78y013ny3eo, 3 days ago

Former US Olympian David 'Davey' Hearn has pleaded not guilty to vandalising the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool at a court appearance in Washington DC.

Hearn is accused of causing $1,000 (£750) of damages to the pool. He faces a felony charge of destruction of property.

President Donald Trump has blamed vandals for damage to newly applied coating on the bottom of the pool. Hearn was detained last month after touching some of the material, and told BBC News at the time it had already "delaminated".

"If Mr Hearn can be charged with a felony for touching the Reflecting Pool, every American is at risk", said Norm Eisen, one of Hearn's attorneys, speaking outside the courthouse on Thursday.

"It is not a crime to touch the Reflecting Pool, to touch water, in the United States of America," he said.

Hearn, 67, a three-time Olympic canoeist, is next due in court 5 August.

Authorities say Hearn was seen reaching into the water last month after renovations to the pool.

The US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, alleged last week as she announced the charge against Hearn that he "ripped" a piece of the recently installed sealant in a "deliberate act" to cause damage on 19 June.

Hearn previously told the BBC that he "didn't destroy, rip, tear, peel, or remove any part" of the paint.

Five people have been arrested for vandalism in connection with the Reflecting Pool, according to US Park Police, and five others have been issued federal citations.

Hearn's attorneys have accused the Trump administration of charging their client in an effort to shift blame for the site's problem-plagued makeover.

The Reflecting Pool underwent a multi-million dollar resealing and painting project this spring.

The monument had long been beset by structural failures and leaks, and Trump has championed the project as part of his bid to beautify the capital city.

But, despite the makeover, which cost an estimated $13m (£9.8m), the pool has continued to be plagued by algae, and pieces of the blue sealant peeled off within days.

Frank Lands, an official at the National Park Service, said in a court filing last month liner along the bottom of the Reflecting Pool was cut with a sharp knife or razor sometime around on 9 June.

Crews began draining the Reflecting Pool for the second time in three months on Sunday, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

Officials had positioned fireworks around the Reflecting Pool for 4 July celebrations, which scattered debris into the water.

Burgum said on a podcast that they would also repair damage to the pool lining as part of the clean-up.

"Drain the water. Clean up the fireworks stuff. Repair the vandalism that was done. Fill it back up again," Burgum said.

Platner's disastrous candidacy exposes rifts that could dampen Democrats' Senate hopes

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20ylnn8wqgo, 3 days ago

Graham Platner's meteoric rise from relative obscurity to the Democratic nominee in this year's marquee US Senate contest has now ended in catastrophic collapse.

The oysterman and former Marine who beat a popular governor and built a grassroots network of more than 15,000 supporters in Maine announced he was suspending his campaign on Wednesday night.

The news came via recorded video posted on social media, just a little more than 48 hours after Politico published a story containing allegations from an ex-girlfriend that an intoxicated Platner had entered her home uninvited in 2021 and sexually assaulted her. He has denied the allegation.

"We went toe to toe with one of the most entrenched political systems in the history of the world, and we won," Platner said in his 11-minute video announcing the end of his campaign. "And now they are not going to let us have it, not if it's me."

Platner, who had been championed by liberal stalwarts like Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, was his party's chosen challenger to unseat five-term Senator Susan Collins – the only Republican in Congress representing a state that Democrats won in the 2024 presidential election.

For Democrats, this race has become crucial.

To take control of the Senate in November's midterm elections, they have to flip four Republican-held seats while defending all of theirs. Maine is widely considered a must-win target.

Now, Platner's exit is threatening to deal a serious blow to their hopes. It is also re-exposing rifts between the party's left wing and moderates that could not only endanger their success this year but in the 2028 presidential race as well.

The sexual assault allegation against Platner was just the latest, most serious, controversy to dog the novice candidate since he entered the race last August.

Earlier reports of offensive social media posts, a chest tattoo with Nazi connotations, sexually explicit text messages sent to women after he was married in 2023, and allegations from former girlfriends of threatening and "toxic" behaviour did not deter 72% of Maine's Democrats from casting their ballots for him in June's primary.

Platner adamantly denied this latest allegation, but within hours of the interview's publication, his political support evaporated. State and national Democrats, including his closest allies on the progressive left - Warren and Sanders included - withdrew their backing. The national party announced it would no longer help finance his campaign. By midweek, it became clear it was only a matter of when, not if, Platner would step aside.

In announcing the end of his campaign, Platner said he was not stepping down because of the allegation.

"We're doing it because of the structures that are being taken away from us by those in power," he added, saying he would not formally file paperwork to withdraw until he's assured his replacement will be selected in a "open and democratic" way.

Now Democrats, both in Maine and nationally, are scrambling to name a replacement before a state-mandated 27 July deadline. On Wednesday night, the state party announced it will select a new nominee at convention held sometime in the next two weeks, where reportedly hundreds of delegates would choose Platner's replacement.

It previously had said it would seek public input and not make the decision behind closed doors.

"So much of Platner's base, whose passion Democrats are going to want to have, will sit on their hands and be very angry if it looks like this is another case of the establishment triumphing over what the people want," said James Melcher, a professor of politics at the University of Maine at Farmington.

Tensions between that base and the establishment go back to Platner's success against Janet Mills, the Maine governor who was handpicked by Democratic leaders as the best chance to unseat Collins. She suspended her campaign in April in the face of his momentous popularity.

In recent days, those tensions have been rising.

State party chair Devon Murphy-Anderson said in a statement on Wednesday that the Platner campaign was trying to "manipulate" the process for selecting a new nominee – an accusation Platner's side denied. They countered they want an open process and not the coronation of an "establishment-backed" candidate.

Murphy-Anderson also went on to call Platner's supporters "a vital part of our party" and say they "deserve to participate in an open process to select Platner's replacement".

While Platner said he would formally withdraw, the sometimes-combative tone of his video suggested that he may yet delay doing so to further press the state party to give his supporters a more prominent role in choosing the next nominee.

According to former state Senator Lynn Bromley, who backed Mills in the primary, maintaining his supporters' enthusiasm will be essential for Democratic hopes come November.

"The party has a lot of work to do to attract young people, and the Platner campaign showed us that the party has that energy available to us," she said.

She is concerned, however, that it will be difficult for voters to coalesce around any new candidate in just three months.

"The thing I'm the most worried about is we run somebody and he or she loses, and then we spend the next four years pointing fingers at whose fault that was," she said.

In primary contests across the country this year, Democrats regularly opted for outsider congressional candidates offering a vivid vision for what the party should stand for and promising to fight for their beliefs in the face of Republican resistance.

Platner was one of the earliest and most prominent examples of this trend. With his gravelly voice, scruffy appearance and working-class back story, he gained a passionate following both in Maine and nationally.

He presented himself as a candidate who could advocate for liberal policies - like universal healthcare, wealth taxes, and low-cost housing - in a way that appealed to the kind of rural voters who have moved away from Democrats recently.

Recent polling suggested that Platner held a narrow lead over Collins, a Maine senator since 1997.

A win in November would have given Democratic progressives a chance to see blue-collar liberalism triumphing in battleground states like Maine.

And that, in turn, could have become a compelling argument for nominating a left-wing presidential candidate in 2028.

Now, that opportunity is likely dashed.

That Platner survived the series of scandals as long as he did was in part a testament to Democrats' hunger for a different kind of candidate. It also, however, underlined the risks of opting for charismatic political neophytes who haven't received close scrutiny before they run for higher office.

With Platner's exit, a group of more traditional candidates are already expressing interest in stepping in – including a handful who unsuccessfully ran for governor and one of the state's open House seats last month. They have recent campaign experience and some name recognition.

Troy Jackson, a former Maine Senate leader, campaigned side-by-side with Platner during his bid for governor, and came in third.

Nirav Shah, a state epidemiologist who gained prominence through regular public appearances during the Covid pandemic, finished a close second.

Shenna Bellows, the Maine secretary of state, is known for her lawsuit to block Trump administration attempts to gain access to state voter data. She was the party's nominee in 2014 but was soundly beaten by Collins.

According to Melcher, many Platner supporters will be hit hard because of the connection they made with their unconventional candidate. He believes they will ultimately back his replacement, however, because of the high stakes in this race.

Many Maine Democrats supported Platner with some reluctance because of his past scandals, he added, and this latest twist might end up a blessing in disguise for the party.

"If they play their cards right, I think that they will be fine and, with some voters, even better than they would have been before," he said, "as long as the party doesn't handle this in a way they see as disrespectful or a cabal taking things over."

The clock is ticking, however, and Collins awaits whoever emerges from whatever process Democrats ultimately follow. She has proven a formidable adversary for Democrats for 30 years, most recently defeating a better-funded opponent in 2020 despite polls showing her trailing right up to election day.

"It's not as though it was going to be easy before, and now it's hard," said Melcher. "Beating Collins was always going to be hard."

Follow the twists and turns of Trump's second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher's weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

'Forgotten' host Canada's unforgettable World Cup

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj4gpx7rlj5o, 4 days ago

Canada has sometimes been referred to as the "forgotten host" of this World Cup, but for the men's national team and its supporters, the performance during the tournament will be an unforgettable high-water mark.

Led by brash American coach Jesse Marsch, the team surprised many by fighting into the round of 16 - the furthest they've ever gone in the tournament - before being defeated by Morocco.

Canada's underdog run - from claiming their first World Cup point, their first win, and finally a knockout-stage victory as well - is one for the history books.

They "shocked everyone" by making it as far they did, fan Matt Lorincz told the BBC in Calgary.

While football - or soccer - is Canada's most-played sport, its commercial success is overshadowed by the nation's love affair with ice hockey and the popularity of major-league baseball and basketball franchises.

But there's hope that could change after this tournament.

"Most people you talk to watch, like, hockey or other sports, right? There's not a lot of - or as many - soccer fans in Canada. So hopefully there may be a few more of those," said Lorincz.

For a few weeks in June and July, the country has embraced its time on one of sport's biggest stages, while hosting the tournament alongside the US and Mexico.

On Tuesday, that hosting responsibility came to a close with a final match in Vancouver - during which Switzerland defeated Colombia in the round of 16.

In Toronto, earlier in the tournament, the sound of matches filtered out onto the streets from local bars, and fans held joyous and colourful marches to Toronto Stadium through the downtown area.

On the west coast, Canada trounced Qatar 6-0 during a match in Vancouver. The victory was marred only when star midfielder Ismaël Koné was stretchered off the pitch with a broken leg after going down from a hard tackle.

'The country and the world are watching'

Prime Minister Mark Carney is an avid sports fan who owns what seems like a jersey for every occasion. He is, so far, the only leader of the three North American host nations to attend stadium games, and he has embraced the opportunity to showcase his country during the world's most-watched sporting event.

After the win against Qatar, Carney gave the team a pep talk in the Vancouver stadium locker room.

"You showed a level of character that some people never achieve in their life," Carney said. "And you showed it when a good part of the country and the world is watching."

Sports minister Adam van Koeverden told the BBC that Canada had been "growing up a little bit as a middle power, and the opportunity to host the world for the biggest event of the year this year has been a sincere privilege that we have not taken lightly".

The premise of the original bid for a shared World Cup "was one continent, three countries" said John Kristick, a sports marketing executive with Playfly Sports Consulting, who served as the executive director of the United Bid Committee.

Kristick felt the tournament so far had gone well but had lost the essence of a truly united bid along the way.

"I think it's probably been harder for Canada and Mexico to break through as hosts. I think that the US have taken more of that limelight," he said, pointing to the high-profile politics of the Trump administration and the fact the US was hosting the lion's share of games.

And while Canada has sometimes got lost in the shuffle in the massive tournament, Kristick said "every Canadian knows Canada is hosting it, and I think there's been a great deal of national pride".

Toronto and Vancouver hosted a total of 13 matches of the tournament's 104.

Hosting boosts businesses - despite costs to country

Ian Tostenson, head of the British Columbia Restaurant and Foodservices Association, described being in a host city as a crash course in "the enormity of the World Cup".

The event pulled people in with the excitement around matches, and gave local businesses a significant boost, Tostenson said, adding that alcohol sales were up roughly 5% on last year.

"It raised the spirits of the entire province. I think the whole conversation [for the] last four weeks had been about soccer," he told the BBC.

Canada is facing some economic doldrums, Tostenson said, but "you learn that if you give people a real reason to spend their money and give them value, they'll spend it".

Still, Canada's decision to co-host has come with criticism - especially around the costs.

Taxpayers paid an estimated C$1.1bn ($774m; £578m) to get the country World Cup ready - with Toronto alone shelling out an estimated C$380m.

City Councillor Josh Matlow did not think the price tag made sense given strained municipal finances.

"I don't think that hosting the games made the city's situation any better," he said.

Van Koeverden, the sports minister, countered that the spending was "prudent" and said dollars flowed back into the economy.

"Full stadiums, full parks, full restaurants, and full hotels is a nice problem to have in 2026," he said.

For their part, visitors have spoken warmly of their time in the cities of the "forgotten" host country.

Portugal manager Roberto Martinez said Toronto's stadium - the smallest of all the World Cup stadiums, featuring temporary seating built to accommodate the crowds - reminded him of the "old-fashioned Premier League grounds".

Speaking after Portugal's win against Croatia, Martinez called the overall atmosphere "an incredible spectacle for football".

Speaking while matches were taking place in Toronto, Gudmund Agotnes, from Norway, said he was attending three games in the city, noting that "we were lucky with the draw".

Agotnes called the stadium experience "pretty cool", thanks to seats that offered a great "bird's eye view" of both the play on the pitch and the city's skyline.

Millions tuned in for Canada's biggest ever match

More than a million fans attended the opening 16 games at the World Cup in all three host countries, Fifa said last month. At the time, Fifa also said the tournament was on course to eclipse an all-time cumulative attendance record of 3.5 million in 1994 at the end of the group stage - although given the expanded format of this year's tournament, these attendance figures are not unexpected.

Canadian viewership of the match against Morocco on 4 July peaked at 11.7 million unique viewers, and was the biggest non-final World Cup figure on record, host broadcaster Bell Media said.

In comparison, 9.8 million Canadians overall tuned into last October's opening of the National Hockey League (NHL) season.

Bell Media said the round-of-32 matches had an average Canadian audience of 1.9 million viewers. Meanwhile, the popular programme Hockey Night in Canada, which shows NHL games, averages an estimated 1.2 million viewers per broadcast.

Canada Soccer hopes to build on the buzz

Canada, while a first-time World Cup host, does have a soccer culture.

It has three clubs competing in the Major League Soccer (MLS) competition: the Vancouver Whitecaps, Toronto FC and CF Montréal.

But the country has struggled to translate a recreational league passion into consistent high performance, in particular with the men's national team. Meanwhile, the women's team is currently ranked ninth globally by Fifa.

This tournament has helped to spur massive financial improvements to Canada Soccer, the official national governing body for the sport. The body launched a fundraiser before the tournament that recently met its C$25m target months ahead of schedule.

That windfall could deepen the roots of the game domestically, Canada Soccer says, through more funding for youth participation, coaching development, and support for senior and youth national teams.

Now, the hope is the governing body can build on the buzz and fandom around the team, as well as longer-term projects such as the establishment of a national training centre.

Meanwhile, fans of the men's national team, nicknamed Les Rouges, are just savouring the experience of a strong tournament performance.

"It brought a lot of people together in a very kind of segregated world that we're living in," said Zeileen Reardon, who spoke while watching the team play Morocco in a bar in Calgary.

"So, I think it actually showed the world that we can come together, even for a game," she added.

Additional reporting by Nadine Yousif and Eloise Alanna

Questions swirl about top US Republican McConnell's weeks-long hospital stay - here's what we know

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gyjpkzew1o, yesterday

Videos shared with news outlets reportedly show US Senator Mitch McConnell being carried on a stretcher to an ambulance last month, stoking concerns about the health of a top Republican lawmaker who has not been seen in weeks.

Calls for information about the condition of McConnell, 84, who was the longest-serving Senate party leader in US history, are growing as his stay in hospital approaches the one-month mark.

He was admitted for treatment on 14 June, according to his staff. His aides have not given any details about the reason for his hospital stay, or what kind of treatment he is receiving. While he has reportedly spoken on the phone with a handful of people, he has not appeared in public or in photos, and has not issued a statement on his condition.

The Kentucky senator's team said on 2 July he was "receiving excellent care" and "continues to improve".

On Wednesday, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, sent a letter to McConnell's office urging the senator to be "transparent" and provide an update on his health amid growing concerns about his "ability to hold office".

Several US media outlets have reported that 911 emergency calls were made from McConnell's home seeking help for an "unconscious" person who was suffering from "cardiac arrest".

The calls also indicated that CPR was being performed on the patient. McConnell, who has served in the Senate for more than 40 years, was not explicitly named in the recording.

Ambulance video, phone calls and Laura Loomer's claims

As the mystery of McConnell's health has grown, so too have concerns from both parties about his condition.

This week, a video circulated online of what was said to be McConnell on a stretcher being loaded into an ambulance after the patient was carried from the senator's home.

A neighbour of McConnell described the scene on the morning of 14 June to CNN, saying the entire street was blocked off and the police would only confirm there was a "medical emergency", not whether it was McConnell who was unwell.

Another eyewitness told the neighbour it was McConnell on the stretcher, according to CNN.

On Tuesday, several Republicans, including conservative commentator Scott Jennings, said they had spoken by phone to McConnell and insisted he sounded lucid as he was recovering in hospital.

They circled the wagons after a Trump ally - influencer Laura Loomer - claimed on X that the Kentucky senator was in a "vegetative state".

The far-right activist also said McConnell "is brain dead and hooked up to machines", and alleged a "cover-up". She did not provide proof for the claims.

Loomer also criticised his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, for visiting China during McConnell's hospital stay.

The Chinese government has confirmed Chao met Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng in Beijing on 17 June, three days after McConnell was admitted to hospital.

A spokesperson for Chao told the BBC on Tuesday evening that McConnell's health "did not warrant an immediate return", though Chao has since returned to the US.

"The secretary was on a long-planned trip in China to support her family's philanthropic endeavors," the spokesperson said in a statement. "During the trip, she met with a number of people, including the US ambassador."

In an apparent effort to push back against Loomer's claims, several Republican colleagues released statements on Tuesday saying they had spoken by phone with the former Senate leader.

A spokesman for Senate majority leader John Thune said the two held "a lengthy and substantive conversation that covered a variety of topics, including national security".

What happens if McConnell dies?

McConnell's office has not released any update on his condition since 2 July, when it said in a statement that the senator "appreciates the outpouring of support he's receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital.

"The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session."

McConnell had previously announced that he would not seek re-election once his term expires in January 2027, and Republican Andy Barr will go up against Democrat Charles Booker in the November midterm election to take over his seat.

In the event of an early vacancy, Kentucky law requires that a special election be held to choose a temporary replacement.

Beshear, the state's governor, has 30 days to call an election and candidates are given 49 days to decide if they will run and file the necessary paperwork.

But, because the November election is quickly approaching, there is a tight timeline for that to happen without conflicting with November's already scheduled midterm election.

Experts have said Beshear must call for a special election by 3 August deadline so that it would not interfere with the midterms.

If McConnell were to vacate his seat on or after that point, it could set up a legal battle about what comes next.

McConnell's past health struggles

McConnell has faced several health scares in recent years.

He shocked colleagues and congressional reporters when he abruptly froze while speaking during a press conference in 2023, and that year he suffered a concussion after falling at a hotel in Washington, which kept him away from the Senate for several weeks.

In 2024, he was injured after tripping outside a Senate lunch event, and earlier this year he was admitted to hospital for the flu. McConnell survived polio as a child, which he said in a 2020 interview made it hard for him to climb stairs.

In his years at the top of the Senate, McConnell developed a reputation as a wily tactician and perpetual thorn in the side of Democrats through the use of arcane procedures and blunt political force.

In one of his most consequential moves in 2016, he held up President Barack Obama's US Supreme Court nomination, allowing Donald Trump to instead appoint a conservative justice when he took office the next year.

Despite supporting much of Trump's agenda during his first administration, McConnell has become a more vocal critic of the president in his second term.

Legionnaires' outbreak hits New York as officials rush to test water towers

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c05y4gd2r0ro, yesterday

For the past few days, Justine Kirby has been sporting an N95 mask every time she leaves her house to walk in her quiet Upper East Side neighbourhood.

She is keeping her apartment windows closed, too, as an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease grows to 46 cases, which the city has linked to contaminated water cooling towers.

The cluster of Legionnaires' infections - a serious type of pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria - has raised alarms among residents in the community, who packed a town hall in an Upper East side church this week to pose a series of questions to New York City's health department.

"There is quite a level of concern in the community," Kirby said. "I'm the sort of person who likes to say that the risk may be small, but until the [cleaning and disinfecting] is done, I don't see much downside in taking these extra measures."

As of Wednesday evening, 22 people who were sick had gone to hospital, some treated in the intensive care unit, health officials have said.

Legionnaires' is caused by bacteria that grow in warm water, leading to flu-like symptoms that can sometimes be fatal without treatment and for those who are immunocompromised.

The current outbreak is caused by cooling towers from larger buildings where Legionella bacteria live and multiply, infecting people when they breathe in the bacteria from the mist of the towers, said Dr Wafaa El-Sadr, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

This week, the city announced an "aggressive" plan to tackle the outbreak. On Friday, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said officials had tested all of the cooling towers in the area.

New York City Health Commissioner Alister Martin said the bacteria was detected in 31 towers in the area, and 19 had already been disinfected, according to the BBC's US partner CBS News. The rest of the buildings were expected to clean their towers by Saturday.

Part of large air conditioning or refrigeration systems, the towers cool indoor spaces by removing heat from the air using water and evaporating it as mist into the outdoor air, according to the New York City health department. They are often found on top of buildings.

Officials have said they are requiring buildings to fully clean and disinfect their cooling towers after one positive test result, instead of waiting for additional testing to confirm the presence of the bacteria.

At the town hall at the church this week, Martin said it was good news the city had identified the cases early.

"What we have in front of us is 160 cooling towers across this region that we are looking at, and we are not waiting," he said, according to ABC News.

But Julie Menin, the speaker of the New York City Council, said she was worried not enough action had been taken.

She wrote in a letter to Martin that she was "deeply concerned that the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene has still failed to require building owners to proactively disinfect all cooling towers in the area under investigation".

Kirby said she was comforted by actions the city's health department was taking in terms of testing, but added she and many of the dozens who attended the town hall still had questions about protecting themselves.

The city has told people to monitor for symptoms and seek medical care, including testing, if symptomatic.

"They could quite reasonably say, 'Because risk is low, we're not recommending everyone mask outside. However a good well-fitted mask will protect you,'" Kirby said. "I think they could've gotten into that."

The health department did not respond to a request from the BBC about whether they advised local residents to wear a mask, but Dr El-Sadr said masking - and closing windows - could help for those in the epicentre of the outbreak.

Dr El-Sadr said warming temperatures from climate change could worsen Legionnaires' outbreaks, though the disease has plagued New York and other major cities around the world for decades.

In 2025, London, Ontario, saw 105 cases of Legionnaires' and five deaths. Last August, in Harlem in upper Manhattan, 114 people were infected and seven people died. The sources of the outbreak were later identified as cooling towers at Harlem Hospital and the nearby site of the city's new public health laboratory.

The Upper East Side is home to a large number of cooling towers, more than three times as many towers that the city tested during the 2025 Harlem outbreak, according to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Sixteen starve to death in Uganda as drought kills crops

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgljevwy82o, today

The Ugandan government says at least 16 people have died from hunger in recent weeks in the north-eastern region of Karamoja due to a prolonged drought.

Farmers say they've lost crops because the area received little or no rain since April - the beginning of the planting season.

Experts warn the region's recurring shortages are caused by climate change, poor rainfall, deforestation, overgrazing and crop pests. Together, they leave communities increasingly vulnerable to hunger.

Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja says thousands of families have been left without food as the dry spell has destroyed crops, and her office is to seek cabinet approval on Monday to buy more supplies for affected areas.

The government says it has started distributing emergency food aid.

Large areas of maize, sorghum and soybeans have withered, shattering hopes of a bumper harvest.

Experts are calling for better forecasting, investment in irrigation and drought‑resistant crops.

Uganda's semi-arid north-east has been struck by catastrophic food shortages before.

In 2022, more than 2,200 people died of starvation and related illnesses in north-east Uganda, a report by an official human rights body said.

Despair turned to disbelief when the then-foreign minister, Henry Okello Oryem, called those who had died of hunger "idiots", arguing that Uganda had favourable climate and fertile land so people should be able to grow food for themselves.

More BBC stories on Uganda:

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Zulu king expresses regret after video captures tirade against his wife

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8dl9n1v3vo, yesterday

South Africa's Zulu king has expressed "deep" regret after a leaked video captured him hurling a barrage of insults at one of his wives.

In the video, which was widely shared on Wednesday, King Misuzulu kaZwelithini threatened to physically assault Queen Nomzamo Myeni, accused her of having an affair and said he wanted her out of the house.

The queen appeared to be the person filming the footage, remaining silent until the end of the video, when she said: "This is the life I live, day and night".

On Friday, a statement from the king's office said he recognised the outburst caused "pain" and "embarrassment" among royal circles and the broader Zulu ethnic group.

"It is important to clarify that the recordings are historical in nature and do not represent the present circumstances within the Royal Household," the statement also said.

In the video, King Misuzulu criticises his wife, who he married last November, for making excursions without his approval.

"She's out there without my permission. When you're a wife, you ask for permission. At least let your husband know," he told the queen, who is his third wife.

After repeatedly insulting the queen, he told her he had a girlfriend waiting for him.

"I want you out," he said, as he left the room.

It is not clear who released the video into the public domain.

The statement from the royal household noted that on the day the video was leaked, the king and queen were receiving a group of politicians as part of their official duties.

Engagements such as this demonstrate that the "difficult circumstances" captured in the video have been replaced by "reconciliation" and "reflection", the statement added.

Regarded as the "lion of the nation", the Zulu king is the custodian of age-old traditions that place marriage and polygamy at the heart of royal success.

His role within South Africa may only be ceremonial, but he remains hugely influential, with a yearly government-funded budget of several million dollars.

The video has caused a sharp divide on social media - some have accused the king of displaying abusive and undignified behaviour, while others criticised the queen for airing private matters in public.

South African journalist Asanda Magaqa said that while she would never encourage anyone to film private moments, "watching that video, I understand why she felt compelled to record it".

"No woman deserves to live like that," she wrote on social media platform X.

The footage also showed the king saying he became a monarch through witchcraft. King Misuzulu's coronation came after a year-long family feud, with some royals arguing that he was not the rightful heir and that his father's will had been forged.

Zulu society is deeply patriarchal, with women often expected to comply with traditional gender norms.

South Africa has one of the highest rates of violence against women in the world.

Last year, South Africa classified gender-based violence (GBV) as a "national disaster".

The king's marriage to Queen Myeni was delayed for months last year as he dealt with a scandal involving his first wife, Queen Ntokozo kaMayisela.

Queen kaMayisela went to court in a bid to halt the wedding, arguing that her husband would be committing the offence of "bigamy" without first "converting" his civil marriage to her into a traditional Zulu marriage.

But the judge threw out her case, saying Queen kaMayisela had a "turnaround" in attitude as she had already agreed that her husband could take other wives.

Additional reporting by Khanyisile Ngcobo in Johannesburg

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

More than 40 kidnapped children and teachers freed after Nigerian army operation

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly9lnjlp1eo, today

Nigeria's military says it has freed all 44 pupils and teachers who were abducted two months ago from schools in the southern state of Oyo, and arrested some of their captors.

A local teachers' union has told the BBC of its "relief" - but families say the ordeal has been harrowing and they are still waiting to be reunited with their loved ones.

The military said that several soldiers died in the rescue mission.

The freed captives are currently receiving medical treatment at an undisclosed hospital and will return home at a later date, army spokesman Danjuma Jonah Danjuma said in a statement issued on Friday evening.

A renewed wave of mass kidnappings have hit Nigeria in recent months, and insecurity remains a major issue ahead of next year's general election.

The government says it is stepping up security around schools and vulnerable communities but critics say it is not enough.

In this case the victims were kidnapped by gunmen on 15 May from three schools in the district of Osiire, in Oyo state: Baptist Nursery and Primary School, LA Primary School, and Community Grammar School.

No official confirmation has been given of the victims' ages, but children at such schools in Nigeria are typically aged between two and 18 years old.

For their families, it has been an agonising wait.

"It was a harrowing experience... but we thank God that it ended well," Prof Wole Alamu tells the BBC. His wife Rachael Folawe Alamu is the headteacher of Community Grammar school and he said his family had found it especially difficult to see videos released of her and other teachers and pupils by their abductors.

"We are happy that they are out and we are grateful to everybody who has contributed in one way or the other for the release," Prof Alamu added.

Speaking to the BBC, Hassan Ajibola who leads the Teachers' Union in Oyo State said he was "happy and elated" and felt huge "joy", but urged the authorities to fully implement stronger security measures as outlined in their Safe School Initiative that was launched over a decade ago following the infamous Chibok schoolgirls' abduction.

"I am very much convinced that should that [if the] program be fully implemented and as initiated, our schools will be very, very secured," he said.

He added measures should include deploying security personnel to schools, CCTV, regular patrols, fencing school premises and using local security groups to support areas facing shortages of personnel.

In Nigeria, continued school kidnappings have led to calls from lawmakers and rights groups for an investigation into how the Safe School Initiative funds have been used.

The Oyo state abductions caused widespread concern in Nigeria because of their scale and because it took place in the predominantly Christian south-west of the country - as opposed to the predominantly Muslim north where such attacks are more commonplace.

The army said the month-long rescue operation involved the military, police, intelligence agencies and local vigilante groups.

It said they identified those behind the abduction and dismantled their support network, including informants and hideouts in the Old Oyo National Park forest. It is one of several large, difficult to access areas that have become hideouts for criminal gangs and jihadist groups.

The military acknowledged that some of its personnel were killed during the operation but did not give any more details.

It announced on Friday that it had arrested a number of suspects, but did not say how many remain at large. The army says more operations are planned.

Additional reporting by Natasha Booty

More about Nigeria from the BBC:

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

How a fake presidential council ended up with a budget of almost $1m in Nigeria

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c872v7wldjyo, yesterday

How did an organisation with government offices, civil servants and a line in Nigeria's national budget turn out to have no legal basis for existing?

For much of 2025, nothing set the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) apart from the many other agencies that make up Nigeria's federal bureaucracy.

It presented itself as a body created to attract foreign investment into Africa's most populous country, operating from an office inside the Federal Secretariat in Abuja - the huge complex that houses Nigeria's government ministries.

Career civil servants were assigned there and ran a website on the government's official ".gov.ng" domain. It even won approval to hire more than 300 staff, at a time when the government had frozen public-sector recruitment. The website has been taken down but its Instagram account is still working.

Its director general, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, met cabinet ministers, financial regulators, the head of Nigeria's anti-corruption agency and foreign diplomats. When the 2026 national budget was signed into law, the council was in it, with an allocation of 1.3bn naira ($950,000; £700,000).

Then, last month, the government said it was all a fiction.

The presidency announced that the PFIPC had never been created by law, by presidential order nor by any other official instrument.

Its apparent legitimacy, officials said, rested on a single forged document - an appointment letter claiming that President Bola Tinubu had made Adeyemi the council's director general. Investigators say the letter carried the forged signature of Femi Gbajabiamila, the president's chief of staff and most senior aide.

Adeyemi denies this.

He insists the council was lawfully set up in 2024 and that he was properly appointed. He has also accused senior officials of demanding bribes to secure his job and later trying to seize the council's funds. The presidency denies his claims.

Although he has gone into hiding saying he fears for his life, he has said he will appear in court later this month to answer charges including forgery and impersonation. Police have launched a manhunt for him.

But the scandal has already grown beyond the question of one forged letter.

Investigators are now examining how far the machinery of the Nigerian state moved on Adeyemi's behalf - and who inside it allowed that to happen.

To do what the PFIPC did, an agency in Nigeria must pass through some of the most powerful offices in government - the secretary to the government of the federation - effectively the government's chief administrator, the head of the civil service, the accountant-general who controls public accounts, the budget office, and finally parliament, which must pass the spending into law.

Babachir Lawal has sat at the top of that chain.

He served as secretary to the government of the federation, the office that assigns agencies their space and status, under Tinubu's predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari.

"There's no way [that office] in a normal system would not know that the agency is fake," he told the BBC. "You cannot create a budget code for yourself without the budget office knowing. There must be connivance with officials within."

His conclusion was blunt: "You must have officials within the system who will validate your corrupt behaviour."

Oluseun Onigbinde reaches a similar view by a different route.

He co-founded BudgIT, a Nigerian transparency group that first drew attention to the council's funding. He points out that the PFIPC does not appear in the budgets for 2023, 2024 or 2025 but then surfaces - fully formed and with its own budget code - in 2026.

"This agency actually emanated and found itself in the budget from the executive," he said - meaning it came from within the president's own side of government, not from parliament. "The functional head of the agency cannot just do that alone. It has to come from the State House [the president's office]," he told the BBC.

Onigbinde listed the checks a genuine agency must go through - an office in the federal secretariat, sign-off from the civil service, a budget code, and a multi-step approval to open a bank account. He said the "lone impostor" explanation did not add up.

"I don't know how you go through all these tracks and you still come out at the end and this agency is fake," he said. "He does it have backing. The government just has to be honest about who exactly are the people involved."

The government's own account has shifted. Its spokesman first said Adeyemi had "fraudulently opened" an account at the Central Bank of Nigeria. The accountant-general's office later said no such account was ever activated, and that no public money was released.

The distinction matters.

Even if no money left the treasury, the affair has shown how easily the appearance of a real government institution can be created in Nigeria - a country actively courting foreign investors, whom this council was ostensibly set up to attract.

The BBC asked the presidency how the agency obtained its office, staff and budget line, and why it favours an internal investigation over an independent one. The presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, did not respond to the BBC's request for comment.

Lawyers for Gbajabiamila said his position was set out in a legal letter and that he was not giving interviews. In that letter, seen by the BBC, they describe Adeyemi's allegations as false and defamatory, say the two men have never met, and demand he issue a retraction or otherwise face criminal and civil proceedings, including a claim for 10bn naira in damages.

President Tinubu has ordered the country's anti-corruption commission to investigate and report within 30 days, including on "the role of any public officer" who may have helped. Critics note that he did so while publicly declaring "100% confidence" in Gbajabiamila, who is listed as a witness at Adeyemi's legal case. Opposition parties, senior lawyers and campaigners are demanding an independent judicial inquiry instead.

Nigeria is no stranger to large-scale corruption but previous scandals have tended to share a common ending: many names mentioned, few convictions.

Tinubu took office in 2023 promising reform, and points to more than 7,000 convictions and over 500bn naira recovered in two years. Critics say those numbers are dominated by low-level internet fraudsters, while politically connected figures are rarely touched.

What sets the PFIPC apart is not the amount of money, which is modest by the standards of some previous scandals, but the method. This was not money skimmed from a contract. It was, allegedly, an entire arm of government created from nothing.

Onigbinde describes it as "a symptom of the dysfunctional budgeting process". He links it to the rapid growth in the number of government bodies: a 2012 official review recommended cutting Nigeria's agencies, but their number has instead roughly doubled, to well over 1,200.

"It's a costly waste of public resource," he said - in a country heavily in debt. As the investigation widened, its sharpest effect was felt far from Abuja. Police searching for Adeyemi, who had gone into hiding, went instead to his family home in Ogbomoso in the south-western Oyo state, and detained his elderly father, Chief Adetunji Adeniyi.

Speaking to BBC News Yoruba, Chief Adeniyi described officers forcing their way in. "They tore off all the barbed wire and broke the fence and the door," he said. They searched the house, took the family's phones, and returned the next morning, he added. "I was so worried. I was just saying: 'What is this? Are they trying to kill me?'"

He defended his son. "My son is an easy-going person, not a troublemaker," he said. "I am very sad at all the reports that I am hearing. I am really confused by it all."

Adeyemi's lawyer, prominent human rights advocate Femi Falana, told the BBC that Adeniyi had since been released, and that detaining a relative in place of a suspect was illegal in Nigeria. Police spokesperson Anietie Okokon Edem Iniedu said the elderly man had not been arrested but was invited to assist with their inquiries.

Falana, who would not discuss the case itself, said Adeyemi had assured him he would appear for his trial, though Falana did not know where his client was. He echoed the wider demand for those higher up to be examined.

"This guy should not just be sacrificed alone," he said. "Those who used him to achieve their own objectives will have to be exposed."

The BBC has asked the body in charge of the investigation - the ICPC - for comment, but has yet to receive a reply at the time of publication.

Adeyemi is due to appear in court in Abuja on 27 July, with Gbajabiamila and 10 others listed as prosecution witnesses. The anti-corruption commission's report is expected soon after.

Both will be measured against the same question: whether they identify the officials who allowed a phantom agency to acquire offices, staff and public money - or whether the affair comes to rest on one man, still in hiding, and still insisting that the council he led was real.

More about Nigeria from the BBC:

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

'They said it isn't real': Ebola rumours fuel attacks on health workers

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c79yj09nd4qo, 3 days ago

"They grabbed me from behind and started punching me, hitting me with spades and machetes," says Daniel Uyirwoth Welo, one of four Red Cross volunteers injured when a crowd tried to open a coffin carrying someone who had died from Ebola.

The 27-year-old and his colleagues were attempting to carry out a safe burial at a cemetery in Bunia, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, last month when they were attacked. The assault was triggered by rumours - circulating locally and online - that the coffin was empty.

Some in the crowd said, "No Ebola doesn't exist," Welo told BBC Verify, adding that others believed the Red Cross team was there only "to get money".

The attack is one of a series of incidents linked to misinformation during the latest Ebola outbreak, which has infected more than 1,750 people and killed 600 in DR Congo since mid-May, according to government data.

False claims circulating in affected areas include allegations that Ebola doesn't exist, that health workers are deliberately infecting people or harvesting their organs, and that the Ebola response is a money-making scheme.

BBC Verify identified 12 cases of community resistance to Ebola control measures, seven of which we have been able to verify using social media footage. These include attacks on treatment facilities, assaults on health workers, and repeated attempts to interfere with safe burial procedures for people who died from the disease. The true number is likely to be higher as incidents may happen in remote areas and go unreported.

Most recently, on 1 July, people set fire to an Ebola treatment centre in Bafwabango, Ituri province, the epicentre of the outbreak. Local media reported that a police officer was killed following clashes over the body of a person suspected to have died from the virus.

Ebola spreads through direct contact with infected bodily fluids and victims' bodies can remain highly infectious after death. Health workers had wanted to bury the victim safely - though this measure has repeatedly faced resistance during the outbreak amid baseless claims that Ebola is not real.

The current outbreak is linked to the Bundibugyo species. While there is still no approved vaccine or treatment for this species, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says a trial has begun of two potential treatments - though experts caution that it could take months to complete.

Response teams from aid organisations and the Congolese authorities have been carrying out safe burials, preventing practices such as washing or touching bodies that can spread infection. Funeral rites involving contact with the deceased have played a major role in the spread of Ebola during previous outbreaks, making safe burials a key way of limiting further spread of the disease.

But health officials say misinformation is undermining those efforts.

In late May, rioters set fire to equipment and two isolation tents at an Ebola treatment centre in Rwampara after relatives of a young man believed to have died from the virus were prevented from taking his body away for burial.

Funerals - often a multi-day affair in DR Congo - are among the most important communal and cultural ceremonies in the country, with deep social, cultural, and spiritual relevance.

"Women are dressed in a wedding dress with make-up… They sing, they celebrate that person, because it's a journey, it's not the end of the life," Julienne Anoko, an anthropologist working with the WHO as a community engagement officer, told the BBC last month.

Since then, medical facilities have reportedly been attacked or vandalised at least three more times.

Ebola responders in Ituri told the BBC that misconceptions about the virus and fears about what happens in treatment centres have discouraged some patients from seeking care promptly, often leaving them with little chance of recovery by the time they arrive for medical help.

Dr Aimé Mbonda Noula of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said some families had fled their homes when a relative died from Ebola, abandoning the body rather than notifying authorities because they feared being taken into quarantine.

"Most of the people in [these] communities think that these treatment centres are places where, when you go, you die," he said. "So, you usually run away from these places and run away from the health workers".

Others resisted changes to funeral practices.

"They don't believe that safe, dignified burials could really help," says Dr Babou Rukengeza from the charity Save The Children. "They say: 'this is my family member, I need to honour him… this is the last time that I can touch him'."

Last month, two Ebola response workers were attacked in North Kivu province by people who reportedly blamed them for deaths in their community.

Video verified by BBC Verify shows a female health worker trying to flee from a group of men who strike her with wooden planks. In another clip, a man appearing to wear medical scrubs crawls along a road while people throw stones at him.

A recent assessment by the charity ActionAid in Ituri suggested about a third of respondents did not believe Ebola was a real disease, instead viewing it as a spiritual phenomenon or the product of sorcery.

"Ebola misinformation is Ebola's greatest ally," Dr Wessam Mankoula from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention told the BBC. "False rumours delay care for people who need help and fuel attacks on health workers and health facilities, disrupting outbreak control and giving the virus more opportunities to spread."

Experts say distrust has been fuelled by decades of unrest in eastern DR Congo — from prolonged conflict to outside interference and competition over valuable minerals, such as gold and coltan, which have drawn in foreign companies and armed groups.

"You have a very strong base of being very distrustful of anything coming from outside, including the central government," says Dr Jean-Vivien Mombouli, who has previously advised governments across the region on how to respond to Ebola outbreaks.

Health officials argue that containing the outbreak now depends as much on rebuilding trust as on medical treatment, warning that without being accepted by communities, they cannot do their work.

"Mistrust is the real battleground," WHO chief, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, wrote on social media in June. "Win trust, and we win this."

Fears of a massacre in this city on the front line of Sudan's war

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20yyjdzw7po, 5 days ago

A 27-year-old university student, Sarah was at a crowded fuel station in the city of el-Obeid, on the front line of Sudan's civil war, when a drone struck without warning.

She says the station lit up before everything went dark. "In front of us there were injured people, blood, burnt cars, and smashed cars."

We have withheld the student's real name for her safety in a city that is the latest flash-point in the three-year war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Sarah told the BBC by phone that she was fortunate to survive the attack, but had sustained injuries.

"I got shrapnel in my leg and hand because I was outside the car when the second missile struck."

Currently under army control, el-Obeid - the capital of North Kordofan state with a population of around 500,000 - has one of the largest military bases in central Sudan.

But the army has been unable to repel the drone strikes, with 27 hitting the city in June, the highest monthly total since the conflict began, according to violence monitoring group Acled.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk said at least 45 people were killed and 41 injured in 15 drone strikes between 6 and 28 June.

He added that the city has been under siege-like conditions for 18 months, with summary executions, abductions, torture and sexual violence taking place along routes used by people fleeing the conflict.

"The signs from el-Obeid are clear and unmistakable: Another human rights catastrophe is unfolding in Sudan," Turk said last week in an address to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Nathaniel Raymond, the executive director of US-based Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab, told the BBC that el-Obeid was strategically significant for the warring sides, lying between the RSF-controlled west of the country, with the east mostly in the hands of the army.

"If you control el-Obeid, you control the road to the capital, Khartoum and [its twin city] Omdurman, and so the army has to defend el-Obeid," he said.

A doctor at a hospital in the city told the BBC they were struggling to cope with the influx of casualties.

"We receive injured patients after almost every drone attack. Most of the injuries involve limbs while some patients suffer from head injuries," she said.

One of the most distressing cases the doctor has treated was a seven-month old baby.

"Her hand had to be amputated because of the severity of the injury, but sadly she did not survive.

"The situation is frightening. You leave your house as if you will never return," the doctor said, trying to hold back tears. "We are really suffering from the drones - no-one knows how and when they will die."

Amnesty International secretary-general Agnès Callamard has warned that al-Obeid could face violence on a scale similar to that seen in el-Fasher when the RSF captured it after laying siege to it, also for 18 months.

"What happened in el-Fasher is not an oddity. It is not a moment of madness. It is a playbook," she said.

The UN said early last year that the conflict in el-Fasher bore the "hallmarks of genocide," with more than 6,000 people killed in just three days, with the mostly Arab RSF fighters accused of slaughtering non-Arab groups.

The RSF has repeatedly denied these accusations. In a statement responding to warnings of an impending massacre in el-Obeid, the paramilitary group said it would "work diligently" to ensure the full protection of the city's residents, and that it was operating in full compliance with international law.

But Raymond said that el-Obeid does not currently display the same ethnic dynamics that characterised the violence in el-Fasher, adding: "Right now, we don't see any indication of a large-scale plan by RSF to attack."

Acled's Nohad Eltayeb said the RSF had effectively encircled the city from the north, west and south, but the army had reinforced its positions with allied militias to "continue to hold a vital supply corridor connecting the city with eastern territories".

"While it is very likely that the RSF will attack the city, this logistical lifeline and reinforcements render a complete RSF takeover improbable," she said in a report released on 30 June.

Sarah said the drones strikes have mainly targeted fuel stations or fuel tankers, with other residents saying that water and sewage trucks, apparently mistaken for fuel tankers, have also been hit.

Raymond said satellite imagery showed that at least eight fuel stations had suffered damage consistent with bombardment between late May and late June.

As a result, fuel is starting to run short in the city leading to huge price rises.

El-Obeid's main electrical substation, as well as residential neighbourhoods and markets, also came under attack in an apparent attempt to cripple daily life, he added.

"Without fuel and electricity, the water pumps in the city will stop working and civilians, including internally displaced people, will start drinking water that could be contaminated and cause waterborne disease," Raymond told the BBC.

El-Obeid's population includes about 100,000 people who have fled violence in other other areas, hoping the city would be safe.

Raymond said that in a single month, about 700 temporary structures had been built in camps for displaced people around el-Obeid.

Among those who moved to the city is a humanitarian worker whom we have named Ahmed.

He first fled Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan, then Khartoum, and now fears he will have to leave el-Obeid as drone strikes intensify.

"People are always in shock and fear. They are unable to sleep," he told the BBC.

"Many of us sleep outside because of the heat. When the drones are flying overhead, making that noise, every night becomes a sleepless night."

Sarah said many people were scared to step out of their homes.

"People now leave their homes saying goodbye to their families because they don't know if they will return or not."

More on the Sudan war from the BBC:

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Why some African nations are turning down Trump aid money

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg0921y8kdo, 6 days ago

After dismantling the main US body for delivering foreign assistance last year, the Trump administration is again offering hundreds of millions of dollars to African countries to support their healthcare structures and help fight disease.

But the new deals come with conditions attached and as a result, face resistance from some governments.

When the initial agreement was signed by Kenya's President William Ruto in Washington last December, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he hoped it would be the first of many.

"We hope to sign, I don't know, 30, 40, how many? Fifty? Well, this is number one. We'll always remember this one… and we think we've picked the perfect partner," Rubio declared.

But even this landmark deal with Kenya, worth $2.5bn (£1.9bn), has been delayed by activists who went to court to block it, although cabinet ministers did finally approve it last month.

Shortly after taking office, President Donald Trump ordered the closure of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) amid accusations of wastefulness, in the process decimating health programmes in some African countries that relied on American funding.

The State Department's new global health strategy requires recipient governments to share responsibility by increasing their own health spending, with the goal of building durable systems that can eventually be self-reliant. It is, for example, contributing $1.6bn to the overall deal with Kenya - with the East African nation pledging $850m over five years.

The Trump administration hopes that partnering with national leaderships will improve on traditional donor-NGO relationships which it says created dependency, led to parallel delivery arrangements and sucked up aid dollars in overhead costs.

"Our aid to those countries will not just be dollars distributed to an NGO who then will go into the country and impose programmes," Rubio told a congressional committee last month.

"Not only are we treating the acute situations on the ground of people that are sick, we are helping them build the capacity and the capability to do this for themselves."

But the result is a shift away from a model of global cooperation anchored in the World Health Organization (WHO), to direct agreements with individual governments that are tied to US strategic and commercial interests.

The US withdrew from the WHO early this year saying it was unfair that Washington provided so much more funding than other countries and alleging that the organisation mismanaged the Covid-19 crisis, lacked transparency, and was susceptible to political influence.

Controversially, the American bilateral deals come with an explicit promise to prioritise US pharmaceuticals and medical firms to develop and deliver treatments.

"Our global health foreign assistance programme is not just aid - it is a strategic mechanism to further our bilateral interests around the world," says the policy document.

Thirty-two countries had accepted the health Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) by mid-May, in Latin America, the Caribbean and at least 20 in Africa. But some - such as Ghana, Zimbabwe and Zambia - have resisted signing up, citing different reasons.

In Zambia, Foreign Minister Mulambo Haimbe criticised what he described as an American effort to link health funding to US economic interests by connecting the deal to a separate agreement giving Washington access to critical minerals.

"Our [US] colleagues looked at it from the perspective that [the two deals] must be taken as a package to be negotiated and concluded at one particular time," he told the BBC, saying the Zambian government wanted to discuss them separately on their own merits.

"The US felt that there is need for there to be a preferential treatment in the use of critical minerals. And the framework was to reflect that," he added.

The State Department stopped short of explicitly linking the two when questioned by the BBC but offered a robust "America First" response.

"The Trump administration has made clear, US foreign assistance is not charity - rather it is strategic capital to be wisely invested to advance US interests - and we expect all of our allies and recipient nations to take seriously American strategic and commercial priorities," a department spokesperson said.

Last month provided further evidence of this readiness to tie health financing to American priorities - with the announcement that the US would withdraw completely from funding HIV/Aids programmes in South Africa.

An administration official connected the move to Pretoria's "failure to make demonstrable progress on policy requests", including apparently the treatment of the white-minority Afrikaner community. US claims that a "white genocide" is taking place in South Africa have been widely discredited.

For some African countries who were negotiating the bilateral MOUs, it was concerns over US access to health data which set alarm bells ringing. This included patients' information as well as biological resources known as pathogens - organisms that cause disease such as viruses, bacteria and parasites.

A Kenyan court initially suspended the country's deal after legal challenges demanding protection of patient privacy.

Arnold Kavaarpuo, executive director of Ghana's Data Protection Commission, told the BBC the government in Accra had objected to the deal it was offered for similar reasons.

"We had concerns around the scope and breadth of data that was being required," he said.

"It was us generating data and passing it on to the US authorities, and there were no real reciprocal measures when it comes to the protection of Ghanaian data and Ghanaian sovereignty.

"And so from our perspective," he added, "once the data left the Ghanaian borders, we had no control over what becomes of it."

Zimbabwe also cited concerns about requests for medical data, presumably to be shared with US pharmaceutical companies, as the reason it rejected a deal.

There were no guarantees that drugs or vaccines developed from the pathogens would be available to its people, a government spokesman said, pointing out that the WHO already had a system for members to share data and benefit from any treatments in future pandemics.

African countries have previously passed on medical information through existing schemes including USAID and Pepfar, America's main programme to tackle HIV and Aids.

The US insists the sharing of data and specimens is key to continuing scientific development and mutual co-operation.

And a State Department spokesperson said the material requested was the same aggregated and de-identified data which has been used for years in the fight against infectious diseases.

What has changed is the context, says Nelson Aghogho Evaborhene, a PhD fellow in global health governance at Roskilde University in Denmark.

"It was an unequal relationship, but it was quite tolerable politically," he says, "because you could sell it to the domestic population as an altruistic need to improve health service.

"But now it has changed significantly, because it's more about very transactional leverage."

Many African nations have also drawn lessons from Covid, as the race to find a vaccine proved the value of pathogen data but left the continent struggling to get doses for its people.

"I think one of our biggest opportunities as Africa," says Aggrey Aluso, the executive director of Resilience Action Network Africa (Rana), "is the fact that we have important information that can help build the global health security ecosystem."

Rana joined more than 50 civil society groups in signing an open letter warning African leaders that US terms were not guided by African national or regional interests, a view shared by South Africa.

"Frankly speaking, no nation on Earth that respects itself should accede to [two requests]," South Africa's Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi told the BBC.

"That [the US] will get their pathogen if there's any pandemic or epidemic in their area.

"And they'll also provide them with a genome for life. But the US is going to give them money for five years."

The debate over health diplomacy has been thrown into sharper relief in recent weeks following the spread of a new outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

DR Congo was one of the first countries to accept the new American health deals - and the US says the agreement is helping co-ordinate Kinshasa's response to the crisis.

But, according to humanitarian workers and former US health officials, sweeping US aid cuts to DR Congo and to the WHO seriously weakened the front-line response.

Amadou Bocoum, the DR Congo country director for the international humanitarian organisation Care, says he had to lay off 36 workers - a third of his staff - after USAID cuts, including those responsible for community mobilisation, health education and Ebola prevention.

"When this new Ebola came, the staffing was not there, and the emergency stock that we also used to have was also not there," he says.

"With proper funding, we would have had prepositioned stock and begun distributing critical supplies like PPE from day one, but instead, we started with nothing and lost 10 days."

Critics describe the dismantling of the USAID as a blow to the speed of detecting the Ebola outbreak and the scale of response, emphasising that the humanitarian agency was crucial to organising logistics, supplies and local outreach.

"I just cannot imagine that if you still had the full slate of health partners that the US government was funding in Congo up until [the cuts] shut most of that down, that no-one would have seen that an unidentified viral haemorrhagic fever was spreading," adds Jeremy Konyndyk, who led the USAID response to the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

The US denies its cuts have harmed efforts this time, arguing that they are more "aligned and effective" under the new arrangement and pointing to the $270m it has donated to tackle the epidemic.

Underpinning the US deals is the administration's desire to encourage national governments to spend more of their own money on their health services - observers say there is a poor record of this in Africa, despite a continental commitment to do so in 2001.

But others warn that the Ebola outbreak has highlighted the risks of a bilateral approach to global health.

"Bilateral relationships ignore collective challenges," says Dr Kevin DeCock, a former director at the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) who worked for many years at the forefront of battling infectious disease.

"Global health, by definition, is transnational, crosses borders, does not concern just one country. Global health problems require global approaches, and no country can go it alone."

Some health and foreign policy analysts have made a case for giving the administration's new strategy a chance.

In an article for conservative think-tank the American Enterprise Institute, Brett Schaefer and Roger Bate acknowledge the risk of stepping away from the multilateral system, especially the withdrawal from the WHO.

But this "is not the end of American leadership in global health", they write. "It is the start of a test - of whether influence is better exercised through conditional engagement, parallel institutions and results-driven partnerships than through deference to an organisation that has struggled to learn from failure."

Evidence so far is that months on from Rubio's excited signing of the first MOU, adoption of the bilateral agreements in Africa remains patchy and controversial.

Tanzania has just signed up to the partnership, yet with several African nations saying thanks but no thanks, it remains to be seen how far the reshaping of America's global health strategy will go.

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

More cows than pupils - what is behind mass school closures in rural Kenya?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy72mn3m7l3o, 9 days ago

On what should be a busy morning at Kaliluni Primary School in southern Kenya, only cows are in attendance, grazing between broken classroom doors that hang open to reveal rows of empty chairs.

Three years ago, more than 200 children filled this rural school with noise and activity. Now there are only five pupils - and on the day we visit they, and the only remaining teacher, are absent.

As we leave the dilapidated compound, with books strewn across the floors of some classrooms, we spot a schoolgirl in uniform walking forlornly towards her home.

Maureen Mwisiwa, 12, says she has been turning up to school for the past week to find herself on her own.

"I feel bad missing lessons all those days while pupils in other schools are still in class," she tells the BBC.

Her mother, Josephine Muasya - like the remaining parents with children there - is planning to transfer her daughter to another school where most of Maureen's friends are now. It is quite a distance away - 8km (5 miles) on rough roads.

But as there is no public transport in this remote area of Kitui county, which is more than 200km east of the capital, Nairobi, the children opt for a short cut, trekking over fairly rugged terrain.

It will still take Maureen just over an hour to walk to the new school, instead of the 10 minutes to Kaliluni Primary.

"I was hoping the government would restore operations here - bring more teachers and facilities to accommodate the new curriculum - but there is no hope," her mother says.

Muasya is referring to a major shake-up of Kenya's education system that was introduced in 2017 - a less exam-orientated and more creative and practical approach to teaching, known as Competency-Based Education (CBE).

But it is having a devastating effect on rural junior schools - and Kaliluni Primary is one of more than 2,000 across the East African nation now facing possible closure as enrolment numbers plummet.

Under the old system, primary schools would teach children until grade eight and then aged around 14, they would move to senior school.

Now the final year of primary school ends in grade six and there is a new intermediary stage, known as junior secondary school, for grades seven to nine, which includes more science and practical subjects.

It was decided that primary schools would accommodate these intermediary grades with children moving to senior school at around 15 years old.

But it meant that suddenly under-resourced primary schools needed more classrooms, science laboratories, additional teachers with subject specialisations and new learning materials.

"Infrastructure gaps are acute. Many rural schools lack basic facilities such as laboratories, yet learners are expected to pursue science and technical pathways," Mark Kasyoki, an education expert, told the BBC.

He warned that the new curriculum, which was designed to address inequality in education - free for all children in Kenya - could end up doing the opposite if the problems were not urgently addressed.

Other schools in Kitui county have also been affected. Sooma Primary School shut in 2023 after its enrolment dropped to just six pupils and the following year Manooni Primary School closed its doors after only three pupils registered.

There were no farewell assemblies, no tearful speeches under a mango tree. The children just quietly migrated, one by one, to better-equipped schools.

"The CBE curriculum should strengthen schools, especially for low-income communities, not weaken them," said Tabitha Katingu, a mother from the area, who has transferred her two children, meaning they now have a 3km walk to school.

"We want the best for our children. If a school has not enough trained teachers and other required facilities - why would we waste time there?"

It has left many teachers frustrated too.

"The challenge is not that teachers are unwilling to embrace CBE. It's that many of us have not been adequately prepared for it. The training has been inconsistent, especially in rural schools," said a teacher based in Kitui county.

Not all Kitui residents put the blame for school closures solely on the curriculum. Some note that people are having fewer children, while others are moving away for better job opportunities.

"Young people want to marry, but life is hard. Everything is expensive, and many fear they cannot provide for a family. That is why there are fewer children growing up in our villages nowadays," Sarah Mumbua from Kilukuya village told the BBC.

Those who secure jobs in towns often relocate with their families, further draining rural communities of school-age children.

About 70% of Kenyans lived in rural areas in 2023, according to national statistics. Should the current trends continue, UN-Habitat predicts more than half of Kenya's population will be living in towns or cities by 2050.

The decline in pupil numbers is also affecting rural secondary schools. According to government data, 2,700 of the country's 9,605 public secondary schools, mostly located in remote areas, have fewer than the required 150 learners.

Ten secondary schools were closed earlier in the year when teachers arrived to take up posts to discover not one single student, local media reported.

January marked the moment when approximately 1.1 million pioneer grade 10 students - the first full cohort to have gone through the new system - moved to senior school, something the government celebrated as an important milestone for the country.

Education Minister Julius Ogamba has acknowledged there is a rural enrolment problem, saying earlier this year that 2,145 public primary schools would be closing or merging with others to optimise resources.

He also announced an audit of all schools - explaining the minimum enrolment needed for a primary school to remain viable was 45 students.

"It makes no sense to have a school with just 10 students when you need a headmaster, a classroom, a watchman and a teacher. It doesn't make sense. This tells us that we need to face reality," he said.

"We now need to change course and ensure that our schools have all the necessary facilities and the right number of students."

However, the closure of rural schools is also leading to an overcrowding crisis for other institutions struggling to absorb the influx of students.

Dr Emmanuel Manyasa, the head of Usawa Agenda, a non-profit Kenyan education research group, cautions against closing so many schools, warning about overcrowding and safety risks elsewhere.

"CBE is a good curriculum but we're failing in the implementation. We skipped critical early stages like a cost and implementation plan. We have been just crisis-managing the transition, which is not sustainable," he told the BBC.

Bernard Musyoki, a teacher who spent seven years teaching in a rural part of Machakos county, which borders Kitui, could not agree more.

He loved the community school, but with fewer than 20 pupils it was merged with another one and he transferred to a much larger institution.

"We are moving from one extreme to another," the 36-year-old said about the overcrowded classes.

Musyoki believes the government should cap the number of pupils in each school and distribute teachers more evenly to allow the new system to flourish for all.

"Every child, whether they are in a small rural school or a large one, deserves equal access to teachers, classrooms and learning materials," he said.

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Uganda judges push back against lawyers' bid to scrap 'colonial titles'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwydzr9p1geo, 3 days ago

Uganda's judiciary has pushed back against a directive by the country's lawyers' association instructing its members to stop addressing judges as "My Lord" or "My Lady" and to abandon the longstanding practice of bowing before them.

In the directive, the Uganda Law Society (ULS) said such "feudal and colonial honorifics" elevate judicial officers above citizens, "who are in reality their employers".

But judiciary spokesperson James Ereemye told the BBC that the ULS had no authority to tell judges "what to do or say" and would continue to "demand the known decorum" from lawyers.

Like many former British colonies, Uganda inherited its legal system and many courtroom traditions from the UK.

The ULS, the professional body which represents advocates, said the "archaic" colonial structure had contributed to the "failure" of Uganda's judicial system.

The society said colonial courtroom practices "force Ugandans into postures of humiliation as the powerful enjoy comfort and deference".

"The practice of bowing or any other form of physical subservience before judicial officers is henceforth prohibited for all members of the Uganda Law Society," it said in a statement signed by its president Isaac Ssemakadde.

It added that as part of reforms aimed at "decolonising justice and restoring dignity to the people", lawyers should stop addressing judges and magistrates with titles such as "My Lord", "Your Lordship", "My Lady" and "Your Worship".

Instead, lawyers should use plain forms of address such as "Mr Justice", "Madam Justice", "Mr Judge", "Madam Judge", "Mr Magistrate" or simply refer to judicial officers by their surnames where appropriate.

"All advocates and litigants appearing before any court or tribunal shall stand upright and speak as free citizens," the ULS added.

Responding to the directive, Ereemye, the judiciary spokesperson, said the courts were an independent arm of government and could not be instructed by any outside body.

He dismissed the ULS as "just a section of young people who have failed to know the principles of agenda setting in management and administration".

"If you have a point, you use the appropriate forum for discussion and when you make a good case, it forms part of the policy or the policy," added Ereemye.

Across Africa, lawyers and other legal practitioners have long debated whether colonial-era courtroom traditions, including wigs and robes, should be abandoned as part of broader efforts to reform judicial systems.

In 2011, Kenya's then-Chief Justice Willy Mutunga criticised the judges' dress code and chose to take his oath of office in a suit.

Similar debates have emerged in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Ghana, where critics argue that some colonial-era court practices and attire are no longer appropriate for modern Africa.

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International court tells BBC of breakthrough in Sudan war crimes probe

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9928zr2m5xo, 3 days ago

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has "concrete evidence" linking leaders of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to recent war crimes in the Sudanese region of Darfur, the ICC's deputy chief prosecutor says.

Nazhat Shameem Khan told the BBC the ICC had reached a "breakthrough" in its investigation into the massacres of civilians in the cities of el-Fasher and el-Geneina.

"It may take time for justice to develop, to be brought to the court, but we will get there," Khan said, adding that RSF leaders have also been linked to crimes against humanity.

The siege and takeover of el-Fasher marked one of the bloodiest episodes in the ongoing war between the RSF and Sudan's army.

More than 6,000 people were killed in el-Fasher as the RSF seized the city in October last year, the United Nations says, while the paramilitary group is accused of carrying out a similar massacre in el-Geneina.

The group has repeatedly denied carrying out widespread killings anywhere in Darfur.

A UN fact-finding mission report released on Wednesday also found evidence of widespread atrocities in Sudan's conflict by both the army and the RSF.

It said RSF fighters were responsible for most of the systematic attacks on civilians, particularly in Darfur, where people were targeted based on ethnic grounds, which "may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity".

RSF fighters and affiliated groups have also committed sexual abuses including rape, gang rape, sexual slavery, and other forms of abuses when they captured el-Fasher last year, according to the UN fact-finding mission.

Speaking to the BBC about the ICC's investigation, Khan said: "We have now found concrete evidence that links what is happening on the ground through linkage evidence to specific persons in leadership mode."

However, she did not give a timeline on when charges might be brought against those responsible for the atrocities in the war, which began in April 2023.

"We cannot say how quickly or how long it's going to take," she said.

"But we can say that progress has been significant and that we have achieved a breakthrough."

The ICC, based in the Dutch city of The Hague, is a global court with the power to bring prosecutions for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Khan spoke to the BBC after visiting refugee camps in eastern Chad, where those who had fled the fighting in Darfur told her of the atrocities they had suffered.

Tens of thousands of people were forced to leave their homes in el-Fasher and the UN said the violence there bore the "hallmarks of genocide".

The RSF has denied widespread allegations that killings in the city were ethnically motivated and follow a pattern of the Arab paramilitaries targeting non-Arab populations.

The group insisted the scale of the atrocities had been exaggerated but acknowledged that some violations had occurred in the city.

Shortly after the capture of el-Fasher, RSF leader Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo said the group was investigating any atrocities. The probe is ongoing, the RSF said recently.

The UK's Human Rights Ambassador, Eleanor Sanders, recently warned the city of El-Obeid could face atrocities similar to those seen in el-Fasher last year.

The UN's Human Rights Council on Monday ordered an urgent investigation into alleged crimes committed during the fighting in el-Obeid.

The ICC has been investigating allegations of war crimes in Darfur for more than 20 years since the previous round of violence in the 2000s.

"What we see is patterns of offending that in fact were the same patterns of offending 20 years ago when this situation was first referred to us by the Security Council," she said.

Khan said the ICC investigation included witness accounts, testimonials and corroborative evidence such as videos, photographs and forensic evidence.

Previous investigations have led to seven arrests and six separate cases being brought before the court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Those charged include Sudan's former President Omar al-Bashir.

He remains at large, having been ousted in a coup in 2019. It is believed he is being held in a secure medical facility in Sudan.

Four others face arrest warrants but have not been detained.

Last year, the ICC sentenced one former militia leader to 20 years in prison after he was successfully convicted of 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, committed in Darfur from 2003 to 2004.

Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman was a senior figure in the Janjaweed, a government-backed group which targeted Darfuri civilians who were not part of country's majority Arab population.

The Janjaweed was one of the groups which developed into the RSF, a paramilitary force once aligned with Sudan's army, but which it is now fighting.

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Nigeria's president demands to know how fake agency was allegedly set up in his office

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c621xrrp6jeo, 4 days ago

Nigeria's president has ordered a corruption investigation into allegations that a fictitious government agency was set up within his own office, complete with public funding worth $950,000 (£700,000).

According to the presidency, the letter from the president's chief of staff creating the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) had been forged.

The police have launched a manhunt for Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, who had been presenting himself as the "PFIPC director general", on suspicion of forgery, impersonation and related offences.

Before going into hiding, Adeyemi told local media that he was innocent and now feared for his life.

He also promised to show up in court to clear his name, saying the body was lawfully established. He accused senior government officials of demanding bribes during the process of his appointment and later attempting to take control of the council's funds. The presidency has denied those allegations.

Adeyemi said the council was set up in 2024 in order to attract foreign investment to Nigeria but there is no record of any deals being done.

It has a staff of three, who have been questioned by the police.

President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday directed the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate and submit a comprehensive report within 30 days.

BBC News Pidgin has found that the agency had secured office space within the Federal Secretariat - the vast government complex that houses many of Nigeria's ministries in the capital Abuja - opened bank accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria, and appeared in the 2026 Appropriation Act with an allocation of 1.3bn naira ($950,000; £700,000).

However, the Accountant-General's Office says the PFIPC never had an operational account with the central bank and has not received any public funds or salaries.

The presidency claimed police forensic analysis had confirmed that the signature from the president's chief of staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, on the disputed appointment letter had been forged.

According to the charges filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja, Adeyemi and two other defendants are accused of using forged official documents to establish and operate the purported council, opening multiple bank accounts in its name and seeking official recognition for an agency the government maintains does not exist.

Tinubu directed the ICPC to investigate various allegations including:

* Forged appointment letters and official government documents;

* Use of false claims to seek official recognition and diplomatic support, including visa facilitation;

* Opening of multiple bank accounts using allegedly forged documents and

* The role of any public officer, private individual, financial institution or intermediary that may have facilitated the alleged scheme.

The president also ordered investigators to examine the wider circumstances that enabled an allegedly fictitious body to acquire the appearance of official legitimacy, and to identify weaknesses in government procedures that were alleged to have been exploited.

The scandal has prompted mounting public pressure from civil society organisations, opposition politicians and senior lawyers who have demanded an independent inquiry.

Tinubu said the integrity of the presidency and federal institutions "must be protected against impersonation, forgery, abuse of official identity and the exploitation of weaknesses in the public service".

"All persons found culpable are to be treated strictly in accordance with applicable law," the president's statement read.

Additional reporting by Adesola Abisoye in Lagos

More about Nigeria from the BBC:

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Indian tourists among 15 killed as speedboat capsizes in Vietnam

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyd7x22lp1o, yesterday

Fifteen people have died after a speedboat carrying Indian tourists capsized near a island in the south of Vietnam, local media report citing regional authorities.

They say 32 Indians and four crew were on board the vessel, which overturned about 400 metres (1,312 ft) from Hon May Rut Ngoai island in rough sea conditions on Saturday.

Several tourist vessels in the area quickly came to the rescue, finding many passengers trapped inside the boat, Vietnam's VnExpress said. Some reports suggest all the victims were Indian citizens. Twenty one people were saved.

Hon May Rut Ngoai - a tiny island in the An Thoi Archipelago in the Gulf of Thailand - attracts many tourists for island-hopping boat tours.

Hon May Rut Ngoai is located about 10km (six miles) south of Phu Quoc, Vietnam's largest island.

Nguyen Tien Hai, a senior Communist official in the area, said the authorities were still working to confirm the exact number of those who died as well as the survivors.

He is quoted by VnExpress as saying that the speedboat may have capsized due to heavy winds and high waves.

"The top priority is rescue, bringing all victims ashore and focusing all efforts on providing emergency care to those who are still alive," Hai said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was "extremely saddened to learn about the tragic news of a boat accident involving Indian nationals" in Vietnam.

"My sincere condolences to the families who lost their loved ones. My prayers for the early recovery of the injured survivors," he wrote in a post on X.

The Indian embassy in Vietnam described the incident as "tragic", publishing the full list of the 32 Indian nationals who were on board the capsized boat.

The embassy also set up the telephone hotlines to "provide information and assistance to affected families".

Acclaimed pianist loses Gaza speech case against Melbourne orchestra

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gyvwwep30o, 3 days ago

An acclaimed British-Australian pianist has lost his workplace discrimination case against the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) over comments he made about Gaza during a performance.

Jayson Gillham sued the MSO after it cancelled one of his performances in 2024, days after he said during another show that Israel had killed more than 100 Palestinian journalists in Gaza.

But Justice Graeme Hill ruled that Mr Gillham's concert was not scrapped because of his political beliefs.

Rather, it was to "address the anticipated adverse impacts" of the pianist's comments on the orchestra's business and reputation, he ruled.

"I find that the MSO did have a policy for not expressing support for either side of the Israel-Gaza conflict," Justice Hill said.

"I find that there is a custom or practice that classical musicians do not make statements on sensitive political or social issues from the stage without approval of the host."

In a short statement after the ruling, Mr Gillham said: "I am disappointed and I need time to process the judgment before saying more."

The case centred around a short introduction that Mr Gillham read out during a performance in Melbourne on 11 August 2024, when he premiered a five-minute piece called Witness, written by composer Connor D'Netto, which was dedicated to the journalists of Gaza.

He said more than 100 Palestinian journalists had been killed by Israel since October 2023 when the war in Gaza began and that Israel was carrying out "targeted assassinations of prominent journalists".

"The killing of journalists is a war crime in international law, and it is done in an effort to prevent the documentation and broadcasting of war crimes to the world," he told the audience of about 150 people during the Sunday morning concert.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent organisation that promotes press freedom, reports that 207 journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 2023.

The MSO received three complaints about Mr Gillham's comments and decided to cancel a recital he was due to perform on 15 August - prompting almost 500 complaints - though it later said that move was an "error" and sought to reschedule the show.

During the trial, the MSO argued that its stage was not a platform for "expressing personal views" but Mr Gillham's legal team said it was his legal workplace right to express his political belief and should not be mistreated because of it.

On the last day of the trial, Hill had urged both sides to try to resolve the matter between themselves to avoid him "having to say the things I need to say in a judgment".

The Federal Court's decision came after a three-week trial which wrapped up last month, in which about two dozen witnesses gave evidence including Gillham and senior MSO executives.

China lands reusable rocket for first time, state media says

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2rmmx86pdo, 2 days ago

China has successfully landed a reusable rocket for the first time in a major breakthrough for the country's space programme, according to state media.

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation said the Long March 10B rocket lifted off from Hainan in southern China at 12:15 local time (04:15GMT) on Friday.

Around six minutes after separating from the rocket's upper stage, its booster returned to Earth vertically and was recovered on a floating platform.

It signals that China may be able to challenge America's dominance in reusable rockets after successful landings by Elon Musk's SpaceX and Blue Origin, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Rockets are typically considered expendable - their various segments being discarded and destroyed during ascent - which makes launching spacecraft expensive.

By reusing boosters - which are generally seen as the most valuable part of a rocket - the cost of satellite launches and space exploration can be significantly lowered.

In December 2015, SpaceX landed a reusable Falcon 9 rocket from an orbital flight for the first time, followed by Blue Origin's New Glenn in November 2025.

The Falcon 9 now launches about 150 times a year with boosters that are capable of being reused dozens of times.

China made its first attempt at reusable rocket recovery in February, with a Long March 10A rocket. It completed a controlled descent and splashed down next to a recovery platform.

The Long March 10B, which can carry a payload of at least 16 metric tons to low-Earth orbit, has been compared to SpaceX's Falcon 9.

But unlike the Falcon 9, the Long March 10B does not autonomously land on a ground pad or drone ship. Instead "landing hooks" on the rocket catch a net attached to a floating platform.

Shares in Chinese space firms jumped following the news, with China Spacesat and China Satellite Communications each rising by 10%, the daily limit allowed by the country's financial market regulations.

New dinosaur species as long as cricket pitch discovered in Thailand

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crely7g8xepo, yesterday

Palaeontologists in Thailand say they have discovered a new species of dinosaur from fossils found in Kalasin Province in the country's north-east.

The plant-eating dinosaur, named Uragasaurus kalasinensis, is thought to have lived about 150 million years ago.

It had an unusually long neck and measured up to 20m (66ft) - roughly the length of a cricket pitch.

Dr Apirut Nilpanapan from Thailand's Mahasarakham University, the study's lead author, told BBC Thai that the specimen was part of a large fossil collection from a site first identified in 2008, when a local man found fragments resembling serpent scales.

The site where the discovery was made, Phu Noi, contained a wide variety of fossils from the Late Jurassic period. More than 90% of the fossils excavated from the site were dinosaur fragments.

When the survey team went to explore the site it found other fossils such as dinosaur teeth and bones.

However, the fossil that led to the discovery of the new species was a recovered dorsal vertebra — a bone from the middle or upper back — which showed distinctive characteristics.

A CT scan revealed that the dinosaur belonged to the Mamenchisauridae family of sauropod dinosaurs, characterised by their extremely long necks, which likely helped them reach vegetation at different heights.

While most fossils from the Mamenchisauridae family have been found in China, this discovery is the first of its kind in Thailand.

The scan also revealed unique characteristics, including a Y-shaped arrangement of supporting bones known as laminae.

Nilpanapan told BBC Thai the features, in particular a unique air-cavity structure, were "unlike any other dinosaur in the world... That's what sets it apart".

He said he smashed his computer after realising they had discovered a new species, adding that he felt both "exhilarated and relieved".

The study was published in the Nature scientific journal earlier this week.

In May, it was revealed that a different type of long-necked herbivore dinosaur - the nagatitan - had been identified by scientists from remains dug up in Thailand.

The nagatitan is the largest-ever dinosaur found in South-East Asia, weighing 27 tonnes - as much as nine adult Asian elephants - and measured 27m (88ft) in length.

Additional reporting by Jiraporn Sricham

Factory fire kills at least 28 in China's 'shoe capital'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2vz51v2pjo, 3 days ago

A fire at a shoe factory in the south-eastern Chinese city of Jinjiang has killed at least 28 people, according to the state news agency.

Dramatic footage posted by Xinhua showed huge plumes of black smoke rising from a building as well as people who appeared to be trapped on the roof.

President Xi Jinping said the blaze had caused "major casualties", adding those responsible must be held "strictly accountable".

Jinjiang, in the province of Fujian, is often referred to as China's "shoe capital" as it reportedly manufactures 20% of the world's sports shoes.

The blaze erupted at the Huiteng Footwear factory at around noon local time (05:00 BST) on Thursday.

It is unclear how many were injured.

Authorities dispatched more than 500 personnel to extinguish the blaze and rescue people, state media reported.

State media also reported that there were nearly 240 people at the factory when the fire broke out.

Among the 213 people who were evacuated, two of them later died in hospital. Twenty-six others, who had been initially missing, were found dead.

Initial reports suggest the fire may have started on the factory's ground floor where flammable materials were stored.

Authorities have detained a number of people who work for the factory's owners, and the firm's bank account was frozen, according to state media.

China started a campaign to prevent fires in high-rise buildings after a blaze ripped through several Hong Kong apartment buildings in November, killing 168 people.

Xi said Chinese officials must draw "profound lessons" from "several major industrial safety accidents" in the country this year.

He said "rigorous and effective safety measures" must be implemented.

Tensions erupt in Indian state after 11-year-old raped and murdered

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cze9zd8drzro, 3 days ago

The Indian state of West Bengal has been on the boil for the past few days over the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl.

The body of the child was fished out from a pond on Sunday - a day after her family reported her missing.

The incident in Surjyapur village in Baruipur, on the outskirts of Kolkata, has triggered days of violent protests, a mob lynching of an innocent man and the police killing of one of the suspects. Three other men who have been arrested remain in custody.

Warning: This story contains details that some readers may find distressing.

The child's rape and murder - and the subsequent killing of the suspect - has snowballed into a huge political row, with the opposition parties accusing the state's newly-elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of failing to protect women.

Family members of the girl said they last saw her on Saturday afternoon when she went out to buy a birthday gift for a friend.

When she didn't return home, they went to the police station at around 20:30 to seek help in finding her.

The family and villagers alleged that the police did not take their pleas seriously and said they would look into it the next day.

Desperate family members and villagers then themselves looked through the CCTV footage from nearby shops and spotted her walking with Prabhash Mondal - a local man who has since been killed by the police.

Early Sunday morning, a mob went to Mondal's house, caught him and handed him over to the police.

A few hours later, a sack containing the girl's body was pulled out from the pond, with media reports saying Mondal had led the police to the exact spot.

According to the post-mortem report, the cause of death is drowning, leading to claims that she was alive when she was dumped in the pond.

"Had the police acted earlier, she could have been saved," her relatives have said.

The police complaint has since been amended to include charges under the Pocso, India's stringent law on child sexual abuse. The police have yet to hold a press conference on the case or respond to the allegations.

The government has formed a special investigation team (SIT) to inquire into the case.

The recovery of the body saw anger pour out onto the streets, with a mob vandalising roads, shops and a local railway station. A young man was beaten to death by the crowd - Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has since said he was innocent.

Several police officers were injured and vehicles damaged as they tried to contain the mob. Police have registered three cases and detained 40 people so far.

The area remains tense, with a ban on public gatherings and heavy police and paramilitary deployment to maintain order.

The unrest poses a huge challenge for the BJP, which swept to power in West Bengal for the first time ever in May, campaigning heavily on the issue of making the state safe for women.

Analysts say one of the main reasons three-term chief minister Mamata Banerjee lost the election was growing concern over women's safety and her government's shoddy handling of the rape and murder of a junior doctor at a government hospital.

This case has also become mired in a political controversy and is threatening to take on religious overtones as the victim was Muslim whereas the arrested men are Hindus.

A local BJP leader, Sushant Mondal's home was attacked and ransacked by a mob that accused him of helping the suspects. He denied the allegations saying they were "false" and that he had in fact "helped catch the perpetrators".

To contain the public anger, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari visited the village on Tuesday and met the victim's family.

"Our government is committed to curb any such incidents in the state. The police is doing what needs to be done. The family has spoke to me, they have lost their beloved daughter. I believe that they are satisfied talking to me."

Less that 24 hours later, Prabhash Mondal was killed in a "police encounter".

In a statement on Wednesday morning, Baruipur police said Mondal had been taken to the pond to recreate the crime scene as part of the investigation, but he attempted to snatch the weapon from a policeman and opened fire at them.

The police retaliated and fired back, striking him. The injured accused was taken to hospital, where he was declared dead, the statement said.

Even though no allegations had been proven against Mondal, his mother appeared to have disowned her son and refused to accept his body.

"Two policemen came to my house. I had just woken up. They told me that my son had died and asked if I wanted to go to the hospital. I told them I couldn't because my husband was ill," she told news agency ANI.

"I said, do whatever you want to do. I have no objection. My son has been punished for what he did. I will not accept his body. I will not even bring his body home," she added.

Opposition politicians and rights activists, however, have questioned the killing, saying it went against the rule of law.

Ranjit Sur of the Association for the Protection of Democratic Rights called the matter "suspicious".

Sur said the story of police encounters in many states of the country is almost the same - the accused tries to escape by snatching the police weapon and is then killed in the encounter.

In 2019 in a similar incident, four men accused of gang-raping and murdering a young woman in Hyderabad were killed by the police in an encounter.

Five crew remain missing after plane wreckage found in Pakistan

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yze1vvlzgo, 4 days ago

Five crew members remain missing after the wreckage of a Boeing 737 plane that went missing off the coast of Pakistan has been located, aviation officials have said.

Pakistan's Airports Authority said efforts are under way to find those who were on board the private cargo plane which had been travelling from Karachi, a city in southern Pakistan, to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, on Tuesday.

The Boeing 737 - operated by K2 Airways - rapidly descended and lost contact with air traffic controllers on Tuesday at 21:21 local time (16:21 GMT), the authority said.

The plane had reported a navigation system problem minutes before its descent, it added.

After a 12-hour search involving air and sea assets, the wreckage was recovered from 53 nautical miles south of Ormara, a port town on the coast of the Arabian Sea.

Ormara is located 360 kilometres (223 miles) west of Karachi, where the plane began its journey.

The last major aviation incident in Pakistan involved a domestic passenger flight in 2020.

In that incident, a Pakistan International Airlines plane crashed while approaching Karachi airport, killing all but two of the 99 people on board.

A country that made huge progress on measles now reports 120,000 cases

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj0gel72mlgo, 4 days ago

"I have never seen an outbreak this huge," says paediatrician Dr Mohammed Golam Mawla, as we look around a measles ward in the Bangladeshi city of Mymensingh.

Until March this year, Bangladesh had made "substantial progress" towards eliminating measles, according to the World Health Organisation.

Vaccination rates had been higher than 90% until recently.

But that progress has quickly and suddenly come undone.

Since March, government figures show nearly 750 people, mostly children, have died from the highly contagious disease, which spreads easily through breathing, coughing or sneezing.

The death toll includes confirmed and suspected cases of measles. But Unicef says the true numbers are likely to be higher, given the sudden surge, an overwhelmed health system and difficulties in gathering data.

Those numbers are made real by the dozens of families around us who have no choice but to lie on blankets on the floor, in the hallway. The ward at Medical College Hospital is at more than double its capacity, with nearly 130 patients in just 32 rooms.

Four-month-old Arafat is one of them.

His nose is too small for oxygen tubes to sit comfortably so doctors have bandaged and taped them into place.

"We have been in the hospital for about 15 days now, but my baby isn't getting any better," his father, Mohammad Alam Mia, tells us. His baby is writhing in the heat and struggling to breathe.

Arafat's parents travelled nearly 10 hours to the hospital. His father vomited and fainted in the ambulance, as his first child became unresponsive.

Doctors diagnosed Arafat with pneumonia and heart failure, both complications of measles. The little money Mohammad has is not enough for his treatment, and he's been forced to borrow from neighbours.

Arafat is one of Bangladesh's more than 120,000 suspected and confirmed measles cases since cases spiked in mid-March, according to government figures.

"This disease was under control in our country," says Mawla. Vaccines are highly effective. "Why did this suddenly happen?"

Miguel Mateos Muñoz, Unicef's spokesperson in Bangladesh, puts it down to a "perfect storm" of several factors.

Firstly, there were alleged delays in vaccine orders.

Bangladesh has seen years of political turmoil, with student-led protests in 2024 toppling the country's authoritarian leader, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Unicef claims the interim government, under Muhammad Yunus, delayed ordering vaccines last year, opting instead to consider new vendors and restructure how the purchases were financed.

Muñoz says Unicef insisted the interim administration give themselves enough time to make the changes. "We were worried about possible [vaccine] gaps increasing, and it unfolding into what we're now seeing."

A shortage of vaccines is exactly what the new government, under Tarique Rahman, claims to have discovered once they took office.

The BBC contacted the office of former interim leader Muhammad Yunus, but he declined to be interviewed.

Yunus’s former top health ministry official, however, denies any shortage of vaccines, and tells the BBC while Unicef had raised concerns, "these communications did not contain any specific warning about a potential measles outbreak".

Syedur Rahman claims experts "including representatives from other UN agencies suggested that a competitive procurement process could, over time, create opportunities for greater cost efficiency".

Muñoz also points to other factors fuelling this particular surge: the Covid pandemic delaying routine jabs, a lack of regular measles-rubella mass vaccination campaigns since 2020, overcrowding and Eid holiday travel.

Globally, Bangladesh is not the only country seeing an outbreak this year.

The United Kingdom was considered to have eliminated the disease altogether, but lost that status this year following a rise in cases. The United States has also seen a rise in measles cases in recent years, and children under five in both countries fall short of the 95% vaccination threshold needed for herd immunity.

Public health experts are warning the outbreak in Bangladesh is proof of the dangers of any interruption in vaccine coverage.

Three hours outside of the capital Dhaka, we witness the consequences of the vaccine shortage.

Mosammat Nila Akhter and her husband took their 10-month-old child, Maliha, to a clinic for her vaccine in February, but were told there were none left.

In late March, as the outbreak took hold, Maliha was admitted to hospital with pneumonia, but was discharged just days later. Her parents later noticed a rash beginning to form on her belly.

Back at the hospital, they were told there were no beds available. Desperate, they waited three hours at yet another hospital until another child was discharged. Akhter claims bed shortages led to children with and without measles sharing wards.

"No matter how much we wiped her body down, her fever didn't come down. The doctors just kept coming and saying, 'keep wiping her body,'" Akhter says.

They were told Maliha needed an ICU bed, but that the hospital had none to offer. For hours, they travelled in an ambulance, while Maliha was struggling to breathe, until they found one.

"She would just look at me. Even with all those tubes and machines attached to her, she would try to reach out, wanting to crawl into my lap," Akhter remembers, in tears.

Three days later, Maliha died.

"Everything about her was wonderful," Akhter recalls, her voice breaking.

"Who to blame?" she asks. "Should I blame the government because my child did not get the vaccine?"

The government and Unicef launched an emergency vaccination campaign in April in certain regions, and have so far inoculated more than 18.4m children.

They say reported cases and deaths have now slowed, but Bangladesh is still recording nearly 1,000 suspected measles cases on average a day, and multiple deaths daily.

Health Minister Sardar Sakhawat Hossain acknowledges the strain on the health system but says it is to be expected given the country's population of more than 170 million people.

"The accommodation facilities are comparatively low, but we have managed," he says.

But public health expert Mushtuq Husain says the government is refusing to accept this is "not an outbreak, it's an epidemic". He calls the current figures "the tip of the iceberg".

"We have to take the numbers with a pinch of salt, but what it's telling us is that the work is still not done," Muñoz tells us.

"It is still a grave situation," Husain argues. "It is unacceptable that every day children are dying, and thousands of people are being infected."

Days after our visit to the measles ward in Mymensingh, we hear news that baby Arafat has died. He is now one of the hundreds of children claimed by this preventable disease.

On the phone, his father is in tears. "I spent all my money, took loans, and tried my best to save my son. But everything is gone now."

Additional reporting by Prem Boominathan and Sardar Ronie

It was 'love at first sight' with their adopted baby. Then they were told he may have been trafficked

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czxq4ge246wo, 4 days ago

When David and Ally first saw Marcus, they knew he was destined to be their son.

"For me it was love at first sight," said David. Their long adoption journey had come to an end. Months later, the baby from Indonesia was in their arms and the family was ready to start their life together.

But now, years later, they face the possibility of losing Marcus because he is believed to have been trafficked into Singapore.

He is one of at least 20 babies alleged to have been illegally bought in Indonesia for adoption in Singapore in recent years. Nearly two dozen people have been arrested for alleged human trafficking last year and are now on trial in West Java.

This means authorities may have to decide if Marcus and other children, who would by now have spent most of their lives in Singapore, should stay with their adoptive parents or return to their biological parents in Indonesia.

Both countries have yet to state what will happen to the children. For David and Ally, these last few months have been agonising.

The high-profile case has highlighted the enduring problem of child trafficking in Indonesia, fuelled by parents who sell their children.

It has also raised questions over how Singapore - known for its tight controls and meticulous checks - failed to detect the alleged trafficking and even approved some of the adoptions.

David and Ally agreed to share their story with the BBC on condition we use pseudonyms, as they fear jeopardising their chance to keep Marcus.

"The anxiety is always there, at the back of our minds," said David.

"There's always the thought that Marcus might be taken away."

'He smiled at us'

David and Ally had always wanted children but after Ally went through several painful miscarriages, they decided to adopt.

But they faced a long wait for a Singaporean child - with one adoption agency giving them a queue number of 142.

So they did what many Singaporeans in this situation do, and looked overseas. An estimated two-thirds of the children adopted in Singapore every year were born elsewhere, usually in neighbouring countries.

David and Ally chose a local agency that specialised in arranging adoptions of Indonesian babies.

Weeks later, they were peering at a tiny infant held up to the camera, in a video call arranged by the agency.

"What was so special about him that caught our attention? He's very smart ! He smiled at us," recalled David.

The couple paid tens of thousands of dollars, a sum they were told would cover agency fees, legal costs, expenses for the child, and a "token sum" for the biological parents.

Within a few months, Marcus was brought over to Singapore. The moment he was placed in their arms, "we felt nervous, scared, but happy," said David. "We looked at each other and we said…"

"This is it, this is the real deal," Ally finished his sentence.

Marcus's adoption in Singapore was approved swiftly, and the final step was to apply for his citizenship. When immigration officials called them in for a meeting, they were expecting good news.

Instead, their lives were upended. They were told the citizenship application was suspended and that Marcus had possibly been trafficked into Singapore.

"That's when I burst," said David, who felt the Singaporean government should have done more in their checks.

"I said to them: 'Didn't you do your due diligence? You did all the checks, right? You put us through a tough but necessary process, that is why we abided to it'. They could not answer us."

A total of 19 people are now on trial in West Java. They are accused of illegally purchasing the children and transferring them overseas for "exploitation" while forging documents to make them look like legal adoptions.

Under Indonesian law, human trafficking can be defined as paying for a person and transferring that person for the purpose of exploitation.

Indonesia also has strict rules and processes for transnational adoptions, which the defendants are alleged to have bypassed.

In court, it was revealed that at least 12 out of the 20 babies had already entered Singapore. Singapore authorities declined to confirm these figures with the BBC.

Prosecutors allege that an Indonesian woman named Lie Siu Luan, who is among those on trial, is the ringleader.

She has admitted supplying babies for adoption to at least four Singaporean contacts who promised to pay at least 18,000 Singapore dollars ($14,000; £10,300) for each baby.

Lie is accused of recruiting people to act as brokers, source babies, take care of the infants, and forge documents.

The brokers were said to have trawled social media looking for parents interested in giving up their babies for adoption. In one case, a broker allegedly posed as a woman looking to adopt a baby to convince a man to give up his newborn son.

Once procured, the infants were taken to a house in Pontianak where they were taken care of by hired nannies. Lie also allegedly hired someone specifically to forge birth certificates and adoption documents.

Some members of the trafficking ring allegedly pretended to be the babies' biological parents on paper. Not only were their names listed in the fake documents, they would also get on video calls with prospective adopters.

Prosecutors are asking for jail sentences ranging from five to ten years for the defendants.

David and Ally have yet to receive official confirmation from authorities that Marcus is one of the allegedly trafficked babies. But the BBC has found clear signs, which have been shared with the couple.

Going through court documents, we found Marcus's full Indonesian name listed as one of the allegedly trafficked babies.

One woman on trial, who is accused of falsely declaring she is the biological mother of some of the babies, is listed as Marcus's mother in his Indonesian adoption papers.

Separately, the Indonesian branch of Interpol has identified the Singaporean adoption agency that handled the babies. It is the same agency that offered Marcus to David and Ally.

The agency is still registered as a live business in Singapore. The BBC tried contacting the agency's owner but has yet to receive a response.

Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) declined to respond to the BBC's questions on whether it was investigating the agency and Lie Siu Luan's alleged Singapore collaborators, noting that Indonesian court proceedings were still ongoing.

It pointed the BBC to to previous statements where the MHA, along with the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), said they were working with Indonesian counterparts to assist investigations.

Since news broke of the latest case, lawmakers have repeatedly raised it in parliament.

One pointed out that the children's adoptions had been approved based on government officers' recommendations, and that the adoptive parents "are innocent parties that have done every step in accordance with the law".

But the MSF argued that adoption agencies are responsible for ensuring their babies come from "appropriate sources" and must do rigorous checks, and that adoptive parents must also do their due diligence.

David and Ally say the possibility that Marcus could have been trafficked never once crossed their minds.

They said they tried their best to do their own background checks but were limited in their lack of knowledge. It was, after all, the first time they had ever adopted a child.

The couple argue that the onus is on the Singapore government, given that its officials had done thorough checks on them during the approval process for Marcus's adoption.

"The [officials] are the experts on this, to see whether this is legitimate. They deal with so many adoptions, day in day out. Not us," said Ally.

The MSF declined to answer the BBC's questions on whether it did any checks on the babies who entered Singapore and how it usually conducts checks on the adoptions of foreign children.

It pointed to previous statements saying it was providing support to the affected parents and there were "some delays" in processing citizenship applications for their children.

The ministry has also promised to conduct a review of adoption processes.

Black market for babies

In Indonesia, this case is one of at least seven suspected baby trafficking syndicates investigated by authorities in the last few years. One of these syndicates that operated out of Yogyakarta allegedly handled at least 66 babies.

Official figures show the number of trafficked young children nearly tripled between 2021 and 2024, from 27 to 70 children. These only account for cases they have tracked, with the actual number likely to be much higher.

While some parents were allegedly coerced by traffickers into selling their babies, others were willing to do so because they could not afford to raise their children or needed money.

During the West Java trial, a witness named Dani Hidayat said he was bankrupt and jobless when his wife was about to give birth to their fifth child, and their "financial and economic situation was not ready".

Hidayat joined a Facebook group for adoptions, and was approached by a woman claiming she could not have children. They agreed she could adopt his baby once the child was born.

The woman gave Hidayat five million rupiah ($290; £214) and promised him two million more. Hidayat said he needed the money for his wife's recovery.

The woman is alleged to be a broker for the trafficking ring - and it was Hidayat who ended up exposing them.

When he failed to receive his second payment, he went to the police alleging his son was abducted. Police caught the woman and, upon inspecting her phone, found she had procured dozens more babies for adoption in Singapore and Indonesia.

Hidayat's son was eventually located and is currently in the care of social services. The child was not one of the 20 babies bound for Singapore.

The BBC has asked Indonesian police whether the biological parents of the allegedly trafficked babies would be investigated. We are yet to receive a response.

Officials and activists say more must be done to address the root causes that drive parents to sell their children.

These include poverty, inadequate support for mothers, a lack of access to state help, and the cultural stigma of having children outside of marriage.

There is also a more informal attitude towards adoption in rural parts of Indonesia, where it is culturally acceptable for young children to be given away to relatives or neighbours without formal adoption processes.

Some of those involved in trafficking thus tend to portray their actions as altruism.

The defendants in the West Java case have argued they were "helping families" and were unaware that what they did was illegal.

In court, Lie Siu Luan said she "didn't know it was wrong" to send the babies overseas for adoption and said her Singapore partner had led her to believe that it was above board.

"It's not just a matter of finding out who's selling the babies and then punishing them," said Eko Kriswanto, a child rights activist based in West Java.

The main problem is that "children end up being treated as commodities. So what must be explored is the cause."

While Indonesia has numerous laws that protect children and outlaw trafficking, the lack of consistent enforcement is still an issue, Kriswanto added.

Ai Rahmayanti, the head of the independent rights body Indonesian Commission for Child Protection, noted that "the state has not built the capacity to provide safe spaces or services" to surrender unwanted children. Facilities like these, known as "baby boxes", are rare in Indonesia.

A black market has sprung up in the vacuum, where traffickers "openly use social media to offer solutions to people's problems: free childbirth, go home with money, while the baby comes with them," said Rahmayanti.

The BBC has asked Indonesia's Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection for a response to Rahmayanti and Kriswanto's comments, and what it is doing to tackle child trafficking. It has yet to respond.

Babies' fate hang in the balance

As David and Ally anxiously await the verdict of the trial, one key question remains unanswered - what will happen to Marcus and the other babies.

Indonesian rights activists and officials argue that as a matter of principle the allegedly trafficked children should be returned to their biological parents.

One Indonesian police official even told the BBC that it was a matter "of Indonesia's national pride".

But by the time the trial ends and a decision is made on the children's fate, they would have spent years in the care of their adopted parents in Singapore.

Jeremy Heng, a senior clinical psychologist with the Singapore Children's Society, said the stress of multiple disruptions early in a child's life could "negatively affect brain development, emotional regulation, learning and attachment security".

There would also be increased risks of trauma-related symptoms and mental health difficulties, he added.

Singapore authorities declined to comment when asked if the babies would stay or return to Indonesia.

Indonesia's foreign ministry spokesperson Yvonne Mewengkang told the BBC that they would prioritise "child protection based on the principle of the best interests of the child".

After waiting so long for a child, David and Ally are not about to let go of Marcus that easily.

"We will go to whatever lengths we can legally abide to, to keep our child," David said.

If Marcus has to return to Indonesia, David said he would find a way to adopt the boy legally.

"I will not give up on him," vowed David. "Any parent would fight till the end."

Additional reporting by Yulia Saputra and Aseanty Pahlevi for BBC Indonesian.

A mountain of rubbish in Indonesia has been on fire for more than a week

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1ly1vddj6qo, 4 days ago

For eight days, a fire has been burning at a waste mountain in Indonesia.

The blaze at Jatiwaringin landfill, on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta, has spread across more than 15 hectares, smothering the area in thick, toxic smoke and displacing hundreds of local residents.

Health authorities have reported a surge in respiratory illnesses due to air pollution, and firefighters have dispatched helicopters, water tankers, bulldozers and drones to extinguish the inferno.

There are hopes this can be achieved by the end of the week. But environmental activists say this is just one symptom of a growing waste crisis in Indonesia, describing the landfill fire as an "ecological disaster resulting from systemic negligence".

The fire broke out on 30 June, initially triggered by a small spark which was fanned by strong gusts of wind and spread to several locations – including places where the rubbish was piled high, and spots that have proven difficult for firefighters to reach.

In the week since, heavy black clouds of smoke have inundated surrounding residential areas. Measurements from the Ministry of Environment indicate that the air quality around the landfill has reached hazardous levels, though the severity has eased in recent days.

One local resident, 45-year-old Sarmanah, told the BBC that toxic smoke flooded her house, forcing her to flee with her child.

"The smoke was so thick you couldn't see anyone," she recalled. "It stings the nose, makes you cough and have a runny nose, and makes you unable to breathe... We were forced to leave the house because we couldn't take it anymore."

Hundreds of others were driven to do the same, seeking refuge at a shelter set up by the local government. Tosiyani, 37, said she was prohibited from going home because "the smoke contains toxic gas".

Local health authorities have so far examined at least 234 residents suffering respiratory illnesses because of the blaze. Of those, 72 were found to be suffering from acute respiratory tract infections.

Meanwhile, smoke and fire spots continue to smoulder in several piles of rubbish, specifically to the west and south of the landfill.

Djohan Darmawan, Director of Emergency Operations Control Coordination at the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), said that efforts to extinguish the landfill fire required special handling because the blaze was not on the surface but rather smouldering inside the heaped rubbish.

Though officials have not confirmed the initial cause of the blaze, the Indonesian non-governmental organisation Forum for the Environment (Walhi) has suggested that it was triggered by the accumulation of methane gas from decomposing organic waste.

This is the result of an unregulated open dumping system that has become widespread in Indonesia.

"This is a time bomb of accumulated waste management problems that have been ignored for years without fundamental improvements," Wahyu Eka Styawan, a campaigner with Walhi, told the BBC.

According to Walhi, the amount of waste that Tangerang Regency generates is far more than what Jatiwaringin landfill was designed to handle.

"The landfill can accommodate up to 2,700 tons of waste per day, but that only covers 59% of the waste in Tangerang Regency," said Wahyu.

"Where does the rest go?"

The answer can be found at open dumping sites across Tangerang, including in the areas surrounding the actual landfill, which have precipitated the growth of noxious trash mountains within a hundred metres of people's homes.

This had caused problems long before the blaze erupted: locals living near Jatiwaringin, in the fetid shadow of its waste mountains, told the BBC they were constantly plagued by pungent odours, flies and fears of landslides.

But the accumulation of methane gas, exacerbated by heat waves and the climate crisis, can turn these dumping grounds into powder kegs.

"As soon as there is a small spark or heat, the methane gas under the mountain of rubbish immediately ignites," Wahyu explained.

Major fires occurred at a number of landfills throughout 2023. These included the Sarimukti Landfill in Bandung Regency, which torched dozens of hectares of land, and was suspected of having been caused by cigarette butts and a buildup of methane gas.

Another landfill fire in Tangerang just months later, which destroyed about 80% of the 35-hectare site, was believed to have been triggered the same way.

Rizal Irawan, the Deputy for Environmental Law Enforcement at Indonesia's Ministry of Environment and Forestry, said an investigation into the cause of the fire at the Jatiwaringin landfill would be conducted after the extinguishing process was completed.

Apart from that, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry will evaluate 390 landfills across Indonesia in early August 2026.

Rizal said that the Jatiwaringin landfill had received administrative sanctions from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry for poor management in 2025.

In addition to sanctions, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry instructed local governments to implement a controlled landfill system by which waste is levelled or compacted using heavy equipment, then periodically covered with a layer of soil.

This can minimise the risk of fires caused by methane gas buildup, reduce the risk of disease, and improve the tidiness of the disposal area so that the surrounding environment does not look dirty.

Wahyu and others, however, believe that until central and regional governments in Indonesia show a true commitment to improving waste management systems, the problem of landfill fires will persist.

"Regulation is not implemented because there is no firmness and sanctions, the budget for waste management in the regions is minimal, and there is a lack of focus on educating residents about sorting organic waste from home," he said.

The fire at Jatiwaringin landfill, Wahyu added, should serve as a stark warning to the central government that this crisis cannot be resolved with emergency responses or superficial solutions.

Without waste reduction at the source, ongoing sorting, and organic waste processing that can prevent methane gas from forming, there will always be the risk of environmental disasters occurring at landfills, he said.

"It could definitely catch fire again if the pattern isn't changed. As long as organic waste remains piled up in a jumbled mess, methane gas will continue to be produced underground."

"Once the weather gets hot again, be prepared for more fires."

Additional reporting by Muhammad Iqbal

Why a Diljit Dosanjh film vanished from streaming after two days

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly99z1w4gdo, 6 days ago

The abrupt removal of a film starring popular Indian singer-actor Diljit Dosanjh from a streaming platform has triggered a row.

Satluj is inspired by the life of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, who investigated allegations of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings during Punjab's separatist insurgency - and then he himself disappeared.

He was later found to have been abducted and murdered. Several Punjab police officers were eventually convicted for their role in the killing.

Satluj was released on the ZEE5 platform on Friday but removed two days later.

ZEE5 said in a statement the film would be unavailable in India "until further notice" because of "current developments" but did not explain what they were.

With ZEE5 pulling it, the film is no longer officially available in India.

Completed in 2022, the film never made it to cinemas because of a prolonged dispute with India's film certification board.

Despite its brief availability, Satluj received strong reviews. The Hollywood Reporter described it as "one of the finest Indian films of the year".

The Indian Express quoted a spokesperson for RSVP Movies, the film's producer, as saying it was removed on government orders. The government has not publicly commented on the decision. The BBC has contacted the federal information and broadcasting ministry for a response.

Dosanjh addressed the removal in a live social media video, saying he had expected the film to be taken down but not so quickly.

"My love and respect to all of you. What I had already expected is exactly what happened. I thought the film might get banned when [government] offices opened on Monday, but I didn't know it would happen as early as Sunday evening."

Dosanjh said the uncertainty surrounding the film's release was why its makers had kept promotions to a minimum. "If we had promoted it, the film would definitely not have been released at all," he said.

Despite its removal, Dosanjh said he was glad audiences had finally been able to watch the film after years of delays.

What is the film about?

Inspired by Khalra's life, the film follows an activist investigating alleged human rights abuses during Punjab's separatist insurgency, one of the bloodiest chapters in modern Indian history.

From the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, Sikh militants seeking an independent state of Khalistan fought Indian security forces in an insurgency that killed thousands.

As the government intensified its crackdown, human rights groups accused security forces of arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

The authorities denied the allegations, saying tough measures were needed to end the insurgency, which had largely subsided by the mid-1990s.

Khalra investigated allegations that many victims had been secretly cremated without their families' knowledge or proper records being kept.

He disappeared in 1995 and was later found to have been abducted and murdered. Several Punjab police officers were later convicted over his abduction and killing.

Why did the film run into trouble?

The film has had an unusually long and difficult journey to release.

It was originally titled Ghallughara, a Punjabi term associated with some of the darkest episodes in Sikh history.

It refers to the mass killings of Sikhs by Mughal forces in 1746 and by the forces of Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1762.

Director Honey Trehan has said India's Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), the government body that certifies films for public exhibition in cinemas, asked the filmmakers to change the title during the certification process but did not explain its reasons publicly.

The film was later retitled Punjab '95 - a reference to the year Khalra disappeared.

The film was due to premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, but the producers withdrew it while certification issues in India remained unresolved. The festival did not publicly link the withdrawal to the certification dispute.

The dispute centred on a long list of changes sought by the CBFC. Trehan told the news website Scroll in 2025 that the board's objections initially numbered 21 but eventually grew to 127 proposed cuts.

"Anything that was a reference to reality was to be removed," he said, arguing that the changes would have fundamentally altered the film.

Trehan told New Lines Magazine last year that after several rounds of review, the CBFC sought changes including a new title, the removal of references to Khalra and edits to scenes depicting police violence.

He said the board also challenged some of the film's factual claims and warned it could trigger law-and-order problems in Punjab.

The filmmakers challenged the CBFC's demands in the Bombay High Court but later withdrew their petition, opting to accept the board's changes in the hope of securing certification, The Hindu newspaper reported. Trehan later said the list of requested cuts and changes kept growing despite efforts to resolve the dispute.

The CBFC has not publicly commented on his account. The BBC has sought comments from the board.

These unresolved issues led to the project remaining in limbo for nearly three years.

Last week, however, the makers announced that the film would bypass a theatrical release and instead premiere directly on ZEE5 under a new title, Satluj.

On the day Satluj landed on ZEE5, Trehan said the film had been released "without any cuts or compromises" in the form originally intended by the filmmakers, although they had been unable to retain the title Punjab '95.

Films released in cinemas in India must be certified by the CBFC under the Cinematograph Act, but those released directly on streaming platforms do not require its approval.

Instead, streaming platforms like ZEE5 are governed by the Information Technology Rules, 2021, which mandate age ratings, a code of ethics and a grievance mechanism, but do not exempt them from takedown orders under Indian law.

After the film's removal from the streaming platform for Indian audiences, Trehan told The Indian Express newspaper, "I am at a loss right now. I don't know how to react to this development."

Meanwhile, ZEE5 has said it stood by the film and the "creative vision behind it" and "hoped to bring it back soon", without sharing any deadline.

Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

What's at stake in Philippines' vice-president impeachment trial?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpwjrd1z5y0o, 4 days ago

The impeachment trial of the Philippines' popular vice-president, Sara Duterte, has started, in a case that will determine whether she can run for the top job in 2028.

She is accused of misusing public funds and threatening to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. assassinated. If convicted, she will be removed as vice-president and barred from running in any upcoming elections.

She has dismissed the case as political harassment, with some analysts suggesting that the trial is a bid to block her presidential ambitions.

The 48-year-old is the daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who is himself being detained at The Hague for alleged crimes against humanity.

The younger Duterte's trial is the latest theatre in the explosive feud between the Duterte and Marcos families, who formed a powerful political alliance which has since spectacularly unravelled.

Who is Sara Duterte and what is the case against her?

In 2022, Duterte formed an alliance with Marcos ahead of the then upcoming election - a duo hailed as a "political dream team" - both hailing from prominent political dynasties.

They went on to win by a landslide.

But the alliance quickly unravelled as they pursued separate political agendas.

The first sign of a crack in their alliance came when Duterte publicly said she wanted to be the defence secretary - and she was made education secretary instead.

She served in that position for two years, and the alleged misuse of millions of pesos in public funds is linked to that time. She has denied wrongdoing and decried the charge as political harassment.

At the height of the inquiries, which began in 2024, Duterte said in an explosive late-night live stream that she told one "person" that "if I get killed, go kill BBM [President Marcos], [First Lady] Liza Araneta, and [House Speaker] Martin Romualdez."

Months later, in March 2025, the feud took another dramatic turn when Marcos allowed Interpol to arrest Rodrigo Duterte and bring him to The Hague.

In March this year, Duterte announced she would run for president in the 2028 elections.

As vice-president, Duterte has no official duties aside from succeeding Marcos in case he is unable to finish his term.

The president and vice-president are elected separately in the Philippines. The president is limited to a single six-year term while the vice-president can run for president at the end of their term.

Historically, this dynamic has resulted in friction between the two officials. A single-term president would want to hold as much influence during their term while the vice-president would use their term as springboard for a presidential campaign if the presidency is their ultimate goal.

What is the latest in the impeachment process?

The trial at the Senate started on 6 July. Ninety-two trial dates in total have been scheduled, spread thrice weekly.

The proceedings are livestreamed by local media outlets, with tens of thousands of viewers tuning in to watch each one.

Under Philippine law, officials like the president, vice-president and chief justice of the Supreme Court can be impeached by the House of Representatives if they commit an impeachable offence - culpable violation of the constitution, treason, graft and corruption, bribery, high crimes and betrayal of public trust.

Once impeached, the case is transmitted to the Senate for trial, which would result in an acquittal or a conviction - in which case, the official will be removed from office and disqualified from running in elections.

The vote of sixteen of the 24 sitting senators is required to convict Duterte.

In their opening arguments, prosecutors said the case was about holding the powerful to account while the defence argued that the case was aimed squarely at removing the vice-president, even as she received 32 million votes - the highest of any incumbent national official - in the last election in 2022.

Duterte had earlier already been impeached by the House in February 2025, also for alleged corruption and threats to the President. But this was later struck down by the Supreme Court six months later on technical grounds.

Impeachments in the Philippines have marked periods of political turmoil. In late 2000, then President Joseph Estrada was impeached for alleged corruption.

Estrada's trial at the Senate gripped the nation and ended abruptly after his lawyers blocked evidence of his alleged secret bank accounts. That sparked a military-backed uprising that toppled his government.

Since the restoration of democracy in 1986, only one impeachment process was completed - that of former Supreme Court chief justice Renato Corona, who in 2012 was convicted of betrayal of public trust, which stemmed from misdeclaration of his wealth.

What is at stake and what are the possible outcomes?

Sara Duterte's political future is on the line as a conviction in the Senate will disqualify her from running for president in 2028.

She is seen as the strongest contender to succeed Marcos. A survey by respected pollster Pulse Asia in March showed the vice-president with a 55% approval rating compared to the president's 36%.

In the 2025 mid-term elections - considered as a barometer of public support - senatorial candidates allied with Marcos did far worse than expected compared to Duterte's allies.

If Duterte is shut out of the 2028 presidential race, analysts say Marcos will have wider scope to push for a friendlier successor, one that will not harbour a political vendetta against him.

If Duterte survives impeachment, analysts say she could come out stronger.

However, protracted impeachment proceedings that are carried live on television and the internet risk affecting public support for her.

How are congressmen and senators expected to vote?

The pathway to convict Vice-President Sara Duterte is extremely tight, with votes from 16 of the 24 senator-judges needed for an impeachment.

The Senate is basically split between the Duterte and Marcos camps. This year alone, the Senate has had four presidents and each leadership change, called a "coup" by the local press, has been decided by the defection of just a few senators.

This underscores how evenly matched the camps are in the Senate, and how alliances in the chamber are constantly shifting.

Complicating matters is the fact that two senators - both allies of the vice-president - have been arrested in recent weeks to face plunder charges.

Another senator who is a Duterte ally - who has gone into hiding from the International Criminal Court - faces charges in Rodrigo Duterte's crimes against humanity case.

It is unclear whether all three are able to vote in absentia.

Ultimately, what is at stake is power beyond 2028.

The Duterte and Marcos families both succeeded in rallying Filipinos around their respective narratives and regional affiliations - which run strong in the nation of 7,100 islands.

Marcos billed himself as the "tiger" of the Ilocano-speaking north who pledged to restore the Philippines' to its "golden age", when his father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was in office.

Duterte, on the other hand, positioned herself as the "eagle" from the Visayan-speaking country's south, who would continue her father's fight for ordinary folk who had been shut out by Manila's oligarchs and political elite.

Four years ago, they were the unstoppable dream team, now they are the bitter rivals in a drawn out battle where only one survives.

Dating can be hard in South Korea - so the monks stepped in

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgmdkw7wmkgo, yesterday

A monk draped in burnt-orange robes faces a row of young men and women and tells them they're here on a mission to save their country. By finding a partner and one day having babies.

The participants giggle, nervously stealing glances from their prospective matches.

This isn't the start of a new hit reality show. It's a real-life dating retreat held at an 8th Century Buddhist temple nestled in the lush greenery of South Korea's Palgongsan mountain.

It's a 30-hour affair which will feature back-to-back activities and a steady stream of awkward moments, all in the pursuit of breaking the ice and finding love.

"Buddhists have always been the first to take action when our country is in trouble," says host Yoo Cheol-ju, referring to when Donghwasa Temple served as a camp for monk militias defending Korea against Japanese invaders in the 1500s.

But this time the threat isn't from abroad.

"Low births are a national crisis. We had to do something about it," Yoo says.

Like elsewhere in the world, births have plummeted in South Korea as the country has grown wealthier.

In 2023, the average number of children a South Korean woman has over her lifetime, or total fertility rate, dropped to a historic low of 0.72, well below the replacement rate of 2.1.

Some blame soaring housing costs and the lack of financial support for childcare. Others say women are prioritising careers, or simply exercising what is now a choice.

But young South Koreans are also going out less and dating less than before, studies show. While some are choosing to be single, many are struggling to meet partners, pulling marriage rates down.

The government has begun offering longer parental leave, cash bonuses for babies and subsidised apartments for newlyweds.

Local governments and civic groups have taken things one step further, putting on state-backed matchmaking events like this one at Donghwasa Temple.

And they're a lot more fun than you might imagine.

Kim Ah-kyung, who goes by her Buddhist name, Sunhyeji, is one of the first to arrive.

The bubbly 28-year-old sits on the porch of a bungalow at the temple complex and says hello to the other women, who start trickling into the room.

They have all made it through an incredibly competitive selection process, involving questionnaires and selfie videos to assess how serious they are about marriage and kids. They beat more than 1,580 others to be at this retreat, which was open to everyone, irrespective of faith.

Sunhyeji struggled to meet a suitable partner after leaving the Seoul region for an office job in the south-eastern provinces.

"There's really no chance to meet men," she says. "I only go between work and home. I don't have a hobby. I tried to get one but they were all one-on-one activities." At her office, she adds, everyone is much older.

Dating can be hard in South Korea.

People typically meet romantic partners through school, work or sogaeting: blind dates set up by friends or family. Failing that, small talk in big cities is rare. Drinking is down. Dating apps never really took off. In 2015, after years of stagnant growth, Tinder started marketing itself as a friend-finding app to better appeal to young people.

Kwon Seung-oh, 30, who goes by Enyo, has always been put off by the idea of meeting a stranger online.

His friends put him on blind dates about 10 times, but he found them all to be shallow interactions that never went anywhere. And 97% of his co-workers at a big dairy factory outside Daegu city are men.

So now, he too finds himself at Donghwasa.

Chivalry is on show before the day has even begun.

As the women arrive at the complex, their potential male suitors rush to meet them, offering to help them carry their luggage to their rooms.

Enyo is determined to find a match. During the day's first activity - the introduction round - he hands out French pastries he has baked himself, earning him wows from the crowd.

Then it's time for the first date. Sunhyeji is paired with Minho, a 32-year-old mild-mannered civil servant. The two take a stroll through the wooded path surrounding the temple, managing to have a private conversation.

Later on, the men are asked to hand a plastic rose to the woman they want to get to know over a lunch date. Minho picks Ruby, a 28-year-old designer whose gentle demeanour matches his.

There are polite smiles and giggles throughout the meal. The couples learn about each other's hobbies, jobs and favourite shows. Conversation is flowing and everyone seems to be opening up.

When they're done you see them standing closer together than before, as they gather at the sinks to clean the dishes together.

But that's all turned on its head as we reach the awkward, clumsy crescendo of the day: the talent show.

Minho goes first, moving carefully as he recollects the steps to 2Pm's viral track My House, with its famous chorus: "I wanna take you to my house."

Sunhyeji effortlessly grooves to brand new pop hit Catch Catch, while Enyo belts out a ballad. Ruby shows off her Spanish language skills, with a halting introduction that charms Minho. One woman whips out a flute to play a song from KPop Demon Hunters.

The non-stop activities are exhausting the participants.

There are only a couple of minutes to grab a break before a speed-dating round kicks off over green tea (which no-one actually drinks).

After that, it's the women's turn to pick the man for their dinner date.

Sunhyeji gives her rose to Minho, much to the irritation of Ruby. Enyo isn't chosen by any of the women, and ends up having dinner with the others who aren't matched up.

Finally, to bring the day to a close, a senior monk gives a rousing speech, reminding the participants of their duty to procreate, before breaking into the national anthem.

The singles, more concerned about their romantic fate than patriotic duty, mumble through the lyrics.

Korean authorities have been setting up matchmaking events since the early 2000s - everything from woodworking dates to riverside DJ nights.

Despite these efforts, which were implemented alongside the government's baby-boosting programmes that have cost about $250 billion since 2006, birth rates continued to fall for years.

That is, until 2024, when the numbers began to edge upwards. This year, women on average are expected to have 1.0 child each, up from 0.8 in 2025.

It's not clear if this is a direct result of government initiatives. Officials have been careful to attribute it to the pandemic delaying weddings and births, and a large generation of people born to baby boomers reaching the age when they have children of their own.

But there might be a change in attitudes too. A survey from March showed unmarried people were nearly 10% more favourable to marriage and having children compared to just two years ago.

This chimes with some of the women at the temple, who say they have been seeing more and more social media posts of friends tying the knot and having babies.

At this point in the evening, with one final round of dating left, the group's social battery is running out.

Yoo, the host, insists there is plenty of time left to find a match.

The 22:00 bedtime is only a suggestion, he adds. The night can be "full of surprises".

As if to prove him right, an event steward takes her chances with a participant. She admits to having a boyfriend, but says that relationship is doomed anyway.

Ruby eventually leaves with Minho for a walk. Sunhyeji looks tired.

Enyo and the others, who didn't find partners, file out one by one.

The next morning, everyone is joking and chatting as they submit their final choices to Yoo by text.

By the end of the retreat, eight couples have formed, including two matches between event staff and participants. The group gathers for a final photo.

Enyo looks on, disappointed he doesn't have a match. But he hasn't given up. He says he'd be up for another shot at the retreat "if they let me in again".

Sunhyeji has cheered up. She stayed up until 03:00 gossiping with other women in her room. "I made many friends!" she exclaims, adding that a plan to get brunch together is already in the works.

For her, the experience was like a fun sleepover, which made her feel like a teenager again - unafraid to be spontaneous and make bold choices.

The single men agree. They've continued hanging out, only now there will be alcohol and meat on the table.

Not everyone leaves the temple with a partner.

But nearly everyone leaves with something they didn't have before: new friends and fresh confidence.

Killer's final police interview footage released

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvglj4k03w4o, yesterday

Police in Australia have released bodycam footage of an interview with the man who murdered British backpacker Peter Falconio - as they tried to get him to reveal the location of the body.

Falconio, from Huddersfield, was shot dead on a remote stretch of highway near the Northern Territory town of Barrow Creek, about 186 miles (300km) north of Alice Springs in July 2001.

Killer Bradley Murdoch, 67, died in jail last year with throat cancer without disclosing where his remains might be.

The footage was released by Northern Territory police ahead of the 25th anniversary of his disappearance, with the force saying it "remains committed to bringing this investigation to its fullest conclusion".

In the video, a police officer can be heard saying to Murdoch: "I need you to have a think about if Peter Falconio was your son… and somebody knew something about where his body was."

Murdoch, dressed in a green prison jumper, replies: "I don't know anything about it."

He adds: "Don't beat around the bush because I'm just going to cut you short everytime, okay?

"I know nothing. I've said this for 22 years. I know nothing. You keep asking these questions. I know nothing."

Asked to think about it again, he gives an expletive-filled answer, before saying: "I'm not thinking about it. I've thought about. I thought about it for 22 years.

"I've said the same story over and over and over, and now you're here at the last minute because I'm dying.

"I don't have information. This is what I'm trying to say to you. I don't have this information."

Falconio had been travelling around Australia with his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, also from Huddersfield, when he was murdered.

During his trial in December 2005, the court heard Murdoch, who was then 43, pulled up beside their vehicle, claiming to have seen sparks coming from the camper van Falconio was driving.

He then shot Falconio in the head as he inspected the vehicle, before taking 28-year-old Lees into his car and binding her wrists with cable ties.

She managed to escape and hid in outback scrub for several hours before she was able to wave down two men driving a truck.

Murdoch was convicted of Falconio's killing by a unanimous jury verdict, and he was also found guilty of the assault and attempted kidnap of Lees.

He had always maintained his innocence, despite DNA evidence linking him to the crime, and unsuccessfully appealed to overturn his convictions twice.

An inquest into Murdoch's death in March heard the killer refused to watch a video from his victim's parents appealing for his help to find their son's body.

A spokesperson from Northern Territory said their "thoughts remained with the Falconio family and Joanne Lees whose loss and uncertainty continue to be felt 25 years on".

Appealing for information they added: "There may still be someone who knows something, whether that be information they have never previously shared with police or something Murdoch said to them.

"We continue to urge anyone with information relating to the location of Peter Falconio's remains to come forward.

"No piece of information is too small; what may seem insignificant could prove critical in helping investigators finally resolve this case."

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.

China tests missile in the Pacific hours after Australia-Fiji alliance signed

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c30yy6jj8p1o, 6 days ago

China has test-launched a long-range ballistic missile with a dummy warhead into the Pacific Ocean, hours after Australia signed a new defence pact with Fiji.

Beijing called it a "routine part of China's annual military programme", but the launched angered neighbours including Japan, New Zealand and Australia.

Canberra accused China of "destabilising" the region - though officials said they do not believe the test is a response to its new security agreement.

Australia has in recent years been racing to shore up defence ties with its Pacific neighbours, to counter growing Chinese influence and military expansion in the region.

Beijing had informed Canberra of its plans to conduct the missile test hours before, Defence Minister Richard Marles said at a press conference on Monday.

Marles added that Australia is "very concerned about any actions which undermine the stability, the peace, and security of the Pacific".

Governments across the Indo-Pacific region, including New Zealand, Japan and Papua New Guinea, were informed by Chinese officials of their military's intention to conduct sea-based drills on Monday.

New Zealand's Foreign Minister Winston Peters called the test an "unwelcome and concerning development", and one that his government will discuss with Pacific partners.

Japan said it had "strongly urged" China to reconsider the move after it was informed of the launch 90 minutes before it happened.

China said its missile test - which comes two years after the last - was part of "routine" military training and "not directed at any specific country or target".

"The related launch activity was conducted in a safe, regulated, and professional manner, and we hope that certain countries will refrain from overinterpreting them," China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said after the launch on Monday.

Speaking to reporters in the Fiji capital Suva, Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the test was "in the context of a rapid military build-up by China" and risked "destabilising" the region.

Wong was in the Fijian capital as Australia formalised its treaty with Fiji, the Ocean of Peace Alliance. It marks Fiji's first alliance and Australia's fourth – after the United States, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

The treaty will be backed by Australia's government spending more than $1bn over a decade on measures against transnational crime, and health and infrastructure in Fiji, said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Signing the agreement with his Fijian counterpart, Albanese said it was "one of the most significant endeavours" Canberra had undertaken with any country.

Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka said the treaty was a "defining moment" in the ties between the two countries and marked a "very significant elevation of our bilateral relationship".

Asked by reporters whether he expected any pushback from Beijing, Rabuka said he believed China would "welcome the understanding".

"It does not threaten Fiji's relationship with China nor Australia's relationship with China," he said in remarks reported by Australia's national broadcaster ABC.

Last week Albanese also signed Australia's first comprehensive strategic pact with Vanuatu - after months of negotiations - which recognises Australia as Vanuatu's primary policing partner and bars the establishment of any foreign military base on the Pacific island.

Albanese will continue his Pacific trip on Tuesday in the Solomon Islands, where he will meet Prime Minister Matthew Wale to continue negotiations on a new treaty.

Wale, who was elected in May, is a former China hawk who has for years strongly opposed a security pact the Solomon Islands signed with China in 2022. He had on a visit to Australia last month floated the idea of a regional security pact.

Trains and emergency calls affected after major outage at Australia's largest telecoms company

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgevw0d95pdo, 4 days ago

A major outage at Australia's largest telecommunications company has led to cancelled train services, left thousands of customers without mobile coverage, and sparked an investigation into emergency calls that were not connected.

Telstra's chief financial officer Michael Ackland apologised for the issue which began at 04:30 local time on Wednesday and affected "some mobile calls and data services".

Services were fully restored about 12 hours later, he said. A software defect related to time-keeping servers at data centres in Sydney and Melbourne was to blame - not a cyber attack, Ackland added.

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the outage was "deeply concerning".

Telstra described the outage as "intermittent" but acknowledged the impact had been "national".

Ackland said the telecoms company had conducted welfare checks on customers who had called emergency services during the outage, with six requiring immediate help.

Back-up systems, which divert emergency calls through other mobile carriers, largely worked as they should, he added.

Asked if the country could still rely on its largest mobile network, Ackland said: "Australia can absolutely have faith in its biggest telco... we take these outages very very seriously.

"Our investment in resilience and cyber security and redundancy in our network is significant but it is a big and complex network and from time to time, issues do occur."

Communications Minister Anika Wells said the country's telco regulator, the Australian Communication and Media Authority, will investigate the outage.

In Victoria, all regional train services were cancelled due to the outage while some regional services in New South Wales were also disrupted. National freight services were also affected.

Payment systems were also down with about 80,000 businesses using the Tyro app affected.

Last September, a systems outage at Optus - the second largest telecoms company in Australia - led to three deaths after hundreds of people across more than half the country were unable to call emergency services for 13 hours.

Optus was also fined after an outage in 2023 left thousands unable to call emergency services.

Australia dock workers call for 28-hour week in AI talks

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd95wendvdeo, 4 days ago

Australian dock workers are demanding a 28-hour work week with no loss of pay as the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation expands across the country's ports.

The AI push is being led by port logistics giant DP World, which the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) said has put workers' jobs "in the crosshairs".

The union said: "If DP World wants AI and automation, then they must pay the social dividend. The new technology doesn't have to cost our members their jobs or put their livelihoods at risk just so a terminal operator can boost profits."

The BBC has contacted DP World for comment and the MUA for more details.

DP World, which is based in Dubai, is increasingly testing AI tools to manage employees and work schedules in its operations, according to a study by the Centre For International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research, which was commissioned by the MUA.

The automation programme is part of a pattern of pushing AI into operations "without genuine consultation" and that it threatens up to a thousand jobs or more than 60% of the dock and maintenance workforce, the study said.

The company has also proposed the use of AI-assisted remote-control cranes and driverless vehicles, it added.

The technology "should be used to improve workers' lives, not destroy them," the union said in a statement on 3 July as it called for a 28-hour work week.

DP World dock workers are believed to currently work around 32 to 35 hours a week, depending on their location, according to the Australian Financial Review, which first reported the negotiations.

The state-owned DP World is one of the world's largest port operators and is ultimately controlled by Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

In Australia, it moves millions of shipping containers each year through its ports in Sydney, Melbourne and other parts of the country.

With operations in 84 countries and more than 126,000 employees around the world, the firm handles around a tenth of global container traffic.

Last year, DP World's Asia Pacific chief executive Glen Hilton said the company is using AI across ports in the region to manage increasingly complex supply chains.

The use of the technology is "no longer optional" but essential, he said.

Australia space agency has found 'likely source' of mystery space balls

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1jyydr7jnjo, 6 days ago

The Australian Space Agency (ASA) says it has "identified the likely source" of mysterious large balls that had washed up on a beach in northern Queensland this weekend.

The six solid objects discovered on Forrest Beach, to the north of Townsville, were thought to be space debris. The ASA said on Monday that they "appear to be pressure vessels from a space launch vehicle".

The agency added that it was working with international authorities to formally confirm the launch vehicle.

Queensland's fire department said on Sunday that a 50m exclusion zone remained in place, urging anyone who found a suspicious object in the area not to touch them.

It said members of the public who encountered them should immediately move away and call the emergency services.

There was some speculation online that the spheres were propellant tanks for spacecraft, and so could contain residual amounts of a highly flammable or reactive substance.

Crews in protective suits were reportedly seen placing the spheres in hazmat barrels under police guard, over concerns they may contain hazardous substances.

Forrest Beach Takeaway owner Lisa Scobie said the local community was curious to know their origin.

"It's very quiet, not a lot happens here. So having a lot of extra activity... that definitely created a little bit of excitement," she told public broadcaster ABC.

According to the ASA's latest statement, "the objects' location and characteristics are consistent with debris from a foreign rocket body that recently re-entered the atmosphere from orbit".

It is not the first time that such mysterious objects have been spotted on Australia's shoreline.

In 2023, India confirmed that a giant metal dome that washed up on a Western Australian beach near Perth was from one of its rockets.

India's space agency spokesman later told the BBC that it was from one of its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLV).

A spherical object similar to those discovered this weekend was also found in remote grassland in Namibia, southern Africa, in 2011.

Experts at the time said they believed it was most likely a fuel tank or bladder tank containing hydrazine - a highly volatile propellant - from an unmanned rocket.

Australian PM apologises for 'inappropriate' comments about Kylie Minogue

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr477en6w3go, 7 days ago

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has apologised "unequivocally" for comments he made about popstar Kylie Minogue in a podcast interview last week.

The leader had made an appearance on the Bush Deep podcast with comedian Nikki Osborne, who asked him during a 20-minute interview whether he would "shag, marry or date" Minogue, actress Nicole Kidman or entertainer Rhonda Burchmore.

After initially trying to avoid the question, Albanese said "Oh, Kylie, clearly".

He was quickly met by a wave of condemnation, with one MP calling his remarks "entirely inappropriate", and another adding that they were "disrespectful to women... and demean the office of prime minister".

Osborne, who is best known for posting crude comedy sketches on YouTube, had launched her podcast series earlier this year. Her podcast site describes her as a "wildly inappropriate journalist" who asks "questions no one else would dare".

In a one-line statement issued early on Monday, the prime minister said: "I apologise unequivocally for the comments".

The remarks were made during an interview that took place in the prime minister's official residence in Canberra and which was released at the end of last week.

After Osborne first posed the question, Albanese, who married his partner Jodie Haydon in November, had initially responded: "I've just got married, I'm only six months in."

But after being pushed by Osborne, he added: "Oh, Kylie, clearly."

"You'd marry Kylie, and shag her, and date her?" Osborne said.

"All of the above," Albanese said. "She's terrific."

Community Strong MP Zali Steggall said the remarks were "entirely inappropriate", adding that he "needs to learn to push back, lead by example and call it out as sexist".

Shadow Communications Minister Sarah Henderson said in a post on X the comments were "disrespectful to women, embarrassing to Australians and demean the office of Prime Minister."

Richard Marles, who is acting prime minister while Albanese is on a visit to the Pacific, told news outlet ABC that the government was "utterly committed" to the elevation of women in society.

"From time to time, we obviously do different interviews to the one we are doing now, but I think the other point to make here is that the government that the PM leads is the first in history that has had equality in terms of the number of men and women in cabinet," Marles said on the broadcaster's Radio National Breakfast programme.

Albanese was also asked about the worst gift he had received on an overseas jaunt. He said a "strange" but ultimately "quite good" gift had come from Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi who brought two melons.

"She just came in looking like Pamela Anderson?" said Osborne, as Albanese smiled and waggled his hands in front of his chest.

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Spain battles to contain one of its deadliest wildfires as at least 12 killed

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1wyv383j2xo, today

Hundreds of firefighters in Spain are still battling to contain pockets of flames in the south east after one of the country's worst-ever wildfires.

Emergency services have been deployed around the village of Bedar where 12 people have been killed - among them four Britons, according to Spanish authorities. Another 23 people are still missing.

Local officials in the Los Gallardos area of Almería have warned the number of dead could rise, with fears that more Britons are among those killed.

A sustained heatwave with temperatures of around 40C (104F) has caused wildfires across Southern Europe this summer, particularly in France, Portugal and Spain.

Soaring temperatures, incredibly dry ground and powerful winds led to the Los Gallardos fire spreading quickly on Thursday afternoon.

Antonio Sanz, Andalusia's health and emergencies minister, said on Saturday the fire had burned across 6,600 hectares (16,300 acres) of land.

The cause has been put down to a fallen power line, but local electricity companies have denied this.

No additional information has been given about the four people who were found dead in a burnt-out car.

Sanz said previously they are believed to be "of British origin" and that the car had a steering wheel on the right.

He also said weather conditions had improved overnight, "allowing us to face the day with better prospects than yesterday".

He added: "This is the first day we will be able to mount a direct attack on the fire. Until now, weather conditions and the behaviour of the blaze only allowed us to work defensively."

Lucinda Curtois, who arrived in Spain with her partner Riyaz Cheytan and their teenage children for a holiday on Thursday, described their escape from Bedar.

"It was almost like there was a mushroom cloud of smoke, it was like a bomb had gone off," she said.

Curtois told the BBC she feared at least two other UK nationals had been killed.

"They left their home on foot, I don't know why," she said. "I can only presume it was probably because their road was cut off because they live out in the countryside."

Officials in Bedar said some of those who had died had not taken a recommended evacuation route - but it's not clear how well that guidance was conveyed.

Neither the Spanish authorities - nor the Foreign Office in London - have revealed the identity of the deceased.

Sanz said the rapid fire had been complex and the majority or even all of the victims may have been foreign nationals.

Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot said many Belgians had second homes in the country and consular services were trying to contact "Belgians with whom they have not been able to get in touch".

With at least 12 people dead, this is already among the deadliest wildfires in Spanish history.

In 1984, 20 people died in a fire on the Canary Island of La Gomera, while in 1979, 21 people, including nine children, died in a forest fire near Lloret de Mar in north-eastern Spain.

Wildfires have also plagued France over the summer months.

On Monday over 10,000 people were evacuated from their homes in the foothills of the French Pyrenees.

But in a social media post on Saturday French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 32 people had been arrested on suspicion of starting some of the fires.

"These unacceptable behaviours, which lead to disastrous consequences and put our firefighters' lives at risk, will now be brought before the courts," he said.

Climate change is driving up temperatures around the world, and Europe is the fastest warming continent, heating up twice as fast as the global average, according to the Copernicus climate service.

This is causing increased summer heatwaves, greater pressure on Europe's water supply, and more intense wildfires.

Additional reporting by Dearbail Jordan

Russia trains sights on schools, offices and buses in busy Ukrainian city

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3dyyln23v8o, yesterday

It was five in the morning when Anna Holovchenko was woken up by glide bombs hitting the suburbs of her home city of Zaporizhzhia in eastern Ukraine.

Security has deteriorated sharply there in a matter of weeks. Zaporizhzhia is a mere 24km (15 miles) from the front line, but is still home to some 750,000 people and the war is feeling closer than ever.

An hour later drones flew over Anna's house in a second wave of attack and Ukrainian air defences tried to bring them down. "I realised I'm not getting any more sleep and started getting ready for work," she said.

Numerous buses, petrol stations, schools, government offices and residential houses have been hit by Russian drones and bombs in recent weeks.

Acting mayor Regina Kharchenko told the BBC that during one particularly intensive attack she "did not go to the shelter, but when it got too loud I took cover in the toilet".

A Shahed drone crashed not far from Anna's office with a big bang, and another drone struck a cable, taking down the internet. "That's just another ordinary day in Zaporizhzhia," she said.

Their city is the administrative capital of Zaporizhzhia region, one of five regions in Ukraine's south and east that Russia claims as its own.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, is located almost 50km southwest of the city in part of the region under Russian occupation.

Following the relentless spate of Russian attacks, Zaporizhzhia city council met in an underground shelter to discuss the worsening situation. "The enemy has stepped up terror against civilians, municipal transport, privately-owned buses, cars, residential buildings and even children," Regina Kharchenko told the meeting.

Plans had been made to build more shelters across the city and put up more anti-drone nets at the busiest and most vulnerable locations, the acting mayor told the BBC later, and she said anti-shatter film was being applied to windows in schools, hospitals and public buildings.

"Personally, I'm very afraid," she said. At night she sometimes sleeps on the floor in a corridor at home: "I live in an ordinary high-rise, on the seventh floor. I've got no personal bunker with 10 bodyguards. I live an ordinary life."

Ukrainian forces have succeeded in pushing Russian forces back a few kilometres away from the city, and yet the attacks on Zaporizhzhia have worsened.

That is because many strikes are now carried out using small but lethal first-person-view (FPV) drones, which were not able to reach the city earlier.

There are several possible reasons for the deterioration, suggests Sam Cranny-Evans from the Royal United Services Institute think-tank in London.

Russian forces have been using longer-range mothership drones to deliver several smaller drones which then scatter and strike targets that they would not be able to reach otherwise, he explains.

Also, they have been using so-called mesh networking technology, which is harder to jam and makes it possible to relay radio signals from drone to drone, thus allowing them to cover longer distances.

Another possible factor, Cranny-Evans told the BBC, could be "reduced Ukrainian electronic warfare [activity], because of a focus elsewhere and an equally increased focus from Russian units" on Zaporizhzhia.

Local authorities say they intercepted 884 Russian drones in the last week of June alone.

While Russian troops have been forced to retreat south of Zaporizhzhia, they continue advancing elsewhere, albeit at a much slower pace than before.

Their progress has recently been hampered by a successful Ukrainian campaign of strikes against Russian oil refineries, fuel storage and logistics in occupied territories.

Hundreds of thousands of residents are staying put for now, but for Zaporizhzhia's population Russia's offensive remains a constant threat after almost four and a half years of war.

"We've got food and fuel, why would I leave? Maybe I'm not the easily scared type," says Anna.

Although she admits the thought of leaving has crossed her mind, she does not want Zaporizhzhia to become another city destroyed by Russia.

"We're just trying to stay safe and we're doing all we can to survive until our victory."

Ukraine strikes Russian ships near Crimea, escalating attacks on fuel supplies

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70yd1g67z5o, 3 days ago

Ukraine's military has intensified its attacks near Russian-annexed Crimea, following up strikes on Russia's land corridor to the peninsula by targeting maritime supply routes as well.

Ukraine's drone force commander Robert Brovdi, also known as Magyar, says at least 36 ships have been hit and set on fire over the past four days in the Sea of Azov, the inland sea linked to the Black Sea by the Kerch Strait. Most belong to Russia's "shadow fleet" of commercial oil tankers, says the Ukrainian military.

The exact number is unclear as some ships may have been hit more than once and not all the strikes have been confirmed independently.

Such losses in so short a time are a clear blow to Russia's naval capability as well as Vladimir Putin's guarantee of maintaining fuel supplies.

These attacks appear to be the latest phase of Ukraine's self-declared "logistics lockdown" which aims to choke off supplies and routes into and out of occupied Crimea.

The sight of tankers loitering in the Sea of Azov off the north-eastern coast of occupied Crimea is common, as there is an onshore oil loading facility at Kerch port on the peninsula itself.

Kerch port was attacked by Ukraine last month and BBC Verify's analysis of satellite imagery shows the number of tankers in this area reduced in the days that followed.

Night-time footage of the latest strikes began appearing on social media early on Tuesday, and Brovdi detailed strikes every day between 6 and 9 July.

The governor of Russia's Rostov region, Yuri Slyusar, said two empty tankers were attacked on Wednesday in Taganrog Bay in the north-east corner of the Sea of Azov, although they were still burning on Thursday.

Brovdi says two tankers attacked earlier in the week were each carrying about 7,000 tons of fuel from the Taganrog area to Crimea.

One satellite image captured on Wednesday shows a large plume of smoke rising from one ship around 2.5 miles (4.2 km) off the Crimean coast.

Data from Nasa suggests the fire had been raging from that spot since 6 July and likely a result of the first wave of strikes claimed by Ukraine's drone forces.

The same image shows around 20 further vessels leaving the area and heading south towards the Black Sea.

The head of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces named several tankers among those hit as Venera-3, Sanar-1, Sanar-17, Klimena, Thetis, Alexey Savrasov, and Penelopa.

A passenger ferry called SKS One and a bulk carrier came under attack in Kerch port, again with images posted on social media.

Leaving the Sea of Azov is not necessarily a guarantee of safety from Ukraine's drone strikes.

Ukraine's general staff released footage on Wednesday of a naval drone attack on a sanctioned tanker called Blue.

The onboard footage shows the unmanned vessel evading fire as it approaches the tanker, before the video cuts out as it approaches the ship's hull.

Although the location cannot be confirmed, Ukraine said the incident occurred near Yalta, a Black Sea resort city in occupied Crimea.

The tanker attacks coincide with continued strikes on Russian oil refineries, which have caused widespread fuel shortages across the country including in Moscow and St Petersburg.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has argued that by targeting oil refineries Kyiv is rightly responding to Russia's strikes and that Russians must "feel that it is their state that is waging war".

He highlighted two further attacks on oil depots, in the Tver and Stavropol regions hundreds of kilometres from the front line, as well as an unnamed oil terminal in Rostov region, believed to be Yug Rusi, inland from Taganrog Bay.

US President Donald Trump described the drone strategy as an escalation when he met Zelensky at the Nato summit in Ankara on Tuesday, "but it's also an escalation that can help lead to an end".

But it is the scale of drone attacks on Russian maritime logistics that appears to have intensified in recent days.

Brovdi claimed attacks on 12 tankers in just one night from Wednesday into Thursday, and Russian pro-war sources have not questioned either the details or the authenticity of the footage.

The "Military Informant" Telegram channel complained that the defenceless manner in which the tankers had travelled had become in effect a shooting gallery for Ukrainian drone operators, with no cover from a Black Sea Fleet, which could nowadays barely defend itself.

Mikhail Zvinchuk, author of the Telegram channel "Rybar" pointed out that the Black Sea Fleet had "now shut itself in at Novorossiysk".

These strikes will come as painful blow given declining oil refining capacity and fuel shortages, in Crimea especially.

In late June, Vladimir Putin estimated Crimea's monthly fuel needs at 70,000 tons and promised to secure supplies to the peninsula by increasing deliveries by both land and sea. The tankers attacked in the Sea of Azov may well have been carrying considerably more than that.

There is now fuel rationing or shortages in more than 90% of Russian regions, and Russia has now banned exports of diesel. Queues are reported at filling stations in the biggest cities.

In Crimea, Russian-appointed authorities are struggling to cope with disruptions to power supplies and transport.

Ukraine's military has already jeopardised Russia's land supply routes to the peninsula, and they are now firing on its sea routes as well.

Additional reporting for BBC Verify by Alex Murray, Adam Durbin, Kevin Nguyen and Tom Shiel

Ukrainian agent accused of murdering Monaco bomb suspect changes story

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpv3e8y39j7o, 3 days ago

A Ukrainian intelligence agent who confessed to killing the woman suspected of trying to assassinate a multimillionaire and his family in Monaco last week, has now claimed he did not pull the trigger.

In court in Kyiv for a custody hearing on Thursday, Vladyslav Reut – who a few days ago led investigators to Anastasiia Berezovska's grave in the woods – said that he "categorically denied" committing her murder and blamed his alleged accomplice instead.

This murky case is capturing attention because Reut is an active and decorated officer of Ukraine's military intelligence agency, GUR, and his co-defendant Vitalii Zhykovych worked for the SBU security service until recently.

On Thursday evening President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would have "additional relevant reports" to share in the coming days.

But the motive for the Monaco blast that targeted Vadym Yermolayev remains unclear.

The businessman, who made his money in cognac and real estate, had renounced his Ukrainian citizenship some years ago. He has since been sanctioned by Kyiv for continuing to do business in Crimea after it was taken by Russia.

Now his would-be assassin has been murdered herself.

The two suspects were brought into court for separate hearings with their hands cuffed, surrounded by heavily armed security officers in balaclavas.

Both kept their hoods up throughout proceedings and their faces covered by masks so large only their eyes were still visible. They sat hunched inside the glass courtroom cage for most of the hearings, backs to the line of TV cameras.

In court, the prosecutor clarified that Anastasiia Berezovska had arrived in Ukraine two days after the blast in Monaco, and before she had been identified as the prime suspect in the case.

She crossed by bus from Poland.

Once alerted to the allegations against her, investigators seem to have homed in quickly on Zhykovych, 50, and Reut, 34, using Berezovska's phone records.

They then identified cash and cryptocurrency transfers that the two had made to her accounts.

Straight away, Reut appears to have confessed to shooting Berezovska.

He then took investigators to the spot where he had buried her body in the woods west of Kyiv, in a grave covered with branches.

But in court just days later, the GUR agent announced that he wanted to "tell the truth". He then shifted the blame squarely onto Zhykovych.

"I fought enemy combatants while defending my country," he stressed. "I would never intentionally murder an innocent civilian woman."

In his revised version, he claimed that the two men had driven in his BMW to pick up Berezovska on the highway to Kyiv because she "needed to be hidden" in connection with "a criminal matter".

He doesn't clarify what that was.

On the way, Reut says Zhykovych produced a modified Makarov pistol from his rucksack and loaded it. When he protested, he says Zhykovych claimed it was just a precaution "in case she panics".

After collecting Berezovska he says he was directed to drive towards the village of Yuriv where all three got out on a forest path.

There Reut says Zhykovych ordered him to shoot, saying: "It's either her or us."

In Reut's telling, Zhykovych then killed Berezovska himself, with four shots, before the pair dug a grave and hid her body.

He says Zhykovych then threw the gun into a nearby lake along with her belongings.

But if Reut didn't shoot her, why would he confess?

He now says he was threatened by Zhykovych. "He said, 'If anything happens to me, your relatives are in danger'," he claims.

Zhykovych's lawyer rejected that new account.

Shaven-headed and fiddling incessantly with wooden rosary beads, Anatoliy Ivanov described his client as a low-level former SBU officer and dismissed the idea that a mere civilian could have ordered a serving GUR member to do anything, let alone carry out a murder.

He called Zhykovych a "patriot" who had fought in eastern Ukraine in 2014, like himself, and then "actively defended" the Kyiv region after 2022 when Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

"He does not want to be imprisoned. I understand," Ivanov commented on Reut's statement.

But he insisted that his own client "did not kill".

The prosecutor says the two men acted "jointly and in a coordinated fashion" and both have been charged with premeditated murder.

For now, there are many more questions than answers in this case, which is an uncomfortable one for the authorities in Kyiv.

In court, Zhykovych's lawyer suggested there might be a "Russian trail", as Ukrainian intelligence agents have been recruited by Moscow in the past.

"We've had a lot of such rats, unfortunately," he said.

But he has no evidence of that, and other theories from corruption to organised crime have also been mooted.

"All versions are being considered," prosecutor Dmytro Tkachuk told the BBC.

He added that one suspect had "revealed" some information about a possible motive but said it would hinder the investigation to make that public at this time.

"We are checking the information," he said.

Both men were denied bail by the judge and remanded in custody while the investigation continues.

Additional reporting by Anastasiia Levchenko and Mariana Matveichuk

Nato chief tells BBC that Trump comments are like 'family argument'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98205r7dylo, 4 days ago

Nato, the cornerstone of Western nations' defence, is stronger than ever. That's according to its Secretary General Mark Rutte who was speaking to the BBC at the alliance's summit in Ankara.

This despite some inflammatory words from Donald Trump who said how disappointed he was that Nato did not join in his war with Iran. (NATO was not consulted but in the end several countries, including the UK, let US forces use their bases to launch strikes on Iranian missile sites).

I put it to Rutte that there was a clear gap between the upbeat words of Nato officials and ministers on the one hand and the sometimes divisive comments made by the US president on the other.

Trump repeated his view that the US should take control of Greenland and he called Spain "a terrible partner", though he also stressed there had been "unification" at the leaders' meeting in Ankara - and that there had been "tremendous love in that room".

"It's a bit like in a family, you have families where you never quarrel and then it bursts out completely," says Mark Rutte, a suave and eloquent politician who served as prime minister of the Netherlands two years ago.

"Trump," he continues, "is completely committed to Nato."

Really? What makes him so sure? After all, this is a president who has indicated in the past that pulling the US out of Nato was "beyond reconsideration". Here in Ankara he repeated his assertion that the US had got a poor return from "the trillions" of dollars it had invested in Nato.

"I am 100% convinced [Trump is committed to Nato]," says Rutte. "Because… I know that the United States, this president included, particularly this president, also understands that - take [US Operation] Epic Fury [against Iran], it could not have taken place at this extent without using Europe as a power projection platform.

"Five thousand planes taking off from European bases based on bilateral basing agreements in the first, in the six weeks between end of February and mid-April, till a ceasefire came into force."

With Nato's Nordic countries uncomfortably close to Russia's massive cluster of nuclear-armed submarine bases in the Kola Peninsula on Russia's Arctic coast, Rutte points out that it acts as a kind of early warning system for Washington.

"You don't want the Russian nuclear submarines to end up at the shores of the United States" he says. "We prevent that as Nato collectively. So, for all these reasons, we are in this together, 32 countries and nations, because we need each other."

This Nato summit was, despite the occasional distraction, largely about turning European governments' pledges of more money for defence into concrete action.

The aim is to galvanise the continent's industrial capacity to the point where it can match the threat posed by Russia's vast arsenal of drones, cruise and ballistic missiles.

While some countries, such as Britain, have failed to set out a pathway to spending 3% of GDP on defence by 2030, Rutte is clearly pleased with the increases achieved since the last summit in his home city, The Hague, in 2025.

"Today we took stock," he tells me, "and a quarter of a trillion [dollars] extra spent by Canadians and Europeans in two years. It's staggering. So we are delivering, and now we have to ramp up the defence industrial production even further, making progress and maintaining support for Ukraine."

So is he confident, I ask, that if Russia were to make a land grab somewhere, for example Estonia, in 2030 as some are predicting, that Nato would be ready?

Again, his confidence is convincing. It's a question he has probably been asked many times.

"Absolutely we'll be ready" he replies. "Now we're ready, in 2030 we are ready, at any moment. We are defensive. We will never attack another country, but every adversary knows that if they will try to attack us, we are ready. We will defend ourselves."

Russian fuel shortages bite – but will Putin change tack in Ukraine war?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr7xk8j0j2do, 4 days ago

If you want to get a sense of the fuel crisis gripping Russia, all you need to do is spend a day driving around Moscow. At almost every petrol station we passed there was a queue of cars and lorries. Some lines were long, some short; some static, others moving steadily.

If there was no queue, that meant the garage had run out of fuel entirely and was closed.

Remember: this is Moscow, the wealthy, populated capital that draws in so much of Russia's vast resources. Even here the authorities cannot ensure there is enough petrol and diesel to keep Muscovites on the road.

Yet, in the queues, the mood was more frustrated than angry. Yekaterina told us she was "not happy" and there was "panic because everybody thinks there will be no oil". But it would OK, she said, "we just need to reorganise the oil distribution".

The situation according to Elmar was "very bad" and he complained prices were going up as fuel stocks ran low. "You are wasting hours to fill up," he said. "At the moment I am planning a trip to Dagestan but I don't know if I should drive there or not because there are so many problems with petrol."

I asked him who was to blame. "In our country, you can't say what is to blame and who is to blame," he said, with a knowing smile.

In Russia, criticism of the president, or even the Kremlin, is not something most feel they can do in public.

Valery said it was strange having to queue in a country that extracts so much oil. He blamed the lack of Russian preparedness as much as Ukrainian missiles. "I have no desire to get used to queues," he said. "I hope the situation will change soon and won't be continued."

So the war is coming closer to home for many across Russia.

President Vladimir Putin has worked hard to insulate most people from the consequences of what he calls his special military operation, now well into its fifth year. On the streets of Moscow, one can see little sign of the war, just a few posters about heroic soldiers.

Yet what is harder for the authorities to ignore are the increasing number of Ukrainian drone and missile strikes deep into Russian territory, targeting oil refineries, darkening the skies over Moscow and St Petersburg.

Add to that internet shutdowns restricting the spread of information, and now the fuel shortages.

Russia, one of the world's biggest oil producers, is struggling to refine enough fuel to meet domestic demand.

Andrei was queuing for the first time, with his wife Yekaterina. He blamed what he called "geopolitics" and accepted the situation could get worse.

"We hope that all sides will start moving towards each other and discuss conditions for a peace deal," he said. "But now unfortunately we don't see it from our European partners. So perhaps the situation will only get worse."

He remained phlegmatic: "We survived the 90s. We remember times that were much more difficult. It doesn't scare us."

Social media is awash with images of drivers queuing for petrol. Some tailbacks go on for miles. Posts show fights breaking out.

In the Black Sea resort of Anapa, Cossacks have been deployed to keep order in queues.

Rationing is widespread and many areas have banned the use of jerry cans. One mayor in Siberia is laying on portable toilets for drivers. In some areas bus services and rubbish collections have been reduced. Farmers fear for this summer's harvest.

The anxiety is real and widespread.

But can Nato leaders meeting in Ankara assume this economic turmoil will translate into political pressure on the Kremlin?

That is certainly the hope in Kyiv where strategists are banking on ordinary Russians becoming so exasperated they will urge their leader to bring the war to an end.

The Kremlin is certainly paying attention. Putin is concerned enough to address the fuel shortage publicly on state TV, insisting the Ukrainian attacks are "obviously creating problems" but insisting "it's not critical".

That said, authorities are taking no chances and have already begun increasing fuel imports, subsidising fuel prices and allowing the sale of lower-grade fuel that some fear could damage engines.

Putin and his advisers also know the shortages are shaping public opinion.

The latest poll by independent organisation Levada Center suggests Putin's approval rates are dipping to around 74%. It also suggests the number of Russians who believe the country is heading in the right direction has fallen to just 52%, down from 61% in May.

Polling organisation Gallup suggested last week Russians were more pessimistic about the state of their economy than at any time in the past 20 years, with 60% of respondents saying economic conditions where they lived were getting worse.

Even state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) suggests public trust in Putin fell by 3.4 percentage points to 73% in the space of a week.

Christopher Weafer, head of regional consultancy Macro Advisory, says the fuel crisis may be a "game-changer" for economic growth in Russia. "The costs of the conflict are rising," he says. "While the full impact from the fuel crisis will not be seen in the statistics until July, the likelihood of lasting crisis has significantly dimmed the growth prospects for the remaining part of the year."

But will all this translate into political pressure on the Kremlin to change tack?

Nina Khrushcheva, professor of international affairs at The New School in New York, told the BBC that Putin was unlikely to bend. "The more pressure he feels, the more likely he would act aggressively and repressively," she said. "I think it is serious, but the Western expectation that Russians are going to just take down the regime is very far-fetched."

Russians had been feeling a lot of anger and desperation, but also "a lot of resignation about what's going on", she added. European hopes that they could force Putin to the negotiating table were, she said, a fantasy: "I mean, that doesn't happen."

Instead, all the signs are that Putin is doubling down. Last Friday he was filmed in military fatigues, meeting commanders where he claimed victories on the front line and promised to take yet more territory. "The Russian Armed Forces continue to confidently hold the strategic initiative in the special military operation zone," he declared.

But then Putin told his generals to analyse the involvement of Ukraine's European allies in "real combat actions" that he claims are extending the war. "We need this analysis for taking responsible decisions in the future," he said without expanding.

It is a phrase that has raised eyebrows in diplomatic and military circles.

The question being asked in Western capitals is what Putin might do next. Will he escalate? And if so, how?

Will Le Pen rise again? French nationalist leader defiant after court's ruling

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgdlprp1r3o, 4 days ago

France is waking up bleary-eyed on Wednesday, with many still incredulous at the political uproar triggered by right-wing nationalist figurehead Marine Le Pen the night before.

Within hours of a court of appeal in Paris confirming her guilty verdict for misuse of public funds, she not only defiantly announced she would be running in next year's French presidential election, but she had already launched her social media campaign, too.

Pour la France - For France - reads her online poster, featuring the country's tricolour flag and a smiling Le Pen, her arms outstretched.

"Just like (the actress) Kate Winslet aboard the Titanic," muttered a French journalist I was chatting to. "France feels like the Titanic right now - sinking - at least politically!"

But Le Pen's campaign promises quite the opposite. "La Renaissance" is its subtitle - rebirth.

Le Pen has always claimed to be a woman who listens, a woman of the people. Many in France (as in a lot of European countries) feel disillusioned with politics and traditional politicians. They look at gaping inequalities in society and yearn for change.

Le Pen swims happily in these divided waters. You often hear her talk of "The People" versus the "The Metropolitan Elite" or "The Patriots" - whom, she says, she represents - fighting politically for a France that puts French people first, versus those she dismissively labels "Globalists", including her political nemesis, the current French President Emmanuel Macron.

The name of his political party is Renaissance, by the way. The fact that word features so prominently in Le Pen's new online campaign can be no coincidence. It's a dig at the man who, when he was first elected president almost a decade ago, promised he would ensure no French citizen would ever again feel the need to vote for what he called political extremes.

He made clear that he put Le Pen's National Rally Party in the extremist camp. It's not without some irony that the decisive round in France's presidential election next year could potentially feature Le Pen versus Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the far left in France.

Le Pen lost out twice to Macron in previous presidential elections. He is prevented by law in France from running for a third term, while she has never looked so strong in public opinion polls.

Rebirth is also a pertinent concept when it comes to Le Pen because she has been written off as a career politician a number of times (such as after her car crash televised debate against Macron in the lead-up to the 2017 presidential election) only to come back more powerful.

Her outstretched arms on the social media campaign poster are perhaps supposed to make us think of a phoenix rising from the ashes.

The majority in France had believed the court of appeal would not only reaffirm Le Pen's conviction for embezzlement on Tuesday but also the original sentence condemning her to a five-year ban on running for public office. Many predicted the end of her political career.

In fact, with so much political scrutiny on this case, the appeal court shortened the ban, leaving the decision to Le Pen. It allowed her to campaign for president if she chose, while insisting she wear an electronic tag for a year.

But Le Pen came out swinging on French TV soon after.

"I am running for president," she announced in tones echoing her traditional discourse of standing against the French Establishment. She said she would challenge her guilty verdict and sentence in France's highest court and, before it ruled on her case, she wouldn't be wearing an ankle tag. She insisted the French people would decide who was right and who was wrong.

Critics in France describe her actions as Trumpian. They are certainly a huge gamble.

Le Pen and her legal team are possibly banking on the normally glacial pace the Court of Cassation operates at. If the court decision lands next spring, Le Pen could potentially already be president, granting her immunity for her full five-year term in office.

But the court may speed up proceedings because of the political importance of this case. Le Pen could end up having to wear an electronic tag after all, hampering her movements in the important closing weeks of the presidential campaign and reminding voters of her guilty verdict.

While that's unlikely to deter loyal Le Pen supporters, traditionally conservative voters, whom she so hopes to attract to her ranks, may be put off by the improbity of it all.

"She has been found guilty twice of embezzling €4.1m (£3.5m) in public funds stolen from French taxpayers. And so, she is a criminal. That is the only conclusion one can draw from this court ruling," commented Francois Ruffin, head of the left-leaning Debout! Party on Tuesday. "So, logically, she shouldn't be running in the presidential election."

Who runs, and most importantly, who wins the French presidential election matters, outside the country, as well as in.

France is the EU's second largest economy. It's a nuclear power and a mighty military, by European standards. It's a political heavyweight at a time Europe feels under threat from Russia and China, and increasingly isolated from its former best buddy, the United States.

Le Pen, and her 30-year-old protégé Jordan Bardella, who, if she becomes French president, is her first choice for prime minister, are both Eurosceptics and far from keen on Nato, funding Ukraine militarily or significantly boosting military spending as Macron has promised.

This makes European allies nervous.

The shape of France's political future has an impact way beyond its borders and polls suggest, regardless of the challenges before her, Le Pen has a good chance of becoming president. Though she's no shoo-in.

Presidency bid while continuing court fight a gamble for Le Pen

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cevlm2rlgwmo, 5 days ago

Marine Le Pen's decision to do two things at once is something of a gamble.

The leader of the hard-right National Rally (RN) party is going to run for the French presidency next year, availing herself of the appeal court's decision to effectively remove her bar on public office.

But she is at the same time going to take her case to the French High Court of Appeal, the Court of Cassation.

Le Pen is doing this because she says she is innocent – after two courts now have found her guilty.

She says it is a point of principle. She does not want to present herself before French voters as a person with a criminal conviction.

By going to Cassation, her conviction is suspended and she is presumed innocent.

However the risk is this.

Had she accepted the appeal court's decision on Tuesday, it could have been interpreted as her admitting her guilt – something her opponents would have made much of during the election.

But it would also have probably meant Le Pen could conduct a normal campaign.

True, she was obliged to wear an electronic ankle tag for a year as part of the appeal court sentence. But with good behaviour and regular sentence reduction this could have been brought down to a few months – in time for the campaign proper in 2027.

But by going to Cassation, that is all put on hold. She has no electronic ankle tag now.

But should France's highest court accelerate its deliberations, and rule, say in January, that it upholds the appeal court's verdict, then she would be made to serve that part of her sentence straight away – forced to wear a tag just as her campaign was kicking off.

What may be happening here is lawyers for Le Pen's RN party reckon they can string the appeal out for many months – so it rules after the election.

In that case, if Le Pen has been elected head of state, she will be immune and not have to wear the electronic tag until she leaves office. Job done.

But that is banking on the court moving at its usual glacial pace. What if the judges there feel they are being manipulated by the RN?

They might choose to push for a quick decision – and land her in something of a difficult spot.

Thousands attend Orange Order parade in Rossnowlagh

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4ex3kngjpo, today

The annual Orange Order parade in Rossnowlagh has taken place in County Donegal.

Large crowds visited the seaside village for the demonstration which attracts visitors from across the island.

The Grand Master in Donegal David Mahon said there were stalls and food on offer and "a very relaxed atmosphere".

"It's always a carnival type of day with lots of families here enjoying a really good time," he added.

The Rossnowlagh demonstration always takes place each year on the Saturday before the main Twelfth of July commemorations in Northern Ireland.

The Twelfth commemorates the Battle of the Boyne, when Protestant William of Orange defeated Catholic King James II in 1690.

Lodges from across Donegal, Cavan, Leitrim and Monaghan are taking part.

"It's very important because it's part of our culture and part of our faith.

"We welcome everyone here from across the community," Mahon said.

The grand master said the Orange Order in Donegal always had a good relationship with its Catholic neighbours.

"That's in terms of co-operation and some of them would be ringing us to see if we need the fields or land again for car parking or whatever."

Gardaí (Irish police) are visible, mainly for traffic duties during a busy parading day.

Mahon said the order was going from strength to strength in the county.

'The sun is shining'

Lorna Walker, from Randalstown in County Antrim, said:"I always love coming to this annual parade every year. I like supporting the lodges in County Donegal.

"Today the weather is going to make it as the sun is shining from early morning. Let's hope everyone has an enjoyable day."

Samantha Bates said: "We're from Lisnaskea in Fermanagh and we enjoy it and love it every year.

"This is the first year our boys Matthew (13) and Jacob (7) are on parade with Cornafanog flute band so they are very excited and we are very proud as a family."

The photo that shows who's really on top in Le Pen's party

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn7558gdvjro, yesterday

A stern-looking Jordan Bardella squinted in the sun as a reporter asked him whether he was relieved or disappointed that he would not be the 2027 presidential candidate for the National Rally (RN).

"Neither," he said in a flat voice during a campaign event in the village of La Flèche. "I am glad Marine can represent us. We will work together hand in hand like we've always done."

The previous evening his mentor Marine Le Pen announced she would run for the presidency next year, and not him. In the space of 20 minutes on primetime TV on Tuesday, she put an end to the prospect of handing the party's candidacy to her protege.

Thirty-year-old Bardella has had a dizzying career up the RN ranks, but he was always measured about his prospects of becoming president.

"I want Marine to be the candidate," he had said repeatedly, making it clear he would stand only if an appeal court confirmed she was barred from running for office over a fake jobs scam.

But as party president he had been growing into the role of stand-in candidate - even going on a statesman-like visit to Poland last month. As the date of Le Pen's appeal verdict drew near he appeared increasingly excited to launch his own presidential campaign.

Instead, on Tuesday, a Paris court ended her ban on holding public office and said she should wear an electronic tag for a year. That evening Le Pen announced she and Bardella would run together as "a winning ticket". She would be president, and he prime minister.

But that is not how France's political system works.

France's next parliamentary election is not due until 2029. It is possible a victorious Le Pen could trigger a snap election soon after taking up the post of president and make Bardella prime minister - but there is no guarantee this might happen quickly.

So Bardella is left waiting.

Many National Rally supporters will be relieved Le Pen is running instead. She has made politics her life, has already run three presidential campaigns, and her decision has boosted her lead in the polls.

Bardella's age and lack of experience, many feared, would have come under close scrutiny and could have become a liability.

Still, Bardella's body language at Wednesday's campaign event in the north-west was telling.

While Le Pen beamed at the cameras, brushing off suggestions her deputy would mind being sidelined and insisting "our personal ambitions are absolutely irrelevant", he barely reacted and scarcely smiled.

The speedy climb in National Rally ranks that has characterised his political career seems to have stalled.

Had he been allowed to run, with his party's sizeable lead in the polls and his own strong approval ratings, by spring 2027 he could have succeeded Emmanuel Macron as France's youngest president – and the first hard-right head of state in modern French history.

Born in 1995, Bardella was brought up by his Italian-born single mother, Luisa, on the outskirts of Paris.

Although he has often said she struggled to make ends meet, his father Olivier, also of Italian origin, ran a drinks distribution business and lived in the more affluent town of Montmorency. That detail undercuts the hard-luck narrative surrounding Bardella's early years which he would later use to appeal to a wider electorate.

Neither parent was particularly political and, according to an interview a friend from his teenage years gave to Le Monde, nor was the young Bardella, preferring to spend time on his PlayStation and streaming his Call of Duty sessions on a YouTube channel called Jordan9320.

Yet when he decided to join the far-right National Front as a 17-year-old in 2012, he climbed the ranks quickly. He was made local departmental secretary at 19 and regional councillor for the Paris region at 20. Along the way, he dropped out of university to focus on his political career.

Bardella would later attribute his initial decision to join the party to a fascination with Marine Le Pen, who had taken the reins of the party from her father Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2011 and was working to turn it from a fringe, extremist movement into a respectable political force.

"There's something about her that others don't have," Bardella said in 2021. "She has a character, an energy... a courage that speak to me."

That interest was reciprocated.

Early on, he entered the RN's inner circle through his relationship with the daughter of an old National Front hand, Frederic Chatillon; by 2017, Le Pen had named Bardella party spokesman. Around the same time, Bardella started dating Le Pen's niece, Nolwenn.

Two years later he became the European Parliament's second-youngest MEP, and at 27 – already one of the party's most visible figures – he was elected National Rally president.

In 2024, it looked like Bardella would make another leap ahead. National Rally emerged with 33% of the vote in the first round of snap parliamentary elections, bringing him within touching distance of becoming prime minister. Eventually, a centre-left alliance won the second round.

But in the two years since, Bardella's popularity has remained solid. In early July, his approval rating was at 40%; Marine Le Pen's has remained stable at 39%.

Bardella's appeal has always been, in great part, his capacity to appeal to a large part of the electorate.

He speaks to the youth vote through his social media channels, where he has two million followers.

His relationship with Italian socialite Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies has given him a glamorous edge, but he frequently references his modest upbringing.

His politics broadly follow Le Pen's talking points - a standard anti-immigration stance and populist rhetoric.

Mass immigration was "shaking the balance of European countries, of Western societies, and namely French society", Bardella told the BBC, and he said his first move as president would be to trigger a referendum on immigration to "allow France to take back control of [its] borders".

In a nod to business leaders, he has promised to shield entrepreneurs "from an unbearable fiscal and regulatory straitjacket".

He pleases Eurosceptics, sayings he wants to renegotiate France's membership of the EU, viewing it as "profoundly old-fashioned" and "obsolete", and he has even suggested halving France's contribution to the EU budget.

But he insists he is not looking to "destroy anything", reassuring more cautious voters.

His chameleon-like qualities have led some to call Bardella an "incredible blank canvas" upon which RN voters can project their ideal candidate. But he is also "a huge question mark", Lecturer Pierre-Henri Tavoillot says. His true ideological make-up "is unclear... and his smooth image allows him to cast a wide net".

In the year he spent acting as Le Pen's Plan B, most of his focus was on domestic politics.

But he has talked of looking at France leaving Nato's integrated command, after the end of the Ukraine war, and has condemned Macron's proposal to extend France's nuclear deterrence to European allies as a potential "national betrayal".

He has also been building ties with Europe's nationalist right - from Giorgia Meloni to Poland's PiS - while distancing himself from US President Donald Trump, whom he has called "erratic".

For a year, he had to pull off a delicate balancing act ahead of the Le Pen appeal verdict: to appear as both poised for the presidency and prepared to make way if Le Pen was ultimately allowed to run.

He spoke of being "calm and ready to accept the consequences".

Now the decision has been made for him, all Jordan Bardella can do is allow his mentor and maker to return to the spotlight she feared would never be hers again.

Mexico to press for criminal charges over deaths in US custody

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c802431ppreo, 3 days ago

The Mexican government says it will file criminal complaints in the United States over the deaths of more than a dozen of its citizens in US custody.

Mexican Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco told journalists that the government would take "forceful legal action" to protect the human rights of Mexican citizens in the US.

He said that 14 Mexicans had died while in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and another three during ICE "arrest operations".

The incidents have not just caused outrage in Mexico. On Wednesday, more than a thousand people protested in Houston, where an ICE officer had shot dead Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo the day before.

Salgado, 52, had been working as a builder for three decades in the Houston area after coming to the US as an undocumented migrant, his son said.

Ronaldo Salgado told journalists that his father "did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of 'Mexican man shot and killed by ICE'".

His family said Lorenzo Salgado had been on his way to work when he was shot by an ICE agent.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement published on X, that "ICE law enforcement attempted to conduct a vehicle stop as part of a targeted enforcement operation to arrest an illegal alien".

In the statement, DHS alleged that Salgado had "attempted to evade arrest".

"From information we are receiving, he rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands, and weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defence," the statement reads.

Four members of the US Congress have demanded a fully independent and transparent investigation into Salgado's death.

The four Democratic lawmakers wrote in a letter to the DHS that Tuesday's incident was "not the first time ICE agents have used unnecessary, deadly force".

They urged the secretary of Homeland Security to not forget the cases of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two US citizens killed by federal agents in Minneapolis in January, sparking nationwide protests.

Referring to Salgado's shooting on Tuesday, the Democrats wrote that "instead of answers and accountability, DHS and ICE released a statement echoing the same stories we have heard before, claiming an evasion of arrest, weaponisation of a vehicle, and that the fatal shooting was a result of self-defense".

Since the fatal shooting of Salgado, the Mexican government has been expressing its frustration with the Trump administration.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday that it was time to "go further than diplomatic notes".

Velasco said that he had been instructed directly by Sheinbaum to file the complaints and that their aim was to have the deaths of Mexicans in ICE custody or operations investigated "as criminal matters".

According to the minister, the Mexican government also plans to launch civil cases against companies which manage US detentions centres where 14 of its nationals died.

More than 1,000 arrested as part of global human trafficking crackdown

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yzzzdwqjko, 6 days ago

More than 1,000 people have been arrested as part of a global crackdown on human trafficking spanning 59 countries.

Coordinated by Interpol, Operation Global Chain saw officers target trafficking for sexual exploitation, forced labour and criminality, and coerced begging.

A network that was trafficking victims into online scamming in Cambodia, and a network forcing underage girls recruited via social media into sex work in Europe were dismantled as part of the operation, authorities said.

In total, 2,070 victims or potential victims were identified, the vast majority of whom authorities said were women. Of the arrests, 334 were for human trafficking and 690 for associated crimes.

Interpol, which coordinated the effort alongside the EU's agency for law enforcement cooperation Europol and European border agency Frontex, said the operation's findings had exposed evolving trafficking routes and methods.

It found an emerging trend of Latin American victims being trafficked for forced labour in Europe, with about 10% of identified victims being minors from the Americas who were subjected to sexual exploitation.

As part of the operation, authorities in Colombia launched an airport prevention campaign to raise awareness about the risks of fraudulent job offers abroad.

Interpol said Brazil's Federal Police had identified 406 victims - 83 Brazilians and 323 foreign nationals - of a transnational network trafficking victims to Cambodia where they were forced into online scamming.

Interpol notices have been issued targeting wanted suspects and persons of interest.

It also said two Bolivian child victims who were forced to work in a grocery store were rescued by Argentinian police, with arrests made.

Separately, Belgian authorities arrested 17 suspects after dismantling a trafficking network that allegedly held victims recruited via social media captive, and forced them into prostitution rings across Belgium and France.

The operation, which took place between 8 and 12 June, was conducted by 40,000 officers across countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe.

It found that most of the victims were trafficked for sexual exploitation, while 20% were forced into criminality, 11% were forced into labour and 2% into forced begging.

Interpol said victims identified during the operation had been referred to national protection and support services, while 465 investigations had been launched as a result.

An additional 201 suspects were also identified in the operation. Countries including the UK, the US, France, Germany, Spain, Nigeria, Thailand and Vietnam took part in the operation.

Interpol Secretary Valdecy Urquiza said human trafficking remained "one of the most profitable and pervasive forms" of organised crimes, generating billions in illicit revenue each year.

He added that the crime caused "severe and lasting harm to victims", saying the operation's results "demonstrate what can be achieved when countries work together to disrupt criminal networks and strengthen cooperation across regions".

'I ate ketchup and cheese,' says Venezuelan girl trapped under quake rubble for 32 hours

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9922x87nj8o, 6 days ago

Karina Blanco was just about to start the spinning class she teaches when the earth began to shake. The tremors kept getting stronger, so she grabbed her bag and ran outdoors with everyone else.

"When I realised the magnitude of it, I started screaming 'my daughter, my daughter'. I sat in my car and drove as fast as I could," said Karina.

Her only daughter, Fabiana, 12, was at their home when two powerful earthquakes rocked Venezuela within seconds of each other on 24 June. The second quake was one of the strongest tremors to hit the country in a century, at a magnitude of 7.5.

When Karina reached her building in Caraballeda, in northern La Guaira state, she could hardly believe her eyes. "I could see one building, then a gap where my building stood, and then another building."

Inside their first-floor flat in the 10-storey building, Fabiana was in her mother's bedroom when she felt the earthquakes. She ran into the kitchen, and was holding on to the counter, when the walls around her collapsed. She was thrown to the ground.

"I saw things shaking, falling, breaking, and then the walls cracked. The wall separating my apartment from a friend's collapsed. At that moment, I thought, 'I'm going to die. I won't survive this. No-one is going to rescue me,'" said Fabiana.

From then began an excruciating 32 hours.

Outside the collapsed building, Karina saw half of her daughter's bed sticking out of the debris.

"I was running from one end of the complex to the other screaming 'She's dead. My daughter is dead'. I didn't know what to do," said Karina.

Under the collapsed building everything had gone quiet for Fabiana. She was lying face up, trapped by rubble on all sides, with the ceiling almost touching her face.

"I'm someone who gets very anxious and claustrophobic. But I don't know why, a strange calm came over me. Maybe my mind was in shock," she said.

A little while later, a nurse who worked as a carer for her upstairs neighbours started calling out to see if anyone could hear her. Fabiana responded.

"She told me to stay calm and that everything would be alright," said Fabiana.

Six hours after the earthquake, at around midnight, the nurse was rescued. She told the volunteers who pulled her out that a girl named Fabiana was alive inside.

"I had surrendered to God asking for strength to begin a new life without Fabiana. And then someone told me, 'Your daughter is alive'," said Karina.

She ran back to the building screaming into gaps in the debris, calling out her daughter's name.

Through the pile of rubble, Fabiana could hear nothing.

"For some reason, I had hope and faith," she said. "One of my legs was bent in a painful position, and I moved some of the rubble so I could straighten it out. While doing that I got scrapes and cuts, but I found a bottle of ketchup and some grated cheese. That's what kept me conscious."

At dawn a group of Venezuelan firefighters came to the building. They went into the rubble and called out for Fabiana, but they heard nothing in response.

It was one of many moments that Karina swung from hope to despair.

"They told me nothing could be done, and they left. I had a sinking thought that maybe she had suffocated to death or had suffered a heart attack. Then a volunteer came up to me and asked me what was going on. He - Viktor - was my hero," she said.

Under the rubble Fabiana found her phone. There was no signal as mobile phone networks had gone down, but she decided to record a video of herself. She thought she would eventually be able to send it to her mother or someone who could help.

"Apartment - Ritamar Palace. There was a tremor and lot of rubble has fallen. There is no light. There is no-one to rescue us. I am alone. Many neighbours are trapped in the rubble. We need your help," Fabiana can be seen saying in the video.

Meanwhile Viktor had clambered up the debris and began calling out to Fabiana. This time she heard him and replied. He told Karina.

"I turned to everyone and screamed, 'my daughter is alive'," said Karina. "People started arriving in droves, they started bringing tools. But the firefighters who were there said it was impossible to get through, and they left."

A few hours later another group of firefighters arrived. They assured her they would bring Fabiana out. But they couldn't manage to reach her, either.

Meanwhile, Viktor - the volunteer - kept going back to the spot from where he could speak to Fabiana to reassure her.

The firefighters called for a rescue group from Caracas - but by the time they arrived, it had become dark.

Karina ran around looking for torches and begged people to help. Seven motorcycles and a couple of cars pointed their headlights at the collapsed building.

Bit by bit they chiselled away, and finally they made a hole large enough that they could see Fabiana.

The video of this moment - of a smiling Fabiana peering through the hole - has gone viral in Venezuela.

"After so many hours of being shut in, I was filled with joy when I saw them. I realised I was going to be rescued," said Fabiana.

At around 02:00 local time on Friday - 32 hours after the earthquakes struck - they managed to dig a tunnel wide enough to pull Fabiana out. She walked out of the debris with the support of the rescuers and collapsed into the arms of her mother.

"When I came out, I saw my family, I saw the building completely collapsed, and it felt like it wasn't real, like it was a TV series," said Fabiana.

Karina says that of the nearly 50 people who lived in her building, only three were rescued alive.

As of Sunday, 3,342 people were confirmed to have died in the quakes, with tens of thousands still missing.

Apart from a fracture in her left foot and a few scrapes and bruises, Fabiana suffered no other injuries.

She is now living with her grandmother.

"Initially I was scared to lie down, especially on my back, as I would remember the time I spent in the rubble," she said.

In the streets just outside their current home in La Guaira, there are many collapsed buildings.

"There is a great sadness outside of this house. I feel so much pain when I think of my neighbours and my friends. It will take us a while to recover. But we will move on," said Karina. "What more can a mother want? My daughter is alive."

Additional reporting by Aakriti Thapar, Yesman Utrera, Maria Ines Calderon, Sanjay Ganguly

Small plane crash in Bahamas kills 10 people

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg47lz10p7o, yesterday

Nine passengers and a pilot have died in a small plane crash in the Bahamas, officials said.

The light aircraft was making a short trip from Lynden Pindling International Airport, near capital Nassau, to San Andros Airport when it "reportedly encountered difficulties" and crashed into bushes prior to landing, the country's Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority said in a statement.

The fatal crash occurred on the day of the Bahamas' 53rd independence anniversary.

"Today is a day of celebration but it has become a ⁠day of mourning," Prime Minister Philip Davis told a media conference.

He added: "Once again, a chapter in our nation's story has been marked by tragedy."

Davis initially said there was one survivor, although he confirmed hours later that the person had died from their injuries.

The details of the people on board, including their age and names, have not been released.

The Cessna 402 aircraft was operated by Flamingo Air, ⁠a Bahamas-based airline. The Ministry of Aviation said it was temporarily suspending the airline's air operator certificate "as a precautionary safety ⁠measure."

The grounding measure "should not be treated as an adverse compliance action against Flamingo Air," the ministry said.

It noted there had been "two safety incidents" that had occurred on Friday.

Aviation Minister JoBeth Coleby-Davis told reporters a plane had earlier routed back to Nassau when the pilot reported an issue. A fire broke out on board once the aircraft landed and passengers had disembarked, the BBC's US partner CBS News reported.

The BBC has contacted Flamingo Air for comment.

In remarks to local media, the airline said: "At this time, the details are being gathered, and we are committed to cooperating with the relevant authorities."

Cubans protest after third nationwide power cut this year

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm20g0d3ry4o, 4 days ago

Cubans in several locations on the island banged pots on Tuesday evening to express their anger about the latest nationwide power cut.

While public dissent in the Communist-run country is often punished with long prison sentences, there have been spontaneous protests in areas worst affected by the outages.

Fuel shortages have been exacerbated by tight US sanctions and an effective US oil blockade, meaning that even those who have generators often do not have the fuel to run them during power cuts.

Cuban officials said on Tuesday that most of the country had had power restored but locals shouted "turn on the lights!" in areas still in the dark.

Monday's nationwide outage was the third this year and comes on top of state-imposed rolling electricity cuts aimed at conserving the little remaining fuel.

Some rural areas are plunged into darkness for up to 70 hours at a time, while urban areas have seen planned outages of up to 30 hours.

The state electricity company did not say what had caused this latest unplanned incident.

The country's second-largest city, Santiago de Cuba, was among places where power had not yet been restored on Tuesday evening local time.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has acknowledged the spreading discontent among Cubans.

"There are shortages of transport, food, medicines, there are lengthy power cuts lasting more than 20 hours, that causes dissatisfaction, nobody can be happy, the people are suffering," he told reporters from Claridad, a Spanish-language weekly newspaper based in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

But he urged Cubans to direct their anger towards the US government instead of his, adding: "People bang pots, some with more anger than others. I say: direct your pot-banging towards our northern neighbours, who are the ones behind these power cuts."

The US Ambassador to the United Nations, Michael Waltz, however, placed the blame squarely with the Cuban government.

Speaking at a meeting of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, he urged it to "change your ways and turn the lights back on for your people".

He added that "there always seems to be enough power for the Cuban dictatorship".

But Cuba's foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, accused the US of waging "multi-dimensional, non-conventional warfare" against Cuba, which he said had "become ever more cruel" over the last seven months.

US-Cuban relations, which have been strained for decades, have deteriorated rapidly since the start of the year, when US President Donald Trump accused the island's government of posing a threat to the national security of the US.

Shortly after US forces seized former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro - a close ally of the Cuban government - in January, Trump also openly mused that Cuba was "ready to fall".

Since then, the Trump administration has imposed fresh sanctions on Cuba as well as an effective blockade on oil shipments to Cuba, threatening to slap tariffs on countries which provide it with fuel.

The US has also levelled murder charges against Cuba's former president, Raúl Castro, who remains an influential figure on the island despite being 95 years old.

Despite trading barbs publicly, the two countries have been holding talks over recent weeks in private.

The Cuban foreign minister said on Tuesday that those talks "show no progress", but left the door open "to dialogue based on mutual respect and non-interference in Cuba's internal affairs".

Venezuela quake survivor pulled out alive after eight days

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce375v12z0qo, 9 days ago

A man has been rescued alive after being trapped for eight days in the rubble of a building that collapsed after twin earthquakes in Venezuela.

Emergency workers managed to free Hernán Gil more than 100 hours after they had first located him under 140 tonnes of rubble.

Venezuela's Acting President Delcy Rodríguez visited Gil in hospital on Thursday, calling him a "living miracle" in a video shared on social media.

As of Thursday evening, 2,595 people are confirmed to have died in the quakes which hit Venezuela on 24 June, and tens of thousands are still missing.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Rodríguez called the earthquakes "a natural tragedy on a scale we never imagined".

She rejected criticism that her government had reacted too slowly, saying that thousands of officials had been deployed after the quakes.

"We've done everything in our power, and we'll continue to do everything in our power and more," Rodríguez told journalists.

A Chilean firefighter had earlier described the operation to rescue Gil as "without doubt the most complex and technically difficult which I've had to tackle".

Allan Madrigal, a paramedic with the Costa Rican Red Cross, told journalists at the site that Gil had "emerged just perfect" from the ordeal.

Madrigal is the rescuer who heard Gil's faint cries for help emerging from the rubble on Sunday.

"It was an emotional moment," he recalled, explaining that at first he had not trusted his own ears and asked a colleague to confirm that he "wasn't just imagining it".

From that moment on, rescuers raced to try and dig the security guard out.

Gil had been on duty in a small concrete booth in the basement of the parking lot adjacent to the Galerias Playa Grande mall in Catia La Mar when the twin quakes struck.

It appears that the booth created a shell around him, protecting him from the 140 tonnes of rubble which collapsed around and on top of him.

"He has told us that he does not even have a crushed nail," another Costa Rican Red Cross worker said shortly before Gil was pulled from the rubble.

Gil had been given water and medics had attached him to an intravenous drip while teams from Venezuela, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Portugal and the United States worked to free him.

Parts of the access ducts rescuers built to reach him collapsed several times, highlighting the dangers the work posed to the rescuers as well as Gil.

Overnight, the search teams were finally able to establish visual contact with the survivor.

In footage recorded by a small camera inserted into the rubble where Gil was trapped, a Chilean firefighter could be heard asking him to turn his head towards the camera.

One of his eyes was bloodshot and he was wearing a face mask, which rescuers had earlier passed to him through a small hole to protect him from the dust and debris created by their efforts to free him.

The firefighter also asked him to don goggles to protect his eyes as rescuers continued to carefully dig away at the rubble surrounding him.

Marco Antonio Franco from the Mexican Red Cross described Gil as "a cheerful man".

He told Mexican news site Milenio that the survivor "even asked for hydration drinks of specific flavours he likes", adding that "of course we indulged him".

"He himself drives us on, telling us to carry on. He recognises our team members, saying 'how nice that you came back and that you're with me again'."

According to Franco, the rescuers and Gil kept up a steady chatter about his family and about the challenging rescue.

Madrigal, the paramedic who located Gil, was on his first international rescue mission and said the work he had carried out in Venezuela had changed him.

"The lad who came here a week ago is not the same one that will return to Costa Rica, believe me," he told reporters.

The US deported them to Venezuela - hours later earthquakes struck

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3eyxjy01y3o, 10 days ago

Venezuela native Abelardo Rincón built a life for six years in the US state of Georgia - working in a car dealership, marrying and looking forward to the upcoming birth of his daughter - before US authorities detained him amid President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

The 23-year-old's bereft parents and pregnant wife waited for any and all news while he was held by American authorities, before he was put on a deportation flight to his homeland last month alongside more than 140 other Venezuelans.

He landed on 24 June and while still in custody, called his family back in Atlanta.

He and other deportees were being housed in a hotel near the coast.

Just hours later, twin earthquakes hit the country - killing at least 2,200 people, injuring more than 10,000 and, according to UN figures, leaving 50,000 missing.

Rincón, along with a number of fellow deportees from Flight 164, was among those missing.

And their devastated families were left to desperately search for any word about their loved ones - all after struggling to process the quick succession of arrest, detention, deportation, repatriation and, then, natural disaster.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees US immigration enforcement agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), shared a statement, but offered no details on the case when asked by the BBC.

"This flight safely reached Venezuela and all illegal aliens on board were returned home," a DHS spokesperson told BBC on Tuesday. "When an individual is no longer in ICE custody, ICE is no longer responsible for them."

As part of its campaign of mass deportations, the Trump administration has detained and deported thousands of migrants who entered the US illegally, while millions of others have left voluntarily, according to US officials.

Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced in February that, over the previous 13 months, "nearly 3 million illegal aliens have left the US … including an estimated 2.2 million self-deportations and more than 713,000 deportations."

Venezuelan authorities housed last week's deportation-flight passengers - reportedly including 19 women and seven children - in Hotel Santuario La Llanada in the city of La Guaira after they underwent medical exams and received documentation. The area has been particularly hard hit with widespread damage and collapsed buildings.

The Venezuelan government has posted numbers for the general public to call, but information has been limited in the wake of such a devastating national disaster.

Many flight passengers like Rincón had contacted family to let them know they were back in Venezuela - right before the earthquakes hit.

Rincón's grandfather, Jose Rincón, told BBC Mundo that he viewed at least 200 bodies, including at a morgue in Caracas, searching for his 23-year-old grandson.

He even tried unsuccessfully to visit the remnants of the destroyed hotel, where his grandson and the other deportees were staying.

Access was blocked by Venezuelan authorities, who told the grandfather there was "no life" at the site.

"If we could just see what we need to see - if I could see the rubble, I'd be satisfied - but days have gone by and I still haven't found him, alive or dead... So what am I supposed to do?" Rincón told the BBC.

Darwin Eliecer Serrano Lopez, 35, called a cousin at 17:32 local time to say he'd returned home after four years of living in the US. The first quake struck barely half an hour later.

"We drove all night," said his cousin, Paola Chacón, whose brother had received the phone call first alerting the family that Serrano Lopez had returned to Venezuela.

Lopez had been originally detained in Chicago, then held in four detention centres before US authorities put him on the flight out of the country, relatives said.

Chacón resigned herself to the belief that her cousin was dead, she told BBC Mundo on Monday - with the family searching for nearly a week without any sign of him.

"So many days have passed… we aren't getting any answers," she said.

But "we are going to stay here until we can take [Darwin's body] home", she added.

The family of flight passenger Daniel Alejandro Nunez, 28 - who'd also called his mother upon returning to Venezuela while still in state custody - was struggling to make sense of conflicting reports, too.

"We've searched for him in hospitals, in morgues – everywhere," his stepfather, Jose Alejandro Abache, told BBC Mundo.

For families already separated for years by immigration status, the potential loss of their loved ones - immediately following their involuntary return - has been unimaginable.

Mildrey Sarazo, wife of Darwin Serrano Lopez, hadn't seen her husband in three years - and on Monday still had not told their daughters, aged nine and 15, about any of this.

She, too, was waiting for proof - and for the body of her husband who "didn't want to come back yet" from the US.

"We want to bury our relatives," she said, adding: "We want them to hand him over so we can identify him and be certain."

Other Flight 164 passengers, however, survived the hotel collapse and were stunned by the series of events that left them climbing out of rubble in a country they thought they'd left far behind.

Lisbeth Portillo, 58, was lying on a bed in a second-floor room shared with 16 other women when the building crumbled.

"I saw the woman next to me start to fall… they were all screaming for help," she told the Associated Press news agency.

"I was born again - God gave me a second chance."

Days went by before some families received word that relatives had made it out alive.

Relatives found Anderson Daniel Salcedo, 22, at Caracas's university hospital and alerted his mother, who immediately travelled to the Venezuelan capital, Reuters reported, only to find they had already amputated his legs.

Salcedo had lived in the US for three years, sending money home, before he was put on Flight 164 - then trapped under rubble for nearly two days.

"He spent 40 hours in that hole, he didn't have an ID, they couldn't account for him because he had no documents," his grandmother, Marlene Lozano, told Reuters.

"We had no way to communicate with him and didn't know anything."

"Here we are praying, asking God to give him strength and courage," Lozano added. "We know he won't be the same anymore - he's missing his legs - but we love him, just the way he is."

Why the expected fight over the North American trade deal never kicked off

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70yd58y27yo, 10 days ago

For months, policymakers, businesses and trade watchers in Washington had been bracing for a turbulent spring and summer around the future of the USMCA, the trade pact binding the United States, Canada and Mexico.

But, to quote former UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, "Events, dear boy, events." The war with Iran has dominated Washington's attention, stripping away much of the political heat that was expected to surround the pact's renewal.

Instead of a noisy fight over the agreement's future, the USMCA has slipped into the background. The Iran conflict has absorbed the White House's attention and, in practical terms, has become one of the best developments for keeping the trade pact out of the headlines.

Earlier this year, there were concerns the US might use the renewal window to force a confrontation with Canada and Mexico, or even threaten withdrawal. President Trump had already cooled on the deal he once signed, raising questions about how aggressively Washington would approach the next phase.

But with foreign policy dominating the administration's agenda, the US has taken a more measured approach. It has confirmed it will not extend the agreement for another 16 years, while stopping short of more dramatic action.

Part of that restraint reflects a belief inside the administration that the trade relationship has already been reshaped.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer argues the White House's tariff strategy has fundamentally altered North America's economic ties, changing the balance with Canada and Mexico in ways that make a more confrontational approach unnecessary. But if trade does become more politically driven, the US auto industry could be the biggest loser.

The timing is significant. Washington's effort to recalibrate its relationship with China depends in part on closer co-operation with its two largest trading partners. Introducing uncertainty into North America's economic framework risks undermining that strategy.

As Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's former ambassador to the US, put it, in World Cup terms it would be "a huge own goal".

As a result, the 1 July virtual meeting between the three countries, once seen as a potential flashpoint, proved subdued.

The US has begun formal talks with Mexico and remains in contact with Canadian officials, suggesting negotiations are proceeding without the expected political drama. And with midterm elections approaching, analysts expect that calmer tone to continue.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has said that he won't rush to sign a bad agreement - but is ready to cut a deal if the right one arises.

US-Canada Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said on Thursday that Ottawa's focus was now on "substantive discussions" over current US tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminium, autos and lumber.

While the USMCA has sheltered much of the continental trade from Trump's tariffs, those sectors in Canada are struggling under US levies ranging from 10% to 50% on select sectors.

The decision not to renew the pact now starts a 10-year countdown. If no extension is agreed by then, the USMCA will expire. For now, however, annual reviews and steady diplomacy have replaced the brinkmanship many once expected.

Aunt of Venezuelan boy pulled from rubble tells BBC she will give him 'mother's warmth'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c05yv34qlnlo, 11 days ago

The aunt of a two-year-old boy who was rescued after six days under rubble in Venezuela has spoken to the BBC of her elation at being reunited with her nephew and her hopes that his parents might still be found.

Kleiber Moran was pulled from the rubble of his home in Venezuela's northern La Guaira state by Jordanian rescuers early on Tuesday.

Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodríguez has described the rescue as a "source of hope for our people" as the death toll from two major earthquakes last Wednesday continues to rise.

The boy's aunt, 23-year-old Andreína Sarmiento, told the BBC she would "take care of Kleiber with a mother's warmth until my sister appears, which is what we long for".

"I'm praying a lot to God to give me strength because he is only two years old and I am not a mother," she said, sitting at Kleiber's bedside and holding his hand in a hospital in the capital Caracas.

"It hurts me a lot because my sister always used to tell me that he is my son, and now it's like she's handing him over to me and saying 'this is your son, he is your responsibility,'" she said.

When a friend phoned Andreína from La Guaira to tell her of Kleiber's rescue she fell to the floor and screamed and wept, before heading to meet him.

She said rescuers from the UK had also tried to reach him before the Jordanian team's efforts were successful.

When the two were reunited, Kleiber looked at Andreína and immediately said "she Auntie".

Andreína said Kleiber was in a "state of shock, screaming and screaming" when he arrived at the hospital. But he slept through the night and by Wednesday "he had stabilised".

She said that "today he's giving me little kisses, he talks to me, he tells me where it hurts".

As she spoke, Kleiber lay next to her, wrapped in a Spiderman blanket and surrounded by toys, pushing a small car around the bed. He was in a ward with other children who had also survived the earthquakes.

"He doesn't even have a single fracture. Everything is very good. All he has are some scratches here on his arms and on his legs, but nothing more," Andreína told the BBC with a broad smile.

But while she is elated at being reunited with her nephew, Andreína said "it hurts because I can't find my sister".

She said she and 31-year-old Ana Luz were extremely close and would talk every day on video calls. Her sister always had Kleiber by her side.

"Wherever she went, her son went too. Whatever Kleiber wanted, she would please him. If she didn't have money, she would call me: 'Kleiber wants this' or 'he's missing this,'" Andreína said.

"She is my older sister and I always trusted her and could tell her my problems and whenever I spoke to her on a video call, the child was by her side."

Andreína said she was certain that her sister would have been next to Kleiber in the rubble.

As she sat with her nephew in hospital, desperate search and rescue efforts were continuing after the earthquakes.

Some 2,295 deaths have been officially recorded, but the final toll is expected to be many times higher. Tens of thousands have been reported missing, and the United Nations has said it is procuring 10,000 body bags for the country.

Andreína said she had not lost hope that Kleiber's parents would be rescued.

"Just as they found my nephew, I have faith that they are going to find my sister and my brother-in-law," she said.

Looking affectionately at Kleiber, she said she believed "he has a purpose in the world".

"When this child grows up, God willing, this will be his story," she said.

Additional reporting by Euridice Ledezma

Venezuela earthquakes in maps and graphics - where they hit and how severe they could be

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czx5k8pxdevo, 6 days ago

Two strong earthquakes that struck Venezuela within seconds of one another caused widespread damage to homes and buildings in several parts of the country, the deaths of at least 2,600 people and left thousands more injured.

The first earthquake - with a magnitude of 7.2 - struck at 18:04 local time (22:04 GMT) on 24 June 23km south-east of Yumare, a town to the west of the capital, Caracas, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

The second 7.5-magnitude quake hit in a similar location just 38 seconds later.

The shaking, particularly from the second quake, caused buildings in Caracas and the nearby seaside city of La Guaira to be damaged or completely collapse.

Venezuela's interior minister said the states of Trujillo, Yaracuy, Carabobo, Aragua and Miranda had also been affected.

The country's main international airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, was closed due to serious damage, the Latin American nation's interim President Delcy Rodríguez said.

Video from inside the terminal shows dust and debris falling from the ceiling.

The BBC has verified footage of a 10-storey hotel in La Guaira that has been reduced to rubble.

Only the entrance to Eduard's Hotel can be seen standing, with the debris of the rest of the structure piled on top of it.

Preliminary analysis of Sentinel-1 satellite imagery from the European Space Agency taken after the earthquakes suggests an estimated 80% of buildings - about 58,870 - were likely to have been damaged or destroyed in the affected region.

For this assessment, the study's authors define "damage" as a change in a building's condition compared with its state before the earthquakes, Nasa told BBC Mundo.

However, they warn that the map is an indicator of damage based on "abrupt surface changes consistent with damage", rather than a building-by-building verification, because the data have not been verified on the ground.

It's not just the magnitude of the earthquake that has a bearing on its destructive power, but how close to the surface it occurs, as well as the size of the nearby population and the quality of the buildings in the area.

The first quake was 20.3km below the surface and the second at a depth of just 10km, according to the USGS, increasing the likelihood of damage on the surface.

The agency estimated a 44% chance of more than 10,000 deaths.

Venezuela lies along the boundary between the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates, which are moving past one another.

The USGS says the sudden release of friction between these two plates is likely to have triggered the earthquakes.

Anguished families left to identify Venezuela quake victims at makeshift morgue

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20y2p9qqqko, 9 days ago

Warning: This story contains distressing details

At a port storage facility transformed into a makeshift morgue in La Guaira, the same scene repeats itself again and again.

Families - many of whom have already spent days searching hospitals, shelters and rubble - wait hours to try and confirm the deaths of their loved ones.

As the death toll of Venezuela's twin earthquakes surpasses 2,600, officials face the challenge of not only recovering victims, but identifying them.

The scale of the disaster has overwhelmed local services, forcing institutions to improvise.

With little infrastructure left standing nine days after the tremors, bodies have been put outside or in temporary tents.

Under the blazing sun, dozens of families wait with a mixture of anguish and dread.

Rows of chairs have been placed inside and outside Los Silos, where sadness is contagious.

No one speaks. Some stare blankly into space, others check their phones, reading the news or answering messages.

Just a few metres away, armed personnel from the Bolivarian Armed Forces control access to the site.

"I'm afraid of what I'm going to see in there, but it's the only way to end this agony," a woman says before passing through the gate.

She has been searching for her nephew for nearly a week.

"I've looked for him everywhere: in the building, in the hospitals, I've spoken to everyone… and no one knows anything."

Inside, the smell of decomposition is the first thing that greets you.

Some family members cover their mouths with their hands. Most wear cloth masks, which offer little relief. Within minutes, many stop reacting. They seem to grow used to it.

Nearby, hundreds of bodies lie in rows, wrapped in plastic bags and exposed to the sun. In the sweltering heat, decomposition is rapid.

The bodies are arranged according to when they were recovered.

At one end of the site, a tent offers free cremation services. At the other, forensic specialists use dental records to help identify victims whose bodies have become difficult to recognise.

Families face two options. Those who think they can identify a loved one by their clothing are taken to one area.

Most relatives, however, are directed to two television screens. There, a different ordeal begins.

More than 1,000 images of bodies flash across the screens in a sequence that feels endless. Many are swollen, have darkened skin or bear the marks of injuries, making identification difficult.

Families search for any trace that might help identify their loved ones - a tattoo, a bracelet, a piece of clothing, or an item from their home.

Sometimes there is a pause, a moment of hope. The two workers scrolling through the photos on an iPad zoom in on teeth, tattoos, or scars.

In front of one of the screens, a woman bursts into tears as she recognises her son thanks to a dusty blanket. Another woman, a stranger, embraces her.

A phone rings and breaks the silence.

A young man whispers into the phone that he is trying to identify his mother. But he says the state of the bodies is making it difficult.

"This is like a horror movie," Liliana González, a 60-year-old resident of Catia La Mar, says as she leaves.

She had come to look for her aunt, but in the end identified her 37-year-old nephew by his tattoo.

"He wasn't on the list," she says. "I had to look at the images."

"I saw my mum when she died, but this... this isn't the same."

'No one could get them out'

Modesta Alemán, 56, travelled from Carayaca, in western La Guaira, to look for her older sister Matilde.

Her sister lived in Playa Grande - one of the hardest-hit areas.

"They told us there were no survivors," she says. Volunteers later said they could hear voices calling from the building, "but no one could get them out".

Modesta does not enter the makeshift morgue and waits outside while other relatives handle the identification process.

Perhaps, she says, it is better this way.

The process can take hours. Once a body is identified, the arrangements to remove the remains begin. After identification, fingerprints are taken, if possible.

Then, the bodies are placed in coffins. Later, the paperwork for the death certificate begins - an essential document so funeral homes can collect the remains.

Jéssica Soto, 42, sits in a chair at the entrance to Los Silos.

For two days, she has been waiting for the remains of her 15-year-old daughter and three-year-old granddaughter, who got trapped in their apartment after the earthquakes.

Their bodies were recovered on Tuesday, nearly a week later.

"They keep you waiting and waiting for the paperwork, the trucks, and who knows what else," she tells BBC Mundo.

"They have had them there in a coffin, sitting out in the sun since yesterday. I have no choice but to wait and trust in God."

Liliana says she panicked when she was told she would have to identify her nephew by herself.

"But then, seeing me like that, two workers accompanied me to the body. They helped me find him so I wouldn't suffer as much," she recounts.

"Thank God, because in a moment like that, it's good to feel someone's hand."

Her aunt remains buried in the rubble. She fears having to return to the morgue in the coming days to repeat the process all over again.

Bowen: For all his bluster, Trump has no better option than talks with Iran

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8we3j14ndo, 4 days ago

Donald Trump's latest pronouncements on Iran and the chances of a negotiated agreement have to be taken seriously, as he is after all the president of the United States.

This is what he said at the Nato summit in Turkey.

"I don't want to deal with them anymore, they're scum. You know what scum is? They're scum. They're sick people. They're led by sick people. And they're vicious, violent people.

"And if they had a nuclear weapon, they'd use it. As far as I'm concerned, it's over."

But are they his last words on the subject? Certainly not. He has kept up a running commentary on the war and the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that is being negotiated. His words have swerved through claims of victory to threats of annihilating Iranian civilisation to support for negotiations.

Later he doubled down on his latest threats, saying the US "will probably hit them harder again tonight", adding "I gave them a little warning. We're going to hit them hard again tonight".

America's capacity to hit Iran, doing great damage, is not in doubt. But what it has not been able to do is to break the will of the regime to drop any of its fundamental demands, starting with control of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.

Buried in his latest verbal onslaught was an acceptance that the talks will continue. They have been on hold while Iran goes through days of funeral obsequies for its former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by Israel and the US on the first day of the war on 28 February.

Trump was asked if the exchange of strikes between the US and Iran - and by extension some of America's Arab allies in the Gulf – meant the talks between them were over.

Referring to his chief negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, he said "I don't care, they can talk. But I think they're wasting their time."

Then, on the Iranian regime: "They're a bunch of lying guys."

That can be read as another admission that the president of the US, for all his bluster, does not have a better option than negotiations. With Israel, the US tried and failed to destroy the Iranian regime.

But the negotiating process is fragile. A source among the mediators trying to make them work described what has happened as "a setback for sure". The atmosphere is said to be "very tense".

That is a diplomatic way of saying that events of the last few days are a terrible backdrop for talks between two powers that have zero trust that the other will keep its word if a deal is made.

At the heart of the latest military exchanges between Iran and the US is the Tehran regime's determination not to return to the way things were before the US and Israel attacked on 28 February.

The regime is determined to keep control of the Strait of Hormuz. The ability to stop shipping carrying global essentials including a fifth of the world supply of oil and gas gives it a chokehold on the world economy.

It is a much more usable weapon than the possibility that it will try to develop a nuclear weapon.

Iran will not agree to relinquish control of the Strait of Hormuz. That is why it is prepared to risk the MOU – which is laden with potential sweeteners for Iran – to make the point that there is no going back. It is prepared to gamble on continued war to protect what it believes are its strategic rights in the Strait.

The regime in Tehran has been emboldened by the failure of the US and Israel to destroy it. The funeral rituals of the supreme leader killed when they launched their campaign have demonstrated that the Islamic regime has a strong core of support.

Domestic opposition has not gone away. But the regime's ruthless use of force to crush protests, killing thousands, back in January for protesting in the streets means that it is keeping a low profile.

If the escalation between the two sides can be stopped, mediators involved in the negotiating process believe it is possible to do a deal with Iran that will allow shipping to transit the Strait. It would have to be part of a wider agreement that unfreezes Iranian assets held abroad, allows Iran to sell its oil and most critically for the regime acknowledges Iran's authority over the Strait.

In return Iran would have to accept limits on enriching uranium, allow UN nuclear inspectors back in, and to account for stocks of what Trump calls "nuclear dust" – in other words uranium already enriched close to levels that could be used to make a nuclear weapon.

But events of the last 24 hours show how hard that will be.

Trump threatens more strikes on Iran as Tehran warns of 'fearless' response

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyw8w1g409o, 4 days ago

Donald Trump has said the ceasefire agreement with Iran is "over", blasting the country's leadership as "scum" and "cuckoo" after fresh exchanges of fire overnight.

Speaking later to reporters at a Nato summit in Turkey, the American president said the US "hit them very hard last night" and will "probably hit them hard again tonight".

He accused Tehran of violating an interim deal signed by both countries in June that called for an end to the conflict, adding that they "lie" and "cheat".

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded in a post on X: "We do not answer vulgarity with vulgarity, but with action: fearlessly and with great valour."

Tuesday night into Wednesday saw the worst exchange of strikes between the US and Iran since the deal - known as a memorandum of understanding (MoU) - was signed on 17 June.

It included 14 points, among them a 60-day period for a ceasefire during which negotiations should continue, the safe passage of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz and the US lifting sanctions on Iran.

When asked about the deal at the Nato summit on Wednesday, Trump said: "I think it's over. I don't want to deal with them any more, they're scum... they're led by sick people and they're vicious, violent people."

"We make a deal... They [Iran] go outside, talk to the press, they say 'we never even talked about it'. There's something wrong with them. They're cuckoo. As far as I'm concerned, it's over."

Speaking ahead of the summit, the president said US negotiators could continue talks "if they want" but said he saw it as "a waste of time".

However in a later news conference, Trump told reporters he didn't think the Iran war would start again and said "anything that happens will be over quickly".

His comments have prompted responses from several Iranian officials. A senior adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ali Akbar Velayati, warned new strikes from the US would be met with an "immediate response".

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi also said Trump's comments "are not a sign of strength, but rather an admission of the failure of a policy built on brute force, sanctions, and threats for years, which could not bring the Iranian nation to its knees".

US Central Command (Centcom) said on Tuesday it had launched "powerful" strikes in response to attacks on three tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian state media said eight members of the country's army had been killed in US strikes in Bandar Abbas and Bushehr, southern Iran.

The US also said it had revoked its temporary suspension of sanctions on Iranian oil sales.

On Wednesday, Iran said it targeted US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait in retaliation.

Oil prices jumped after Trump's comments, although they are still well below the highs seen during the full closure of the strait.

Centcom said on Wednesday more than 20 US Navy warships were continuing to patrol waters across the Middle East.

Iran's parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who is also the country's chief negotiator with the US, accused the US of breaching the MoU on sanctions on oil sales and other issues, including the attacks in southern Iran and "violating Iranian adjustments in the Strait".

"The era of bullying and extortion is over. It leads nowhere. We don't fold," he said after the US strikes.

Nato chief Mark Rutte described the American strikes as "absolutely necessary", saying that Iran was "basically violating the ceasefire".

There have been several exchanges of fire since the MoU was signed last month.

The US launched a series of strikes on Iran on 26 June after an Iranian projectile hit a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz. Further US strikes took place on 27 June, following an attack on a tanker. But later that month both sides had agreed to "stand down".

Part of the MoU's 14 points is for an "immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts".

Iran agreed to use its "best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge for 60 days".

Both sides had continued negotiations on the terms of a permanent end to the war, but talks were paused during funeral ceremonies for the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of US-Israel strikes on Iran.

Ceremonies are taking place in Iraq on Wednesday, with the final rites and burial set for Mashhad in north-east Iran on Thursday.

It is not clear when talks will resume after this latest round of strikes, as Trump responded to a question about further negotiations with the comment: "I don't care".

"Frankly, I don't want to waste my time with them. Now, I'll let our wonderful negotiators keep talking if they want, but I don't see it," Trump said.

Trump also referenced his special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, calling them "good people" who could negotiate if they wanted to. The pair previously played a role in peace talks.

"I'll speak to our negotiators, if they want to negotiate they're good people - Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner - but they have to come back to me, as far as I'm concerned it's just a waste of time."

Huge crowds in Mashhad as Iran's late supreme leader is buried

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yzm8m4peeo, 3 days ago

Huge crowds lined the streets of the holy city of Mashhad for the burial of Iran's late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Khamenei was laid to rest at the shrine of Imam Reza, Iran's holiest Shia Muslim site, marking the end of six days of public mourning ceremonies in five cities across Iran and neighbouring Iraq.

The burial, reported by the state news agency IRNA, came after an exchange of strikes between Iran and the US that threatens to derail a preliminary deal to end the war in which he was killed.

Earlier, Iran's Revolutionary Guards accused the US of bombing two bridges on the railway line from the capital, Tehran, to Mashhad overnight "in an effort to overshadow" the funeral.

Khamenei and several members of his family were killed in an Israeli strike on his residence in Tehran on 28 February, the first day of Iran's war with the US and Israel.

He was succeeded as supreme leader by his son Mojtaba, who has not been seen in public since he was reportedly seriously wounded in the same attack.

The 56-year-old did not participate in the funeral ceremonies in Tehran and Qom, and there was no indication that he attended the burial.

On Thursday morning, a plane carrying the coffins of Ali Khamenei, his granddaughter, son-in-law, daughter and Mojtaba's wife landed in Mashhad after flying from Iraq, where huge crowds took part in processions to two Shia shrines in the cities of Najaf and Karbala.

In the afternoon, Iranian TV footage showed thousands of mourners dressed in black walking along a main boulevard in central Mashhad. Many were waving Iranian flags and red banners symbolising vengeance.

Some people were also holding photos of the late supreme leader and placards calling for the death of US President Donald Trump, who, along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, ordered the joint attack on Iran four months ago that triggered the war.

Hanging above the boulevard were banners with official slogans including "We must rise".

"The loss of the leader is heavier than losing our parents," Hoda, a 35-year-old housewife, told AFP news agency. "Only the death of Trump and Netanyahu will soothe our pain."

Later, a lorry transported Khamenei's coffin slowly through the crowds towards the Imam Reza shrine, eventually reaching the complex as night fell.

Imam Reza was the eighth Shia imam and the only one of the 12 believed to have been buried in Iran. His mausoleum, which dates to the 9th Century and has a towering golden dome and minarets, is visited by millions of pilgrims each year.

Khamenei was born in Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city located in the north-east of the country, and studied at seminaries in the city before moving to Qom, the centre of Iran's Shia clerical establishment.

He was appointed supreme leader in 1989 after the death of the Islamic Republic's founding father, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

During his 37 years in power, he maintained a firm grip on Iran's politics and its armed forces, and suppressed domestic challenges, sometimes violently. He also took consistently hard-line stances on external matters, including Iran's confrontation with the US and Israel.

Iran's leadership wanted the choreographed funeral ceremonies for Khamenei to project unity and strength after a war, during which thousands of people have been killed, and the mass protests in January, when a crackdown by security forces left thousands more people dead.

The public mourning has, however, been marred by the renewed hostilities with the US.

Trump warned that US attacks could get "much worse" after a second night of strikes on Thursday, which the US military said were intended to degrade Iran's ability to target commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Revolutionary Guards said Iranian forces had attacked US military facilities and infrastructure in Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar in response.

Three weeks ago, the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that called for an end to hostilities on all fronts and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. It also gave them two months to reach a final deal that covers Iran's nuclear programme, US sanctions and a permanent truce.

Last week, mediator Qatar said Iranian and US negotiators made progress at indirect talks in Doha following a four-day exchange of strikes, and that their next meeting would take place after the conclusion of the ceremonies for Khamenei.

But on Wednesday, Trump told reporters that he believed that the MoU was now "over".

Palestinians mourn Gaza World Cup screenings organiser killed in Israeli strike

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwylznzjk04o, 3 days ago

The killing of Palestinian aid worker Mohammed al-Wahidi in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on Tuesday has triggered an outpouring of grief across the Gaza Strip, where for many people he was one of the most recognisable humanitarian figures.

Within hours of his death, social media platforms were flooded with photographs and videos documenting his work, alongside hundreds of messages of condolence from people who said they had encountered him during aid distributions or while living in displacement camps.

An Israeli missile struck the taxi al-Wahidi was travelling in through the Sabra neighbourhood. He was killed along with three other people, including two brothers aged eight and 10 who were passing by and another man.

The Israeli military said it had struck a Hamas operative and was aware of claims that uninvolved individuals were killed in the strike.

Al-Wahidi, 65, was an English teacher before the war but became a senior official with the Egyptian Relief Committee in Gaza, an Egypt-backed organisation that has played a prominent role in humanitarian relief efforts in the Palestinian territory during the war between Israel and Hamas.

For more than two-and-a-half years he helped co-ordinate emergency food assistance, oversaw the establishment of camps for displaced families and worked to deliver aid to communities affected by repeated waves of displacement.

Many Gazans say he became a familiar face in shelters across the territory because he preferred to remain in the field rather than directing operations from an office.

Volunteers who worked alongside him describe a man who was regularly present at aid distribution points, speaking directly with displaced families and responding to their immediate needs.

In recent weeks, al-Wahidi became more widely known after helping organise public screenings of World Cup matches in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and the al-Mawasi area in southern Gaza.

The initiative aimed to offer families, particularly children, a brief escape from the realities of war.

Egypt's matches attracted large crowds, reflecting the long-standing popularity of the team among many Palestinians in Gaza who have long shared cultural, emotional and political ties with their neighbours.

Videos of children and families gathering around giant screens among destroyed buildings spread widely online, offering rare scenes of celebration amid the conflict.

Al-Wahidi was killed only hours before one of those screenings, Egypt's last 16 match against Argentina, deepening the sense of loss among many Palestinians.

"He was not simply an aid worker in a humanitarian committee," wrote activist Mohammed Hmeid, who documented al-Wahidi's work. "He was a door to hope that opened every day for displaced people and those who had lost everything."

"Everyone who knew him speaks of his kindness, integrity and generosity," he added.

"In Gaza, even those who dedicate their lives to helping others are not spared. But good deeds cannot be killed. They live on in the hearts of the people."

Al-Wahidi's death comes as humanitarian workers in Gaza continue to face significant risks.

As of late April, the UN had recorded the killing of at least 593 of them since the war began, including eight since Israel and Hamas agreed a ceasefire 10 months ago

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

At least 73,118 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are seen as reliable by the UN.

Big fall in oil, gas and cargo ships taking US-backed Hormuz route after new strikes

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c621k5r8764o, 3 days ago

Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has fallen steeply after a series of tit-for-tat strikes by the US and Iran following an attack on three tankers earlier this week.

Just 23 tankers and cargo ships crossed the critical Gulf waterway on Wednesday, according to the maritime intelligence firm Kpler, down from 47 from a week before.

The three ships that were struck this week were using a US-recommended route through Omani waters. Iran has repeatedly said the only "safe" route is separate route through its waters.

For decades vessels have been given free passage through the strait, through which more than a fifth of the world's oil and gas supplies as well as fertiliser shipments and other vital goods flow.

Before the conflict began an average of 138 ships crossed through the strait each day, according to the Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC), a multinational maritime group including the US.

After the US and Israel launched its first strikes on Iran on 28 February, this fell to just a handful of ships per day,

Iran effectively closing the strait by attacking ships attempting to cross and laying mines and the US responded with a blockade on all shipping to and from Iranian ports.

A deal to end the war, which was signed on 17 June, included steps to re-open the strait. Washington also agreed to lift its naval blockade and ease sanctions on Iranian oil exports.

Following the agreement overall traffic levels in the strait did initially increase to a peak of 72 ships on 24 June.

What led up to this latest violence?

Throughout its negotiations with the US, Iran has insisted it has the right to control movement through the strait and introduce fees for ships to pass.

The US and its Gulf allies, as well as governments in Europe and Asia, oppose this and say passage through the strait must return to being free and open as it was before the conflict began.

After the deal to end the war, the Iranian government set out a system of lanes through the north of the waterway close to the Iranian coast, which it said all traffic must use.

"The only safe route for the passage of commercial ships and oil tankers in the strait is the route determined by the Islamic Republic of Iran," Iran's top military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, reiterated after this week's ship strikes.

After the deal was signed, the JMIC recommended instead that ships take a different route through Omani waters in the south of the strait.

The number of ships using this Omani route grew to a peak of 28 vessels on 25 June, Kpler's data shows, overtaking the number of transits via the Iranian route.

Then on 25 and 27 June two ships in Omani waters were struck with Iran warning all vessels to only use its approved routes.

President Donald Trump accused Iran of a "foolish violation" of its truce and the US military conducted strikes on Iranian targets.

Iran in turn accused the US of violating their interim deal and said it had struck targets linked to American forces in the region.

The number of ships transiting via the Omani route initially slumped following the strikes, before continuing at a lower level than before.

What has happened to movement now?

The attacks on three ships this week has led to a slump in the number of vessels using the US-recommended Omani route.

All three ships - a Qatar-owned liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker, a Saudi-owned crude oil tanker and a Liberia-flagged crude tanker - were crossing the strait close to the Omani route when they were attacked.

After the incidents the number of vessels using the Omani route through the strait has ground to a halt, according to Kpler.

No ships used it on Wednesday, falling from just three ships the day before. The number had averaged about 10 a day in the week before the latest attacks.

Martin Kelly, senior intelligence analyst at security firm EOS Risk Group, believes the current round of strikes will follow a familiar pattern to the last.

"There will now be a bit of back and forth between the US and Iran before they make friends again, shipping will peak and trough cautiously until Iran attacks another ship and the cycle starts again," he said.

What did the US-Iran peace deal say about the Strait of Hormuz?

The memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between Iran and the US on 17 June committed Tehran to use "its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge for 60 days".

It also said Iran would "conduct dialogue with the Sultanate of Oman to define the future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz".

Tehran said these parts of the deal give it control over the strait but critics noted there was no commitment from Iran to honour free passage on a long-term basis.

"The MOU was vague, particularly on issues surrounding the Strait of Hormuz," said Jennifer Parker, a maritime security expert at the University of New South Wales, "but even on a generous reading, it does not permit Iran to attack civilian shipping in Omani waters."

Concerns about sea mines laid by Iran in the internationally recognised shipping lanes used before the conflict have also played a part in holding traffic back from its pre-war levels.

On Thursday Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a statement through its affiliated news agency saying that "foreign powers have no claim to this land or to the Strait of Hormuz".

It went on to warn that "any interference in determining shipping routes" would "provoke a crushing response" and "seriously disrupt the gradual reopening process".

Strait reopening a 'challenge' for the US

Speaking at the Nato summit on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said the memorandum of understanding was "over" but negotiations between Iran and the US could continue.

Iran has also accused Washington of violating the agreement after it revoked a US Treasury licence which had temporarily eased sanctions on Iranian oil exports.

"The US had clearly hoped that the generous, some would argue overly generous, financial incentives in the deal would discourage Iran from using shipping in the Strait of Hormuz as leverage. It will now need to rethink that approach," said Parker.

"Neither the promise of economic relief nor the threat of military punishment has, so far, changed Iran's behaviour.

"The challenge remains finding the right balance between the carrot and the stick," she said.

Additional reporting by Joshua Cheetham

US and Iran trade strikes after tankers hit in Strait of Hormuz

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwykq59jwpvo, 4 days ago

Renewed fighting has broken out in the Gulf region, in the worst exchange of fire between the US and Iran since the two nations signed an interim deal in June.

US Central Command (Centcom) said on Tuesday it had launched "powerful" strikes in response to attacks on three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, hitting more than 80 targets including air defence systems, coastal radar and fast boats.

On Wednesday, Iran said it had targeted US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait in retaliation to the US attacks.

Oil prices ticked up following the strikes, with a barrel of Brent crude rising by more than 3% to $76 (£56.88).

Nato chief Mark Rutte described the American strikes on Iran as "absolutely necessary", speaking at the military alliance's summit in Ankara, Turkey.

"I think it was absolutely necessary," Rutte said, arguing that Iran was "basically violating the ceasefire" given what "happened yesterday with ships being attacked".

"I think it is totally crucial that the US forcefully [reacts]."

The US also said it had revoked its temporary suspension of sanctions on Iranian oil sales. Iran's speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused the US of breaching their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on this issue, and others, including the attacks in southern Iran and "violating Iranian adjustments in the Strait".

"The era of bullying and extortion is over. It leads nowhere. We don't fold," he said.

The US strikes hit Qeshm island, Bandar Abbas and Sirik, Iranian state media reported, where people have been injured by shrapnel.

Missiles and drones were launched at "85 key US military facilities" in the two countries, including a US Navy headquarters and an air base in Kuwait, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said.

Iranian media reported the first casualty of the strikes, with IRNA stating: "Guardsman Mohammadreza Khazini was killed while confronting enemy drones after being struck by shrapnel from a projectile."

Kuwait has also responded to the Iranian strikes on its country, lambasting the "repeated attacks".

Talks on reaching a permanent deal have been on pause with funeral proceedings taking place for the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed on the first day of US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

Ceremonies are taking place in Iraq on Wednesday, with the final rites and burial set for Mashhad in north-east Iran on Thursday.

It is not clear when talks will resume after this latest round of strikes.

Earlier on Tuesday, Iran's deputy foreign minister described the US attacks as a violation of the US-Iran memorandum signed last month, and warned Tehran would "take decisive measures".

The US had said there would be consequences to what it has called the "wholly unacceptable" attacks on the three tankers.

Centcom said in addition to 60 small boats, it had struck Iranian missile launch sites and command centres. It did not give locations of its targets.

It said the strikes were "to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent individuals in an international waterway".

Before the strikes, the US Treasury revoked a waiver that had temporarily lifted oil sanctions on Iran, and was part of the memorandum of understanding signed by Washington and Tehran last month.

Iran's foreign ministry called the move a breach of the memorandum and said it proved the "bad faith, inconsistency, and unreliability" of the US government.

It added that Tehran "will take whatever measures it considers necessary to safeguard its national interests and national security".

Qatar and Saudi Arabia also denounced the attacks, each saying a tanker from its country had been hit while transiting in or near the strait, and blaming Iran.

Qatar's foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said it held Iran "fully responsible" for an apparent targeted attack on a vessel called Al-Rekayyat as it transited near the strait.

In a separate social media post, Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said Iran had targeted the Saudi tanker Wadyan as it crossed the strait.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei described Qatar's accusations as "contrary to the principle of good neighbourliness".

He added that commercial vessels using routes not co-ordinated with Iran or tampering with the ship's tracking face a risk of collision and disrupt Iran's efforts to "facilitate safe transit" in the strait.

The UKMTO said a tanker travelling through the strait had reported a fire after an unknown projectile hit an engine room on Monday.

In two separate incidents on Tuesday, a tanker reported being hit as it exited the strait but was able to proceed to its next port of call, while another tanker reported sustaining minor structural damage after being struck, the organisation said.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity before Centcom's announcement of fresh strikes, the US official insisted that US negotiators would continue to work in "good faith" towards a final deal with Iran.

Progress towards that came last month when the US and Iran agreed a 14-point memorandum of understanding, which was aimed at extending a ceasefire and ending conflict "on all fronts".

As part of the agreement Iran and Oman, which both border Hormuz, must hold talks "to define the future administration and maritime services" in the waterway with other Gulf states.

During the conflict Iran sought to assert its sovereignty over the strait, including by establishing the "Persian Gulf Strait Authority" which it said would manage "safe passage permits".

Iran's Fars news agency has reported that under the new deal with the US the strait would ultimately be managed by Iran in co-ordination with Oman, including possible "service fees" for ships to transit the waterway.

Khamenei's coffin carried through Shia shrines as ceremonies held in Iraq

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp9le3kjj8eo, 4 days ago

The remains of Iran's late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have been carried through two of Shia Islam's holiest shrines in neighbouring Iraq, as funeral ceremonies continue for a fifth day.

Huge crowds filled the city of Najaf for a procession that ended at the mausoleum of Imam Ali, the Prophet Muhammad's son-in-law and first Shia Imam. Inside, mourners jostled to touch the coffin before prayers were held.

It was later flown to the city of Karbala and taken through more crowds to the mausoleum of Imam Hussein, the prophet's grandson.

Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of Iran's war with the US and Israel, will be buried on Thursday in Mashhad, in north-eastern Iran.

Among the tens of thousands of mourners who gathered in Najaf on Wednesday morning was Mohammed al-Bayati, 30, who told AFP news agency: "This is an opportunity not to be missed - to take part in the funeral of the person who challenged the power of America and Israel."

Chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" were also heard as Khamenei's coffin was transported by a lorry towards the shrine of Imam Ali.

Video footage showed mourners pushing and shoving each other to get close to the casket as it was carried by hand through the mausoleum's halls. A senior cleric from Najaf's Shia seminaries then led the funeral prayers.

Later on Wednesday, Khamenei's coffin arrived in Karbala, about 60km (37 miles) north of Najaf, for another funeral procession that ended at the shrine of Imam Hussein. His death in battle there in the 7th Century cemented the schism between Shia and Sunnis.

On Tuesday evening, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior Iranian figures flew to Iraq to take part in the ceremonies for Khamenei.

The Iranian delegation was welcomed on arrival by Iraqi Prime Minister al-Zaidi, whose government declared Wednesday a public holiday.

Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father, once again did not make an appearance. He has not been seen in public since he was reportedly seriously wounded in the same Israeli air strike in Tehran on 28 February that killed his father, his wife and several other family members.

Pezeshkian reportedly flew home to Tehran early on Wednesday, after the US and Iran exchanged strikes following attacks on several tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.

The US blamed the attacks on Iran and said its forces in the region carried out strikes on dozens of Iranian military targets in retaliation. Iran said it responded by attacking US military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he believed the three-week-old preliminary agreement between the US and Iran to end the war was "over".

Iran's Parliamentary Speaker and top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, accused the US of violating the deal and warned that Iranians "don't fold".

The memorandum of understanding signed by Trump and Pezeshkian called for the reopening of Strait of Hormuz, a Gulf waterway through which 20% of global oil and gas shipments pass, and gave them two months to reach a final deal that covers Iran's nuclear programme, US sanctions and a permanent truce.

Last week, mediator Qatar said Iranian and US negotiators made "positive progress" at indirect talks in Doha following a similar exchange of strikes, and that their next meeting would take place after the conclusion of the ceremonies for Khamenei.

Lawyer says detained Gaza doctor was severely beaten in Israeli jail

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c07yy3pgrlmo, 5 days ago

The lawyer for a prominent Palestinian medic from Gaza who has been detained by Israeli authorities without charge for over 18 months has told the BBC he fears for his client's life.

Nasser Odeh said that when he visited Dr Hussam Abu Safiya last Thursday at a notorious interrogation facility called Rakefet, his client was so badly beaten that he could not recognise him.

"He nearly lost consciousness several times," Odeh said of their meeting. "He told us that he was subjected to severe violence inside the prison, especially on the day of the visit."

In a statement to the BBC, the Israel Prison Service rejected the account as false.

Israel's Supreme Court has ordered the government to respond by Tuesday to a petition calling for the release of Abu Safiya and 13 other Palestinian doctors from Gaza held without charge in Israel.

According to Odeh, Abu Safiya said more than five prison guards assaulted him with their hands, batons and hammers after an appeal against his detention last month at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, and that he had not received any medical treatment.

"I had difficulty recognising his features. Bruises covered his face, around his eyes, on his neck, and on his ears. Signs of beatings and torture were clearly visible on his face. He was exhausted and unable to breathe, in a difficult physical, psychological, and mental state.

"He said clearly, 'I'm living in hell. The mind can't imagine what I go through every day. I think someone has decided to kill me'."

Odeh said he had not lost hope that he would see his client again.

"I hope to see him soon out of prison," he said. "His place is outside prison, his place is in the hospital."

But he struggled to repeat the words Abu Safiya said to him: "Thank you Nasser, but I think it will be the last time we will meet."

Abu Safiya was director of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, treating patients and leading the hospital as the area was under "near total siege" by Israeli forces, according to the UN.

He was detained in December 2024, when the Israeli military forced patients and medical staff to leave the hospital, saying it was a "Hamas terrorist stronghold". At the time, the World Health Organization called for an end to attacks on hospitals in Gaza.

Images circulated at the time showed Abu Safiya walking towards an Israeli armoured vehicle in his white doctor's coat through the rubble before being taken for interrogation.

A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement to the BBC that he was apprehended for suspected involvement in terrorist activities and for holding a rank in Hamas.

Abu Safiya held the rank of colonel in the health department of Gaza's Hamas-run interior ministry, in an agency that provided medical treatment to security and police and their families.

However, medical staff and international aid groups that worked with Abu Safiya deny that he co-operated with or worked for Hamas.

He is being held under the Unlawful Combatants Law, which authorises the military to detain people from Gaza suspected of posing a security risk for an unspecified period without charge.

The Israel Prison Service has come under severe criticism before about its treatment of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, which it denies.

In November 2025, the United Nations Committee against Torture said it was deeply concerned about reports indicating "a de facto state policy of organised and widespread torture and ill treatment" of Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails.

In the same month, the Israel-based human rights group Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) said at least 94 Palestinian prisoners and detainees had died in Israeli custody in less than two years.

The Israel Prison Service told the BBC that the allegations about Abu Safiya's treatment detailed by his lawyer were false and without factual basis.

It did not provide information such as detention status, place of detention or medical condition, it said, for privacy and security, but stated that all prisoners and detainees were held in accordance with the law and receive medical care based on ministry of health guidelines.

The IPS added that it rejected allegations of abuse, torture, starvation or denial of medical treatment.

There have been statements calling for action on Abu Safiya's case from human rights groups such as Amnesty International, whose spokesperson called it "truly horrifying". PHRI said he should be transferred immediately, given urgent medical treatment and visited by a judge.

PHRI also filed the petition to the Supreme Court in April calling for the release Abu Safiya and 13 other Palestinian doctors from Gaza being held in Israel without charge.

On Monday, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention adopted an opinion that calls Israel's detention of Abu Safiya arbitrary and urged his immediate release.

The panel of independent experts also said that the case was one of several submitted to it that "may indicate a widespread or systematic practice of arbitrary detention in the country".

The BBC has contacted the Israel Prison Service for comment about the working group's finding.

Bomb explosions injure 18 in Damascus during Macron's visit

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2eylx1jj9ko, 5 days ago

Eighteen people have been injured by two bomb explosions in central Damascus during a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron, the Syrian government has said.

The blasts happened near the Four Seasons hotel, where Macron spent the night and met civil society groups on Tuesday morning.

The Syrian interior ministry said security forces detected two explosive devices in a parked car and a bin, which blew up as specialists began the process of defusing them, state news agency Sana reported.

French officials said Macron was safe and did not hear the explosions. Shortly afterwards, he held talks with his Syrian counterpart, Ahmed al-Sharaa, at the presidential palace.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but a spokesman for Syria's interior ministry said that "an initial lead pointing to those who are responsible" had been discovered.

The incident has underscored the major security challenges the authorities in Syria continue to face and overshadowed the first visit to the country by an EU leader since the fall of the Assad regime in 2024.

One video posted on social media on Tuesday morning showed security forces and first responders standing near a burning vehicle on a major thoroughfare running through the capital, close to the ministry of tourism's headquarters.

The footage then shows a second explosion only a few metres away.

BBC Verify analysis located the explosions at approximately 125m (410ft) from the Four Seasons hotel.

One eyewitness told BBC Arabic's Middle East Daily that they had been standing in front of the ministry of tourism when the first explosion occurred.

They said that while security forces were searching for suspicious objects after the first bomb detonated, "a second explosion occurred approximately 20m from the site of the first blast".

"The first explosion caused material damage but no casualties. The second explosion, however, caused injuries to several members of the public security forces and the traffic police," the eyewitness told the BBC.

The interior ministry said four police officers were among the injured.

Spokesman Nour al-Din al-Baba told reporters that the explosive devices were planted minutes before the blasts just outside the security perimeter that had been designated for Macron's accommodation.

As reports of the explosions came in, Syrian state television said that Sharaa had welcomed Macron to the presidential palace.

Writing on social media after the blasts, Macron said: "Nothing can smother the aspiration of Syrian women and men to live in a fully sovereign, safe, pluralistic, and united Syria.

"This morning I met Syria in all its diversity. I saw dignity, courage, and determination. My visit continues."

Later, at a joint news conference with Sharaa, Macron said people "must at once stand alongside those who have been injured [by the bombings], continue to be uncompromising on security… but not let ourselves be destabilised."

Sharaa praised Macron's "courage" for continuing his visit.

Apart from security issues, Macron's visit was focused on Syria's difficult economic situation, with reconstruction expected to be one of the main themes.

He was joined by French business leaders and visited an economic forum where 15 bilateral agreements in sectors including civil aviation, health and banking were signed.

The French president's trip underlines Syria's return to the global stage 19 months after Sharaa's Islamist group led the rebel offensive that overthrew Bashar al-Assad.

Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda commander from Syria's Sunni Muslim majority, has vowed to unify a divided country after five decades of repressive rule of the Assad family and a devastating 13-year-long civil war.

His government faces security challenges from a range of armed groups, including the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), which has claimed a series of attacks in recent months.

Last week, a bomb blast at a crowded cafe in central Damascus killed at least nine people and injured 22 others, according to Syrian state media.

Pro-government forces were also involved in violence against religious and ethnic minority groups that killed hundreds of people last year.

Additional reporting by Richard Irvine-Brown

Resistance and revenge - Iran wanted to send a message with its farewell to Khamenei

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c07yy3j3nljo, 6 days ago

Three days of public mourning in Tehran for its slain supreme leader ended with a major political spectacle the men now in charge wanted the world to see.

The hulking funeral cortège, carrying the coffins of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and four family members, inched along a 10km route – slowed, and often stopped, by millions of mourners in one of the largest public gatherings in many years.

In a week of funeral events, Monday's march was the most significant in carefully choreographed ceremonies steeped in political messaging of resistance and revenge.

But many also stayed away, hurting from two wars in less than a year, inflation spiralling at around 80%, and the pain of January's anti-government protests.

Some blame Khamenei, who was also the commander-in-chief, for the security crackdown which killed many thousands.

"Of course I'm not going to the funeral," one man told us outside one of the many "mookebs", the rest stations set up in the city and on its outskirts to provide free food and water, most of it from private donations.

"Many people don't have work and are so unhappy," he explained.

Aerial footage from Monday's procession showed one of Tehran's main arteries chock-full of loyalists consumed by grief and chanting the Islamic Republic's signature slogans of "death to America" and "death to Israel".

"Tears arise from the pain and sorrow that surges within a person, and the world sees this truth," declared Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian, rebutting US President Donald Trump's claim that these were "fake tears".

The commemorations now move to some of the most sacred sites for Shia Muslims, including in Qom, south of Tehran, on Tuesday, and then to Najaf and Karbala in neighbouring Iraq.

The final burial is on Thursday at the sprawling Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad, the ayatollah's birthplace and Iran's holiest city.

"The funeral proceedings are designed to frame him as more than a national leader but a transcendent religious and political figure whose authority extended across the Muslim world, and particularly Shia Islam," observed Mohammad Eslami, research fellow at Tehran University.

There's a harsher view of his legacy. "The revolution he preserved was for a world which no longer exists," assesses Karim Sadjadpour, author of Reading Khamenei: the World View of Iran's Most Powerful Leader.

In Tehran, a flatbed truck, decorated with intricate latticework and Arabic Islamic script, carried five caskets, painted in the green, red and white of Iran's flag, including the smallest for Khamenei's 14-month-old granddaughter Zara.

All were killed by Israeli-American air strikes on 28 February, in the first hours of the war.

Red was the loudest colour in the huge crowds of bereaved wearing black. Religious flags symbolising blood and martyrdom amplified calls to avenge the supreme leader's assassination.

Posters in English singling out Trump as the main target were held high for the hundreds of foreign journalists given rare access to cover this funeral.

An Iranian messaging app had advised government supporters to use slogans such as "Our revenge is inevitable," and "They will pay. Hard."

"I want to say one sentence to President Trump and the world," declared a grey-haired man named Mojtaba, who came to us saying he had a message.

"Soon, very soon you will see signs of revenge at the top of the White House, and soon the colour of the White House will be the colour of my red flag."

"Some of these calls are just ritualistic," a government official told me. "But the anger is real among hardline critics within the system who oppose the new deal with the United States which killed our leader. "

To address a dire financial situation, Iran's new leaders, after surviving weeks of war, must now keep negotiating if they wish to see badly needed relief through the easing of sanctions and unfreezing of assets.

Government supporters in what were welcoming crowds kept approaching foreigners - including what the government says were 400 social media influencers - to ask "where are you from?" They often urged visiting media to "tell the truth".

But even in this throng there were other voices too. Two young Iranian women, clad in the black cloaks of most female mourners, pulled us aside to whisper that the "real voices of revolution" had been heard in the protests just months ago on these same streets.

The road ahead is still uncertain as Iran buries the last of the first-generation founders of its 1979 revolution.

Nearly four decades ago, I was in Iran when it buried its first supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini. In the frenzied stampede, his flimsy wooden coffin broke and his white shrouded body tumbled into the crowds.

Iran enters a new era with its third Supreme Leader, 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamanei, who's still not been seen in public since the air strikes which killed his father severely injured him.

The sight of his three brothers at the open-air Grand Musalla mosque compound, where their father lay in state made his absence all the more conspicuous.

Iranian officials point to Israel's continuing threats to assassinate him too.

"He's in my heart and I hope he is safe from Trump and Netanyahu," insisted one woman who had travelled with her family from Hamadan, a four-hour drive away, to join the procession.

But the organisers of what they've called the "event of the century" have tried to maximise other symbols.

The biggest of all is the colossal statue of a clenched fist that now towers over Enqelab or Revolution Square – the "fist of defiance" meant to send a message to enemies outside and inside Iran that their Islamic Republic cannot be defeated.

The BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet is reporting from Tehran on condition that none of her material is used on the BBC's Persian Service. These restrictions apply to all international media organisations operating in Iran.

How Iran's new regime is very different to what came before

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg534ryp660o, 7 days ago

When US President Donald Trump signed a ceasefire agreement with Iran during dinner at the Palace of Versailles last month, many saw an irony.

His host, French President Emanuel Macron, may have wanted to make sure the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed before Trump changed his mind, and possibly calculated that the gilded Hall of Mirrors would appeal to his guest.

But the choice of venue inevitably invited comparisons between the one-and-a-half page agreement and the extremely lengthy Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919 at the end of World War One. The 1919 treaty reshaped Europe, but its demands for huge reparations left an angry and embittered Germany and helped to set the stage for another global conflagration just 20 years later.

Might the Iran deal, different in so many ways, nevertheless come to be seen as similarly fateful?

Almost three weeks later, a fragile ceasefire more or less holds. But after several skirmishes in and around the Strait of Hormuz, and with none of the issues that led to war anywhere close to being resolved, the situation in the Middle East looks every bit as precarious as it did before.

Meanwhile, Iran is in the midst of profound change.

The country is saying farewell to its former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed more than four months ago in the devastating joint US-Israeli airstrikes which began the war and decapitated much of the regime in Tehran.

It's a big moment: a grand reminder that the old guard has given way to the new. And with the new faces comes a new approach with its own implications.

The US and Israel may have sent many of the country's former leaders to early graves, but have they been replaced by even more formidable foes?

Reordering the chess board

"This war is much more consequential and larger than we have given it credit for thus far," Vali Nasr, professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies, told me.

"All major wars of this magnitude ultimately reorder the chess board," he says. "This will do it for the Middle East."

Back in January, Iran was wracked by popular protest which both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicted might herald the collapse of the Islamic Republic.

Iran's economy was already in tatters after decades of international sanctions. The country was also still badly wounded after a 12-day war with the US and Israel six months earlier.

Iran's nuclear programme, long a diplomatic tool of leverage, had not been obliterated, as Trump boasted, but had been significantly damaged.

The whereabouts of its stockpile of uranium, believed to be enough for 10 or 11 atomic weapons if enriched further, was not certain, but much of it was thought to be buried under rubble near the Isfahan nuclear complex.

Further afield, Iran's "Axis of Resistance," a loose alliance of proxies and allies around the Middle East, had experienced a series of major setbacks.

In Syria, the regime of close Iranian ally Bashar al-Assad was gone, swept away in a few heady weeks at the end of 2024.

In Lebanon, Israel had assassinated leading members of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group and decimated the ranks of its fighters with exploding pagers and walkie-talkies.

In the Gaza Strip, another Iranian ally, Hamas, had suffered a similar fate. Israel responded to the group's devastating October 2023 attacks with a relentless assault that laid waste to much of Gaza and killed tens of thousands of civilians.

And when - in response to the Gaza war - Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen had launched ballistic missiles at Israel and started attacking shipping in the Red Sea, Israel, the US and UK had all launched counter strikes, some of them targeting the group's leadership.

After so many setbacks at home and abroad, the consensus was that Iran was in a highly vulnerable state. The New York Times reported that Trump had received several intelligence reports indicating that Iran was weaker than at any point since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The idea that it could fight the US and Israel to a standstill seemed far-fetched.

And yet, that's what happened. The Islamic Republic is still standing, thanks in part to its ability to close one of the world's most important waterways, the Strait of Hormuz, and strangle the global economy.

Advantage, Tehran?

Trump is fond of saying that he's achieved regime change in Iran. Vali Nasr doesn't disagree, but says this has actually worked to Tehran's advantage.

"A whole new generation has taken over," he says. "They have a very clear agenda. They managed the war and now they're going to manage the peace as well."

The new leadership is not made up of the sort of people Washington is used to calling "woolly-brained apocalyptic ideologues", says Nasr, but of generally post-revolutionary leaders ruthlessly focussed on preserving the state and willing to act more decisively than their predecessors.

At 56, the country's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei is 30 years younger than his father, Ali Khamenei, who was believed to be in frail physical condition when he was killed at the start of the war.

The president, Masoud Pezeshkian, is older at 71, but the generation that mounted the 1979 revolution are all gone.

Two key figures, the parliamentary speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guard, Ahmad Vahidi, are both in their 60s.

Like the new supreme leader, both have close links to the all-powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

"They're children of the revolution," says Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at London's Chatham House think tank.

"An 86-year old is no longer guiding the ship of the Islamic Republic. The big handbrake on evolution of the system was Ali Khamenei."

For decades, the cautious Khamenei pursued a strategy sometimes dubbed "no war, no peace." His successors have been bolder, launching attacks on US military bases across the region and then, a few short weeks later, willing to sit down and negotiate an end to the war on terms which, on the face of it, are far from humiliating for Tehran.

"They've shown that they're willing to engage in war in a much more aggressive way than the previous generation," Nasr says.

When Trump ordered the air strike that killed the former Revolutionary Guard commander Qasem Soleimani in 2020, Iran deliberately telegraphed its intention to retaliate before launching 12 ballistic missiles at US bases in Iraq. No US service personnel were killed.

This year, in the face of an all-out assault by the US and Israel, Iran demonstrated no such restraint, launching drone and missile attacks on multiple US bases across the region, including the headquarters of the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and al-Udeid airbase in Qatar.

Six US soldiers were killed in Kuwait. Hundreds were injured in the course of the fighting.

Iran's willingness to attack US Gulf allies, target shipping and close the Strait of Hormuz - a vital shipping lane - also seemed to take the White House by surprise.

For decades, Washington had sought to contain Iran through its network of military facilities and burgeoning relationships with Gulf countries.

Iran's dramatic response to Israeli and US attacks suggested the strategy was no longer working.

"A lot of these countries were hoping that US military bases on their territory would provide them with security, not make them a target," says Ali Vaez, Iran project director for the International Crisis Group.

"The Gulf states are now questioning the credibility of the US security umbrella and their own deterrence strategy."

Reports suggest that most Gulf countries are putting out feelers to Iran, looking to repair relations with their dangerous neighbour. Citing an anonymous diplomat, Agence France-Presse even reported that Saudi Arabia, which restored relations with Tehran in 2023 after decades of emnity, was preparing to hold a "reconciliation summit", bringing together Iran and the Kingdom's Gulf neighbours.

But for all their anger at being caught in the middle of a war they didn't want and tried hard to avoid, Vaez doubts any are ready to sever their ties with the US military.

"They are too reliant on the US to completely cut off security arrangements," he says. "They can try to hedge their bets, but at the end of the day, they don't have anywhere better to go."

Eschewing grander historical parallels, Vaez calls the current situation a "plastic moment", pregnant with possibility as old adversaries contemplate a different set of relationships.

"I sense a degree of realism that didn't exist in the past," he says.

But what about the people of Iran?

The new pragmatists

In January, Trump promised Iranian citizens that "help is on its way." Launching the war, on 28 February, he was even more explicit.

"When we are finished, take over your government," he urged them. "It will be yours to take."

Such promises have so far proved illusory. A new generation may be in charge in Tehran, but not one that has yet offered its people the prospect of a freer, more prosperous future.

With the regime utterly focussed on its own survival, Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi, a Chatham House analyst based in Abu Dhabi, does not expect to see a different approach to dissent.

"They will keep a very, very strong focus on the street," she says.

But with the hijab no longer enforced outside state institutions, even before the war, and alcohol quietly available in Tehran restaurants, there are also signs that the regime may gradually be casting aside some of the old taboos.

Vali Nasr says it's all driven by necessity: the need to restore faith in the state.

"They made a pragmatic decision that their raison d'état [literally "reason of state"] requires them to relax these things," he says.

After the shock generated by its mass bloodletting in January, the regime has shown that it can at least protect the country's sovereignty.

For Iranians, the war has been profoundly confusing. Horror at the regime's brutality gradually gave way to a different kind of horror, as American and Israeli bombs rained down on their country, killing civilians and damaging vital infrastructure.

The deaths of scores of children at an elementary school in Minab, on the first day of the war, caused some to wonder who the real enemy was. After promising to liberate them, Israel and the US seemed intent on destroying the country.

But having stood up to the combined might of the US and Israel, can Iran's new leadership capitalise on this potentially fleeting opportunity to rebuild the regime's shattered legitimacy?

"This is a sort of China-after-Mao moment," Vaez says, "in the sense that the system as a whole recognises that something's got to give. This new leadership understands that it needs a new social contract."

Whether they can deliver it is an open question. More than ever, Iran is now run by the IRGC elite, while huge numbers of well-educated young people, still grieving over the loss of thousands of their friends in January's bloody crackdown, feel they have no real say in determining the country's future.

This is an inflection point, with Iran poised precariously between old certainties and future possibilities, both at home and abroad.

Despite a series of recent flare-ups in the Gulf, Tehran has embarked on a diplomatic process with the US which could result in what US Vice President JD Vance has already called "a fundamentally transformed relationship."

Faced with the tantalising prospect of sanctions relief in return for nuclear concessions, the regime's ability to manage the economy could help to restore its shattered domestic reputation.

Since the MoU was signed, Iran has already benefited from American sanctions waivers, allowing it to export crude oil and petroleum products for 60 days.

Other forms of relief could follow during the 60-day negotiating period, including the unfreezing of billions of dollars Iranian assets and, when a final deal is reached, the ultimate prize: the lifting of all international sanctions.

The MoU also refers to the creation of a $300bn (£225bn) "reconstruction and development" plan, although it remains unclear who will pay for it.

Taken together, these financial carrots offer a powerful incentive for Iran's new leaders to strike a deal.

Sanam Vakil agrees that the region is facing "a window of opportunity", but she's cautious.

"There's a scenario where they don't get a deal, where this drags on and on and President Trump gets impatient… and says, 'okay, it's time for round three.'"

None of the experts I spoke to believe the future is assured.

Decades of tortured relations between Iran, its Middle Eastern neighbours and the US have left behind a toxic legacy, characterised by deep suspicion and an almost total lack of trust.

There's no shortage of scope for failure: disagreements over Iran's nuclear programme, the future of the Strait of Hormuz, the war in Lebanon, as well as the entrenched views of hardliners everywhere.

After six tumultuous months, the region has started to look different. But a lot has to go right for this plastic moment to solidify into something better.

Top picture credit: AFP via Getty Images

On the Strait of Hormuz, BBC finds seized ships and shark fishermen as uneasy calm returns

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg53ngvvpxo, 10 days ago

It's a sweltering summer's day and fishermen are unloading their catch on the docks.

One proudly holds several baby sharks tangled in his nets. Shark sandwich is a local delicacy, he explains. Another rides off with two large fish strung over his motorbike.

In many ways this looks like an ordinary fishing port, but the docks are in Bandar Abbas, an Iranian city on the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most vital shipping lanes and a key focal point of the US-Israeli war with Iran.

This is the first time journalists from a UK broadcaster have visited the Iranian side of the strait since the conflict began.

When the US and Israel launched attacks on 28 February, the Iranian regime responded by attacking Israel and neighbouring Gulf states hosting US forces and turned its geography into one of its greatest sources of leverage.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) began firing on commercial ships attempting to go through the strait without its permission, effectively making the waterway impassable.

Seafarers from around the world were stranded and oil prices surged, pushing up the cost of energy and fuel, along with a vast range of goods that are shipped around the world.

The US retaliated with a blockade of its own, targeting any ships using Iran's Gulf ports.

As a result, these waters have been too dangerous to fish for months. Many fishermen stopped going out, while others continued, knowing they were heading into a battlefield.

Now, weeks after Iran allowed the partial reopening of the strait - under a ceasefire agreement with the US that is mostly holding - the sea is calm once more and fishermen are returning.

One of them, Abdol Rahman, took the BBC through the strait for a close-up view of how the war has affected life in and around Bandar Abbas.

As we sailed through the strait, two container ships seized by the IRGC in April, at the height of the conflict, came into view.

At the time, the IRGC said the vessels had endangered maritime security "by operating without the necessary permits and tampering with navigation systems".

Despite the ceasefire, the MSC Francesca and the Epaminondas, which were flagged to Panama and Liberia respectively, have not been released.

Dozens of other cargo ships could be seen offshore, waiting for permission from the Iranian authorities to pass through the strait.

As we approached Hormuz Island, 8km (five miles) off the coast of Bandar Abbas, our guide Rahman pointed out an old fortress overlooking the sea.

Its weathered red walls are a reminder that control of the strait has been fought over for centuries. Built in the early 16th Century, it was central to the Portuguese Empire's control of this vital waterway - until 1622 when Portugal was driven out by Shah Abbas I of Persia, after whom Bandar Abbas is named.

Today, Bandar Abbas remains just as strategically important. Sitting on Iran's southern coast, close to the narrowest point of the strait, it is home to Iran's Navy and the naval arm of the IRGC.

Around a fifth of the world's oil and gas shipments pass through these waters in peacetime, making the city central to the world's economy and key to Iran's military doctrine of "asymmetric warfare" designed to fight more powerful adversaries.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened an escalation of the conflict, warning that Iran "won't have a country" if it did not reopen the strait.

Yet, despite his threats and the ceasefire, Iran has not fully reopened the strait and analysts argue it remains a key point of leverage for Tehran in the ongoing talks to reach a lasting peace agreement between the US and Iran.

When the BBC reached Bandar Abbas city, there were signs of life returning to normal.

Families have gone back home, shops have reopened and traffic once again fills the streets.

The market, for centuries the place where goods arrive by sea before making their way into southern Iran, is once again bustling.

Yet, nearby, the effects of war remain.

On Khushnoodi Street, behind Bandar Abbas's main university, an apartment block is in ruins. It was hit on 26 March by an Israeli strike.

Half of the building is standing, while the other half has collapsed into a pile of concrete and twisted metal.

Exposed rooms where families once lived can be seen, and Iranian flags fly from the shattered façade.

The building also had some offices and Fatima, a 40-year-old business owner who worked there, was elsewhere at the time of the strike.

"I knew many of the families who lived here," she said.

"There were mothers and children. They were asleep when the attack happened. Some survived, but three people were killed. One of them was a military officer who lived here with his family. But it wasn't a military base."

Israel Defense Forces said the intended target was IRGC Navy commander Alireza Tangsiri - and four days after the strike, Iran confirmed he had been killed.

Iran's Fars news agency reported that three people were killed and seven injured when two missiles hit the building.

According to the Red Crescent, 261 people, including civilians and military personnel, have been killed in Hormuzgan province, of which Bandar Abbas is the capital.

The strike illustrates how closely civilian and military life can overlap, blurring the distinction between military targets and residential dwellings.

There were at least 96 separate US strikes in and around Bandar Abbas between 28 February and when the ceasefire came into effect on 8 April, according to data compiled by the monitor Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (Acled).

It says that more than a third were reported to have targeted military infrastructure, including IRGC facilities, missile sites, naval assets and the air base at Bandar Abbas International Airport. Many of these locations are close to residential neighbourhoods.

Acled was not able to confirm what was hit in other attacks.

US-Israeli strikes during the war killed senior Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, destroyed military and economic infrastructure and damaged the country's nuclear programme.

Yet Bandar Abbas's mayor rejects suggestions the war has left Iran weakened.

Speaking to the BBC from a government compound with a gleaming golden minaret, Mehdi Nobani said neither Israel nor the US had achieved their military objectives, including regime change.

He also argued the appointment of the new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, Ali's son, had united Iran rather than divided it.

If the ceasefire were to break down, "Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz for sure", he said.

At the market, many of the people the BBC approached were reluctant to speak to us - not all gave a reason but some said they didn't trust the way the media portrays Iran.

Eventually, a young woman, who had recently returned from living in China, told us she had come back to be with her family during the conflict.

"Iranians have come together to support each other," she said.

Further down the market's winding alleyway, 55-year-old Fatemeh sits selling peaches.

There are sections devoted to almost everything: fresh fish brought in that morning from the Gulf, dates from southern Iran, imported electronics, perfumes, household goods, and traditional Bandari clothing.

She tells us her son lost his job during the war, and the family now relies on what she earns from her stall.

"We didn't want a war. When the bombings happen, we are scared. Trump wanted a war. He attacked us unexpectedly. We didn't want this."

Nearby, 40-year-old Masoumeh overhears our conversation and joins in. "Every war creates problems," she says. "It affects the economy and people's lives. But we have to be patient."

As negotiations continue, and the ceasefire is tested, the Strait of Hormuz is likely to remain central to the stand-off between Iran and the US.

But for the people who live here, the conflict is measured in different terms - livelihoods lost, nights spent under the threat of air strikes, and the hope that this fragile ceasefire will endure.

Additional reporting by Jasmin Dyer

Nawal Al-Maghafi is reporting from Tehran on condition that none of her material is used on the BBC's Persian Service. These restrictions apply to all international media organisations operating in Iran.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said this is the first time international journalists have been to the Iranian side of the strait. This has been updated to say it is the first time journalists from a UK outlet have been there.

Iran nuclear and military damage revealed after restricted satellite images released

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr5j1qn6deno, 9 days ago

The extent of damage to some of Iran's military and nuclear sites has been revealed for the first time after more than a quarter of a million previously restricted high-resolution satellite images were released.

A leading satellite imagery provider, Planet Labs, restored access to images from nearly 800 locations in Iran which they had chosen to restrict following a request from the US government.

BBC Verify analysed satellite imagery from two key locations - Esfahan and Bushehr - captured since restrictions began on 9 March.

The images show a variety of targets hit from ammunition storage areas to ballistic missile infrastructure, nuclear and surface-to-air missile sites, and naval bases, according to military intelligence company Janes.

Verified videos have previously shown these locations were subject to US-Israeli strikes but these newly available images provide an insight into the specific targets of the attacks and the extent of the damage.

Bushehr

Several sites around the coastal city of Bushehr have been damaged or completely destroyed since 9 March, images show.

Military buildings and government facilities including aircraft hangars, ammunition storage, dockyards, piers, and missile launch sites have been visibly damaged, according to Janes, with the affected sites belonging to both the Iranian government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Many buildings have caved-in roofs and some appear completely flattened. Other images show destroyed aircraft and sunken ships. Craters can also be seen on multiple runways, including at Bushehr International Airport - some of which have since been repaired.

In some areas - designated as "military" on online maps like OpenStreetMaps - nearly every single building has been destroyed.

The damage seen "correlates with the US and Israeli reports of a wide-ranging strike campaign, not only designed to engage standing forces, but degrade the infrastructure behind them", Janes Middle East defence specialist Jeremy Binnie said.

Construction and repair sheds at a naval dockyard have also been damaged, according to Janes analysis.

Esfahan

Images of the province of Esfahan, which is home to two nuclear facilities - in the city of Esfahan and Natanz - reveal the extent of damage to military infrastructure.

At military bases in the region, damage to buildings are clearly visible. Buildings - identified by Janes as an ammunition storage area for an airbase - have been damaged at the strategically important Shekari 8 Iranian airbase.

More than 60 structures have been severely damaged or destroyed at a military base in the south of the city.

Another dozen were hit at another base further south in the region, near the town of Baharestan.

The controversial decision to restrict access to images has limited how journalists, humanitarian groups and analysts assess the impact of the US-Israel war with Iran, including damage to military targets and civilian infrastructure.

Restrictions still remain in place for Planet's imagery across most of the Middle East including Iraq, Lebanon, Israel and Gaza.

The California-based company said that a "delay remains in place over other parts of the region and we will continue with managed distribution for those areas in accordance with ongoing national security and personnel safety concerns".

In the absence of Planet's services, its news clients - such as the BBC and the New York Times - have been turning to non-US based solutions.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

'Two weeks after her death I got a call': Gaza patients face agonising delays for evacuation

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn75ex1dv61o, 10 days ago

When Gaza's medical board approved Amina Abu al-Kas to leave the Strip for treatment abroad, her son Saber said it felt like the beginning of a new life.

"It brought life back into her. She knew there was no treatment in Gaza, so she was happy and excited," he told the BBC.

Amina was suffering from an aggressive necrotising infection that had spread to her skull. Doctors in Gaza told her they did not have the medicines or the therapies to treat it.

Saber said the pain was unbearable.

"My mother couldn't sleep day or night; she stayed awake, crying out from the pain. Painkillers caused stomach ulcers and inflammation, and the doctors banned her from taking them."

After receiving the medical referral, Saber said the family waited for news that Amina had passed security clearances and had been accepted by a foreign country for treatment - both necessary to leave Gaza.

"We knew that at any moment God might take her. And we also knew that at any moment a miracle might happen, that we might get a call saying, 'Get your bags ready and prepare to travel through the crossing,'" Saber told the BBC.

"We waited a long time, but no response came. My mother died [on 29 May], and two weeks after her death, I got a call from the hospital informing me that her paperwork was ready."

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says Amina is one of 300 Palestinians who have died waiting for medical evacuations since the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began there last October.

The figures are also used by the World Health Organization (WHO), which assists with patient transfers via Gaza's Israeli-controlled border crossings with Israel and Egypt.

Thousands of others - the health ministry currently says 15,000 - are still waiting for treatment abroad - some for war-related injuries; others for conditions such as cancer.

The list of evacuees is constantly fluctuating, as patients' conditions and decisions change, meaning not all deaths may be recorded.

Since the ceasefire began over eight months ago, the WHO says 1,977 people have left Gaza for medical treatment. Unless the process speeds up, it could take years to evacuate all those in need.

"We are talking about something that feels like a miracle," Saber said. "If a patient's name is selected and they are granted permission to travel for treatment abroad, it is almost a miracle."

After being approved by Gaza's medical referral board, patients must pass security checks by Israel, the host nation and any transit countries – and also be accepted by a host nation for treatment, which is not always a simple process.

"Many recipient countries are quite specific in the type of patients they can support - for example, some only want children; others only want patients for shorter treatments," said Dr Reinhilde Van de Weerdt, WHO Representative for the occupied Palestinian territory.

"Then patients and their companions need visas for the host country, and to pass security checks by Israel, Egypt/Jordan and the host country."

In early June, the Gaza health ministry's acting undersecretary, Maher Shamia, said the primary causes of the delays were the lengthy security screening process and the limits imposed by Israeli authorities on the number of departures.

He added that Palestinians were only allowed to leave via the Rafah crossing with Egypt three days a week, and that medical evacuations via the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel took place only one day a week.

The Israeli defence ministry body responsible for civil affairs in Gaza, Cogat, said departures were subject to the receipt of an official request from a receiving country willing to accept a patient and the completion of security screening by relevant authorities.

The "vast majority" of requests submitted by countries and organisations had been approved since the start of 2025, it added.

Israel has not allowed international news organisations into Gaza to report independently since the start of the war, so the BBC relies on trusted freelance journalists to report from the ground.

Between the bombed-out buildings of Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital, they witnessed dozens of people gathering to protest against delays in the process.

Nidal al-Arir wailed on the ground, pleading for his son, who needs a corneal transplant.

Raeda Nuaizi said cancer led to the removal of her breasts, ovaries, uterus and pelvic bone before the war.

"What is my treatment [in Gaza]? Painkillers!" she cried. "But what can painkillers do for a cancer patient?"

Beside them, 14-year-old Muath al-Dini, balanced on crutches after a leg amputation, is waiting for two separate medical evacuations.

His mother, Umm Samir al-Dini, told the BBC that Muath lost his leg in an air strike on their family home, which also killed another of her children, and injured her husband and younger son.

But she said Muath had also been battling spinal cancer since he was a baby.

"Before the war, I used to receive treatment outside Gaza at a hospital in Jerusalem, and had surgery to stabilise my vertebrae. Here, there is no treatment for me," Muath said.

Some Gazans received permission before the war to travel to hospitals in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem for treatment, but Israel has since closed that route almost entirely, with just one Gazan patient travelling to the West Bank for cancer treatment.

Umm Samir said four of the screws holding Muath's spine in place have come loose and are affecting his breathing. Doctors in Gaza had also recommended a further amputation to his leg.

After being told they had security clearance for evacuation, the family have heard nothing more since they were asked to resubmit documents in May.

"We are still waiting," Umm Samir said. "My son's childhood has been lost. He is bullied and refuses to leave the house. There are no medicines, and no doctors [here] who understand my son's condition."

The desperation of patients haunts Gaza's hospitals - their exterior walls eaten away by gunfire and Israeli strikes, the health-care system inside them still unrepaired.

Eight months after the ceasefire deal instructed that "full aid" be sent into the Gaza Strip, aid workers say the continued lack of essential medicines and equipment has meant doctors are rationing or loaning each other essential life-saving drugs, or turning patients away from chemotherapy or dialysis appointments.

"The fact that the medical evacuation list is thousands long is a sign that people in Gaza don't have access to what they should have - which Israel, as the occupying power under international humanitarian law, has an obligation to allow them access to," said Pat Griffiths, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Jerusalem.

Shortages, he said, run from basic consumables like gauze dressings and painkillers, all the way up to advanced medical equipment.

"There is no doubt in my mind that people in Gaza are dying because they can't receive the care they need - and that there are preventable deaths happening because of the limits on what can be brought in, in terms of healthcare."

Asked about the reports of critical shortages, Cogat said in a statement that 17,000 tons of medicines and medical aid had entered Gaza since the ceasefire, including wheelchairs, cancer medications, insulin pens, anaesthetics, X-ray machines, CT scanners, dialysis machines and medical consumables.

"Despite claims to the contrary," it said, "Israel has approved every request for medicines submitted by international aid organisations."

In response, one humanitarian official involved, speaking to me anonymously, said that Israeli authorities often used anecdotal examples to mask shortages of key medicines and equipment, and that aid supplies continued to be restricted.

"You don't count medical aid in terms of trucks and pallets; that's not a denominator we use," said the WHO's Reinhilde Van de Weerdt. "We talk about the needs patients have, and the needs that are met."

"If medical supply is unrestricted, you don't have these discussions about what is given versus what is needed," she said. "We need certain buffer stock levels of medical supplies, [and] you can't run a hospital hoping the generator doesn't break down."

Mazen al-Arayeshi, director of engineering and maintenance at Gaza's ministry of health, said Israel was now allowing enough fuel in to run the generators hospitals rely on for power, but that surgeries were still being cancelled because the power they supplied was too low, and that Israel had refused to allow them to swap in new generators for old.

"If spare parts, filters and new generators are not allowed in, we are heading towards a catastrophe," he told the BBC. "Yesterday, one of the main generators at Nasser Medical Complex [in Khan Younis] stopped working, and we had to cut electricity to several departments."

Some desperate patients on the long list of evacuees have reportedly begun paying self-declared agents thousands of pounds to try to move their cases forward.

A warning notice has appeared on the WHO website, telling patients in large red letters to "Beware of fraud", and not to pay anyone who claims to be able to speed up the evacuation process.

"During this war, we have learned everything, adapted to everything, trained ourselves to endure everything," Amina's son, Saber, said.

"Most of those who came to offer condolences for my mother said, 'At least she is at peace now.' That sentence sums up everything. Because a patient in Gaza is different from any patient elsewhere in the world."

Israeli police officer filmed throwing stun grenade into car in West Bank

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1eyyyl8ye0o, 6 days ago

Israeli police have opened an investigation after CCTV emerged of a Border Police officer throwing a stun grenade into a car in the occupied West Bank.

The footage shows the officer approaching the car in the Palestinian refugee camp Qalandia and shouting at those inside. After a brief exchange, he throws the stun grenade through the open door and forces it closed as the driver tries to escape. There is a blast and smoke is visible.

The two passengers escape from the other side before the officer appears to fire his rifle as they duck for cover. Israeli rights group B'Tselem said everyone in the car survived.

Police told Israeli media the officer had not acted "in accordance with procedure".

It said the incident had been transferred to the department of internal police investigations.

In a separate incident in Qalandia on Sunday, Israeli forces shot and killed a 16-year-old boy, Walid Abu Sneineh, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Two other children suffered gunshot wounds to their lower limbs, it added.

Israeli authorities told the BBC that Israeli forces perceived an imminent threat to their lives after "a violent riot erupted during which [they] came under a massive barrage of stones".

They said the forces responded with gunfire to "a suspect throwing stones at them from a rooftop".

Also on Sunday, a critically ill four-month-old baby, Ahmed Zaid, died after Israeli troops refused to open a gate blocking the main entrance to his village west of Ramallah, delaying his access to urgent medical care, according to the head of the local UN human rights office.

Ajith Sunghay said an ambulance was waiting on the other side of the gate outside Deir Ammar to take Ahmed to hospital.

He described the death as "senseless" and "emblematic of an occupying power continuing to show utter disregard for the humanity and rights of Palestinians living under occupation".

However, the Israeli military told the BBC that its troops "allowed the baby and his family to pass without any delay to continue receiving medical treatment".

The youth clubs fighting to stay relevant in the social media age

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8j2mv0zw82o, 3 days ago

It's 17:00 on Thursday in Bradford and as I approach a three-storey former country pub, drill music booms from the basement.

The snappy, rhythmic beats are not what you expect inside this old, listed building.

This is where teenagers from Gypsy, traveller and Roma communities get together every week. Older generations would call this a youth club but when I meet 16-year-old Sterling, he's quick to correct me: "Youth clubs are out of style."

As he fiddles with his cap, I suggest that this very building is in fact a re-branded model of a youth club.

"I mean, like, all right, it's similar, it has a resemblance to a youth club," he says. "But I view it more of a place to hang out, eat food and hustle."

Sterling has been coming here for two years. The club is called Romalandia and calls itself a "cultural centre" on its social media pages.

The basement music studio is by far the most popular space, where, as Sterling puts it, "if you're a young rapper you get yourself a free producer", as well as the chance to socialise and have fun.

But whether you call it a youth club or a cultural centre, places like this are becoming increasingly rare in England and Wales.

Youth clubs have been closing for years, while the number of youth workers has also fallen.

Spending on youth services by local authorities in England has slumped by 73% since 2010 according to the latest data from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. In Wales, it's not as drastic, but has still fallen by 27% over the same period.

For many communities, that has meant losing youth clubs altogether. More than 1,000 council-run youth centres have shut in England alone since 2010 according to the same government data.

Many independent youth groups operate on tight budgets, relying heavily on volunteers and short-term grants. Without secure funding, some are forced to close after only a few months.

The YMCA charity, the oldest provider of youth services in England and Wales, says there's been a real-term cut of more than £1.2bn pounds between 2010 and 2024. This means there are now far fewer leisure, cultural and sports activities being run from youth centres.

Many youth centres like Romalandia don't get local authority funding or government support. It relies on private donations with some money coming from local businesses, charities and project-led community grants.

But now, in London, Mayor Sadiq Khan has allocated £50m of this year's budget for youth services across the capital. And across England, The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has also started opening hubs which it says will help teenagers with jobs, wellbeing and stop them falling into a life of crime.

But even if the money is there, how do youth clubs make themselves appeal to Gen Z? And if they can appeal, how do they need to be set up to really help the people who use them?

Sleepless nights

I've spoken to youth workers around the country who describe the pressure they face as budgets are squeezed.

Funding is a constant headache for Daniel Balaz, founder of Romalandia, who says the centre faces temporary closure if more funding cannot be found.

"Honestly, I don't sleep," he tells me. Daniel says he spends most of his time chasing and following up funding opportunities and this means dealing with lots of bureaucracy.

"We have to work through different departments, different services," he says. "We have to keep on our toes over how we're going to keep generating that income."

The number of full-time youth workers fell by 34% in 2023-24 compared with 2012-13 in England according to YMCA data. It was even more pronounced in Wales with a 46% drop over the same time period.

Even if they manage to get their hands on cash, some youth workers argue that they face an even bigger challenge: making their services relevant to today's teenagers.

Nowadays, "nobody wants to go to a youth club", says veteran youth leader Paul McKenzie, who's worked in London and the south east of England for more than 30 years.

I meet Paul at a new venture he's co-founded in Essex called Youth Unity, which is partly funded by the Metropolitan Police.

In an era where young people have access to social media, the traditional concept of a youth club just doesn't work any more, he says. "Everything's changed. It's a 'space'."

Working for free to cut crime

So what can "spaces" like his do to stay relevant?

Paul is talking to me from a side street in Romford. You wouldn't know the hub was here because the outdoor space for basketball, chess and boxing is blocked off by high steel fencing.

Youth Unity also has an area indoors for podcasting, gaming and debating - things he says are all relevant in modern Britain.

Funding and having attractive facilities make a big difference, but Paul says he's only been able to keep going because he's prepared to do whatever it takes to keep it going.

"For me if they pull the funding on this, I'll still be here on a Friday. I'll bring a candle if the lights go out and I think that explains it all."

Staying open, in Paul's view, means making an unequivocal commitment especially in places where anti-social behaviour is rife: "The crime rate in this area is very high so if these doors close you may end up sitting in the park, then we have grooming or drugs."

And this link between crime and closures of youth clubs is plain to see, according to charities trying to prevent children from becoming involved in violence.

Caleb Jackson, head of change at the Youth Endowment Fund, says research shows youth clubs can reduce offending by 13%. He says they are often open during the hours when youth violence is most likely to happen, between 16:00 and 20:00.

But he says simply opening more youth clubs is not enough.

"It's really important that those children connect with trusted adults," says Jackson.

A survey by the charity found 73% of youth workers said they informally mentor children at risk, while 65% said they de-escalate conflicts and 55% said they tackle dangerous misinformation.

Paul McKenzie says he is used to seeing disorder regularly and tells me about a recent situation where he helped save a boy's life after being stabbed.

"Three weeks ago we had up to 300 young people out there fighting, just where you came in today. Now for me if the lights go out here, if we can't secure funding, what do those young people do?

Paul says he will always find a way to stay open: "One thing we don't do is close the door to anybody so some weeks we might have to go without money, but it's super important not to close the door." But he understands why that's not possible everywhere.

And for charities, that raises a broader question. If youth services increasingly rely on staff going beyond what they are paid to do, is that model sustainable?

Keeping out of trouble

Even though the latest Home Office figures show knife crime has fallen by 8% in England and Wales, many people say they don't feel safe, especially those living in areas where violent crime is more visible.

The government says youth centres play an important role in tackling these problems.

Their purpose is to help young people feel safe - and some teenagers I spoke to say youth clubs have done this while keeping them out of trouble.

Seventeen-year-old Adam, who's on a traineeship programme with Youth Unity, says he's had to make some tough life choices.

"I was in a bad group of friends for about a year and it was one of the most important years of my life," he says.

"It just kind of ruined that time of my life. I started coming here and it made me want to give back to the young people that might be in my situation."

At Youth Unity, I also meet 15-year-old Zipporah, who is verbally sparring with other girls in this week's debating session about the benefits and pitfalls of social media.

Drifting away from the huddle, she says she feels safe coming here and wants to be a paramedic.

"Romford is a very active place. Quite a few fights have happened and in the time I've been coming here, there [have] been two major ones."

"You can see the way that the staff here work in that situation. They'll be the first ones out and looking around to see what's happening, who's hurt and how to help the people that are involved."

Stepping in early

Staff on the front line say a major factor in whether a youth centre succeeds or fails is how deeply embedded it is in the community.

A good example of this is Lambton Street Youth and Community Hub (LSYCH) in Sunderland, one of the oldest youth centres in Europe, dating back to 1901.

"It's so established in Sunderland," says Marie Mould who has been managing LSYCH for two years and used the centre as a teenager. "It's ingrained in the community."

She adds: "You could walk around the streets and somebody you know will have either gone there, the parent went there, the grandad went there or the great-grandad went there."

And this is a major part of why the centre is flourishing, she believes. Thanks to the community goodwill it can draw upon, LSYCH has 44 volunteers, and without them "none of this will be happening right now".

One of those volunteers is Sophie, who is 20 and first started coming here when she was six. She says life at home was unsettled.

The support Sophie received from LSYCH has left an indelible mark and she's now doing a degree in youth work: "I want to be on the other side and be there for the next generation."

She adds: "I don't think I'd be a youth worker if it wasn't for being here. I couldn't actually imagine what my life would have been like."

And early interventions like the ones LSYCH made in Sophie's life are crucial, experts say.

According to Kate Roberts Fox, Policy and Public Affairs Manager from The Children's Society, 82% of local authority youth funding is focused on so-called "late intervention services", for example, taking children into care or providing crisis support.

"Funding in local authorities has overwhelmingly concentrated on that late intervention."

But it's more effective to intervene at an earlier stage, says Roberts Fox - and youth centres allow services to do that. "You don't want young people to feel like they have to end up in that situation and have that high level of need in order to be able to get support," she says. "They should be able to access support from an early stage."

Staying afloat

Ultimately, many youth workers say, the benefit of youth clubs is that they are usually staffed by people with deep roots in their communities - in contrast to solutions imposed externally.

This is personal for Sayce Holmes-Lewis, CEO of the Mentivity House youth centre in Walworth, south London, which opened in 2024. He grew up locally on the Aylesbury estate, where Tony Blair famously made his first public appearance after becoming prime minister in 1997.

A year later, Blair referred to some estates as "sinking ships".

Sayce was struck by this depiction of his estate as "something that was sinking, that needed to be rescued. It was kind of that whole white saviour approach."

Mentivity is on the Aylesbury estate. "I still remember what it was like to grow up on the estate, the negativity and stereotypical views of growing up on a council state but I have nothing but positive things to talk about when it comes to the Aylesbury estate," says Sayce.

Sayce says it was important to give back to his community and was the sole reason for opening Mentivity in the first place. It's a brand new, shiny space with a podcast studio in one corner and gaming screens in the another. The hall bellows with young people. Here they are offered free meals, wellbeing days and in some cases support to help fast-track mental health assessments for conditions such as ADHD.

"We're in the Faraday ward in Southwark which is the [borough's] most underserved ward," he says. "One in five young people have issues of mental health, there are high exclusion rates and nearly 3% of young people are not in education, employment, or training."

It took Sayce and his team eight years to open but the service is growing fast. With more than 200 teenagers on its books, it's available every weekday and will soon be welcoming people on weekends.

It has a mixed funding model from corporate entities to the Mayor of London's Violence Reduction Unit which secured money from the Home Office to help drive down crime.

Mentivity is in a healthy financial position compared with other youth groups but, it lost almost half a million pounds of funding last year due to what Sayce says is a growing anti-diversity and equality movement.

Sayce says he is determined to beat the drum for youth spaces: "We have to recreate the village, we have to recreate communities."

"When services are pulled back, there's a real distinct lack of trust for adults. They take that mistrust, that anger and that frustration back into society," he says.

"When you're feeling let down as a young person and you're heartbroken that now this youth club is not there, you're willing to go into other areas just to try and make up for that void."

Oh, and he's not bothered about the term "youth club".

He says: "They can call it what they want, but they are here."

"They are voting with their feet so we're not precious around what it's called, it's about how they feel when they're here."

Top image credit: Getty Images

The massive scramble behind the scenes before the new PM arrives

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj4g0n0p15xo, 8 days ago

Welcome to limbo land. Unless a meteorite crashes to earth, Scotland wins the World Cup after all, or the ravens leave the Tower, in just over a fortnight, Andy Burnham will walk up Downing Street as the 59th British prime minister.

We are, once again, in a bizarre in-between political moment. An informal transition where the man technically in power has no authority. But the man with all the authority doesn't yet have any real power.

What, though, is actually happening while the Starmers get ready to pack their bags, and the Burnhams prepare for the day that will change their lives?

This afternoon, Burnham is taking a break, watching his rugby league team, Leigh Leopards, take on the Warrington Wolves. And tomorrow night he'll stay up with his family to watch England play Mexico.

But that's only a brief respite. In public, every move he makes is being pored over to an incredible degree.

The next prime minister hasn't fought a general election, so hasn't published a clear manifesto, meaning Westminster's hungry for clues.

Since becoming an MP again, he's only made one big speech, given one radio interview, and taken questions from the public on social media.

Using Reddit or Instagram does make politicians more accessible to the public, allowing you, not journalists like me, to push them. Remember, though, it also gives them the power to pick and choose the topics, or the questions they want to answer.

So right now in government, officials are "rushing around picking up every little hint and tidbit on areas that might affect their department", in the words of one former senior figure.

As we talked about last week, Burnham's broad approach to politics has been clear for years. In his speech last Monday, he gave some details of what that would mean in practice, with a "No 10 North" in Manchester, where he wants to spend some of the week.

On Thursday, he repeated his plan to give a tax cut to pubs, and small independent leisure and retail companies, paid for by levies on giant warehouses operated by big online firms like Amazon.

Burnham has indicated he will broadly stick to the Labour manifesto from 2024, but says it has "room for manoeuvre" when it comes to tax, for example.

He also wants to expand public control of utilities, some of which is underway already. Every nudge he gives is seized on in public, and in Whitehall's corridors of power.

Beyond the limited amount the likely next prime minister is saying in public, this limbo period is frantic behind the scenes politically and practically.

Burnham spent the week in meetings with MPs, and a crunch session with the powerful unions. And there's a talent contest going on inside the Labour Party, with Andy Burnham the Simon Cowell, and aspirant ministers auditioning for their place.

It's what one MP describes - in colourful language - as the "greatest show of arselickmanship you have ever seen", telling me, "there's a bunfight for jobs, a bunfight for Cabinet and a bunfight for political space".

But the man himself is not expected to announce his team until he's almost through the black shiny No 10 door.

He's told colleagues he'll set the direction of his plans before deciding who gets what job. The wannabes will have to wait. Burnham, for now, holds all the cards.

But even though he is not yet the Labour leader, a formal handover process has begun - "access talks".

Just like before a general election, the incoming team has been given permission by the sitting prime minister to start conversations with the civil service about what they want to do.

Cabinet Secretary Antonia Romeo, the country's top official, is running the process and Burnham himself has led the talks.

Alongside him have been his chief of staff (former cabinet minister and old flatmate James Purnell) and Lou Haigh, the MP who has been critical to his campaign and served in Starmer's cabinet.

The focus so far as been on devolution, the grisly state of the country's books and the security threats the UK faces. And there'll be more talks in the coming week.

For all the vital high-level talk about plans and policy, there are also the basic practicalities of the preparation for the big move-in day, when everything official changes.

One former No 10 staffer recalls arriving early in the morning, being "shuffled through weird corridors, taken into a room, choosing logins and signing our lives away".

How will Team Burnham choreograph the moment where he walks up to the lectern to address the country?

Keir Starmer's team agonised over whether to bring crowds of supporters into Downing Street to wave and cheer his arrival, worried "it would look too gauche to have a celebration".

But in the end, they did plump for an image they hoped would be "strong and patriotic", according to one of them, with Union Jack brollies on hand in case it poured, and supporters waving flags.

It will be Burnham's first official introduction to the country as prime minister, an image that will be seen by millions, and a speech that will be quoted again and again.

Inside the building, permanent civil service staff will be conscious they are saying goodbye to one team as well as welcoming another. And that's not always straightforward.

One former official recalls a departing prime minister being peeved there was an "office spruce-up", with walls being freshly painted for their replacement about to arrive.

New prime ministers, like the monarch perhaps, maybe get used to the smell. The renovation of the men's loos outside Theresa May's office into a more pleasant waiting area for her guests had only just been finished when her time was up.

Officials stop copying departing political staff into important emails as power drains away.

I'm told there is epic desk tidying to make a good impression when the new boss arrives. And on the day itself, a frantic rush, as one leader will be clapped out, and less than two hours later, a new one clapped in.

And on that day, it's a strange combination of the deadly serious and the banal – from a heavy security briefing, to what kind of desk the prime minister would like, and where he wants to sit. There will suddenly be hundreds of decisions, big and small, for the country's new leader, and his new chief of staff.

"James Purnell will be weirdly dragged into having to worry about the toilet paper as well as when he is going to write his letters to the nuclear submarine commander," a former official jokes.

One of the most sombre tasks every new prime minister carries out more or less immediately is writing four of those letters, to the commanders of Britain's four nuclear submarines – the letters of "last resort" – with instructions on what to do in the eventuality that the UK government has been destroyed by a nuclear attack.

From the gravest to the most basic, a set of choices will confront Andy Burnham as soon as he walks through the Downing Street door.

Remember he'd hoped to have longer to get ready. Key allies had hoped Keir Starmer would stay on until September, and give them time to prepare.

But while he looks near certain to achieve his biggest goal, finally becoming Labour leader (which he first tried in 2010) and then prime minister, the hope of a couple of months to get ready was dashed.

An ambition more than 15 years in the making. Only 15 days to go.

To picture credit: Getty Images/ EPA/Shutterstock

After 250 years the American Dream is surviving, but only just

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2vpz2qee5o, 10 days ago

Sixteen years ago, Abdi Nor Iftin was a Somali refugee living in one of the roughest slums in Kenya when he found out he had won the lottery of a lifetime. Out of nearly eight million applicants in 2013, he had been one of the lucky 50,000 granted a US visa through a scheme known as the diversity visa scheme that the US government had begun in the 1990s.

Abdi had long dreamt of moving to America. He was so obsessed, his childhood friends even nicknamed him "Abdi America" after he learnt to speak English by watching Hollywood movies. "My whole life I have been in love with America - the best country in the world, the dreamland, the land of opportunity," he told the BBC in 2014.

That year, Abdi, now 41, arrived in the US, settled in a small town in Maine, got a job installing insulation and became a US citizen. But now, his hopes have run up against reality. He lost his job at a refugee resettlement agency this year, and consequently his health insurance.

On the eve of the United States' 250th birthday, Abdi, like many Americans, is feeling uneasy about the future of his country.

"I feel like the American Dream is alive, but not well," he told me.

Meanwhile, Luke Mullen, a 24-year-old actor from California, told me he's planning on moving to Canada because of a lack of film opportunities in Hollywood, of all places.

"Wealth is getting consolidated in this country and as that happens, the opportunities are dwindling," he said.

Survey after survey taken ahead of the 250th anniversary of America's founding shows many Americans feel the "American Dream"- the promise that anyone in the United States can create a bright future for themselves - is fading.

A recent poll from the Associated Press-NORC found that only a third of the public believes the American Dream still exists. The sentiment is the same across many surveys. One recent study from the Pew Research Center, shows that most Americans say the country's best days are behind it.

America's 250th birthday also comes at a moment of deep polarisation and partisan divide.

So what does it mean if the Dream - a brand exported around the world in movies, music and pop culture - feels out of reach?

'Not a dream of motor cars'

In those early days after the Revolutionary War and well into the 21st Century, what became known as the Dream enticed millions of immigrants to this shiny new nation full of hope, optimism and individualism. Factory workers, farmers, gold diggers, frontiersmen flocked to the US with the belief that they could create a new identity - an "American" - unshackled from the class systems of Europe.

Historians will tell you that the Dream never included everyone - certainly not Native Americans, slaves, or even women. Nevertheless, the idea of the American Dream persisted.

The concept of the American Dream dates back to the founding of the US, but the phrase wasn't popularised until later, in The Epic of America, a book published in 1931 during the Great Depression.

In it, the historian James Truslow Adams wrote: "It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable."

Over the years, the slogan has evolved. These days it's often associated with entrepreneurialism, social mobility and, above all, economic opportunity.

"It has always been about doing better in life than before," says Cyril Ghosh, author of The Politics of the American Dream: Democratic Inclusion in Contemporary American Political Culture. "For some people, the better in life is simply not being persecuted by the Church of England.

"It's not only about materialism. It's about security. It's about doing better than a previous station. That's what it's always been about."

Abdi had grown up in Somalia, hiding in dugouts to avoid getting shot by the militant group al-Shabab.

"Freedom was a huge priority. Living the next day, breathing next day, was a big, big issue, and I really wanted that," he said, explaining why he had wanted to move to the US.

Researchers say first-generation immigrants, like Abdi, are often more upbeat about the potential of America.

"Many are coming from less wealthy nations. And so they really are going to end up doing better than if they had not emigrated," says Elizabeth Suhay, author of Debating the American Dream: How Explanations for Inequality Polarize Politics.

"Immigrants, for the most part, are more likely to say that they are achieving the Dream, or they've achieved it," said Mark Hugo Lopez, director of race and ethnicity research at the Pew Research Center who has specifically looked in-depth at attitudes among Latino immigrants. They also tend to be, Lopez said, more optimistic about the prospects for their children.

American Dream interrupted

The American Dream has always been a sell for immigrants. However, fewer of them are coming these days.

President Trump has made curbing immigration a cornerstone of his presidency, after campaigning on a promise to carry out the largest mass deportation programme in history.

During his second term, Trump has not only clamped down on the number of immigrants illegally entering via the southern border, he has blocked some legal pathways to come to the US, including the diversity visa programme that Abdi used.

But today it's not just that the US is welcoming fewer immigrants, it also appears a record number of people may be leaving.

One suggestion is that many Americans who grew up in the US don't think the country has held up its end of the bargain - that if you work hard and you play by the rules, you should have a decent, comfortable life.

Last year, in a historic reversal, the number of Americans moving to Ireland was higher than the number of Irish moving into the US. The US government doesn't track the number of Americans voluntarily leaving the country, so there aren't official statistics, but reporting suggests it's not just Ireland.

A record number of Americans are applying for UK citizenship, and The Wall Street Journal reported that the number of Americans arriving to live and work in nearly all of the EU's 27 member states is rising.

Why are people leaving? Some point to current US politics, others to healthcare costs and the overall standard of living. In most cases it is likely to be for a variety of reasons, some of them personal.

For Luke Mullen, it's about job prospects.

The actor, who starred in the Disney show Andi Mack as a teen and has now become more involved with writing and production, says he has more opportunities for film projects these days in Vancouver, Canada than he does in southern California. Vancouver is covered by new government tax credits to try to help it compete with Hollywood and become a major movie hub.

The American Dream has been sold around the world, in part, through American cinema and in many ways, Hollywood epitomises the idea of making it in America. However, for Luke it's more complicated - he says it seems there were more opportunities in the past. In the last few years, spending from big studios on Hollywood films and TV has stagnated or dropped.

He said: "I can't even imagine growing up in the 90s and the boom of TV and the rom coms and all all those projects, but especially right now we're seeing just a total, total cost-cutting effort to make it harder and harder to get projects made, take less and less risks and hire less people."

He recently became a Canadian citizen thanks to a change in Canadian law last December.

"My process in becoming a Canadian citizen is very much tied to the fact that I can't get these things made here that I've been working on for years and [I'm] passionate about," he told me.

And so he's intending to move to Canada. Though, he wants to be clear, not forever.

"I'm never gonna abandon America. This is my home and I think it's worth fighting for still. There's so much that we need to do to make it better in this country," he said.

Aspiration versus reality

These days, the consensus among sociologists and political scientists is that financial success has increasingly become a central tenet of the Dream – the belief that my children or grandchildren will have a better life than me.

"Roughly speaking, the American Dream is the idea that if you work hard, you ought to achieve a comfortable life, what we might call a middle-class lifestyle - a house, healthcare, the ability to take care of your kids, a car, college," said Suhay.

Statistics also suggest that over the last 50 years, the idea that every generation will do better than the one before has been eroded.

Research by the Harvard University economist Raj Chetty found that among children born in 1940, 90% of them grew up to earn more than their parents. Today, only half of children born in the 1980s are on track to do better than their parents economically.

This perception of economic abundance spread in the 1950s with the post-WWII boom, perhaps best symbolised through the growth of single-family homes adorned with white picket fences. The Dream became particularly popular in political rhetoric, Ghosh says, in the mid-60s with the civil rights movement and more expansive immigration policies.

"It is a core part of America," said Suhay. "Almost everybody agrees that this is an important ideal. But… we have huge debates about whether or not the United States actually delivers the American Dream."

So when did the Dream start to fade?

The Dream started to decline some 50 years ago, beginning in the 1970s, with globalisation and wage stagnation, according to Mark Rank, co-author of Chasing the American Dream: Understanding What Shapes Our Fortunes.

"It's become much harder to attain the American Dream - this idea of an economic bargain that if you work hard and you play by the rules, you should have a decent, comfortable economic life," he said. "That idea of each generation doing economically better than the past generation is a key component of the American Dream. And that had been the case up until about the 1970s," he says.

And experts say that in the subsequent years, the Dream began to experience a prolonged decline as socioeconomic inequality increased.

Then, some experts say, there was another tipping point: the financial crisis of 2008 and the aftershocks that meant home ownership and job stability were increasingly out of reach.

And many Americans never recovered that economic optimism. Despite this, American wages remain much higher than ones in the UK, and across much of Europe.

Irrespective, wide partisan divides persist over whether the Dream is achievable. Surveys show more Republicans still appear to hold the faith, as do older Americans. Young adults seem particularly cynical. One poll found only a fifth of adults aged 18-29, people like Luke, think the Dream remains a possibility.

That being said, the Dream has never been entirely about financial success. For many, it's a dream of freedom and individual rights that trace back to America's founding documents, such as the Bill of Rights.

And in that vein, it's worth noting that many black Americans have long thought the Dream was a myth built upon lofty rhetoric from the Founding Fathers that didn't mesh with the reality of American slavery and segregation.

Martin Luther King Jr described America as manifesting a "schizophrenic personality" long before the nationwide disillusionment with the Dream began.

"In a real sense America is essentially a dream - a dream yet unfulfilled," he said in a 1960 address in North Carolina. "Slavery and segregation have been strange paradoxes in a nation founded on the principle that all men are created equal."

Reniqua Allen-Lamphere, a writer who's researched black attitudes toward the Dream, described the concept as one of America's "most enduring myths".

"Black folks have their own experiences with the American Dream partially because so much of their experience has been fighting for literal freedom," she told me. And, yet she added "the American Dream is a part of me - that hope for a better day, even though I find it hard. I find it really hard."

Keeping the Dream alive

One nugget that stood out to me as I dug through all the various polls of the last several months was a survey conducted by The Times that suggested, despite the overall pessimism about the Dream in this moment, "61% of poll respondents said they believed in the concept".

Brandon Patty, a 44-year-old clerk and comptroller in St John's County, Florida and a Navy Reserve commander, is one such American who believes passionately that the Dream is alive and working. "I'm just honoured to kind of be a part of it," he told me. "Even just by God's grace, being born here, and being a part of American experiment".

"When I hear the phrase 'American Dream', it means to me that the opportunities are limitless - that in America, you can go from nothing and find your way… it's something that is intrinsic as an American in many ways."

Brandon was the first in his family to graduate from college, the first in his generation to graduate from high school.

"I'm 44 now, and, candidly, I'm living it," he said, he said of the Dream.

Gonzalo Schwarz, president and CEO of The Archbridge Institute, a public policy think tank, agrees that it's important to focus on the positives of living in America.

The Archbridge Institute's own polling found that majorities across various demographic groups agree that the American Dream is alive and well. The organisation says this is because it has a different methodology and asks more direct questions than most other polls, which it says are more conceptual in nature.

"If we focus only on the negative aspects and on the share of people who believe the Dream is out of reach, we risk making the demise of the American Dream a self-fulfilling prophecy," Schwarz says. "We should step back, take a longer-term view, and be inspired to rekindle the American Dream as a beacon of hope for America's next 250 years."

For Mark Rank, the sociologist who's written about this, the Dream, even if more conditional than before, is still alive.

"If you say it's no longer alive... You have ripped out a key component of America's identity," he says. "I think there are questions about it, and there is uncertainty about it." But the way he sees it – in the spirit of American optimism, these questions are a chance to rethink how the US can ensure the Dream remains accessible to everyone for the next 250 years.

Back in Maine, Abdi said his brother Hassan, who couldn't immigrate to the US because of visa restrictions, instead recently became a citizen of Canada. "My brother says they have better healthcare," he tells me with a laugh.

Despite the setbacks, Abdi says if he had to do it all over, he would still choose the US. "I guess it's my first love."

Listen to the rest of The Global Story podcast series on America's 250th anniversary here

How the leasehold revolution could transform neighbourly relations

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8llpp67l1o, 5 days ago

When Sally, 74, bought her two-bedroom flat in 2021, she hoped it would be the home she could peacefully retire in.

But she says buying a leasehold home has led to terrible stress.

There are around five million leaseholders in England and Wales. Sally is one of over 1,000 people the BBC spoke to in an attempt to understand the pressures on leaseholders. Most said that fast rising service changes and ground rent costs make them feel they have little control over their own homes.

When she moved into her London flat, Sally says service charges were around £2,600 a year. One year, they totalled more than £5,400.

"That was a really bad year. Me and my fellow owners were very stressed and anxious. There were tears and I remember us talking about how we were going to pay."

Now, the government wants to fundamentally change how flats are owned.

Under its Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, new leasehold flats will be banned and replaced with commonhold, a system where residents collectively own and manage their buildings.

"The people who should own buildings, and who should exercise control over their management, shared facilities and related costs are not third-party landlords but the people who live in flats within them and who have a direct stake in their upkeep," said Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook, in a speech in April.

Freeholders argue that the English Housing Survey suggests 93% of leaseholders living in flats are satisfied with being an owner occupier (the survey doesn't ask specifically about being a leaseholder).

Despite this, the government is introducing reforms widely seen as the biggest shake-up of home ownership in decades.

But as commonhold moves closer to becoming the default for new-build flats, questions remain over whether it can avoid creating a new set of challenges for homeowners. And can a system that has existed for centuries really be replaced - or will a whole new set of problems emerge?

"Feudal" system

To understand the complexities of today's leasehold system, described by many, including Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook, as "feudal", we have to go back almost 1,000 years.

In the Middle Ages, William the Conqueror took control of England's land and granted parts of it to loyal nobles, who leased it to others for a fixed term.

While today's leasehold system is very different, critics argue the basic principle remains the same - homeowners pay for the right to occupy land they do not fully own.

For almost 60 years, successive governments have tried to reform it, with one alternative repeatedly put forward: commonhold.

It was first introduced into law under Tony Blair's government in 2004, but developers have rarely chosen it. According to the Land Registry, there are only 18 commonhold developments in England.

Commonhold is a type of home ownership where flat owners have a share in running their building. There is no freeholder, and residents vote on decisions about shared spaces and maintenance. Homeowners are expected to pay into a reserve fund and either manage the property themselves or appoint a managing agent.

Nick Hopkins, Professor of Land Law at UCL and specialist adviser to the House of Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee - the group of MPs scrutinising the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill - says that after years of looking into the issue he is "convinced" commonhold is the right direction for the government to go in.

He says flat owners would still have to pay towards the upkeep of their building, but they would have "much more autonomy" over decision-making under the proposals.

John Bartholomew, 81, and his wife have lived in one of England's commonhold developments, in Somerset, for around 12 years.

The development consists of two blocks of flats and five town houses. They have an annual general meeting and come together to discuss issues such as the shared car park.

He says he has been lucky to live in a place where people agree on the work that needs to be done.

"If a renegade came in, we might struggle," he says.

"If we want something done, we have to agree that part of the fee will be put to that purpose, like the repainting of the sheds."

Freeholders argue that they act as "stewards" of buildings.

They point to research by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), which they say suggests Scotland's commonhold-like system has created "major hurdles" in carrying out essential building maintenance, with 28% of buildings in critical disrepair.

Similar concerns were raised in evidence to MPs scrutinising the draft legislation.

Mari Knowles, a landlord and tenant lawyer, told the Select Committee there was a risk of a "stalemate situation" where residents may not agree on paying for maintenance and investment in a building.

She said she had worked with resident-managed buildings that "traditionally have not paid into the reserve fund... now the buildings are severely dilapidated, and they are all looking at five-figure or six-figure bills."

Freeholders

Under the leasehold system, the freeholder appoints a managing agent to maintain and service the common parts of a building. Flat owners are then given the bills.

Leaseholders are also legally obliged to pay ground rent - a fee paid for the land beneath their building - to the freeholder. Depending on the terms of the lease, the amount can either double at fixed intervals or increase in line with inflation, which can make a property harder to sell, mortgage or remortgage.

Freeholds can be bought and sold between investors who do not live in the building, and sometimes not even in the country, meaning the English system of flat ownership has become "financialised", according to Hopkins.

He believes a move to commonhold would change that, ensuring "the only financial interest in the block is with those living in it."

Under the proposed plans, ground rents will also be capped at £250 before falling to a "peppercorn" rate - effectively zero - after 40 years. In a debate in Parliament on Thursday, a number of MPs called for that process to be sped up - and described ground rents as "money for nothing".

Freeholders say this overlooks the long-term oversight and legal accountability they provide, including maintaining buildings and acting as an independent party when disputes arise.

Arguments over costs

The BBC wrote to all of the groups that run commonhold developments in England and Wales, and not all described a harmonious way of living.

One resident described commonhold as a "nightmare".

He says one flat owner has refused to pay towards maintenance and other residents now have to pay more to cover that share. The collective is now £10,000 in debt.

"The government is pushing commonhold forward, but it's not the way to go. It's terrible - a disaster."

Due to the ongoing dispute, the man did not want to be named for this article, but said the leasehold system would have offered more protection in his case because, "if a leaseholder doesn't pay there is something in the contract that will say 'you forfeit the lease'. With commonhold, that doesn't happen, so the payments fall on everyone else."

A freeholder can seek to repossess someone's home if a leaseholder doesn't pay service charges, something that will also be abolished under the reforms. In a commonhold, disputes between owners must be resolved through the courts. Under the changes, in the most extreme cases, homeowners who refuse to pay could be forced to sell their home to settle debt.

Hopkins accepts that commonhold is "not a panacea for everything that can go wrong when you own a flat," but says it is "the right legal basis to have to deal with the issues that can go wrong".

He says commonhold will require "a bit of a cultural change" and that people will need to view themselves as "stewards" of their building.

English system is a global outlier

One of the main arguments from Hopkins and many others is that commonhold, or similar forms of ownership, already work in much of the rest of the world.

Dr Cathy Sherry, Professor at Macquarie Law School in Australia, has studied property law and ownership across the world. She agrees there is no perfect way of owning buildings but believes England and Wales should move to commonhold.

Australia uses a system known as strata, which Sherry describes as a form of commonhold similar to the condominium model used in the United States and other countries.

"The reason why we have strata and condominiums is ex-British colonies were settled by people, the working class of Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland, and they actively did not want the emergence of a landed aristocracy."

Sherry, who was also a technical adviser to the Law Commission's review of commonhold, describes leasehold as "deeply unfair".

She says the Australian system is "much better than leasehold" because ownership and building management are set out in legislation, rather than relying on millions of different leases.

Under the government's proposals, there would also be standard rules around how commonhold buildings are managed.

The Residential Freehold Association (RFA) argue the picture is more complicated.

They point to research from Your Strata Property suggesting only 30% of committee members in Australia's strata system considered themselves "very knowledgeable" about strata law, while 70% admitted to having limited or no confidence in their legal understanding.

They argue this can result in poor governance, legal non-compliance and deferred maintenance - all risks in collectively owned building

Converting to commonhold

Although commonhold has been an option for developers for more than 20 years, they have continued to build leasehold blocks. One reason was reluctance from lenders to provide mortgages for commonhold properties because they were seen as an untested risk.

John Bartholomew says that when he tried to draw equity from his home he was told: "We don't lend to commonhold."

He believes one of the biggest challenges is getting institutions to treat commonhold owners "like any other householders" rather than "second or third-class citizens".

Charles Roe, former Director of Mortgages at UK Finance, which represents around 120 mortgage lenders, told MPs in March that estate agents, valuers, surveyors and conveyancers would all need to be brought up to speed, and that the transition for consumers and the industry would be a "big piece of work".

He said lenders' main concern is what happens when existing leasehold buildings convert to commonhold.

And that is arguably the most complex part of the government's plans.

Campaigners are calling for "commonhold now" and a select committee report released in May called for the government to "go further and faster". But Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook has sought to manage expectations.

In April he said the "outright and immediate abolition of the leasehold system in England and Wales" would be "almost certainly impossible".

Converting a block to commonhold means transferring ownership from the freeholder to the residents, and how existing freeholders should be compensated is disputed.

The previous government tried to make buying a share of freehold cheaper through the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024. But those changes were challenged in the courts by freeholders, who argued the reforms breached their human rights.

The government won that case, but the decision is now under appeal.

Barrister Dr Douglas Maxwell told MPs it was "almost inevitable" that further legal challenges would be brought under human rights law once the new legislation is introduced.

Meanwhile, court battles could slow attempts to make it easier for residents to convert their buildings.

Can England follow Scotland?

Despite what has happened in Australia and other countries, there is no direct comparison for dismantling a leasehold system on the scale of England and Wales.

Scotland did not so much reform leasehold as remove a much smaller version of it.

Ken Gerber, a solicitor in Glasgow, explains that most residential properties in Scotland are already owned outright after a feudal-style system of land ownership was abolished in 2000. Long leases were automatically converted to ownership in 2015.

But he says the scale was very different. In 2006 there were around 2,500 long leases in Scotland - roughly 2% of all residential properties.

"Leasehold in England is much, much more common than in Scotland," he says.

Scottish landlords were entitled to compensation, but Gerber says it was relatively modest. "It was roughly 40 times the amount of annual rent. But it was only leases where the rent was less than £100 a year."

The compensation likely to be sought by English freeholders would be far greater.

On Scotland's current system, which has similarities to commonhold, Gerber says it "generally works".

"You'll always find one that doesn't want to stump up their money... that can be a problem," he says.

Most of the experts agreed there is no perfect system where multiple people share responsibility for a building.

Hopkins believes commonhold will happen, regardless of further legal challenges. "The judicial review failed at first instance and failed quite comprehensively. A lot of the arguments, I think, have really been lost."

He says there is now broad political support for reform.

Former housing secretaries Angela Rayner and Michael Gove both backed reform when giving evidence together to MPs. The Liberal Democrats and Greens also support commonhold, while Reform UK has stopped short of supporting the complete abolition of leasehold.

A spokesperson at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said their reforms would "transform the experience of flat ownership in England by giving homeowners "more power and control over high costs".

Professor Sherry accepts that "stuff can be tricky, but it's workable".

"Commonhold is better because I don't believe that people who don't live in homes should own the underlying land and get the benefits that flow from that."

Whether that vision becomes reality now depends on politics as much as policy.

The likely next prime minister, Andy Burnham, has previously expressed support for leasehold reform, but who he appoints as housing secretary will matter. With the draft bill described as "technical and long", there is still a long way to go before the manifesto pledge comes to fruition.

Top image credit: Getty Images

The dark side of the Brazilian butt lift boom

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20y39wy760o, 7 days ago

When Alice Webb went for a non-surgical Brazilian butt lift (BBL) – a procedure involving the injection of large volumes of dermal filler into the buttocks – at a pop-up clinic inside a rented beauty salon one morning in September 2024, she expected to be finished in time for the afternoon school run.

But Alice, 33, never returned home.

The mother of five died less than 24 hours after undergoing the treatment, becoming the first person in the UK known to have died following a non-surgical BBL procedure. An inquest will be held in the autumn to establish the cause of her death.

Her story has become a focal point in a growing debate about Britain's booming aesthetics industry, where cosmetic injectables are now available everywhere, from High Street beauty salons to rented office spaces and hotel rooms.

Over the past two years, I have investigated this industry, going undercover to find out what is really happening behind clinic doors. I found practitioners willing to inject hundreds of millilitres of filler into my body from makeshift treatment rooms in office blocks. I was offered prescription-only medicines without proper consultations and sold unlabelled weight-loss injections on social media.

I've spoken to dozens of women who have told me about the excruciating pain they experienced caused by cosmetic injections that were marketed as pain-free and low-risk, and the resulting infections that left them in hospital.

The cosmetic accreditation service Save Face says it has seen numerous cases of serious harm linked to cosmetic procedures - including one patient who was left unable to close her eyes following a botched eyelid surgery, and another who sustained perforated intestines during a liposuction procedure.

"It's so horrific that it sounds like some sort of horror film, but these are procedures being carried out on our high streets," says Save Face director Ashton Collins.

The UK is one of Europe's least-regulated markets for cosmetic injectables. Unlike many European countries, anyone can legally train to inject dermal fillers and offer treatments to members of the public.

Now ministers in Scotland and England say they are tightening regulation of this multi-billion pound industry. But will this work? And why, more than a decade after experts warned that dermal fillers were a "crisis waiting to happen", are patients still being exposed to preventable harm?

From the Kardashians to the High Street

In June 2024 Joanne (who only wants us to use her first name) went for a non-surgical BBL procedure at a pop-up clinic in a flat in Essex because she considered it less risky than flying to Turkey for a surgical BBL – this was before Alice had died.

"I just wanted a peachy bum," says Joanne, a mum of two from South Wales. "I should have turned and ran". Shortly after treatment, in which she was injected with 1 litre (1.8 pints) of filler, she ended up in hospital with sepsis. Two years on, she says she still has scars on her thighs and buttock from the treatment.

Cosmetic injectables were once associated with wealthy, middle-aged clients seeking subtle anti-ageing treatments, but the industry has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past decade.

Treatments such as dermal fillers – injectable gels, usually made from hyaluronic acid, that are used to add volume and shape – and Botox are now marketed to a much younger audience and promoted as routine beauty treatments rather than medical procedures.

Ashton Collins of Save Face believes social media and reality television have played a significant role in driving that change: "The Kardashians, Love Island and social media made it fashionable for younger women to have bigger lips, cheeks and frozen faces."

At the same time, injectable treatments have become increasingly widely available and are often offered from beauty salons - which can make them appear similar to routine beauty services, according to Collins.

"People might be getting their nails or eyebrows done and see these treatments as an extension of that," she says. "If you're under 35, it's very likely you perceive these treatments as beauty treatments rather than something medical."

The result, Collins argues, is that consumers often focus on convenience, popularity and price rather than safety credentials.

"We repeatedly find that people don't know Botox is a prescription-only medicine. They don't know they should be assessed by a healthcare professional," she says.

All this has helped fuel extraordinary growth across the sector. But Collins says it has also created the conditions for unsafe practitioners to thrive.

"The way these treatments are presented on social media removes much of the perception of risk," she says.

Striking growth

The scale of that market is still unclear as there is no central register of practitioners and no official database tracking the sector's growth.

Dr Alexander Zargaran, an NHS plastic surgeon and researcher at University College London, set out to quantify one of the largest parts of the market: Botox.

His analysis identified nearly 20,000 practitioners operating across the UK in 2025, compared with just over 3,500 identified as recently as 2023. "We know that the industry is growing," Zargaran says. While some of this increase reflects more comprehensive mapping of practitioners advertising online and through social media, the scale of the growth in just two years remains striking.

Some of the sector's growth has been driven by non-medical practitioners, Zargaran's research suggests - according to his study, the proportion of non-medical aestheticians doubled from 12% to 24.8% between 2023 and 2025.

The study also found that Botox treatments were more widely available in the most deprived communities. Practitioner density was more than six times higher in the most deprived areas compared with the least deprived. But at the same time, people in the most deprived areas had less access to medically qualified practitioners.

And this leads us to a broader question: if the UK now has tens of thousands of cosmetic injectors operating across the country, should someone be responsible for regulating them?

A lighter touch?

Under current laws across the UK, anyone can legally undertake training, purchase dermal filler products and offer treatments to members of the public.

While doctors, nurses and dentists are regulated by professional bodies with the power to investigate complaints and impose sanctions, there is no equivalent statutory regulator for non-medical aesthetic practitioners.

In Austria, by contrast, botulinum toxin and dermal filler treatments are classified as medical procedures and are typically reserved for doctors. In France, non-medical practitioners are prohibited from administering injectable cosmetic treatments.

Andrew Rankin, chief executive of the Joint Council for Cosmetic Practitioners (JCCP), said the UK's lighter-touch approach reflects a broader regulatory culture that has historically prioritised consumer choice and economic growth.

"We have an inclusive philosophy to economic activity where government tries to find the balance between public safety while maintaining an innovative and effective economy," he said.

In 2023, when the government consulted on a licensing scheme for England, some respondents warned that any new regulation would need to be proportionate. While there was broad support for improving safety, concerns were raised about the potential impact on small businesses, which make up much of the sector, and the risk that overly restrictive rules could limit consumer choice or drive parts of the industry underground.

But the current situation across the UK can make it difficult for consumers to assess qualifications, understand what training a practitioner has received and know where to turn when treatments go wrong, says Zargaran.

"If you are a medical professional, you will have gone through certain types of training, including the important principles of consent, carrying out procedures, follow-up and recognising complications," he adds.

More than a decade ago, the government commissioned an independent review of the cosmetic interventions industry following the PIP breast implant scandal, which saw thousands of women receive implants made with silicone that had not been approved for medical use.

The review, led by then-NHS Medical Director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, examined the wider cosmetic sector, including dermal fillers, Botox and other non-surgical procedures.

It warned that people undergoing non-surgical cosmetic procedures had "no more protection and redress than someone buying a ballpoint pen or a toothbrush" and concluded: "It is our view that dermal fillers are a crisis waiting to happen."

The review called for practitioner licensing, stronger training requirements and tighter controls over who should be allowed to perform cosmetic procedures.

Following the Keogh Review, the government introduced a system of voluntary self-regulation. Organisations such as the JCCP were established to set standards and encourage practitioners to join accredited registers.

But Rankin says this approach has not worked and many practitioners remain entirely outside voluntary schemes: "What was underestimated was the extent to which, in a self-regulatory framework, practitioners would not be interested in meeting those standards."

The enforcement problem

Four days after undergoing a liquid BBL at an Essex clinic in October 2023, 28-year-old Louise Moller from Bolton was rushed to hospital with sepsis.

She rang her mother, Janet Taylor, from A&E: "Mum, I think I'm going to die," she said.

To stop the sepsis spreading through her body, surgeons removed large areas of dead tissue from her left buttock.

Janet reported the incident and the practitioner who carried out the procedure - Ricky Sawyer, a well-known rogue injector who also performed the non-surgical BBL that left Joanne with sepsis - to police. But because the procedure took place in Essex while Louise lived in Greater Manchester, she says she was told the case would need to be passed between forces.

When BBC News approached Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and Essex Police about this in 2025, both said responsibility for the investigation lay with the other force.

We contacted GMP for this article but it did not respond. Essex Police said: "We understand the frustration felt in this case," but insisted again that responsibility sat with GMP.

For Collins, Louise's experience illustrates a wider failure of enforcement. "People assume there must be somebody regulating these practitioners and holding them accountable when things go wrong," she says. "Very often that simply isn't the case."

While Janet tried to get justice for her daughter, I went undercover as a client inside a temporary clinic operating from an office block on the outskirts of London in which Ricky Sawyer was still operating. During the appointment, Sawyer offered to inject up to a litre of filler, provided prescription-only medicines without a prescription being issued and suggested administering local anaesthetic without a prescriber present.

Plastic surgeon Dalvi Humzah, who reviewed the footage, described these practices as "shocking" and "very dangerous".

Since our reporting on Sawyer aired in February 2025, he has been banned from practicing following a legal injunction brought by Trafford Council. He recently appeared in court over breaking this injunction but was found not guilty - during his evidence he said he knew the procedures were dangerous.

While Sawyer can no longer practise anywhere in England and Wales, it took several years for this to happen.

And it's not just the practitioners but also the products that are unregulated. Concerns about illegal medicines and counterfeit products have surfaced repeatedly across the sector in recent years.

A BBC undercover investigation in 2025 found nurses and pharmacists supplying Botox without carrying out the face-to-face consultations required under professional guidance.

Authorities have also repeatedly warned about unlicensed and counterfeit products entering the UK market. Police in Northern Ireland seized more than 700,000 counterfeit and unlicensed medicines in 2023, including Botox products. In Glasgow, officers later recovered thousands of pounds worth of dermal fillers, needles and botulinum toxin products during a raid linked to the aesthetics trade.

Campaigners say enforcement is often fragmented between councils, police forces, medicines regulators and professional bodies, with no single organisation responsible.

"You can walk into beauty salons across the country and have Botox the same day without ever having a proper consultation with a prescriber," says Collins. "That shouldn't be happening, but it does because there is very little enforcement."

Repeated delays

Since 2013, successive governments have acknowledged the case for reform, yet comprehensive regulation has repeatedly been delayed.

A significant step came with the Health and Care Act 2022, which gave ministers powers to introduce a licensing regime for non-surgical cosmetic procedures in England. In 2025, ministers confirmed their intention to introduce a licensing scheme.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "We will soon consult on tough new measures that will ensure only qualified healthcare professionals will be able to perform the highest-risk procedures." They say they are also planning a licencsing scheme for what they describe as lower-risk procedures.

Meanwhile, a law passed this year in Scotland will restrict procedures like Botox and injection of dermal fillers to specific settings, such as regulated clinics. It will also make it illegal to provide procedures to those under 18. A Scottish Government spokesperson said all this is expected to come into effect from September 2027, as will a local authority licencing scheme for less risky procedures.

Northern Ireland's Department of Health says it has "no current plans" to introduce mandatory regulation of non-surgical cosmetics or to introduce a licencing scheme. However, it says it takes "decisive action" against the illegal supply, misuse and promotion of medicines like Botox.

The Welsh Government says it is monitoring the implementation of mandatory licencing schemes for acupuncture, dry needling, body piercing, electrolysis, tattooing and semi-permanent makeup and this "will inform any potential future extension to other procedures".

Despite the developments in Scotland and England, substantial work remains to be done before any licensing system becomes fully operational. Further legislation is required, detailed regulations must still be drafted and local authorities will need the resources necessary to enforce any new framework.

In the meantime, ministers in England have indicated that the highest-risk procedures will be prioritised under a proposed "red category" of treatments. These are expected to include non-surgical BBLs, face lifts and filler-based body contouring treatments, which alter the shape of areas such as the stomach, thighs or buttocks.

Rankin said there was broad agreement that some procedures "really should be restricted to appropriate professionals".

Supporters of reform hope the proposed licensing scheme will eventually require both practitioners and premises to be licensed, too.

More than a decade after the Keogh Review warned dermal fillers were a "crisis waiting to happen", campaigners argue the problem is no longer a lack of warnings.

But even if new rules are introduced, the challenge will remain of ensuring those that already exist are enforced.

Why Gen Z are planning for life without a state pension

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8e2yp1gg37o, 12 days ago

Joel has finally landed his first graduate engineering job after several years of lower‑paid roles. He's in his early 20s, lives with his parents and works in London. But instead of splashing the extra cash, or saving up for holidays or a house deposit, he's decided to squirrel more of it away into his workplace pension.

The reason? He doesn't think he'll get any kind of state pension. Like Joel, around half of Gen Z (those born from 1997–2012) say they don't expect the state pension to exist by the time they retire. It's pretty stark to hear, but growing up with constant headlines about an ageing population, a proportionally smaller working-age population, and the pressure that government finances are under, Joel thinks it's his generation that will suffer.

"I don't believe that I'll be a recipient of a state pension. I know a lot of people my age don't think they're going to be... There just won't be enough money," he says.

Retirement has always felt distant when you're in your 20s - something to think about later. But what's emerging among today's under‑30s is something different: not just distance, but doubt.

"It just mathematically doesn't make sense… There has to get to a point where that state pension is taking up too much of the budget and can't exist in the way that it exists right now," Joel says.

The state pension age is shifting. At the start of April, the age at which you receive it began to gradually creep up, rising from 66 years to 67 years by March 2028. It's due to go up again in 20 years' time to 68, though that might happen earlier as the government has an ongoing independent review.

That's a frustration for 27-year-old retail manager Connor, who got in touch via BBC Your Voice, because he says "the goalpost keeps moving". "At the minute I'll be 68 by the time I can retire, but I do think I'll be probably closer to 75, if I'm honest."

More than 13 million people - 19% of the population - are currently of state pension age. By 2050, even with the state pension age rising to 68, that group is projected to exceed 15 million people, nearly a quarter of the population, with numbers projected to climb towards 17 million by the 2070s. In other words, there will be lots more people qualifying for the state pension, and fewer working people, as a proportion, paying taxes into the pot to cover the bill.

At the same time, almost half of working‑age adults are not paying into a private pension pot. That means many will be relying solely on the state pension for their retirement income - and with relative poverty rates among pensioners now at 14%, we can already see how difficult that can be.

Experts warn that if a whole generation stops believing the state pension will be there, it could push people towards more risky investments, prompt overly restrictive behaviour, or lead others not to save at all.

So, are we heading towards a major pension crisis for many in Gen Z? And if we are, might the Gen Z generation end up redefining what retirement looks like?

Scrapping the triple lock

For those hitting the state pension milestone today, as long as they've made 35 years of National Insurance contributions, they're entitled to £241.30 a week.

That amount rises each year to help people keep pace with rising living costs. Since 2011, pension increases have been guaranteed by the triple lock - which means the rise will either match the rate of inflation, average earnings or 2.5% - whichever is higher.

But in recent weeks, several organisations have called for the rules to be rewritten.

The centre-left Resolution Foundation think tank has argued for scrapping the triple lock, saying that continuing to prioritise the incomes of pensioners over working-age adults and children would be unfair.

Meanwhile, the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), a think tank set up by the former prime minister, takes things a step further and has called for the whole state pension to be scrapped and replaced with a new "Lifespan Fund". Thomas Smith, director of economic policy at the TBI, argued: "Britain's state pension system was built for a different era. We can't keep pouring money into a system that is increasingly unaffordable."

It suggests scrapping the triple lock and allowing people to access some of their state pension early if they need it because of redundancy and frequent job changes.

That's an idea that might appeal to Connor in Chesterfield. He's facing redundancy from his job at a global cosmetics firm, and the ability to draw down a small amount - effectively a withdrawal from his future state pension - might tide him through.

"There's not that many jobs out there at the minute, unfortunately. I still live at home with my parents luckily, but I pay board to them. I still have a car payment, I still have my insurance to pay."

But former pensions minister Steve Webb argues those changes would be "a huge backward step". He says the benefit of the current system is its simplicity which shouldn't be replaced with "something fiendishly complex and highly intrusive, which would take many decades to implement in full."

The government says it has committed to the triple lock for the rest of this parliament, and that the Pensions Commission, an independent body set up to review the regime for UK private pensions, is examining "how we can ensure secure retirements for tomorrow's pensioners".

It's likely that those in their 20s will not have a triple‑locked pension. That means living on the state pension alone will become more difficult, as its value may rise more slowly than the cost of food, travel, clothing and household bills.

For those who doubt the triple lock will endure, the debate often shifts to how the state pension can be sustained at all. One idea that regularly surfaces is means‑testing. In some ways it already is: very low‑income pensioners can receive an additional benefit called Pension Credit. But 24‑year‑old Joel believes that for the state pension to survive, the choices may need to be more radical.

"I don't think a means-tested state pension is necessarily a bad thing. But it would be a bad thing if it only applies to people in 50 years and not now when we should be saving some of that money."

Opting-out

Engineer Joel is one of life's squirrels. His fear about the future of the state pension means he's doubling-down on his private pension. He contacted BBC Your Voice because he feels that consecutive governments have sheltered current pensioners, leaving the consequences for his generation to face.

"I'm going to have to increase the amount of my paycheck that goes into a private pension, which obviously isn't good with cost of living through the roof," he says.

The scale of what younger workers may need to save adds to that anxiety for some. Investment company Rathbones estimates that a single person retiring today at 65 (with the state pension) may need around £796,000 in savings to fund a "comfortable retirement". If the state pension remains, a 25‑year‑old today would need a pot of around £1.68m to retire comfortably as a single person. Without the state pension, the figure for Gen Z jumps to more than £2.4m.

Against this backdrop, Joel says many of his friends are considering opting out of private and workplace pensions altogether and investing independently instead, mostly in "crypto or index funds and things like that.

"There's a sense, whether it's right or wrong, that that's more secure than putting it in a pension where they're also going to take a chip on top."

It's possible that individual investment choices could earn more than a pension scheme, but it's a big gamble.

Behavioural economics suggests that when people lose trust in a system, they tend to either opt out entirely or over‑compensate. Both can be problematic. Saving extra in a private pension may limit current life options, but opting out can leave many with riskier retirement savings, or indeed none at all.

In central Manchester, 23‑year‑old Ashleigh agrees with Joel that the state pension is unlikely to be coming her way: "At this rate I don't think anyone's ever going to retire, I think everyone will just have to fend for themselves in the end."

But as someone on a lower income, her pension choices are less squirrel‑like. When working for a big retailer, she says that she chose to stop contributing to her employer's auto-enrolment pension.

"I opted out of it. I need the money now." She explains: "I'd rather save for a house and then at least I have something to show for it".

Some experts warn that the gap between rich and poor in retirement could widen significantly for this generation.

Dr Suzy Morrissey, deputy director at the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI), believes that alongside how much Gen Z save privately, another factor will widen the divide: far more of them will be renting.

"Renting in retirement increases your chances of pensioner poverty, and they do face challenges to save, as younger people, that previous generations didn't face when they were at the same age," she says. "If we have people paying rent in retirement who don't have large pension pots to cover those expenses, then that equals higher risk of pensioner poverty."

But Morrissey sees a silver lining: pensions auto-enrollment, the system that automatically puts most employees into a workplace pension unless they opt out. If they've been employees, "they will have spent their working life contributing into a pension pot, and they will be the first generation that will have spent their whole life doing that."

It'll be a backstop for many, but the minimum contribution rate is unlikely to be enough for a comfortable retirement. It's not automatic for the self-employed and people like Ashleigh have opted out because of immediate financial pressures, so it looks like plenty won't see the benefit of that silver lining.

Grown-up gap years

For some, the response to an uncertain future is to focus on the present.

Lauren, from Hull, says: "Money always comes back, time doesn't. The world is so vast, we shouldn't wait till the last 10/20 years of our lives to go out and see it!"

At 24, she's about to take six months off from her job as a business coordinator. She's one of a growing number planning to take regular career breaks, or "grown-up gap years", which many are terming "mini retirement". HSBC's 2025 UK survey found that 63% of Gen Z plan to take at least one mini‑retirement, compared with 32% of Gen X and 13% of Boomers.

"The majority of my friends don't pay into pensions and instead decide to take their whole wage [after taxes] and spend it how they see fit. A large proportion goes on travels or holidays," says Lauren.

"I currently don't pay into a pension, actually I never have. I'd way rather have my money now and use it to live life," she says.

But there's a warning for Gen Z from the experience of the Waspi women - hundreds of thousands born in the 1950s who campaigners say have suffered because of poorly communicated rises in the state pension age. Their financial shock shows that costs may only become clear when it's too late to course-correct.

If Gen Z's suspicions are right, and the state pension becomes a less dependable part of income in later life, then more will have to take a totally different approach to retirement, savings and life choices to navigate the new landscape.

Additional reporting: Kris Bramwell and Harriet Whitehead

Top picture credit: Getty Images

How population decline is exposing Germany's old divides

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c24ylyv40y5o, 13 days ago

Jan-Niklas Hustedt remembers going to techno parties in the abandoned canteen of a pump factory that had drastically downsized after reunification, in his hometown of Oschersleben.

He was born in East Germany in 1989, just a few weeks before the fall of the Berlin Wall. He describes himself as a "wendekind"; a child of the turning point.

Now, at 36, he recalls how that time would change his community.

Many businesses in the communist east struggled or simply collapsed as they were thrust into a profit-driven, highly competitive, global economy.

"You hear all the stories," says Jan-Niklas. "Lots of people left because the opportunities were in the west."

In the 35 years after reunification, the country's overall population grew by 3.8 million, a 5% increase - driven by immigration.

But in the five states that were part of the eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR), the population has fallen by 16% (this figure excludes East Berlin).

The state of Saxony-Anhalt, where Oschersleben lies, recorded the most dramatic decline at 26% - according to official statistics published last year.

Now, across large swathes of the more rural east, further population falls are expected as the east's post-reunification "brain drain" combines with a national trend: low birth rates.

Look at the map by government demographers; the deep blue areas – where the starkest drops are expected – are highly concentrated in the less urbanised parts of the east.

Only the state of Brandenburg, which encircles Berlin and sees spillover from the capital city, bucks the trend.

Longer term, as Germany's population ages, the country's federal statistics office says there will "in all likelihood" be fewer people by 2070. For eastern states outside of Berlin, that's projected to be the case "under all scenarios".

Such projections are based on certain assumptions and are not set in stone. But this demographic change may be helping drive up support for Alternative for Germany (AfD), a party that's classified, within Saxony-Anhalt, as right-wing extremist by domestic intelligence.

Yet it's in this state that the AfD could win power in elections later this year. It's a potentially seismic moment for Germany.

'Tear down this wall'

News footage from 1989 shows the euphoric scenes as people poured across what had, for decades, been a heavily guarded no man's land; the Berlin Wall.

Those on foot swarmed across in crowds while the sudden influx of fume-belching East German Trabant cars sparked complaints about pollution in the west.

But it would also become a time of an enormous sense of loss for people in the east who found their socialist society absorbed, almost overnight, into the capitalist west.

A satellite state of the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) - as East Germany was known - was a centrally-planned, state-owned economy.

The regime relied on strict media censorship and the Stasi, a large and feared secret police force to keep citizens in line.

There were also heavy restrictions on people's ability to leave as the authorities tried to prevent people from fleeing west - as so many had over the decades.

East Germans did, however, get subsidised housing, generous childcare support and guaranteed employment.

But it was built on an increasingly inefficient and debt-ridden economy, which meant that the rapid process of privatisation, when it came, was brutal and led to mass unemployment.

Graphs show how fertility rates in the east plummeted while there was a huge exodus west, which came in two main waves. The first began right after the wall fell, while the second peaked in the early part of this century.

That second wave was "smaller in scale but no less consequential because it was highly selective," says Dr Katja Salomo, a sociologist at the University of Kassel who grew up in a rural part of east Germany.

"Young people, highly educated people and especially women, were more likely to leave."

One reason for women leaving was that the east's female workforce was treated as an "afterthought" during the reunification process - argues Katja Salomo.

"And so they went to West Germany and got them [jobs] there."

Fewer women naturally meant fewer children. And while the big exodus ended years ago, the east still has a more pronounced shortage of young people and skilled workers than the west. As well as emptying kindergartens.

The baby bust

This is an emerging phenomenon in east Germany: "Kitasterben". It literally translates to "daycare dying".

It's driven by low birth rates within an already depleted population in regions that, during the communist era, had built up an extensive network of childcare settings.

"There are now [newspaper] articles where kindergartens [say they] need children, which is crazy," says Jan-Niklas.

He says the kindergarten his daughter goes to asked if he and his wife knew of other families needing a place.

I met Jan-Niklas in the centre of his hometown, Oschersleben. Including surrounding villages, it has a population of roughly 19,000 people.

It's a Wednesday lunchtime. The centre isn't quite deserted, but it's not busy either.

It doesn't take long to spot an empty shop front, or several of the area's growing number of elderly people.

Now Jan-Niklas, who sees reunification as a "success story" overall, is on a mission to bring younger people and families back.

It's "home", he says. "I like the people. I think they deserve [to do] well."

He left when he was in his late teens, to later return having built a career as a recruiter for a major German bank. His move home made the local news.

"Back in Oschersleben after 13 years," read the Volksstimme (People's Voice) headline. "Returnee calls for ways to combat the skilled-worker shortage."

That's just one problem with population decline; filling vacant jobs, including crucial social and healthcare roles to support the increasingly elderly population.

Fewer people can also lead to fewer services, such as shops, maternity wards, and schools.

While a large number of migrants or refugees have come to Germany from countries including Ukraine, Syria and Turkey – as well as from other EU nations – those immigrants have mainly headed to big cities, such as Berlin, and the more urbanised west.

And even when accounting for these people, Germany has an ageing population as the baby-boomer generation increasingly retires, and the nationwide birth rate stays stubbornly low.

It means a shrinking workforce is having to shoulder the cost of a growing number of retirees.

Birth rates began falling in the late sixties, after the introduction of the contraceptive pill and at a time when women became more likely to enter the workforce. But last year the number of births reached their lowest level since 1946, according to preliminary figures.

Professor Martin Bujard, from the Federal Institute for Population Research, a government agency, says data suggests that the impact of global crises like covid and the war in Ukraine have exacerbated the trend.

"After Russia launched its full-scale invasion, nine or ten months later, birth rates in Germany fell," says Professor Bujard.

The latest figures show that women without German nationality have more children than German citizens, with rates of 1.84 and 1.23 respectively (known as the fertility rate).

But both are below the "replacement rate" of 2.1; the level at which a population stays steady from one generation to the next.

Germany's not alone in this. The UN has warned of an "unprecedented decline" in global fertility rates, driven by factors such as affordability and a lack of suitable housing.

What's unique about the east of Germany today is that these birth rates are happening within a population that was so recently – and so rapidly – hollowed out.

Heading east

There have been many initiatives over many years to increase the population in the east of Germany.

Katy Löwe runs one of them from Halberstadt, a town that lies at the northern foothills of Saxony-Anhalt's Harz Mountains, 120 miles west of Berlin.

We met in Cathedral Square, near the Gothic-style St. Martini church which was destroyed at the end of World War Two and then rebuilt.

It's one of the attractions for passing tourists, but Katy's mission is to get people to actually live in the region.

Funded by local firms who need workers, Heimvorteil Harz (which translates as Home Advantage Harz), tries to match people with vacancies and promote the area's perks.

Driving through the region, you'll find well maintained roads and picturesque towns.

Standards of living in the east have significantly improved since reunification, even if wages still lag behind the west, particularly when compared to wealthy states like Bavaria.

For Katy, who's from a nearby village, bringing people back is personal: "I think the main thing is the fear that towns will be half empty. Villages will be half empty."

"That's what we have to reverse in order to maintain a good quality of life in rural areas."

Heimvorteil Harz doesn't have precise records of how many people they've lured back and campaigns like hers, Katy says, can only go so far. "The problem is too big."

It's about trying to get your area noticed, she says, as regions are "competing" against each other for people.

Academics have spent decades trying to understand the lingering divide between east and west Germany; "Ossies" and "Wessies", and these are divides that cut across numerous spheres.

For example, all firms listed on the Dax, Germany's stock market index, are headquartered in the west or in Berlin while east Germans also have far less inherited wealth.

After the upheaval of reunification, Katy believes it's also a matter of mentality.

The east German mindset, she says, is marked by a "collective experience of huge loss."

"They are very fearful that they may experience it again. That's the main driver of people either leaving or voting the way they do."

And the way people vote in Saxony-Anhalt could be about to change the political landscape in Germany.

It may be where the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party forms its first state-level government.

This would be an explosive moment in a country where the far-right hasn't held that kind of power since World War Two, although AfD leaders strongly reject comparisons to Nazism and insist they are a conservative, libertarian movement.

The social-media savvy Ulrich Siegmund is the AfD's lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, where the party is polling at more than 40% ahead of elections in September. This could be enough for an overall majority.

Population decline may be among the reasons behind the AfD's popularity.

According to sociologist Katja Salomo, "Research shows that electoral support for far-right parties, including the AfD, tends to be higher in the regions most affected by population decline."

While it's difficult to prove precise links, she says - for example- a sense of stagnation and dwindling infrastructure can make communities feel that the political system, "is not working for people like them."

Such areas can also have a more "sceptical view of immigration" even though more immigration would, in principle, "help to stabilise East Germany's demographic situation."

In 2023, domestic intelligence found that the AfD's Saxony-Anhalt branch was permeated by a "racist ideology" in violation of the German constitution which guarantees "human dignity" for all.

As a result, it's one of the states in which the party's been classed as right-wing extremist. It generally rejects such designations as politicised persecution.

In its manifesto, the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt argues that immigration is an, "Unsuitable remedy for the extinction of the local population."

Instead, it wants to incentivise larger families by, for example, handing out baby bonus payments to parents.

Critics say the AfD's wider anti-immigration and deportation plans would be both a disaster for Germany's already ailing economy and potentially illegal. But many Germans see it differently.

According to surveys, the AfD is now the country's most popular party with polling numbers in the high twenties, although its support remains heavily skewed to the east.

Some may point to possible benefits of depopulation, such as less traffic and cheaper accommodation.

"It can make housing more accessible," says Professor Martin Bujard, who notes our ecological footprint "reduces a little bit with population decline."

But Bujard says low birth rates are a bad thing overall, due to the imbalance it creates between young and old - while population decline can cause frustration in local communities.

Bujard says more must be done to support people in the "rush hour of life", such as those trying to hold down jobs and raise young families.

"Policy should help potential parents realise their hopes," he says, through improved childcare, financial support and living space.

German reunification is often celebrated as a moment of great hope and change that brought families and friends back together - as well as an entire country.

But its legacy has proven complicated and enduring; the old border may be gone but it's cast a long shadow.

Additional reporting: Michael Steininger

Lead image: Getty

Will Starmer's plan for defence help UK hit Nato's spending target?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn07ey43xpeo, 12 days ago

The government has published the much-delayed Defence Investment Plan (DIP) and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said the additional spending represents a "huge historic shift for our nation".

BBC Verify has been looking at how much extra the government is committing to spend on defence in the coming years - and whether it puts the UK on track to hit its promised commitments.

How much does the UK currently spend on defence?

The Ministry of Defence's overall budget for 2026-27 is £68.3bn, according to the Defence Investment Plan.

However there is a measure known as Nato-qualifying defence spending which is wider than the MoD's budget, because it includes state spending on things like military pensions.

According to this measure the UK's spending was estimated by the military alliance to be £70bn in 2025, equivalent to 2.4% of the UK's GDP in that year.

What has the government committed to spend?

In February 2025 Sir Keir committed to raising Nato-qualifying defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027.

The prime minister also announced that the activities of the UK's security and intelligence agencies would - by 2027 - be classified as Nato-qualifying defence spending. As a result spending would hit 2.6% of GDP by 2027.

The prime minister also stated a "clear ambition" to increase spending to 3% of GDP "in the next parliament".

At a Nato summit in the Hague in June 2025 the UK and other members committed to spend 5% of GDP on defence and security with 3.5% going to Nato-qualifying "core defence" by 2035.

The alliance's members agreed that the rest of the 5% (1.5% of GDP) could be made up of spending to "protect critical infrastructure, defend networks, ensure civil preparedness and resilience, innovate, and strengthen the defence industrial base".

Sir Keir said on Tuesday that the measures in the DIP "takes us to 4.2% under that commitment".

How much extra does the Defence Investment Plan commit to?

When he resigned on 11 June, former Defence Secretary John Healey said that the DIP he had been presented with only committed to take Nato-qualifying defence spending to 2.68% by 2030.

He said this was insufficient "to defend the country at this time of rising threats" and the government should be committing 3% of GDP to defence by 2030 rather than in the next parliament.

The actual DIP says that "based on latest projections" UK defence spending will rise to 2.7% of GDP by 2027-28.

It does not provide a year-by-year estimate for later years but states that the money spent on defence "by the end of the decade will be 2.7% of GDP".

That suggests that the proportion of GDP spent on defence is not planned to change between 2027 and 2030.

That 2.7% figure suggests an increase on the original DIP of around 0.02% of GDP, which the government has found since Healey resigned - that's equivalent in today's money to £600m extra in 2030.

Healey posted on X after the DIP was published on Tuesday that a "target date" was needed to achieve the 3% target and a "clear plan" for how the UK gets to Nato's 3.5% of GDP by 2035.

Will this be enough to hit the government's targets?

Sir Keir Starmer has insisted that as a result of this Defence Investment Plan the UK is on a "trajectory" to achieve the ambition of spending 3% of GDP in the next parliament.

And the DIP states that the separate commitment to Nato of 3.5% of GDP by 2035 "will be met".

However, it is hard to see how reaching 2.7% of GDP by 2030 would put the UK on a trajectory to meet that target.

Future spending reviews could potentially change that picture if they commit more money for the MoD's budget and other defence activity in future years.

What about the other figures being used?

The prime minister has frequently claimed the government is spending £270bn on defence over this parliament which he says is "the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the 1980s".

This number represents the total cash spending figure for the MoD budget set out in the 2025 Spending Review, covering the four years to 2028-29.

Sir Keir said today that the DIP increases this by "a further £15bn".

So this £15bn figure is an increase in defence spending over four years relative to previous plans.

Reports suggest that the original DIP would have increased spending by £13.5bn over four years.

That suggests that, over four years, the government has found an additional £1.5bn for defence since Healey resigned from Sir Keir's cabinet.

Rachel Reeves said in a statement that of the £15bn, £10.3bn had been identified now, and "a further £4.7bn over four years will be confirmed at Budget 2026".

It has also been widely reported there was a £28bn "shortfall" in the UK's defence budget.

The figure was originally reported by the Times in January.

The paper said the Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, had warned Sir Keir at a meeting late last year that the MoD faced a £28bn shortfall over the next four years.

The MoD has said that £28bn number did not come from them and it has not been officially confirmed.

It might represent an internal MoD estimate of the gap between its available budget funding over the next four years and the cost of existing commitments.

Will Andy Burnham's devolution plan raise economic growth?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yz4x9ew49o, 13 days ago

Andy Burnham promised the "biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen" as part of his plans for the UK if he becomes the next prime minister.

In his first major policy speech, Burnham said on Monday he would seek to take power away from Whitehall and devolve it to all parts of the UK. This would include Greater Manchester and other city regions in England.

But the former Mayor of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority also said he would further extend devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - though not giving detail - and also promised to give Greater London more devolved powers.

Burnham, who was sworn in as the new MP for Makerfield last week, said this radical devolution of power was essential for delivering higher economic growth in all parts of the UK. "We will never get growth up to the level Britain needs unless every single postcode in the land is set up to contribute to it," he said.

BBC Verify has looked at what impact further devolution could be expected to have on economic growth across the UK.

What powers are devolved?

Scotland has had extensive devolution, with the Scottish parliament now holding powers covering health, education, local government, environment, justice and policing.

Holyrood also has powers to set most income tax rates (although not the level of the tax-free personal allowance) and has some control over welfare.

The Welsh Senedd's devolution powers are more limited compared with Scotland, though it does include running the NHS in Wales, education, local government and housing.

The Senedd also has some tax powers, including the ability to to vary income tax rates. But, unlike Scotland, it has no justice or policing powers.

Under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the Northern Ireland Assembly has significant devolved powers, including over health, education and housing.

There has also been some devolution to English city regions over the past decade, albeit less extensive than for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Manchester has some of the most extensive devolved powers of any of the English city regions, with some authority over transport, housing, skills and health spending.

Has devolution helped growth in the nations?

Most economists who have studied the impact of devolution have not identified any significant increase in overall economic growth rates in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland over the past quarter of a century.

There is also no clear evidence of those nations catching up with the UK average, although it's important to stress the UK average is heavily influenced by the performance of London and the South East of England.

Official statistics show that the GDP per capita - a measure of productivity - of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2023 was broadly similar relative to the UK average as it was in 1998, with Scotland at around 93%, Northern Ireland at 83% and Wales at 74%.

However, analysts say this does not mean that devolution has been an economic failure, as it is possible that the nations might have experienced economic decline relative to the rest of the UK if they had still been centrally governed.

Events like Brexit might also have had a disproportionate effect on some parts of the UK, making it harder to separate out the impact of devolution.

And some Scottish nationalists argue full independence is required for Scotland to realise its underlying economic potential. Some Welsh nationalists argue similarly for Wales.

Has Manchester grown faster due to devolution?

Burnham has argued that Greater Manchester is a case study in how devolution can lift economic growth.

The city region has been progressively granted more powers in successive devolution deals since 2009.

When George Osborne was chancellor in 2014 the city region was granted an uplift in powers over transport, housing and strategic planning.

Official statistics suggest that Greater Manchester has grown faster than other English city regions, including London, since 2015.

And those statistics point to impressive productivity growth in the city of Manchester and the greater Greater Manchester region since 2020.

Some analysts have questioned whether those recent productivity figures are reliable, in part, because some of the high growth spots are in residential areas, and that they could be explained in part by errors in the data.

Nevertheless, many economists do think Greater Manchester has performed better than other UK city regions over the past 15 years - and they argue it's justified to partially attribute this to the devolution of powers, particularly on transport, planning and housing.

Devolution has helped to deliver this record on housing because the Greater Manchester mayoralty is empowered to set the city-region's housing strategy, direct housing investment funding and co-ordinate affordable housing programmes. Devolution has enabled the increase in investment because one of the devolved roles of the mayor of a city region is to encourage companies to invest in an area, particularly multinationals, to create jobs and drive local growth.

Some economists also point to the Bee Network of buses which brought the system under control of the mayoralty, and the encouragement of private sector investment in Manchester city centre.

"There's been a recognition [among the Greater Manchester leadership] that the future of Manchester is a big city that is offering lots of different opportunities, but particularly to higher value added activity," says Andrew Carter of the Centre for Cities think tank.

"They're prepared to do what is required - build the housing, support the expansion of the university, support research and development, try to introduce a transport system which really supports all of that kind of stuff. And as a result you become more attractive to investment, whether it's foreign or domestic."

Would devolution help the wider UK economy to grow faster?

Many economists argue that one of the things that has held the overall UK economy back over many decades has been the fact that economic activity has been heavily concentrated in London, while cities in the Midlands and the North of England - such as Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Newcastle - have been relatively weak.

Evidence suggests that in other European economies such as France, Germany, Spain and Italy, their second-tier cities are closer in terms of their economic productivity to their capital cities.

For instance, the output per worker in French cities such as Toulouse and Lyon are considerably closer to the levels in Paris, than Birmingham and Manchester are to London.

The productivity of big Germany cities such as Munich and Frankfurt and Spanish cities such as Barcelona and Madrid are also relatively similar, avoiding the kind of extreme inequality between London and other UK cities. Analysts point to the much greater level of devolution in those countries as a reason for this.

The Resolution Foundation has argued that closing these gaps between London and big UK cities would not just boost jobs, incomes and prosperity in those regions, but would improve the performance of the national UK economy, both by lifting the overall level of economic activity and increasing its long-term potential growth rate.

How much would devolution cost?

Burnham is not the first politician who has sought to boost growth in the North and Midlands.

Boris Johnson's Conservative government had an objective of "levelling up" the UK economically.

Some analysts say that Johnson's project failed in part because it did not put sufficient state resources and investment into achieving it.

That government established a £5bn levelling up fund to, among other things, regenerate high streets and upgrade local transport.

But analysts pointed out that the post-reunification plan to bring up East Germany closer to the productivity of West Germany after 1990 had cost around €2 trillion in state spending between 1990 and 2014, or the equivalent of £70bn a year.

Burnham on Monday pledged "to strive for equivalent living conditions in all parts of Britain" and said that this would borrow from Germany's "basic law", which has a similar wording.

However, he also said that he would stick to the "current fiscal rules" and the existing Labour manifesto, which would likely limit how much his government would be able to borrow or raise tax to finance devolution.

Additional reporting by Aidan McNamee

Is Andy Burnham facing a £5bn defence 'black hole'?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c14ymy41v5go, 11 days ago

The Defence Investment Plan (DIP) increases military spending by £15bn over the next four years and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has described this as "a historic shift", although critics say that this new money is still insufficient to keep the country safe.

Attention has turned now to how the extra spending in the DIP will be funded, with the Treasury revealing that the savings identified from other departments do not cover the full planned rise for defence.

This has resulted in talk of a "£5bn defence black hole" which could be a problem for Sir Keir's presumed successor Andy Burnham.

BBC Verify has looked into these figures to put them into context.

Is there a £5bn hole?

The Treasury has released a table showing that in the four years to 2029-30 defence spending will rise by an average of £3.75bn each year compared with its previous plans following the publication of the DIP.

The government has added up those annual increases to produce the figure of £15bn of extra spending on defence over four years.

The Treasury table also shows that around £1.2bn a year of that annual £3.75bn a year rise still has to be found and will be outlined in the Budget later in the year.

Adding up these annual funding shortfall figures over four years gives a total of £4.7bn.

However public finance experts say it's better to talk about budget shortfalls in annual terms, rather than cumulative totals spread over several years, which can produce exaggerated and confusing numbers.

So a clearer way to discuss the size of the DIP funding shortfall is around £1.2bn a year.

It is true that the next Budget - due in the autumn and Burnham's first assuming he becomes prime minister - will have to fund that gap whether through additional spending cuts, tax rises or additional borrowing.

Is £1.2bn a big number?

Total Whitehall departmental spending in 2026/27 is projected to be £678bn so £1.2bn represents only a small fraction of that - 0.17%.

£1.2bn is an even smaller fraction (0.1%) of total tax revenues which are forecast to be £1,170bn in 2026/27.

However, it's probably more appropriate to compare the funding gap figure to the amount of headroom - or leeway - that the Chancellor Rachel Reeves left herself against meeting her chosen fiscal rule, which is to balance day-to-day spending with tax revenues by the final year of the Parliament.

The 2026 Spring Statement left her headroom of around £24bn against meeting this goal, so £1.2bn would represent around 5% of that.

Ruth Curtice of the Resolution Foundation said this does create a relatively large figure in the context of budget gaps, pointing out to BBC Radio 4's Today programme that a decade ago all the new tax and spending measures outlined in a Budget sometimes added up to only £2bn a year in cash terms.

Though it's also worth putting this £1.2bn in the context of other decisions that governments take that throw public finance forecasts off course, such as the regular last minute decisions by chancellors in budgets over the past 16 years to freeze fuel duty rather than increase it in line with inflation.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has estimated that the extension of the fuel duty freeze through to 2029-30 would cost around £5.5bn a year.

How common are these funding gaps?

Ministers have argued that it is not unusual for governments to make decisions with spending implications which are then funded in subsequent Budgets.

Last year, for instance, Rachel Reeves announced a reversal of the cuts to the winter fuel payment without announcing where the money would come from.

There was major spending during the Covid pandemic for things like the furlough scheme which were announced outside of a Budget.

And in 2018 then-Prime Minister Theresa May announced announced a big five-year NHS funding package and left it to the next spending review and Budget to explain where that money was going to come from.

"It's not that unusual," says Thomas Pope, chief economist at the Institute for Government (IFG). "It's not best practice but it does happen."

He adds that the funding gap created by the DIP fits in the more "modest" category by historic standards of spending decisions taken between Budgets.

How credible are the other promised savings?

The Treasury says it has cut all other Whitehall departments' capital spending budgets by 1% over the next four years raising £1bn a year to help get extra money for defence.

There are also additional cuts to the budgets of the energy department (£500m per year on average) and transport department (£200m per year) which will involve cutting investment in roads.

There is also a contribution from public sector "asset sales" - such as government-owned land - which is set to raise around £275m per year on average over the next four years.

Another source of savings - £600m per year on average - comes from "Treasury support for ongoing international objectives and more efficient defence procurement". This means the Treasury will take responsibility from the MoD for future financial commitments to Ukraine if there is a ceasefire.

This could create more resources for the MoD, but it simply shifts those costs to another part of the public sector.

"If these new Treasury responsibilities require any spending, this will need to be paid for from somewhere else, potentially squeezing other budgets further," says Max Warner of the IFS.

It says this will be delivered through plans, among other things, to automate 20% of the MoD's human resources and finance departments by 2028 and by cutting spending on consultants.

It also expects savings from accelerating the use of Artificial Intelligence, with around £50m a year of "digital" efficiencies.

The biggest efficiency savings - around £1bn a year - are supposed to come from reforms of "acquisition", which means buying new defence equipment.

Defence procurement has historically been a source of major budget overruns for the MoD.

Public finance experts warned that it cannot be guaranteed that these savings will be delivered.

Carl Emmerson, a partner at consultancy London Economics, noted the government already has ambitious efficiency targets baked into its 2025 Spending Review settlements with individual departments, which set their budgets over the coming years.

"This just makes that challenge harder," he said.

"Sometimes efficiency savings just means cuts and doing less and therefore delivering slightly less," said Thomas Pope of the IFG.

Has your area gone football-mad? We've mapped World Cup viewing

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj9gxwynrlwo, 3 days ago

Fans have cheered and despaired at the World Cup's most exciting - and nail-biting - moments in pubs, watch parties and sitting rooms across the country. But some places have embraced it more than others.

We've analysed BBC iPlayer viewing figures to see where the tournament has been most popular. The figures cover all World Cup content on iPlayer - including live matches, highlights and analysis programmes - but do not include games shown exclusively on ITV.

The map of postcode areas below shows the proportion of signed-in iPlayer users who watched BBC World Cup content between 11 June and 7 July. The darker the green, the higher the level of interest.

London has been the tournament's viewing capital, with 13 of the top 14 postcode areas for iPlayer viewing located in and around the city.

Nearly two-thirds (64%) of UK iPlayer accounts have streamed at least some of the World Cup, but this rises to almost 80% in the leading areas of Southall, Ilford and East London.

Outside London, Manchester is the highest-ranked postcode district, followed by Luton, Oldham and Birmingham.

But matches involving England and Scotland have consistently divided audiences either side of the border.

Scottish households have been less likely to switch on for England matches than households in Wales and Northern Ireland, despite both nations having failed to qualify for the tournament.

The pattern was mirrored in England. Neither of Scotland's two BBC matches - against Haiti and Brazil - made the top five most-watched group-stage games among English postcodes.

England's dramatic 3-2 win over Mexico kicked off at 02:00 BST on Monday morning and broke TV records for a live broadcast at that time.

But unlike other games, people in London's eight inner postcode areas did not tune in live or catch up in the same numbers as the rest of the country.

Blackburn, Oldham, Bolton, Birmingham, Bradford, Sunderland and Wolverhampton all entered the top 10 instead, while some London areas barely made the top 100.

Aside from home nations' matches, kick-off times and star players have had a significant influence on audience size.

France's opener against Senegal, which benefitted from a primetime slot (20:00 BST) and featured Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé, drew the second-biggest group stage audience across the UK, behind England-Ghana.

Portugal's meeting with DR Congo and Argentina's clash with Austria were also among the most-watched, helped by their early start times (18:00 BST) and the superstar appeal of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

The least popular matches have generally involved smaller nations and been scheduled at midnight (00:00 BST) or later.

There are also clear signs of club loyalty in certain areas.

For example, of the 50 matches broadcast by the BBC up to the Round of 16, Manchester ranked highest relative to other areas for Portugal v DR Congo and Norway's meetings with Ivory Coast and Iraq.

Portugal's squad includes past Manchester United legend Ronaldo and current club captain Bruno Fernandes, while Norway are spearheaded by Manchester City's Erling Haaland.

It's a similar story in Liverpool, which was outside the top 40 for overall engagement but rose inside the top 10 for Belgium v Egypt and Netherlands' games against Tunisia and Sweden.

Egyptian Mo Salah recently signed off on a hugely successful nine years at Liverpool, and the Dutch squad includes three Reds' regulars including captain Virgil van Dijk.

But perhaps the biggest show of club support came in Sunderland, which ranked as the number one postcode area tuning into Tunisia v Netherlands - possibly a result of striker Brian Brobbey breaking into the Dutch team.

How we analysed viewing figures

The figures cover BBC iPlayer streaming from 11 June to 7 July.

Percentages refer to the number of signed-in UK users who streamed any World Cup content (or a specified match), as a share of the number of users who streamed any iPlayer programme during the tournament.

World Cup content includes full matches, highlights, analysis, and other programmes such as visual podcasts and radio streams. Full matches broadcast on ITV are not included.

A stream must last longer than three seconds to be included.

Signed-in accounts make up for the vast majority of iPlayer streaming, but anyone watching on live TV will not be included.

According to last year's Ofcom report on the BBC, TV reached around twice as many UK adults as iPlayer in 2024-25.

Around one in six signed-in iPlayer accounts have no postcode attached to them so are excluded from the maps. Many of these will be children.

Additional reporting by Jess Carr