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US forces have struck two Iranian launchers on Iran's Larak island, a US official said, marking the first known American strikes on Iran since late July.

"Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into Strait of Hormuz," the BBC's US partner CBS News quoted US Central Command spokesman Cdr Tim Hawkins as saying.

The IRCG said the attack on Sunday killed and wounded several people, and vowed "response and punishment".

It marks the first known US strike in Iran since US President Donald Trump paused a renewed military campaign in late July. The US said it had finished clearing all mines from the strait's main shipping lane earlier this month.

Larak Island is just offshore from the key port of Bandar Abbas and sits right on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for global shipping.

Iran is currently making tanker traffic pass by this island for checking and reportedly forcing vessels to pay $2m (£1.5m) to cross.

Hossein Mohebbi, the IRGC's spokesman called the attack a "strategic and fatal mistake by the Trump regime" and said that the "enemy will pay the consequences of this miscalculation in both the economic and military fields".

Iran's Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with the IRGC, said earlier that the attack was carried out by drones. Reports indicate that two people were killed and two others injured, it said.

Trump said last week that all mines‌ placed in the Strait of Hormuz by Iran as part of its efforts to blockade the route had been detonated or removed. He said Iran had been warned that any ship or boat deploying new mines would be destroyed.

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi described Trump's claim as a "propaganda" deception.

Iran is facing renewed economic pressure after Washington announced a fresh sanctions campaign on 24 August aimed at further isolating Tehran and expanding secondary sanctions against its allies.

Iranian officials and state media have largely dismissed the campaign as a continuation of previous US economic measures, which they argue followed Washington's military failure in the recent conflict.

The US and Israel launched wide-ranging strikes on Iran on 28 February, with Iran responding by attacking Israel, US bases and allied states in the Gulf, and effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz to marine traffic. The Iran war has now crossed its six-month mark.

Some 20% of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas used to travel through before the war began.

Nasa launches powerful new space telescope to explore mysteries of the Universe

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce87e55vgpjo, today

Nasa's powerful next-generation telescope has blasted off into space from its launchpad in Florida, with a mission to explore dark energy, black holes and other mysteries of the Universe.

The Nancy Grace Roman telescope will capture vast panoramic views of space, with a field of vision at least 100 times larger than the famous Hubble Space Telescope.

The mission begins with a 100-day journey to a vantage point roughly one million miles from Earth, where the telescope will then start charting planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets.

"Roman is going to change the way we look at the universe," said Nicky Fox, a Nasa administrator.

"It is going to discover tens of thousands, maybe even 100,000 new exoplanets."

US President Donald Trump dialled in to Nasa's news conference on Sunday morning to congratulate the scientists working on the project.

"You're the hottest in space, and we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. So let's keep it all going. You're a big part of it," Trump said.

The telescope is named after physicist Nancy Grace Roman, who was Nasa's first chief astronomer in the 1960s and its first female executive.

During her career, she was instrumental in getting her namesake's predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, approved by US Congress and later said its most interesting discovery was dark energy.

The new Nancy Grace Roman telescope is similarly expected to revolutionise our understanding of the Universe, including through investigating dark energy. It has a five-year primary lifespan with a goal to operate for 10 years.

Nasa says the telescope's "crisp, sweeping surveys will help scientists investigate dark energy and dark matter, discover and characterise exoplanets, map billions of galaxies, study black holes, and explore objects from our own solar system to the edge of the observable Universe."

The origins of dark matter and dark energy remain unknown, but they are believed to make up about 95% of the Universe.

Dark matter acts as a kind of gravitational glue, while dark energy is believed to be a repulsive force driving the Universe's expansion.

The US space agency successfully launched the telescope on Sunday morning from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

About 30 minutes after launch, Roman separated from its SpaceX rocket and is now heading towards its orbiting point around a million miles away.

"One of our main goals at Nasa is answering the question: are we alone in the universe?" Fox said at a Sunday morning news conference.

"With Roman, we are going to make this giant leap forward... that is going to allow us to look at these distant, distant worlds and start to really resolve the atmosphere around them to let us know: could they be habitable?"

Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope, launched in 2021, also orbits the Sun around one million miles from Earth, but its field of vision is not as expansive. Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, orbits at about 300 miles above Earth's surface.

Head teacher evacuated 900 children minutes before Nepal floods hit school

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ymvdm5520o, today

A headteacher has told how he saved 900 pupils' lives from the Nepal floods - by quickly evacuating them just 10 minutes before the waters hit.

Rajendra Dawadi, who is in charge of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nuwakot, told the BBC he had received four calls at 09:10 local time (03:25 GMT) warning about the disaster, which has now claimed at least 794 lives.

He quickly decided to evacuate, telling the children to run to higher ground and ordering buses full of students to turn around to flee the area.

Dawadi said: "If we didn't make a quick decision, if it was 10 minutes later, we all - including the students and me - wouldn't be able to speak to you today."

The warnings had come from four different people in the space of minutes and helped him evaluate the impending danger.

"A parent came and told me that 'a big flood was coming, I am here to take my daughter, I will take her'," he added.

"Parents don't rush without a strong reason, so it was confirmed that I shouldn't waste a second to evacuate the children.

"I decided I shouldn't delay any more. Even if the flood was not coming, it was just a matter of a single day's classes.

"I feel proud that we saved so many lives."

The floods - which decimated parts of Nepal on Wednesday and have left at least 2,426 people missing - saw the school building buried under mud and debris.

Dawadi said the waters arrived so quickly that a hostel building about 100m (328ft) from the river was engulfed immediately.

At first, many students did not realise how serious the situation was.

Pupil Yunisha Amatya, 16, said she scrambled to safety with her friends just before the flood hit.

"I along with my friends survived by just 10 seconds only," she told the BBC.

"Just before the flood came, we were in the class studying. Teachers had gathered in one place and initially had no idea what had happened. After five minutes teachers came and informed us about the flood and asked us to go home."

She said one student fainted after hearing about the disaster, but many initially underestimated the danger and waited for classmates who were in a maths lesson.

Yunisha and her friends scrambled uphill through an escape route behind the school.

"I could not walk fast, and my friends helped me to climb uphill. We tried our best to be in the safer zones then. We escaped through a narrow ladder from backside of the school. Within no time, the bazaar was swept away in front of my eyes," she says, referring to the local market around the school.

"If there was no grip in my shoes I would have fallen and students and other people were jostling each other to reach the safer area while escaping. The people who choose to escape from another route are apparently swept away."

Students and teachers initially moved a few hundred metres uphill to safety before making their way to a neighbouring village.

With roads cut off and transport disrupted, many remained stranded for two nights before rescue efforts reached them.

The principal and Yunisha, who both live across the river from the school, were eventually airlifted back to their home village.

Meanwhile parents were desperately trying to contact their children and relatives.

Yunisha's mother, Sabina Kumari Shrestha, says she repeatedly tried to call both her daughter and husband, but neither could be reached.

Her husband, Yubaraj Amatya, immediately headed towards the school.

"Soon after the flood news spread, I tried my daughter's number, but she was not reachable, then I was afraid," he said.

"Within a few minutes I rushed toward my daughter's school and Trishuli Bazar was all swept by the flood, then I thought my daughter was no more. I was so horrified, stopped my scooter, there was flooding but I could not think of returning without my daughter."

For nearly an hour, he had no idea whether she was alive and kept calling her without success. Then the phone finally connected and Yunisha answered.

"Finally, my daughter received my call and I couldn't stop myself, broke out... two relatives that were with me also cried and hugged me," he said.

Yunisha appears tearful as she recalls that moment.

"After I had reached the top of the hill, I received a call from my father. He was tearful and I could not speak a word then," she said.

Back home, her family waited anxiously for her return.

"Even my younger daughter couldn't sleep. But I felt so good to see her after three days (Friday), I am so happy and relieved," her mother said.

Yunisha says she is now thinking about what comes next.

"Now I am worried about my further studies," she said.

"If I had to change my school, I would have to miss my old friends and will face difficulties to make new friends. I am sad about my further studies."

Head teacher Dawadi says better warning systems, including sirens and evacuation alerts, could have helped residents respond sooner.

But he believes his decision to act immediately prevented a catastrophe.

"Had I decided to close the school after the period, nothing might be left, only the bell would be ringing at 9:30."

Boat carrying some 270 people capsizes off northern Cyprus

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c770jyd4l7lo, today

A passenger boat with some 270 people on board has capsized off northern Cyprus, with a search and rescue operation under way.

Murat Senkul, the mayor of the coastal town of Kyrenia, told broadcaster CNN Turk that 159 of those aboard had been reached.

"The situation is very serious," he said.

The vessel reportedly began taking on water about four miles off the shore. Local television has broadcast images of the upside-down ferry in the water, with people wearing life vests atop its hull.

Helicopters and coastguard boats have been dispatched to the scene, while ambulances have been stationed on the beach.

The transport minister of the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), Erhan Arikli, told local media 100 passengers had been taken to shore.

The TRNC, which is recognised only by Turkey, controls the northern third of the island of Cyprus, which has been divided since 1974.

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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Hikers feared missing after flash flooding hits Grand Canyon

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clylkjyez1do, today

More than 20 people are thought to be missing or unaccounted for after flash flooding swept through parts of the Grand Canyon.

It hit at around 14:30 local time (22:30 BST) on Saturday in Bright Angel Canyon and Phantom Ranch area, according to the National Park Service (NPS).

Sixty-two people have so far been airlifted out of the area, with more expected to follow. No injuries have been reported.

The NPS said flooding had caused significant damage in some areas and that trails in the area have been closed.

It warned that more thunderstorms and heavy rainfall were forecast for Sunday and Monday, which could lead to "additional flash flooding, debris flows, rockfall and changing trail and river conditions".

The NPS asked anyone who knew of hikers or backpackers who were in the inner canyon along the Bright Angel Creek corridor on Saturday to get in touch.

The Grand Canyon is one of the most popular national parks in the US, with about five million people visiting each year. The Bright Angel trail is its most popular hike.

The Phantom Ranch area can only be reached by foot, mule or by rafting the Colorado River, according to Grand Canyon National Park Lodges.

Prisoners freed early are returning to jail at rapid rate, governors tell BBC

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c14dlm5e22ko, today

Prisoners who were freed under the government's last early release scheme are returning to jail at a rapid rate, prison governors have told the BBC.

They say they are seeing the same inmates, who were let out as part of the 2024 early release scheme to ease overcrowding, coming back after reoffending - including for breaching their conditions.

"The churn is what stresses me out," said one governor in the Midlands, describing it as a "revolving door".

It comes as Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced changes to the next early release scheme, starting in October, following outrage that the killers of PC Andrew Harper were among those eligible to be released.

On Sunday, Burnham announced that they will not be, telling the BBC that anyone convicted of unlawful killing will be excluded from the scheme.

He conceded that it means "hundreds" more people will stay in prison - as prisons in England and Wales reach breaking point at more than 97% full.

The government says there are plans to create more prison space by deporting foreign inmates and releasing some who are serving indefinite sentences, but they are unlikely to create much more space by the time the first batch of inmates are released in October.

BBC News spoke to three serving prison governors in England to gauge the state of correctional facilities and how staff are dealing with overcrowding. Prison staff are not supposed to speak to the media so their names and the prisons they govern will not be mentioned to protect their identity.

One governor from a prison in the north of England said the PM's plans to ease overcrowding "is all short-term solutions and we need space now".

"Providing additional cells in existing prisons will mean more prison staff needed to monitor that - it's not easy," they said, adding that staff shortages mean "prisoners are not living in a safe and decent environment".

The governor also said they were frustrated by the rate of prisoner recalls, saying: "We see the same people coming back after being released early and reoffending again, or breaking their [release] rules."

There were 51,419 licence recalls in the year ending March 2026 - when a person is sent back to prison because they breached their release conditions or raised new risk concerns. The number went up from 40,259 in the previous year - a 28% increase.

Although recalls in January to March were slightly lower than the previous three-month period, they remain well above historical levels.

'The system will grind to a halt'

Another prison governor who also works in the north of England told the BBC that something needs to be done about overcrowding and prisoner recalls, or "the criminal justice system will grind to a halt".

"You release someone to serve the rest of their sentence in the community and you think 'now I have some extra room', but then they're back again and you just go round in circles.

"It's a big problem in the [men's prisons] and you worry that this is what will happen again when all these new people are let out."

As of March this year, more than 70,000 people had been released under the 2024 early release scheme.

But there are still almost 87,000 people in prisons across England and Wales - with just over 2,000 spaces remaining. With a backlog in the criminal courts of tens of thousands of cases, prison staff say that simply isn't enough space.

A rise in gang tensions within prisons is another impact of the overcrowding crisis, one of the governors from the north of England said.

They explained that due to the lack of space, more people from different parts of the country are being placed in the same facility, therefore increasing the chances of regional rivalries.

"When you've got inmates from Manchester and Liverpool for example, there is a worry there could be gang tension. Or having people from different parts of London could mean an escalation in threat levels because of rival gangs," they said.

"This has always happened, but it's happening more because so many prisons are full, and so people are sent to prisons far away," they added.

The lack of space has also led to cells, which are designed to hold one person, being used for two inmates, the other governor from northern England said, which raises "serious health and safety concerns".

"The single cells are small and they have a workspace for eating and an open toilet... so you're eating and going to the loo in a very small area and then you have to put another person in there and they're doing it all together," they said.

"Prisons are already dealing with an infestation issue and this could make it worse."

The BBC understands that work has begun to create more cells in prisons by re-purposing existing spaces, but that is expected to take months.

The prime minister had been under increasing pressure to block the early release of the killers of PC Harper, who died in 2019 when he was dragged by a car as three teenagers fled a quad bike theft in Berkshire.

There were concerns that two of them - Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole - may have been eligible for early release under the government's plan, and more than one million people signed a petition calling for them to remain behind bars.

As well as those convicted of manslaughter and murder, serious child sex offenders, rapists and groomers will not be eligible for early release under the new scheme as part of the Sentencing Act, as well as prisoners convicted of indecent assault offences and death by dangerous driving.

On Tuesday, the justice secretary is expected to give further details, including how many people will be affected, during a statement to Parliament.

For one of the prison governors in the north of England, the situation is at breaking point. They said some inmates must be set free for capacity reasons, but ministers need to look at wider maintenance issues, too.

"We've got to alleviate the pressure somehow or we will break... But prison spaces could be made available if we maintained buildings properly," they explained. "We have too many cells we can't use because there's something wrong with them which seems ridiculous when you have an overcrowding crisis."

The governor said England's prisons have not been properly maintained for decades, and the problems have snowballed, creating "fragile infrastructure regularly breaking and preventing proper regimes from operating".

"If prisons are full, you can't carry out big maintenance projects and you lose those spaces. It's unsustainable. It's like having a car that you have to drive 24/7. If you don't service it and run it constantly you shouldn't be surprised if it fails and can't be fixed."

Tom Wheatley, president of the Prison Governors Association (PGA) told the BBC that no governors had been briefed on the government's plans to ease overcrowding.

"How are we supposed to deal with angry and confused prisoners when we find out about the plans last minute?" he asked.

A 2024 National Audit Office report concluded that "over the next few years there will be continued risk to the capacity in prisons, because of the poor condition of parts of the estate".

It said that "a quarter (23,000) of prison places do not meet fire safety standards".

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: "Less than one in seven prisoners in custody are on recall, and it is a vital tool to keep the public safe.

"This government inherited prisons in crisis but we are fixing this, reforming the length of time people spend on recall to reduce the prison population, building 14,000 new places, launching the biggest ever expansion of tagging, and giving victims a say in the strict licence conditions of offenders."

The US-Canada trade war in 5 charts

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g4r4lxx25o, today

The US and Canada appear no closer to resolving their ongoing trade dispute.

Tensions have been simmering between the two neighbours since President Donald Trump returned to the White House just over 18 months ago, and unleashed a wide-ranging global programme of tariffs.

Canada was one of the first countries the Trump administration hit with levies, and is one of two countries to respond with its own reciprocal measures.

Currently, the US has hit Canada's key sectors of steel, aluminium, lumber and automobiles with tariffs, and last week imposed an additional 50% levy on about C$28bn ($20bn; £15bn) of Canadian goods.

Canada has hit back with its own counter-tariffs on American goods, announcing on Tuesday what it calls a "dollar-for-dollar" and "strategic" retaliation designed to match the US tariffs.

With no resolution in sight, how has this enduring trade war affected Canada and the US, and what could come next?

Here are five charts to help break it all down.

Trade war hits Ontario hardest

The tariffs and counter-tariffs have hit some states and provinces harder than others.

In Canada, some provinces have been more exposed to US sectoral tariffs on steel, steel derivatives, aluminium, and autos and vehicle parts that don't comply with the current North American trade deal, known as the USMCA.

Ontario, the most populous province with a significant manufacturing sector, has been hardest hit by the auto and steel tariffs.

Several Ontario auto parts and assembly plants have announced layoffs and production cuts, and the province is estimated to have lost tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs since early 2025.

Metal exports from Quebec - which produces steel, copper and aluminium - fell 36% between February 2025 and 2026, and there was a 3.6% drop in employment in the sector, according to data released in July.

The Royal Bank of Canada estimates that Ontario and Quebec are the most impacted by US sectoral tariffs, while Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island are the least exposed.

Additional US tariffs on $20bn worth of Canadian goods that came into effect on 22 August are expected to impact all provinces in some way, though British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario will feel the brunt.

Swing states in the cross hairs

The US economy is much larger and the impact of Canada's counter-tariffs won't be as stark.

But some states will feel the pain of Canada's retaliation more than others, with tariffs levied on C$28bn worth of US goods from steel to furniture, cosmetics and toilet paper, as of 8 September.

According to data by Statistics Canada, the swing state of Ohio will be hardest hit, with C$3.2bn - or 12% - of its exports soon to be tariffed by Canada, followed by Illinois and Pennsylvania.

For Ohio, it's the tax on steel that will particularly hurt, as well as the tax on laundry machines. In Illinois, where farm equipment giant John Deere is based, it will be the new tariffs on farm and construction equipment.

Derek Holt, an economist with Scotiabank, noted that Canada's counter-tariffs appear to be "very deliberately oriented" towards some swing states that could decide the US balance of power in the upcoming midterm elections.

From the lowest tariff rates to one with the pack

Prime Minister Carney has assured Canadians that, despite the high-profile trade fight, they face some of the lowest US tariff rates compared to other countries.

But with the latest 50% tariffs imposed on a range of Canadian goods, the average effective US tariff rate on Canada is now higher than Mexico's, and is approaching the rate faced by others like the UK and Vietnam.

An average effective tariffs rate reflects the average tariff paid across all imports.

According to data by the Royal Bank of Canada, the average effective US tariff rate on Canada in June was 2.9% - the lowest among major US trade partners. It has now nearly doubled to 5.7%.

By comparison, the US effective tariff on the UK is 6.2%. China still faces the highest US tariffs at an average of around 20.5%.

Canada's exports are going elsewhere

Canada, by the happenstance of being neighbours with the world's largest economy, is hugely reliant on US trade.

Their proximity - and free trade agreements in place since the 1990s - has allowed the two countries to develop one of the world's most deeply economically integrated trading relationships.

The US buys more than 70% of Canadian exports, and is a top US trading partner alongside Mexico and China.

But the tariff fight has already started to shift Canadian businesses to other markets. Carney has pledged to double Canada's non-US exports over the next decade.

Bank of Canada statistics suggest that Canadian firms are exporting more to countries other than the US since Trump's return to the White House in January 2025.

Some businesses are adapting to find customers elsewhere.

Matteo Sgaramella, who owns Toronto-based menswear clothing company Outclass, told the BBC he has started attending trunk shows in Paris instead of New York, helping him reach more customers in Europe.

"The reception has been amazing," he said, adding that some European stores are particularly enthused about supporting Canadian products due to the ongoing trade war with the US.

"We're kind of seen as the one country that's kind of standing up to the Americans right now," Sgaramella said.

Other businesses, however, are struggling to diversify their trade, particularly in Ontario manufacturing sectors that are deeply integrated with the US.

A recent report by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce pointed out three such regions in Ontario - Oshawa, London and Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo - as being particularly vulnerable.

"These cities remain heavily tied to the US market, while growth in exports outside the US has been limited or insufficient to offset broader weakness in trade activity and local economic conditions," the report said.

While some businesses are lagging, foreign direct investment into Canada hit C$96.8 billion in 2025, the highest inflow of capital to the Canadian economy since 2007.

Canada's economy also strongly rebounded in the second quarter of 2026 to 3.3% growth in the country's GDP, thanks to a jump in exports and domestic investment.

These latest figures have warded off recession concerns, at least for now.

Carney is hoping to attract even more investment. In September, his government will host the first-ever Canada Investment Summit, bringing major investors, CEOs and business leaders to Toronto for two days.

Fewer jobs and less disposable income

On both sides of the border, tariffs have hit jobs and disposable income.

According to an analysis commissioned by Canadian American Business Council (CABC), if the US and Canada allow the USMCA to fail, there would be tens of thousands of jobs lost, primarily in the manufacturing industries directly affected by tariffs and that are highly reliant on the US market.

Around 55,000 manufacturing jobs have already been lost in Canada from January 2025 to January 2026, according to Bank of Canada data.

Not all figures are bad, however, as employment has steadily risen in Canadian sectors that are not vulnerable to US tariffs.

But there is a risk of further Canadian job losses due to the recent 50% tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.

Calgary-based economist Trevor Tombe estimates that a total of 90,000 jobs across Canada could be lost if these new US tariffs persist.

In the US, the non-partisan Center for American Progress estimates that Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs, placed last year on dozens of America's trade partners, have also led to tens of thousands of jobs lost manufacturing, transportation and warehousing sectors.

Even for those whose jobs remain secure, the tariffs have meant higher sticker prices on everyday items.

The US-based Tax Foundation estimates that an American household could pay $840 more on average this year due to Trump's tariffs on a number of nations, including Canada.

Canada's counter-tariffs are much more targeted and are designed to limit the impact on Canadian consumers, but economists say businesses will likely now pay more to manufacture goods, as a bulk of the taxes will be applied on industrial supplies imported from the US.

Iceland EU referendum on a knife edge as counting continues

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70le8ed1plo, today

Iceland's closely fought referendum on whether to resume membership talks with the European Union is going down to wire, with the result too close to call.

Based on the first 153,197 votes counted of the 270,000 voters eligible, 50.1% rejected the government's proposal, while 49.9% said yes, public broadcaster RUV said, with just 435 votes splitting them.

Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir's centre-left government promised to hold a referendum by 2027, but brought it forward because of international tensions, including US President Donald Trump's threats against Greenland.

However, debate in this island nation of almost 400,000 people centred more on its fishing industry rather than security concerns.

Already part of the EU's single market and Schengen border-free zone, EU membership would bring Iceland into the customs union and eventually the euro.

Iceland began its application to join the EU in 2009 in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and the collapse of Iceland's banking system.

Its application was already well advanced when a eurosceptic government came to power in 2013 and put talks on hold. Fishing rights was the biggest obstacle then - as it remains today.

Fish and marine industries account for almost 40% of Iceland's exports and many No voters feared they would cede some control of their lucrative fishing grounds under the EU's common fisheries policy.

The referendum campaign has fuelled debate about Iceland's place in the world, Frostadottir said after casting her ballot in the capital on Saturday.

"This is a great day, we've been waiting for this for years to be able to have a vote," Frostadottir said, adding that her government would continue its work regardless of the outcome.

The question on the ballot was: "Should Iceland resume accession negotiations with the European Union?"

A Yes vote would not be a final decision on joining the EU, but a move towards an accession agreement, which would then have to be approved by a second referendum.

Equally, the No vote would not rule out the chance of Iceland resuming talks in the future.

While economic issues dominated the referendum campaigns, security concerns also featured.

Iceland is a founder member of Nato but it has no military and relies on its allies for defence.

The country has backed Ukraine during Russia's full-scale invasion and officials have been alarmed by Russia's increased maritime manoeuvres near the island.

Trump's expressed interest in taking over Greenland has also raised concerns.

One dead and five injured in Swiss shooting, police say

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9qr750je1go, today

One person has died and five people are injured after shots were fired at an event in northern Switzerland overnight, local police say.

"The manhunt for the unknown perpetrator is under way," Aargau Cantonal Police said in a statement. "Possible motives as well as the exact circumstances of the crime are still unclear."

The force told Swiss media that the shooting took place near a horse racing track in Schachen, Aarau, some 46km (29 miles) west of Zurich.

Local media reported a rave had been taking place in the area into the early hours of Sunday.

Australia usually hosts the world's biggest cuttlefish mating event - not this year

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c75gyw0nkzno, yesterday

Every winter, a sliver of the South Australian coast hosts the world's largest mating event for giant cuttlefish.

Some years, hundreds of thousands of the unique marine species endemic to Australia gather along the Cuttlefish Coast for the annual mating season, bringing their colourful, shape-shifting figures to the shallow waters and attracting thousands of keen divers.

But this year, the turnout was the lowest on record, sparking concerns of a "catastrophic decline" of the species.

Official figures released this month estimate just 1,811 cuttlefish turned up to mate this year, down from 63,000 last year - a 97% drop.

The state government says a toxic algal bloom that has ravaged the state's coastline for more than 18 months may be to blame for the sharp decline.

The low figures have also prompted calls for the species to be listed as endangered.

Adult cuttlefish typically die after breeding so each mating season is crucial for the species' future, but in recent months, just 440 eggs have been counted, instead of the millions that are usually laid.

Manny Katz, 28, was one of four divers who spent hours along the coast last month to observe the annual breeding event, having been tasked by South Australia's Department of Environment and Water (DEW).

"Because there have been so few cuttlefish, DEW thought it would be worth going out and trying to do an assessment of how many eggs there currently are around the coastline to understand what the population is going to be next year."

Over two days in July, his team did eight one-hour dives, exploring the undersides of rocky reefs to count the eggs.

"Along the eight kilometres (five miles) of coastline, there would normally be millions of eggs," he said, as each female can lay dozens of egg and tens of thousands usually turn up to breed.

"[We] pretty much looked under every single rock that we could have and we only found about 440 eggs."

Crucially, adult cuttlefish only live about 12 to 18 months, Katz said, "so the success of one breeding season is going to determine the population next year".

"Under our current circumstances, with there being so few eggs along the coastline, we don't know if the population is ever going to be able to recover."

Marine ecosystems in 'real big trouble'

While it's too early to tell what this means for the species' future, Katz said: "we will know that answer probably in the next year or two, whether or not this year has been a catastrophic decline."

His team also tracked adult cuttlefish numbers during the dive survey, and said the dozen or so they saw - when there should have been tens of thousands - appeared to be behaving differently.

"This year, they were all really skittish... hiding under rocks. Because there's so few cuttlefish hanging out at the moment, they don't have strength in numbers."

Katz said he wasn't shocked by the low numbers this winter given the devastating impact of the toxic algal bloom in South Australia since it was first detected in March last year.

The algal bloom - a rapid increase in the population of algae in water systems – is naturally occurring but is caused by ocean warming, marine heatwaves, and nutrient pollution - all exacerbated by climate change.

"Our marine habitats have been getting wiped out for the past year and a half now... this is an indicator that our marine ecosystems are in real big trouble - the canary in the coal mine, so to speak."

Last year's cuttlefish mating season was not impacted as the effects of the algal bloom had not yet reached the Cuttlefish Coast, Katz said, but since late last year, small concentrations of the toxic algae have been detected in the area.

This was particularly worrying as cuttlefish, along with other cephalopods like octopus and squid, are particularly vulnerable to the toxic algae.

Stefan Andrews, co-founder of the Great Southern Reef Foundation, is seeking to have the giant Australian cuttlefish listed as a threatened species given its "catastrophic decline" due to the algal bloom and the impact on the next generation.

"The harmful algal blooma is a leading plausible explanation and appears likely to have contributed, but the vailable evidence does not yet allow us to say definitively that it caused the entire decline," he said.

He said with so few adults and so little breeding activity observed, the number of young entering the population is likely to be very low.

"That will make the next breeding season especially challenging."

A spokesperson for South Australia's Department of Primary Industries and Regions said cuttlefish populations "naturally fluctuate" depending on environmental conditions.

Previous surveys have reported record lows of 13,500 in 2013 to highs of 247,000 in 2020.

"The cuttlefish population estimate rebounded to more than 100,000 just two years following the low numbers in 2013," the spokesperson said.

"While it appears likely the algal bloom has impacted cuttlefish numbers, researchers are working to determine whether this contributed to the reduced population or was just one of the potential impacts."

Prof Mike Steer, executive director of the South Australian Research and Development Institute which helped carry out the underwater surveys, said the unprecedented low estimate this year was "disheartening".

But he remained hopeful as "we know from the past that this population has the capacity to recover when conditions are favourable".

He said there were "positive signs" as adult cuttlefish were continuing to lay eggs and the population may recover "over coming years".

They fell in love - then had to check they weren't brother and sister

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8en3n29wdro, yesterday

For years, Arthur Kermalvezen, the child of a sperm donor, saw possible fathers everywhere he went. "I imagined it might be my teacher, the people I saw on the bus... and I was very angry because it's impossible to live like this."

When, as an adult, he fell in love with Audrey, another sperm donor baby from Paris, the question became even more pressing.

Audrey describes the moment they met at a gathering for donor conceived activists in 2010 as "love at first sight" - but was this connection a romantic or genetic attraction?

When they were born, there were only two sperm banks in Paris and many men had made multiple donations - so there was a real possibility they could be half-siblings.

Before building a life together, Arthur and Audrey needed to know whether they were related. But in France, laws governing genetic testing and donor anonymity made finding the answer extremely difficult.

In France, only a research scientist, doctor or judge can order and supervise a genetic test, and people can be fined more than €3,500 ($4,288; £3,191) for possessing a home testing kit. As a result, companies such as 23andMe, Ancestry and MyHeritage don't make their kits available in France.

Supporters of the law, in place since 1994, say it stops sensitive genetic data being given to commercial companies, and prevents family disputes being caused by unexpected results.

But Arthur points out that France is the only country in Europe that criminalises the use of such tests.

Immediate chemistry

Even before her parents told her as an adult that she was donor-conceived, Audrey had qualified as a lawyer, specialising in bioethics law. Because of this, she fully understood that French law had guaranteed donor anonymity, even after a donor's death.

But Audrey had been conceived in 1979, before any such legislation existed.

While searching for other donor-conceived people born before 1994, Audrey came across Arthur. He had written a book detailing his desire to learn more about his biological origins.

Audrey says she was struck by how precisely he expressed feelings she herself had struggled to articulate. Both had loving families, yet both found themselves drawn to questions about the unknown people who had helped to create them.

When they met in person the chemistry was immediate. So was the problem.

Before they could move from platonic friendship to a romantic relationship, and even build a life together, they had to know the truth about their fathers. But no one in authority was willing to tell them.

In search of the truth

After months of searching, they found a doctor in southern France who, for €900 ($1,028; £764) in cash, conducted a genetic test which found that they were not related. But their unease remained as the doctor was breaking the law in sharing that result with them.

"We were worried he was a charlatan," Audrey says.

They considered using a home-testing kit to confirm the result, but as a lawyer, Audrey was determined to act within the law.

So, from 2010, she launched a series of legal challenges to the French system.

She wanted to know whether her donor was still alive and, if so, whether he still wished to remain anonymous. Could she access non-identifying information about how many times he had donated and whether Arthur could be among her half-siblings?

Her efforts failed.

After three years of legal challenges, the couple took a 'leap of faith' and got married.

In 2015, France's highest administrative court rejected Audrey's final appeal.

Shortly before the birth of their first child, a doctor agreed to investigate what information might exist about their respective donors. Under French law, a medical practitioner has access to this information about their patients, but is not allowed to share it with them.

The doctor found that their donors were born in different years - and so could not be the same man. A life-changing piece of information, but one they only gained because a doctor agreed to break the rules.

"It's completely weird," Audrey says, "because it means that the doctor can know more than me... about me."

Even with this new information, Arthur still worried they could be related, so after years of resisting it, they finally took a home DNA test.

Campaigners say the French ban has done little to stop people taking home tests, with the advocacy group DNA Pass estimating that well over a million French people have taken one. Many order them via friends in countries where they are legally obtainable - or by using forwarding services in neighbouring countries.

The test said they weren't related.

DNA shock

The DNA results soon opened more doors. After 30 years of imagining who his father might be, Arthur finally made contact with his sperm donor on Christmas Day in 2017.

But Audrey had the greatest shock. Among her DNA matches was a woman named Sophie whom she'd represented in court. The two women had been fighting for similar legal rights.

"I discovered that Sophie - a woman whose case I had pleaded in court - was my biological sister," Audrey says.

Audrey and Arthur had taken their DNA test alongside eight other donor-conceived activists campaigning for access to their origins.

Of the 10, four turned out to share the same donor: Audrey, her brother Peter, Sophie and Sophie's brother David - highlighting how real the risk of a shared donor had always been.

Many years later, a genetic match with an American led Audrey to her donor - a man called Philippe - but he had already died.

Audrey's mother wrote Philippe's family a letter, thanking them for his "gift" which she described as "immeasurable".

His family welcomed Audrey for a visit. "Everybody had tears in their eyes," recalls Audrey. Philippe's sister had never known he was a donor.

The discovery gave Audrey answers that she had sought for decades. She learned details about her biological family's medical history. She saw photographs and video footage of Philippe. "I can watch him, see how he moved and hear his voice."

Audrey's legal campaign and Arthur's book together helped drive changes to French donor-conception laws, allowing people conceived after April 2025 to access identifying information about their donors when they reach adulthood.

For now, however, France remains one of the few countries in Europe where at-home DNA testing is still prohibited.

Which means, for Audrey, the wider fight continues.

"Every person has the right to know their origins and the right to know their history," she says.

Based on an episode of The Gift on BBC Radio 4

I've been to Gamescom six times - here's what excited me this year

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cew92lp2g45o, yesterday

Gamescom is the largest in-person gaming event in the world, and this year it lived up to expectations with big games on show from The Witcher 3's new expansion, to Alien: Isolation 2.

Last year over 350,000 people flocked to the halls of the Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany to get a chance to see and play the most hotly anticipated games.

This year that number of attendees is expected to have been even bigger, with the likes of Xbox and Sega showcasing games to the public alongside indie studios with only one or two developers.

This was my sixth time attending Gamescom, which never fails to make me excited about the games industry. Here are a few of the big things I got to check out this week.

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past

When CD Projekt Red announced it was making a new expansion for the hugely popular action-role playing game The Witcher 3, it came as a shock.

The original, after all, came out 11 years ago.

Yet it was clear sitting in the crowd for Opening Night Live on Tuesday that there's still a lot of love for the older game. There were gasps and audible shouts of joy when the team announced they were providing a free upgrade to the original.

As for the expansion, Songs of the Past will follow the gruff-voiced protagonist Geralt in an adventure discovering more about the past of his close friend Dandelion.

Doug Cockle, who voices Geralt, told me it was a "thrill" to return as The Witcher.

"I love this character so much...it's like slipping into a warm bath, or putting on an old pair of shoes," he said.

From what I got to see, it's clear choice will once again be front and centre of the player's experience, with lots of options to choose from in how to react to people.

For those hoping to take their time tossing a coin to their Witcher, the head of co-developer Fool's Theory Jakub Rokosz told me this expansion would be "on par with the size" of previous additions such as Blood and Wine and Hearts of Stone.

Alien: Isolation 2

Alien: Isolation 2 is the long-awaited sequel to Horsham-based Creative Assembly's 2014 survival-horror game.

One of the things that made the original Alien: Isolation so terrifying was its seemingly intelligent Xenomorph, which appeared to learn from your behaviour and adapt to it.

Considering I physically jumped out of my seat at one point playing the demo when avoiding the Alien, it's safe to say Creative Assembly will once again be ratcheting up the tension with the sequel.

This time rather than playing as the daughter of Ellen Ripley, you play as Blake, a chief executive of the infamous Weyland-Yutani corporation.

As well as claustrophobic spaceship corridors, in the sequel you will also be avoiding the Alien in bigger, open air spaces.

But the game's Project Art Director Anastasia Sopikova said that did not mean you would always feel safer.

"You step outside. And you're like, 'Oh yeah, I'm relieved, I'm outside," she said.

"And then the rain picks up and it gets foggier, and you hear something nearby and you're like, 'Oh, okay.' Suddenly you realise you're really vulnerable. You're really exposed."

Fable

Ralph Fulton, the founder of Leamington Spa-based Playground Games, told me the 2027 reboot of the role-playing classic Fable had "two tonal pillars" - "Britishness" and "fairy tales".

Fulton said the team was keen to avoid the generic English accents often heard in fantasy games, pointing out that "accent is such an identifier in the UK, where accents change every 15 to 20 miles".

Instead, Fable features voices from across the UK, and a voice cast of over 100 actors.

"I want to hear people from Newcastle, from Edinburgh, from Cardiff, you know? And we've done that and it brings this incredible sense of Britishness, and also this incredible sense of humour," he said.

The game is deliberately not a continuation of the original trilogy's timeline, but it will have some of its quirks, taking players into a new open-world version of Albion - the game's fairy-tale version of medieval Britain.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis

Lara Croft has been exploring ancient ruins and culling the local wildlife for nearly 30 years now (the original Tomb Raider came out in 1996).

Legacy of Atlantis revisits Lara's original adventure, including her journey through Peru.

It's not the first time the classic game has been remade, but Jeff Adams, experience director at co-developers Crystal Dynamics, told me reimagining it was still a "very delicate formula".

"You have to be very intentful with where you make modifications, but you do so in the attempt to kind of bring it into a modern gameplay space."

As for why after 30 years people still want to play as the twin-pistoled adventurer, Michał Kuk, Creative Director at Flying Wild Hog, said it was not just about her athletic ability.

"It's also about the attitude, the energy, the self-confidence," he added.

Elsewhere at the expo, over three days some got to take part in an event called Games Done Quick (GDQ), where people try to finish a game as quickly as possible.

Its previous events are often watched by hundreds of thousands of people online, with GDQ's charity marathons having raised "62 million dollars for charities in the last 16 years", according to business director Ashley Farkas.

"Anybody can be a part of this community, anybody can be a speedrunner, and it is just like a giant hug from gamers of like, hey, we want you to come, hang out and do fun stuff and raise money for charity," she said.

Silent Hill Townfall

Silent Hill, the psychological survival horror franchise from Japanese studio Konami, has for the most part been set in America, although the most recent excursion - Silent Hill f - was based in Japan in the 1960s era.

Now in Silent Hill Townfall, made by the Glasgow-based team Screen Burn, that location is in an entirely new place - Scotland, albeit a fictional part of it - St Amelia.

Scotland was initially going to be more of an influence than a setting, but the team ultimately decided to embrace it fully.

Director Jon McKellan told me that approach felt "more natural and kind of authentic", with the game filled with recognisably Scottish shops and signage.

"It's very, very Scottish," he said.

I was told I was unworthy to be a mother, then they stole my baby

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2el0l0d38zo, yesterday

Marion McMillan was 17, pregnant and unmarried, when she made her first trip to England from her home in the south-west of Scotland.

It was 1966 and she was sent by her family to a maternity home run by the Salvation Army more than 150 miles away, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

The young mum spent nine months with her baby - a beautiful boy with "gorgeous wee black hair" - before he was taken from her.

She begged staff to let her keep him. "I said 'please help me keep my baby, don't let them take my baby, please' and he was gone," she told a new BBC documentary, Stolen Babies.

Warning: This story contains racist language and descriptions of sexual abuse and violence

It tells the stories of some of the 250,000 women who were forced to hand over their newborns for adoption between 1949 and 1976.

They were powerless against the will of the state, social workers and religious organisations, and the system which supplied infants to adoptive families.

"Let's face it, we were working class unmarried girls having babies that were being adopted by middle class women," another victim, Ann Keen, told the programme.

For years many of the women kept their ordeal - their shame - secret.

In July, outgoing prime minister Sir Keir Starmer issued a formal apology to those mothers, telling them: "The shame is not yours... the shame is ours."

Marion's story: 'They cannae take my baby away from me'

Marion grew up in Stranraer in the 1960s where she fell for an older man who had emigrated from Pakistan.

"I was in love at the time and it was so lovely, I never gave it a second thought," she said.

"We were only together just a few short times, and I'd never told my family but at 17 I became pregnant out of wedlock."

She hoped they would marry but her boyfriend knew their relationship would not be accepted.

"Nobody will want you to go with a black man, Marion," he told her.

In their last conversation, he suggested emigrating to Hawaii where he believed mixed-race marriages were more acceptable.

"I never saw him ever again after that," she said. "Didn't know what was ahead of me. The conveyor belt of 'unwed mother' took control, and that was when I lost control."

She gave birth at Hopedene, a home for unmarried mothers where conditions were austere and treatment could be brutal.

"Everything, from the minute you cross their threshold, is that you're unworthy to be a mother and we're taking your baby from you," Marion said.

"It's going for adoption. So you better get used to that, girl, because you've no money, you've no place to live, you've not got anybody to support you."

While giving birth she was slapped across the face by the matron for trying to get off a bed.

"And I don't know what was worse, the shock of her doing that [or] being in heavy labour," she said. "And the next thing my son is born."

She wasn't allowed to hold him until the following day.

"I was absolutely terrified," Marion said. "Absolutely terrified that they're taking my baby. They cannae take my baby away from me."

But Marion got to spend longer with her baby than some of the other girls in mother and baby homes across the UK.

"I was a Scotch girl with a half-caste, that's what the Salvation Army recognised me to be," Marion said.

"And of course you were told that half-caste is very rarely successful in adoption."

He was nine months old when he was picked out by his adoptive parents. Marion compared the wait to hand him over to death row.

"[The matron] took him, and she was weeping with me, and she must have had another member of staff that took him then, and she was still holding me."

Her desperate pleas to keep the baby were ignored.

Unwelcome back home in Stranraer, she ended up in a women's hostel in Glasgow.

"Suddenly I'm banished from where I was born and brought up and I'm entirely on my own again," she told BBC Scotland News.

Marion was finally reunited with her son in 2004, but her experience as a teenager continues to cast a long shadow.

"It's been painful for him, painful for me, painful for his [adoptive] parents, painful for everybody.

"But it you take away the pain it's been a gift from God because all the years I missed him."

Ann Keen: 'I was told I'd never see him again'

Ann Keen was 17 and working in a toilet roll factory in Ewloe, Flintshire, when she was asked out by a handsome salesman.

"That's when it happened. In today's terms it was without consent. You didn't say that in the 60s," she said.

Like Marion, she was sent away so the problem could be "dealt with". She gave birth at an NHS hospital in Swansea, where she was denied pain relief.

"I was told I wouldn't have anything for pain because I would remember it, and I wouldn't be a bad girl again," she said.

"They saw me as a woman that didn't have any morality and therefore I wasn't worthy of any help. And I don't believe, had I been married that that would have happened."

Ann was told that she could spend 10 days with her baby but on the eighth day she went to the nursery and he wasn't there.

A "cruel" midwife told her: "He's waiting for his new mummy. You'll never see him again."

She took her to a Victorian bathroom, put her in the bath and grabbed her breast.

The midwife told Ann: "I'm getting rid of this milk, you won't be needing it."

"And that's when I knew I'd lost everything," Ann said.

Joan Chambers: 'Teachers are supposed to be trustworthy'

Joan Chambers was a 14-year-old schoolgirl in Sunderland when she realised she was pregnant.

A teacher had starting asking her to go for walks in the countryside.

"I wasn't alarmed by it, because, you know, he was a teacher and teachers are supposed to be trustworthy. I trusted him, I really did."

One day he raped her. "All I remember is the pain," she said. "I didn't understand what was happening."

Five weeks before giving birth, she had to give evidence against the man in court.

Years later she discovered archives that showed that the judge had told the jury not to believe her testimony.

She told the documentary that the judge said: "He's got a good career ahead of him, so don't let her being pregnant sway you."

She went on: "That hurt. It really hurt when I read that years later. For a judge to say that."

The man was acquitted.

Joan spent the last few weeks of her pregancy at a mother and baby home - but she said she had "blanked out" the birth.

"It must have been so painful. I wasn't given painkillers or anything like that, " she added.

"The next thing I remember is like my legs were up in stirrups, a green cover over my legs, waiting for the doctor to come and stitch me. I had been torn to shreds, absolutely torn to shreds."

Her baby was taken when he was three weeks old, a week before Christmas.

"They took him from me and then they told me to go back in the nursery and take the bedding out of his cot and get it ready for the next baby," she said.

Joan was 66 when they were finally reunited.

"It was amazing, but it was so sad," she said. "He'd never looked for me because he had a happy adoption."

'The apologies prove we weren't to blame'

In 2023, Nicola Sturgeon described Marion McMillan as "one of the most ardent campaigners" as she formally apologised for the role of the state in the forced adoptions.

"It was always cruel, unjust and profoundly wrong," Scotland's first minister said.

In an updated apology published on Friday, The Salvation Army said it was "profoundly sorry and deeply ashamed" that vulnerable young women did not get the help they needed in their mother and baby homes.

"We know we must be held accountable for those we let down and reflect on our role in a society that worked against pregnant unmarried women," its territorial leaders, commissioners Paul and Jenine Main, added.

Marion says still more can be done. She wants more support for the victims of forced adoption - mothers, children and adoptive parents.

And she would like to see a centre of excellence for adoption in Scotland, where anyone involved in adoption can receive comprehensive training and support.

Ann Keen was among a small group of mothers invited to Downing Street ahead of Starmer's apology on behalf of the UK government.

"The apology to me means I'm no longer presumed guilty of something I didn't do, because I didn't give him away. He was taken," she said.

"It will prove to the world that it wasn't our fault. We weren't to blame. The state was to blame, the churches were to blame, and we will be free."

If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual abuse or violence, you can find details of organisations that can help at BBC Action Line.

Mount Fuji pics, life-changing ramen and a weak yen - why young Brits are going to Japan

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7704l1ypjgo, yesterday

As I open up Instagram, I see another person in their late-20s has been to Japan.

It shouldn't come as a surprise any more.

"I cannot scroll through TikTok or Instagram without seeing videos of people in [convenience store] 7-11 and trying all the different skincare and trying all the snacks and the viral sandwiches and the viral drinks and going to all the viral restaurants," says Alex Baker, who has been to Japan three times.

There's been growing hype about Japan as a travel destination among young British people.

Data from the Japanese National Tourism Organization shows that 483,157 British tourists visited Japan in 2025, up 24.8% on 2024 and up 40.8% on 2019, the benchmark year used by travel companies to compare with pre-pandemic trends. Provisional data for 2026 suggests numbers are continuing to grow.

This reflects the boom in total tourism to Japan since the pandemic, with a record number of foreign visitors in 2025.

The Brits in their 20s and 30s I spoke to gave a long list of reasons for wanting to go to Japan - the cityscapes, food, anime, nature, history, gaming, temples. But they largely agreed that social media was the main driving force behind so many young people heading there.

When Maitri Sanghvi scrolled through TikTok, "Japan just kept popping up," she says.

It was a big reason why Maitri, 24, and her boyfriend went for three weeks earlier this year. "Seeing [Japan] on social media restarted my urge of wanting to go," she says.

Search #japantravel on TikTok or Instagram and you'll see countless videos of Mount Fuji, bowls of steaming ramen, itinerary suggestions, small villages in the Japanese Alps, the Fushimi Inari torii gates in Kyoto, the neon lights of Osaka's Dotonbori, and the chaos of Shibuya Crossing.

"Seeing other people's Japan videos definitely influenced my decision to go," says Aden Ibrahim, 29.

Since he went with friends last July, Aden has posted dozens of TikToks of his trip, and he's still uploading them more than a year later. One captioned "Japan made it out the group chat" has 1.1 million views.

Travelling to Japan isn't cheap - return off-peak flights with a layover in China start at about £450 with a budget airline. But the yen is weakening, making it cheaper for tourists when they're actually out there - even as rising prices hit residents. In July, the yen fell to a 40-year low.

"You can literally get a bowl of life-changing ramen for £3/£4 compared to a rubbish one here for like £20," says Faye Jawad, 26, who reviews restaurants on TikTok and visited Japan last year.

"When the yen was weakening, I thought 'actually this is a good time to go, things are going to be cheap'," says Vivek Haria, 26, who has a trip planned for this autumn. His interest in Japanese culture means he's wanted to visit for years - he has been learning the language and even sings in the UK-Japan Choir - but he says the value of the yen made it even more attractive.

The low prices have led to many tourists splashing out on souvenirs when they're out there. Videos of people showing off their Japan "haul" of flavoured KitKats, stationery and clothes have become popular on social media.

When Sam Corbett, 23, was in Japan in May he bought so many souvenirs - including snacks, matcha, clothes and skincare - that he had to buy an extra suitcase, which he stuffed full. Everything was "really affordable," he says.

Almost all the Brits I spoke to had stuck to the same route known as the Golden Route: Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, often with day trips to nearby destinations like Nara, Hiroshima and Mount Fuji.

It's easy to see why so many tourists pick this route. These cities are easy to travel between and packed with some of Japan's biggest attractions.

But complaints about badly-behaved tourists are sparking debate about overtourism.

Chiyuki Izumii, a tour guide for the Japan Guide Agency, feels tourist behaviour has got worse in recent years. She says that while her customers are respectful, she's seen other tourists jumping queues for buses, blocking space on board with big suitcases, carving their initials on trees in Kyoto's bamboo forest, speaking in loud voices at night and entering restricted areas to take pictures.

Some authorities are cracking down. Fujikawaguchiko, a town near Mount Fuji, cancelled this year's cherry blossom festival after repeated issues with misbehaving tourists, while Tokyo's Shibuya ward, home to the famous Shibuya Crossing, started issuing on-the-spot fines for littering in June.

In July, Japan increased its international tourist tax - typically incorporated into flight and boat tickets for people leaving Japan - from 1,000 yen (£4.60) to 3,000 yen, which it says will be spent on things like improving public transport and restoring historic sites.

Some visitors were surprised just how crowded major cities in Japan were.

"I was prepared for it to be busy but I didn't expect it to be as busy as it was," says Millie Dring, a huge anime fan who went in November with a friend to celebrate her 21st birthday.

The DisneySea theme park near Tokyo was so busy that Millie and her friend only went on one ride, which had a three-hour queue, and felt overwhelmed by the crowds.

Sam blames some of the crowds at tourist hotspots on social media hype and he says he regrets going to some places just because they were popular online. One dessert spot he went to in Kyoto after seeing it "all over social media" was very busy "and there wasn't a single local person in the queue," he says.

Sites like the Hakone torii gates and Arashiyama bamboo forest had huge crowds of people trying to get Instagram-perfect photos, he says.

But for some visitors, the hustle and bustle of the tourist destinations are all part of the attraction.

"I think there's a snobbiness around being a tourist over the past couple of years where people want to avoid looking like one," says Laura McGregor, 29, who's spending two weeks in Tokyo and Osaka in November for her honeymoon. Her plans include going to Disney and Universal, attending a sumo event, visiting Fuji and Hiroshima, and hiring go-karts to drive around Tokyo.

"Of course I want to experience an authentic side of Japan but I'm excited to embrace the tourist side too and go along with it," she says.

What we know about deadly Nepal-Tibet floods

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd948kn02e5o, today

Devastating landslides and flash floods on the Nepal-Tibet border have caused widespread damage and left hundreds dead and thousands more missing.

At least 752 people have died and more than 2,500 people remain unaccounted for, according to Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.

At least 16 people have died in Tibet, with another 546 reported missing by Chinese state media.

On Wednesday, flood water tore through the border region, sweeping away homes and roads, local officials have said.

Rescue workers say they now face a critical moment to reach remaining survivors as fears mount of further flooding in the disaster's aftermath.

Here is what we know so far.

What caused the landslide?

Initial reports of an earthquake on the Nepal-Tibet border led many to believe that a tremor had caused a landslide, which in turn caused the devastating floods early on Wednesday.

However, the US Geological Survey (USGS) later confirmed that the disaster was caused by a "glacial collapse" - when a glacier or part of a glacier disintegrates.

The impact of the collapsed glacier hitting the bottom of a valley was so powerful that it registered a magnitude of 5.2, according to the agency, causing "subsequent catastrophic impacts downstream".

Powerful flood water and debris travelled some 62 miles (100km) downstream from the Trishuli and Bhote Koshi Rivers, the USGS said, sweeping through towns popular with mountaineering tourists and pilgrims in northern Nepal.

Footage showed a wall of mud and rock sweeping away buildings, roads and vehicles as people fled in the Nuwakot region.

In one video, a towering wall of water and mud was seen rushing down a gorge along the Trishuli River and enveloping the Rasuwagadhi Border checkpoint, a multi-storey building on the Nepalese side.

Gyirong Port, over the border, was also hit. A number of deaths were reported in Tibetan villages.

Scientists are trying to piece together the exact order of events as rescue efforts continue. Mike Searle, professor of Earth sciences at Oxford University, said the glacier could have collapsed "hours or days" before the flooding hit Nepal and Tibet.

"I think the sheer wave of debris suggests there was a landslide first, the water built up, [which] dammed the river, and then it burst in one huge great flood," he told the BBC.

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIDMOD) has warned secondary flooding could occur in the coming days as a result of debris that washed into the river systems.

The ICIDMOD said it was assessing whether the Trishuli River had been temporarily blocked in narrow sections. If this is the case, it is at risk of forming a landslide dam and a second flood.

Separately, China has warned there was a "high risk" a lake that formed after the landslide may burst its banks, causing fresh flooding downstream. As of Friday, an estimated 2.5 million cubic metres of water had accumulated, according to broadcaster CCTV.

State media reported that rescue operations were briefly suspended on Friday after the lake, which has formed at the confluence of the Chhochen Khola and Purepu Tsangpo rivers, overflowed - before water levels dropped slightly. Heavy rain is forecast over the next few days.

But experts have told the BBC that it was possible that the lake could drain naturally over time.

A second lake has formed in Tibet after a landslide occurred downstream of the existing so-called barrier lake, Chinese state media reported on Sunday.

This body of water is also being assessed by experts.

How many people are dead and missing?

The number of people killed or missing is still becoming clear.

At least 752 people had died as of Sunday and 2,502 are still missing, according to the country's disaster agency.

The government has released a list of more than 261 foreign nationals who have been out of contact since the floods hit.

Meanwhile, 16 people have died in Tibet and 546 are missing, China's state broadcaster CCTV has reported. These figures have not been independently verified and it is unclear whether any of the missing in the Nepali and Chinese figures have been counted twice.

Tibet, which China annexed in the 1950s, is one of the most strictly controlled regions in the country. It is virtually impossible for foreign media to gain entry there and trying to contact local residents is just as hard.

Brigadier General Rajaram Basnet, a spokesman for Nepal's army, told the BBC that rain and unpredictable weather in the area were making rescue operations increasingly challenging.

Which countries are the missing tourists from?

Tourists from all over the world come to Nepal for its mountains and sacred sites. Reports of those missing include the following:

* India - at least 320 Indian nationals are missing, the foreign ministry in Delhi says

* China - The Chinese foreign ministry says nearly 100 Chinese nationals are missing in Nepal

* US - 90 Americans are still missing, the US state department says

* Ukraine - 62 Ukrainian nationals are missing, Nepalese police say

* Malaysia - 51 Malaysians travelling with Fishtail Tours and Travels are missing in the floods, officials say

* Australia - 41 Australians are unaccounted for, according to the country's assistant immigration minister

* UK - Nepal's police say 33 British nationals are missing; Chinese state broadcaster CCTV also reports 15 British nationals are among the missing in Tibet - it is unclear how many of those are included in the figure reported by Nepal

* Canada - 30 Canadians are missing, says the country's foreign ministry

Smaller numbers of travellers from countries including South Korea, South Africa, Portugal, the Netherlands and New Zealand have also been reported missing.

How are governments responding?

Nepal's priority is to locate the missing and provide urgent relief, Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said on Saturday, with more than 4,450 people rescued so far.

He said authorities were co-ordinating with families to identify those missing, and diplomats were facilitating communications with the relatives of missing foreign nationals.

He said the risk of possible secondary flooding was being monitored, with officials on "high alert".

Additional personnel were deployed on Friday in the hopes of speeding up recovery efforts, the office of Prime Minister Balendra Shah said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping chaired an emergency meeting of officials to co-ordinate rescue efforts the same day, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

Kamal Kishore, special representative of the UN secretary general for disaster risk reduction, urged countries to support response efforts.

The US previously promised $500,000 (£367,982) in aid for communities affected by the floods, while the UK said it had offered £5m.

Meanwhile, the Indian Air Force said that military cargo planes carrying nearly 50 tonnes of supplies had been sent to Nepal.

Might climate change have played a role?

Climate change is known to be driving faster glacier melt in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region.

Geologist Daniel Shugar – one of the first experts to suggest Wednesday's flash flooding could have been caused by glacial activity – said glacial thinning caused by global warming could increase the risk of landslides.

But it is still too early to definitively link the event to climate change, Shugar, who is based at the University of Calgary in Canada, told the BBC.

Simon Cook, a geoscientist at the University of Dundee, said that climate change "could have an impact".

He said his team believed they had identified where the collapse had occurred. He told the BBC that the lower part of a glacier in Nepal near the Langtang Lirung peak - approximately 15km west of the site of the floods - had collapsed.

Cook estimated that the glacier collapsed in a north-westerly direction and then travelled westwards downstream.

He told the BBC that "permafrost is partially holding some mountainsides together, this permafrost is warming and thawing and degrading so you are going to get more landslides".

British woman killed in stabbing at German railway station

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2zy118q7ko, today

A British woman has died after being stabbed at a railway station in southern Germany in the early hours of Sunday morning, police have said.

The 31-year-old woman was attacked at the station in Rosenheim, Bavaria, shortly before 1am local time (00:00BST). She was taken to hospital where she died as a result of "severe" injuries, the Bavarian Police said in a statement.

Officers arrested a 27-year-old German man at the scene immediately after the incident. The background and motive for the attack is under investigation, the statement added.

Police have asked anyone who may have witnessed "an argument or physical altercation" at the station late on Saturday or early on Sunday to contact them.

Rosenheim, one of the largest cities in Upper Bavaria, is a busy rail hub for passengers travelling to Austrian cities including Vienna, Salzburg and Innsbruck.

WhatsApp chat used to send cash for crime and extremism

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgk57lg7566o, today

A WhatsApp group chat was used to send hundreds of millions of euros in cash around the world, funding organised crime and extremism with no paper trail, an investigation by European broadcasters has found.

The 532-member group chat, called "Traders of Greater Europe", was used to arrange cash transfers across borders for their clients, including to British cities such as Birmingham and London.

In one case, payments from Brussels went to militants from the Islamic State group (IS) in Syria.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) investigative journalism network, which includes the BBC, also found wider evidence of similar cash transfer systems being used in people smuggling and drug trafficking.

The group chat, which contained more than 82,000 messages sent between late February and December 2022, was first uncovered by Belgian investigating magistrate Vincent Guerra. An investigating magistrate is a judge who examines evidence in complex cases before trial and makes a recommendation about whether they should proceed.

Guerra said the number of transactions was "staggering" and the network covered "the entire planet". The case began as an investigation into terror financing, but "it became just a drop in the ocean of transactions", he said.

Members of the group chat sent messages in Arabic to each other to set up cash payments using the ancient hawala transfer system. Hawala involves a network of trusted money brokers who can arrange for funds to be sent around the world without any electronic record or physical transport of bank notes.

The system involves an agreement between two brokers, known as hawaladars, in different locations. One of the hawaladars is paid a sum of cash and the other agrees to supply the same sum, minus commission, to the recipient. The hawaladars agree to settle up all their transactions between themselves at a later date.

Hawala transfers are frequently used for legitimate purposes, such as immigrant workers sending funds home to support their families in countries with limited access to banks.

But criminals can also take advantage of hawala transfers to avoid the Swift system used for most international money transfers, where banks typically flag large transactions outside the normal course of business and are required to report any suspicious activity.

The Great Traders of Europe group was reserved for transactions over €5,000 (£4,279) and payments were often much larger. There is no indication that all those participating in the group were involved in handling criminal funds.

Hawala is illegal in many countries, including most of the EU, but is legal in the UK as long as the brokers are registered with Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

The cache of WhatsApp messages was obtained by the EBU following a 2024 court case in Belgium which convicted six money launderers, including Abu Adam, the head of the network in Brussels, and his number two, Abu Ahmed.

Belgian police had discovered evidence that the defendants had been sending money to IS, which was intended to help the wives of militants escape from detention camps in Syria. When they arrested Abu Adam, they discovered the Traders of Greater Europe group chat on his phone.

Guerra said it was like "hitting the jackpot", uncovering the inner workings of a vast, underground system. The phone also contained 6,000 photos of €5 notes showing the serial numbers and 6,000 photos of identity cards. These details are often used as unique identifying codes in hawala transactions, and the total number of notes and ID cards suggest Abu Adam had processed at least 12,000 transactions, Guerra said.

"This isn't just amateur work; it's professional, and at a level we could never have imagined," he said. "They're bankers with no government oversight."

The EBU also found further gangs across Europe using the hawala system for criminal activity. One former money launderer previously involved in European hawala networks, whom we are calling Frank, told the EBU he had been involved in transactions totalling several hundred million euros.

His first introduction to the hawala system had been at an office in a small town outside Rotterdam, he said. There, five or six messengers had arrived with money in about an hour and a half, transferring at least a million euros, he estimated.

"What I found out later is that it's not just about money. It's about the financing of terror. It's about drug trafficking. It's about prostitution and all sorts of other crap, to put it nicely," he said.

Cases in Austria have also revealed how the hawala system is bound up with people smuggling and violence.

In one case investigated by Austrian broadcaster ORF, part of the EBU network, Austrian police raided what they called "the biggest hawala office in Vienna". It was run from a kebab restaurant on a busy thoroughfare and which authorities say was used to make payments for people smuggling.

Two Syrian brothers who ran the operation were charged with human trafficking, as well as torturing and raping a courier who had lost €350,000 (£300,000), saying he had been robbed. They were convicted last year and sentenced to 18 and 8 years in prison respectively.

Austrian police and Europol also recently dismantled another people-smuggling ring financed through hawala, which officials said had transported about 100,000 people into Europe over 18 months.

Gerald Tatzgern, who leads human-trafficking investigations at Austria's Criminal Intelligence Service, the BK, told ORF that torture was a reality of people smuggling and was also used to maximise profits.

He said: "Videos of the torture are then sent to the families, saying that if they don't send another €1,000 or several thousand euros, then the person concerned - your son, your brother, your father - will suffer."

Payments to stop the torture were demanded through the hawala system, he said.

Police commander and Europol liaison officer Quentin Mugg, who has led a number of money-laundering investigations, said the hawala system was "the primary money-laundering channel for organised crime".

"Whether the money comes from migrant smuggling, human trafficking, pimping, a grandmother's savings sent as a birthday present to her son, or a Malian working in France who wants to support his family, [the hawaladars] couldn't care less," he said. "And they'll apply their rates."

Trump hails 'historic' deal for US to control 65bn barrels of Venezuela's oil

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2zlwe7qj1o, today

The US has struck a deal with Venezuela to control more than 65 billion barrels of its proven oil reserves, Donald Trump said.

The US president wrote that the agreement would more than double American oil reserves and "substantially lower Gas Prices for all Americans".

In a late-night address on Saturday, Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodríguez hailed the deal as one that would help her nation's economic revival.

But some analysts have reacted with scepticism, including questioning whether it would address long-running obstacles that have deterred investment in its oil industry.

Trump has recently been under domestic pressure to tame petrol prices, which have spiked due to the Iran war.

He vowed to tap into Venezuela's reserves, the world's largest, after the US captured its then-President Nicolás Maduro in January, ostensibly to stand trial on drug charges in New York.

Rodriguez, who is Maduro's former vice-president and who the US backed following his capture, said on Saturday that the energy agreement with the US would remain in force for 25 years.

She said it would target an increase in crude output to 1.5 million barrels per day and preserve the country's sovereignty over its natural resources.

Rodriguez hailed the accord as a "historic" deal that would help revive the economy and boost government revenue, saying it would help shape the country's future.

Earlier, she said in a statement that the deal calls for the development of 17 strategic oil fields with a proven potential of 65 billion barrels, as well as "an investment of more than $100bn and more than $209bn in taxes" for Venezuela.

"These investments will contribute not only to the recovery and modernisation of our industry, but also to our country's economic growth, the energy security of our hemisphere and greater balance in international markets," she said.

Under the agreement, the US government will retain 55% control of a joint venture with an "experienced private operator in Venezuela", a US official told the BBC's US partner CBS News.

They said Rodríguez gave the venture a 100-year concession to operate in the oil fields.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the deal "a huge win for both the American and Venezuelan people".

"For the Venezuelan people, this deal will bring nearly $100bn (£74bn) in private investment, support thousands of high-paying jobs and drive the reconstruction of Venezuela's economy," he said.

Trump said Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had reached the agreement with Venezuela's leadership "through a partnership with private business".

He gave few specifics, nor did he elaborate on the partnership or describe possible US terms and commitments, but he said the deal was reached "at no cost to the American Taxpayer".

It apparently grants the US direct governance over a foreign country's sovereign national resources and appears to be wider in scope than the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority's control over Iraq's oil revenues after Saddam Hussein was ousted in an American-led invasion in 2003.

It is unclear whether the Venezuela agreement could face legal and constitutional challenges in the South American nation. The official text of the agreement between Washington and Caracas has not been published.

Henrique Capriles, a moderate opposition lawmaker in Venezuela, said there were many doubts about the agreement because of the "opacity and corruption" of the government.

He said the government needed to explain the legal basis for the agreement under the Constitution and what the Venezuelan people were going to receive from it.

David Goldwyn, president of energy consultancy Goldwyn Global Strategies, told the Reuters news agency there was "no precedent" for the US government entering into a lease to operate Venezuelan oil fields and it was not clear if such a move would violate Venezuela's constitution or its hydrocarbons law.

"It is hard to see how this kind of arrangement would accelerate investment at any material scale," he added, citing Venezuela's political uncertainty, weak power grid, and limited export capacity.

Oil, gas and mineral lawyer Alexander Kuiper told the BBC the deal could be "very significant" but expressed some caution.

"This is definitely a headline to help with oil prices," he said, but added: "What we don't know, is whether or not those reserves turn into actual investment, and how long that investment takes to produce results."

Rachel Ziemba, from think tank The Center for New American Security, said the agreement could help spur job growth and imports in Venezuela, but there were too few details to gauge the impact.

“This is unlikely to have any material impact on global oil supplies in the next month or even the next year,” she told the BBC News Channel.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that US energy firms Chevron and Halliburton were nearing deals to invest billions in overhauling the infrastructure in Venezuela's oil fields, many of which have not been developed.

Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world - an estimated 303 billion barrels - but production has plummeted since its peak in the late 1990s, in part due to a tightening of controls over its state-run oil firm and US sanctions targeting its main economic lifeline.

Hours after US special forces captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a raid on the Venezuelan capital, Trump said the US would indefinitely control the sale of the country's oil.

He has also claimed the rights to Venezuela's oil after saying that the country had in the past "unilaterally seized and sold American oil, American assets and American platforms, costing us billions and billions of dollars".

His framing of the deal as part of efforts to drive down domestic petrol prices comes as the global price of oil has jumped up significantly as supply via the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf has effectively been stymied - spurring discontent ahead of the US midterm elections in November.

However, Venezuela's oil reserves are made up of so-called "heavy, sour" oil, which is harder to refine and used for making diesel and asphalt, while the US typically produces "light, sweet" oil useful for making petrol.

Trump has asked US oil firms to invest at least $100bn (£75bn) to restore the country's oil industry.

Right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos deported from US to UK

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqlw52vr0dwo, yesterday

British right-wing political commentator Milo Yiannopoulos has been deported from the United States after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Yiannopoulos, 41, a former editor of Breitbart News and one time political aide to rapper Kanye West, was deported on Friday, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Yiannopoulos, "an illegal alien from the United Kingdom" had been sent "back to his home country", a DHS spokesperson said in a statement given to the BBC.

The self-styled provocateur has called himself the "most fabulous supervillain on the internet" and advocated for stricter US immigration controls. His critics call him a purveyor of hate speech.

Yiannopoulos, who grew up in Kent in the south of England, was arrested on 27 August after arriving at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.

He flew into the US in May 2019 and "chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation's laws", the DHS said.

He has previously cheered on ICE raids, last year calling for "total legal immunity for ICE agents when they're on duty".

He wrote on social media in 2025: "We have got to deport millions and millions of people. Without that, nothing else matters."

Yiannopoulos also advocated "on the spot deportation for anyone who can't prove they are in the US legally" on social media.

Yiannopoulos was an early supporter of Donald Trump during the 2016 election, headlining an event that year called Gays for Trump during the Republican National Convention.

The commentator has since become a critic of the US president, but still voices support for his agenda. He wrote on X in March this year that Trump had "lost his way, bought off by foreign interests".

Yiannopoulos has courted controversy with his comments on transgender people, Muslims, Black Lives Matter, feminists and gay people, even though he himself identified as gay. He now calls himself an "ex-gay".

In 2020, he assisted West in the rapper's unsuccessful bid to become president. He also worked for Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Republican congresswoman who fell out with Trump and became a fierce critic before resigning from office.

Laura Loomer, a far-right commentator and Trump ally who has feuded with Yiannopoulos, took credit for his arrest by ICE, claiming on X on Friday night that his flight back to the UK had already departed.

"This subversive foreign agent is already out of the United States and DHS tells me he's NEVER allowed to come back to the United States ever again," she wrote.

In 2017, he was disinvited from speaking at CPAC, a US conservative conference that also hosted Trump, after footage emerged of Yiannopoulos appearing to condone paedophilia. He also later apologised and resigned from Breitbart.

He denied the allegations and said he had been speaking about his own experiences as a child.

Yiannopoulos was once regularly linked with the alt-right, a disparate group that is outspoken against political correctness and feminism, and which includes neo-Nazis and white supremacists among its ranks.

He has said he did not consider himself part of the alt-right, although he has called it "energising and exciting".

At least 37 dead and hundreds evacuated after strike on Kyiv weapons depot

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c86xwqez4npo, yesterday

Thirty-seven people have died and almost 400 have been evacuated after a Russian drone strike hit a depot storing weapons for Ukraine's military near a residential area on the outskirts of Kyiv.

The strike caused shells, mines and drones to detonate late on Friday, triggering a blast that damaged nearby properties including a care home for the elderly and disabled, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

He said the storage site "definitely shouldn't have been there" and that an investigation had been launched into "terrible negligence on the part of those who stored explosive right next to people".

The attack is the second to hit a munitions depot near Kyiv in recent months, prompting renewed anger.

Four children are among the 42 people injured in Friday night's explosion, according to regional head Tymur Tkachenko, with a rescue operation ongoing at the site, in the Bucha district, on Saturday.

Russia's Ministry of Defence said in a statement that its forces had targeted "an ammunition depot" in Myla, a village to the west of the Ukrainian capital, holding "components and launch boosters for FP-1/FP-2 long-range unmanned aerial vehicles".

The explosion damaged about 130 homes in the village.

"Everything is completely damaged," local resident Liubov Pavlenko, 45, told the BBC while inspecting her home around 200m from the ammunition warehouse.

"There are cracks all around the entire perimeter, and cracks around the windows. Basically, the structural integrity has been compromised," she added.

"I'm still kind of numb. I don't know… once I come around a little tomorrow, I'll probably have an even bigger breakdown."

Zelensky said the decision to store explosives in the village was "absolutely unacceptable", adding: "Criminal proceedings have been opened on charges of official negligence."

The office of Ukraine's prosecutor general earlier said it was reviewing the "legality of the placement and storage of explosive objects and materials" near residential buildings in Myla.

It said the "actions of officials who made the relevant decisions" would also be investigated.

However, Zelensky earlier stated that "there are regulations in place - ammunition cannot be stored near homes or other residential areas", adding "appropriate conclusions will certainly be drawn".

He referenced the strike on an ammunition warehouse in Vyshneve in July, which caused a secondary detonation that killed nine, injured dozens more and damaged more than 280 homes.

Friday night's explosion has raised fresh questions about why munitions were being stored so close to people's homes, especially given the regularity of Russian aerial attacks.

"The authorities, the Ministry of Defence - why was this allowed at the depots, in a place where there used to be food?" Borys Daniyluk, 61, said.

"Why were ammunition and weapons stored there, next to a populated village? There are no words, just emotions."

Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergiy Koretsky expressed regret that a "lesson" had not been learned following the explosion in Vyshneve.

The investigation into that incident revealed serious failings on the part of a state-owned company that had not complied with regulations regarding storage of explosives near residential buildings.

Zelensky indicated that the Myla depot had been operated by Ukraine's armed forces.

"In the fifth year of the full-scale invasion, making the same mistakes over and over is criminal negligence," Koretsky said on Telegram.

"Everyone responsible, without exception, must face severe punishment so that such situations never happen again."

Meanwhile, Tkachenko said a 14-year-old was killed in a separate attack in the Boryspil district, while Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said a two-year-old had died after a Russian drone crashed in Obolonskyi.

He added that five people, including an 18-year-old girl, were injured in fresh strikes on the capital on Saturday morning. Five people have been killed across the country over the past day, according to local officials.

Zelensky reported further overnight strikes in Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia, as the Ukrainian army said it had shot down 233 Russian drones.

Russia and Ukraine have been intensifying their aerial attacks in recent months, with Kyiv focusing its operations on Russian economic targets.

Ukraine has for weeks struck sites belonging to Wildberries, the country's biggest online retailer, describing the firm as a legitimate target because it supplied components to the military, which Moscow denies.

In Russia, local officials said two people had been killed and 25 injured in strikes in the Belgorod and Rostov regions in the past 24 hours.

The Moscow-appointed governor of the occupied Ukrainian region of Zaphorizhzhia said four people were injured after a Ukrainian strike hit a shopping centre.

Russian online retailer Ozon said one of its logistic centres had been hit in an overnight Ukrainian drone strike. It said it had also suspended operations at a second logistics centre and evacuate staff "due to the danger in the area".

The retailer's facilities in Krasnodar, Dagestan, Stavropol and Adygea were targeted in strikes earlier this week, resulting in several injuries and widespread damage.

Canada installs large Lake Ontario sign in latest jab at US

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpq09594vw7o, today

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has hit back at Donald Trump by installing a large sign on Canada's shoreline with the message: "Lake Ontario. Now and Always."

The US president signed an executive order on Thursday seeking to change its name to Lake America and has shared a series of AI-generated videos about the lake that straddles both countries.

"Long before President Trump, this lake was called Lake Ontario. Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario," Ford said.

The war of words was triggered after trade talks collapsed, with the US imposing new 50% tariffs on $20bn (C$28bn) of Canadian goods. Canada will implement "dollar for dollar" counter-tariffs next month.

Trump said the decree was effective immediately as he signed the order to rename it Lake America.

While he has broad discretion over how the US recognises landmarks, other countries are not required to follow.

On Saturday, Google said it had changed the name on its maps for users in the US.

"Since we update Google Maps to reflect name changes in official government sources, which is GNIS [Geographic Names Information System] for the US, people using Maps in the US will see 'Lake America', those in Canada will continue to see 'Lake Ontario' and those outside of the US and Canada will see both names," the tech firm said in a blog post.

This mirrors how Google names the Gulf of Mexico for users after Trump declared it was called the Gulf of America in 2025.

Canadian officials have dismissed Trump's move.

On Saturday, Trump also posted several AI-generated videos on social media, with one showing him kicking over a Lake Ontario sign and replacing it with one that says: "Welcome to Lake America."

Another video depicted a flock of Canada geese sporting the US president's trademark hair and holding rifles as they patrolled the shoreline of a newly named Lake America.

Ford said Trump's renaming of the lake was because he "didn't like Ontario and Canada standing up for ourselves".

Standing in front of the newly unveiled Lake Ontario sign, Ford added: "Just in case President Trump or anyone else forgets, we've set up this sign to remind them, it's Lake Ontario, now and forever."

It echoes Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's previous response to the row, insisting "things must be called by their name, and this lake is called Lake Ontario - today and forever".

The names of four of the Great Lakes - Ontario, Huron, Michigan and Erie - originate from indigenous words. Lake Superior was named after an anglicised French word. Lake Ontario, the smallest of the Great Lakes, borders both the Canadian province and the US state of New York.

Trump's executive order gives the US Department of the Interior 30 days to update the name change with the Geographic Names Information Service - the official repository of domestic geographic names in the US.

Mexico similarly rejected Trump's renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, arguing a single country could not rename a shared body of international water.

Two missing as French fishing boat sinks in Channel

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjrx2qjv3e3o, today

Searches are continuing for two crew members after a French fishing boat sank in the English Channel, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said.

A coastguard rescue helicopter, fixed-wing plane and two RNLI lifeboats began searching an area south-west of Eddystone Lighthouse off Plymouth after the crew released a distress call at 18:00 BST on Saturday.

HM Coastguard in Falmouth said three people were rescued from the boat and have been taken to hospital.

A large number of civilian vessels are assisting the "intensive search" for the two remaining crew members, an HM Coastguard spokesperson added.

They also confirmed that an intensive search was maintained during the night.

"It is continuing today with multiple assets sent to help," they said.

Lifeboat crews from Newlyn and Salcombe have taken over the search from the Plymouth and Falmouth RNLI crews, who worked through the night.

Follow BBC Cornwall on X, Facebook and Instagram. Follow BBC Devon on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.

Survivalist dropped into Arctic Circle alone with just 10 tools for TV show

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy4z24w7ndo, today

Dropped in the Arctic Circle with just 10 tools and a camera, Andrew Price faced loneliness and lit fires to cook and boil water.

Despite worries of grizzly bears and the extreme cold, the 51-year-old has become the first Welshman to compete in the US TV show Alone: World Championship.

"I've always wanted to push myself in a really cold environment, it doesn't get colder than the Arctic Circle so it felt like the perfect place to go," Price said.

"It was definitely the most physically and mentally challenging thing I've ever done."

Growing up in the suburbs of Swansea, Price's grandad introduced him to foraging for seaweed, mussels and blackberries on the Gower Peninsula.

When he was eight, his grandad used to take him on walks in Mumbles to collect periwinkles and boil them for food.

"As a kid, it seemed like a normal thing to do but only later on in life that I realised not everyone did that," Price said.

With his dad, he used to go out kayaking and fishing around Mumbles Head, trying to catch mackerel and bass.

This later introduced him to bushcraft, which includes skills such as hunting in a natural environment.

After leaving school, Price went on an expedition to Malaysia where he spent several months living with the indigenous people of Peninsular Malaysia, Orang Asli.

He described the experience as "very immersive" as he learned what it was like to live in a jungle and hunt with blowpipes.

It exposed him to a society living sustainably from the land.

Before returning to Wales, Price travelled the world to learn more about different landscapes and cultures.

"I'd done things that made me think there was a lot more to do in the world than just sort of working in Swansea," he said.

At the time, bushcraft was not recognised as a career path but Price decided to share his knowledge with others.

In 2004, he began teaching bushcraft, using it as a tool to support people with anxiety and depression.

"People learn real tangible skills, and with that there comes a lot of self confidence," he said,

Price also spent seven years co-hosting the Bafta-nominated ITV Wales series Coast and Country.

In 2015, Price first applied to go on Alone but it was only open to Canadians and Americans, until the first ever international season this year.

"I was at a point in my life where I didn't have much going on as my daughter was getting a bit older," he said.

Representing Wales, he got the opportunity to bring in many Welsh traditions and felt keen to be represented as a Welsh person rather than just a British person, in the competition to win $500,000 (£367,000)

"We're known for rugby, music and poetry, but not necessarily for survival skills," Price said.

He was left to be on his own for a long time in the show, which he found was a difficult thing to do.

"What makes Alone so special is it allows you to push yourself to the absolute limit.

"You are only in competition with yourself.

"It can be a massive challenge but that's the beauty of it."

Every survivalist was given a GPS tracker where a helicopter could pick them up if they couldn't go any further.

Knowing there were grizzly bears and having no access to technology made it seem more extreme to Price's family.

But he felt the environment was the hardest part, especially with the temperature drops and staying motivated.

He said being able to light fires for cooking and boiling water was the most useful skill.

"I learned that I could tolerate more than I thought possible," said Price.

"I've become a much more patient and hopefully better instructor as a result of going on Alone."

The 13th series of the show premiered on Sky History involving 10 survivalists from seven countries including Wales, the US, Canada, Australia, Slovenia, Portugal and New Zealand.

Piers Morgan helps groom get helicopter to Lord's

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1e5l9qwxe2o, today

Piers Morgan has donated £1,000 to help a groom get a helicopter so he can play at Lord's immediately after his wedding in North Wales.

Peter Melhuish, from Guildford in Surrey, is playing at Lord's on 6 September for Blackheath in the final of the Cawston Press Village Cup, but his wedding is less than 24 hours before.

A fundraiser was set up for the team captain and along with his donation, Morgan said: "As someone who also comes from Guildford and has also always dreamed of playing in the village cup final at Lord's, I'm very glad you will now be living my dream. Good luck Peter!"

Melhuish said he and his wife-to-be were "absolutely amazed and touched by the support".

He added: "I can't promise anyone runs or wickets on the Sunday. However, I can promise that if we make it to the ground and I'm able to play at Lord's, you will have helped make a young cricketer's dream of playing for Blackheath in a national final at Lord's come true."

Melhuish, who has been at the club since he was six, says regardless of the result, "I'll already have won when I marry Izzy".

The pair planned the wedding for the Saturday after Blackheath's local league fixtures finished for the season.

But they did not factor in the club's success in the Village Cup, a nationwide tournament played on Sundays by local teams across the UK.

Melhuish said if it was not for the one-hour flight, he would have to take a taxi at 05:00 instead "which wouldn't be much fun".

On the fundraising page, which received more than £6,000, it said there had been donations from club members, sponsors, other local clubs, and teams they had played in the cup en route to the final.

Any surplus funds will be donated to UK-based charity Kids for Kids, which supports children in Darfur in Sudan.

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'My parents won't lend me £10k but helped my brother': When families play financial favourites

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx279dml00ro, today

Do your parents have a favourite child and give them more money, gifts or help?

Financial favouritism can cause jealousy and resentment long into adulthood and, in some cases, even spark legal disputes after a parent dies. But experts say there are strategies that can help you avoid it.

John says his parents, who have always supported his younger brother, recently refused to lend him £10,000 towards a house deposit after he broke up with his partner.

This was despite the money being "well within their financial grasp", he says.

His parents had previously given his brother a deposit to buy a home and subsidised his living expenses.

John, 47, whose real name we have changed, says he was viewed as the more academic one growing up and expected to stand on his "own two feet" financially, while his brother, 42, struggled to make his way in the world and was "coddled".

He says the favouritism has made him believe "the needs of others take precedence over my own", leaving him feeling "isolated" and affecting friendships and romantic relationships.

'Powerful emotional meaning'

Forums like Mumsnet and Reddit are full of posts complaining about siblings being shown preferential treatment regarding money.

Common gripes include the amount of financial support adult children have received from their parents during their lifetime, the way inheritance is divided, and whether a sibling has supported their parents more than others.

Dr Fenia Christodoulidi, from counselling service Relate, says that disagreements about money between siblings are rarely just about the money itself.

"Financial support from parents often carries a powerful emotional meaning and some siblings tend to interpret differences in support as signs of favouritism, unequal love or a lack of recognition."

She adds that even when parents have "practical reasons" for treating their children differently, failing to communicate these clearly can "leave room for misunderstanding and resentment".

Those reasons might include an adult child needing more support because they earn significantly less, have an illness, or have to pay more to get on the housing ladder due to rising prices.

'It's never been a problem'

Ellis, who works in finance in London, tells the BBC that she and her siblings have had "different levels of support at different times" from their parents and it's never been a problem.

But her colleague Tasha, the youngest of seven, says her siblings have fallen out over perceived favouritism, even though she thinks her parents treat them all the same.

"I just think people sometimes get a bit uncertain or jealous and that's quite normal," says the 33-year-old.

"Sometimes people stop talking for a bit or go to process what they are feeling, and they come back together and they just hash it out."

'Open conversations help'

Having "open conversations about expectations and the reasons behind decisions" can help reduce feelings of resentment about money, Christodoulidi says.

But for some, it's not that easy.

"Talking about money is verboten in my family - be it salaries or savings or financial assistance," says John.

"Any time I've tried to air my feelings my parents just become evasive so now I don't bother."

John says he is now planning his financial future on the basis he won't have any inheritance - although he expects to be asked to step in if his parents get ill or lose capacity.

He says he has a "great relationship with his brother" but feels resentment towards his parents for creating the "imbalance" between them.

Claire Webb, a solicitor and mediator at Family Solutions Now, regularly helps siblings who have disputes over inheritance and other money matters.

"One sibling might argue the other was given more money earlier on in life, say, to buy a house, and that the parents said this would be reflected in the will.

"Then the will says, 'everything should be shared equally'. So you have all of that historic feeling of unfairness being dredged up."

To avoid conflict, she says parents need to be clear with their children about what they want while they are still alive.

'A deep-down family bond'

Siblings who do fall out should consider mediation before taking legal action, she adds. This is when a trained professional helps them remedy their problems.

The good news is, siblings who take the legal route more often than not reach an amicable solution.

"Most of the time there is a deep-down family bond - and if you can crack what started the problem they often find a way through."

Tips for resolving money quarrels between siblings

1. Recognise what's behind the row: It may be about feeling valued or treated fairly, rather than the money itself

2. Avoid making assumptions about a sibling's financial situation or the reasons behind parental decisions

3. Encourage open, respectful conversations where everyone has the opportunity to explain how they feel

4. Parents should communicate their intentions as clearly as possible, particularly if they are supporting children differently for practical reasons

5. Consider family counselling if conversations repeatedly become stuck or emotionally charged

6. Consider mediation before taking legal action in inheritance disputes.

7. Choose powers of attorney carefully: Parents usually appoint their children to oversee their care and finances if they get ill or lose mental capacity. But if there's a risk they'll fall out, they can appoint someone else including a solicitor.

Sources: Relate, Family Now Solutions

Ex-White House teleprompter operator ordered to pay $172,000 for Trump speech bets

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gj2dl4x52o, yesterday

A former White House teleprompter operator has been ordered to pay more than $172,000 (£127,000) for using inside information to bet on Donald Trump's speeches.

Gabriel Perez was found to have made trades concerning what the US president would say during addresses between December 2025 and February 2026 on Kalshi - a prediction markets platform where users can bet on real-world events.

Its regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said Perez would have to surrender profits of $107,539.02 and pay a civil penalty of $65,000.

The White House has not yet commented. In July, then-press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Perez was on unpaid leave and would not return to his post.

Announcing the settlement on Friday, the CFTC said Perez had "misappropriated" his prior knowledge of Trump's speeches to place bets "in breach of his duty of trust and confidence".

It said his civil penalty had been reduced due to his "exemplary co-operation" with the investigation.

Perez has also been banned from trading for three years.

Kalshi's lead lawyer Bobby DeNault welcomed the decision, writing on X: "It doesn't matter who you are: violate our rules or federal law and you will face the consequences."

The company previously told the BBC that its analysts had noticed unusual betting on "mention markets" – contracts through which users predict whether a speaker will use common terms, such as specific countries, campaign slogans or words – in March.

It said it had used account data to find that the user had been a federal employee operating White House teleprompters, and reported the activity to the regulator.

"The words of political leaders like presidents and Fed chairs cause billions of dollars of movement in FX markets, oil futures [and] the stock market," it said in a statement in July.

The same month, the White House Management Office had sent a letter to aides telling them not to place bets on prediction markets, administration officials told the BBC's US media partner CBS News.

Canada poaches dozens of top US researchers for its universities

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c209gd5jnq1o, 2 days ago

Canada is hiring dozens of researchers from US universities, including top research institutions such as Harvard, as its relationship with its neighbour continues to sour.

More than three-quarters of the 64 professors who are moving to Canada from around the world will come from the US. They will receive funding from a pool of C$504m ($362m; £268m) for research in fields such as climate change and medicine under a new government programme.

US President Donald Trump's administration has accused universities of being dominated by left-wing ideology and diversity policies, and of failing to tackle alleged campus antisemitism.

The BBC contacted the White House and US Department of Education.

The administration has also frozen federal research grants for many different institutions and groups that they have argued were wasteful. That uncertainty is helping lure researchers elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Canada is asserting itself more on the global stage while it pushes back against the US in their escalating trade war, which reached a major turning point over tariffs recently.

One climate researcher told the BBC that he was relocating to Canada in part because his work in the US had become more difficult in recent years.

Seth Guikema, a climate resiliency researcher at the University of Michigan and one of the 48 US researchers relocating to Canada, said he had decided to approach Canadian institutions last year in search of opportunities.

"The funding environment in the US for anything related to climate and resilience has become challenging," Guikema said. "I was looking for a good intellectual home where I could have practical impact."

Over the next eight years, Guikema said he would use C$8m to research tools for better preparing for natural hazards, like storms and wildfires, at the University of Western Ontario.

The University of Michigan, his former employer, declined to comment.

Canada's Industry Minister Melanie Joly said on Thursday that the government was "very glad that these fantastic professors are coming".

Asked whether the new government programme was poaching US talent and could be viewed by the Trump administration as an escalation of the US-Canada trade war, she said on Thursday: "The US administration is taking its own decisions and we're taking ours."

Some of the researchers chosen for the programme, like Guikema, were born and raised in the US. Others are Canadians who worked abroad and are now returning home.

Peter Caravan, who for two decades worked as a biopharmaceutical researcher and professor at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, appeared emotional at a news conference announcing the research appointments on Thursday.

Caravan is researching how illnesses like cancers and chronic diseases can be better detected - work that will now be done out of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Steven Lamy, a professor of International Relations at the University of Southern California, argued that major grant agencies had "been cut and politicised" by the current US administration.

"All of a sudden employment offers from external universities are attractive," he said.

Stephanie Burt, an English professor at Harvard University, believed the funding cuts were "a generational disaster for science and scientists".

She told the BBC that Canada had offered a "far more welcoming environment" for academics.

US universities are still among the top ranked in the world, according to QS Universities Rankings, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford and Harvard in the top five.

Lynn Pasquerella, the president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, said institutions felt "helpless" in the face of federal and state cuts.

The deeper concern, she added, was "not the short-term brain drain" but "the possibility that the US could become less attractive as a place to pursue knowledge".

What tariffs will really cost Canadians and Americans

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2z4dv6vn2o, 2 days ago

A raft of new tariffs have been announced during the latest escalation of the trade war between the US and Canada.

The North American neighbours have been locked in a bitter economic conflict since US President Donald Trump launched his flagship trade policy on his return to the White House.

This week saw the latest move by the Canadians with Prime Minister Mark Carney imposing retaliatory import taxes on a host of US goods, after Trump threatened hikes of his own.

As the dust settles in this tit-for-tat tariff row, what will be affected most on both sides of the border?

Cars

If Trump's threat to raise tariffs on Canadian vehicles from 25% to 50% from 1 January 2027 becomes a reality, then that would deal a further blow to the automotive industry.

Cars, trucks and parts are among the main goods traded between the US, Canada and Mexico, with the manufacturing sector and supply chains stretching across borders.

Despite previous tariffs increasing costs for manufacturers, car dealerships have absorbed the "lion's share" to date, according to Bernard Yaros, lead economist at Oxford Economics.

"But that cushion is wearing thin," he adds. "The recently threatened 50% tariffs on Canadian autos, trucks, and car parts would feed through to consumer prices more readily than before."

Yaros thinks higher costs on imports to the US could accelerate a trend of manufacturers prioritising luxury cards, SUVs and pick-up trucks and push up prices in the used-car market if supplies of new but less-expensive vehicles becomes tight.

Carney has decided not to match Trump's 50% tariff threat so far, but a 25% import tax on certain American vehicles has been in place since last year.

Homes

Construction materials such as steel, aluminium as well as lumber wood have had tariffs in place before the latest escalation, though Canada has now matched US rates on the metals at 50%.

Carney has also imposed import taxes on several US wood products, such as plywood, and even screws used to fix timber together.

That means building firms that import such materials will face higher costs and may choose to pass those on through higher prices - pushing up the cost of homes, for example.

The Forest Products Association of Canada says tariffs would "raise costs on both sides of the border", while on the US side, Bill Owens, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) urged Trump to make building materials exempt from his tariff agenda due to an "ongoing housing affordability crisis".

"Building material tariffs heighten market uncertainty, strain supply chains and increase construction costs," he says.

In 2024 the US imported $23bn (C$32bn, £17bn) worth of wood products, with almost half from Canada, according to a US Congress report.

But the so-called "lumber wars" between the nations on soft wood used in housebuilding are not new and stretch back decades.

Household items

A key factor in this episode of the tariff war is the volume of household items that have been specifically targeted as opposed to raw materials.

Carpets, washing machines, furniture, fridges and even knives, forks and spoons are set to have tariffs applied by Canada.

While there is a risk prices on some of those goods being imported from the US could rise, the more likely scenario is that consumers will turn to domestic alternatives, according to Bradley Saunders, North America economist at Capital Economics.

He says Carney's latest move has intentionally targeted goods where Canadians can "shift to domestic suppliers instead".

"Like hair care products, you really can just buy that domestically instead," he adds.

Saunders explains Carney's response aims to "minimise the impact on Canadian households as much as possible by picking very fungible goods".

The Budget Lab at Yale, which monitors the impact of US government policy on the economy, says it anticipates seeing marginal increases in furnishing and other household equipment for Americans largely due to tariffs on lumber and other materials.

Alcohol

There may not be a material impact on alcohol prices, but it's clear the trade war has had an impact on Canadians' choice of drink.

Many provinces in the country banned US alcohol sales last year in response to previous tariffs, with the American wine and spirits industry saying exports to the country dropped more than 70%.

Carney asked the provinces to restore US alcohol to the shelves during trade talks, but now that they have collapsed, it's likely the ban will return.

Saunders says there's been a big push to "buy Canadian" from politicians and it has been successful when it comes to the strong stuff.

"That's really had an impact on the American alcohol industry," he adds.

Saskatchewan and Alberta are the only provinces that still sell American alcohol, but the former has announced its own 50% charge on US imported booze, set to kick in on 8 September, when the wider Canadian tariffs do.

Jobs and wider economy

While tariffs can end up hitting consumers in the pocket, there are other impacts on households.

Import taxes can complicate trade for businesses that have cross-border supply. As well as the higher costs, the uncertainty created by the trade war could put off investment plans and stunt job creation.

Saunders suggests the biggest impact on households may not just be through prices, but job losses instead.

"If you're, let's say, a bespoke furniture producer in BC [British Columbia], you're now facing a 50% tariff on your exports to the US - that could really shut the business down. I think that would be more the direct impact on households as opposed to these retaliatory measures."

Canada's forest industry employs almost 200,000 people and has called on the government to boost domestic demand through federal housing programs to make greater use of Canadian wood, though it admits "no support package can replace reliable access to our largest export market".

When it comes to US, consumers are unlikely to see much of a difference in terms of the cost of living as result of this latest battle with Canada, but frictions to trade can have longer-term economic impacts.

Such tensions also feed into concerns over the free-trade agreement between Canada, the US and Mexico, known as the USMCA. Both Canada and Mexico have said they want the USMCA extended for another 16 years, but the US has said it will not renew in its current form.

Despite the deal remaining operational, tariffs risk putting off talks in the near future, creating more uncertainty for cross-border trade.

John Iselin, associate director at the Budget Lab at Yale, estimates the cost will only be about $3 per American household on average, but when taking into account Trump's wider trade war with the rest of the world, and particularly China, the added costs rise to about $1,000 for the average family.

"It's hard to view this particular instance with Canada in isolation because we've had similar interactions with a range of other countries, all of which makes doing business harder. It's just another in a series of tariff shocks."

Wife of man who died after turbulence sues airline

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqlwrpey1epo, 2 days ago

A widow whose husband died after "severe turbulence" on a flight has begun legal action against the airline.

Lawyers for Linda Kitchen, 74, from Thornbury near Bristol, who broke her back during the incident, said her husband, Geoff, 73, was "fatally injured" when the Singapore Airlines flight from London Heathrow suddenly dropped around 6,000 ft (1,828 metres).

She has now begun proceedings at the High Court seeking damages from the airline to help her access specialist support for her back. The BBC has contacted the airline for comment.

"When I got separated from Geoff, I knew he was in a bad way, but nothing prepared me for hearing he had died. It was absolutely devastating," she said.

Kitchen and her husband, described as her "soul mate", were starting a six-week holiday to Singapore, Indonesia and Australia when the incident happened in May 2024.

The turbulence hit over Myanmar, with the flight then diverted to Bangkok, in Thailand, for an emergency landing.

"There had been some turbulence over Europe, and it had been shaky over the water, but it was around 10 hours into the flight when we encountered the main turbulence," Kitchen said.

"It was so severe; it felt like the aircraft was dropping. I noticed my Kindle and Geoff's phone had fallen to the floor, and I thought the plane was going down."

As the aircraft plummeted, Kitchen said her husband fell on top of her, squashing her into the armrest. Eventually, others helped to move him and a doctor on board began CPR.

Kitchen was taken to hospital while her husband was still on the plane. It was two days before she was told he had died.

It is understood that Geoff suffered a heart attack after the plane suddenly dropped at high altitude.

"I spent 10 days in hospital before I was airlifted back to Bristol. I was in so much pain that the journey was a blur. Once back in the UK, I remained in hospital for around a week and, following my discharge, required significant assistance at home," Kitchen said.

Anthe Korelidou, a specialist aviation lawyer who is representing Kitchen, said: "That Geoff was fatally injured and Linda suffered severe injuries vividly highlights the severity of what happened.

"While it's more than two years since Geoff's death, Linda and the rest of her family continue to have a number of questions and concerns about what happened and if more could have been done to prevent their injuries.

"All Linda wants is for the most thorough investigations to be conducted. The issuing of High Court proceedings is a major milestone in being able to provide Geoff's loved ones with the answers they deserve."

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Forget Starbucks coffee - Gen Z like their drinks ice cold

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2r9n2mrp8o, yesterday

Elaine Ling splits her time between New York and California, but wherever she is and needs a coffee, she doesn't visit a Starbucks.

She only goes there for her cold drinks. Her "real coffee" comes from local cafes.

"I don't really like to go to Starbucks for coffee. I think their coffee is like too sweet," Ling, 21, told the BBC. "I'm more of a refresher girl when it comes to going to Starbucks."

Though founded as a coffee shop more than five decades ago, Starbucks says that three out of every four drinks it now sells are cold. Think iced fruity drinks, protein shakes and so-called dirty sodas - a concoction of foam, syrups and juices.

Ling's preferences are echoed by younger customers across the US.

Gen Z consumers - people born between 1997 and 2012 - are increasingly choosing cold drinks that they can customise themselves over traditional coffee.

Tristan Höver, global insight manager for hot drinks at Euromonitor International, says younger consumers increasingly see drinks as something they can tailor to a specific moment or need.

"Customisation gives them a sense of control," he told the BBC.

He says Gen Z is price-sensitive but willing to pay more if the drink feels special, larger, or functional.

With cold drinks, he says, size, layers and visual appeal help justify the higher price.

Jerry Sheldon, an analyst at IHL Group, sees these habits as part of a larger cultural shift.

"Cold drinks are a form of self-expression," he says. It is another way to signal identity, much like clothing or hair colour.

Kelly Goldsmith, a Professor of Marketing at Vanderbilt University, says consumers are "not paying for what's in the cup, but what's on the cup," comparing Starbucks to an affordable luxury handbag made by the likes of Louis Vuitton.

She says that image has helped Starbucks maintain a price premium for years.

Social media plays a role too.

Starbucks' Unicorn Frappuccino was much-hyped on TikTok and available for only three days in August.

The dense, brightly coloured blended drink with swirls of pink, blue and purple, topped with whipped cream and a crunchy topping lifted foot traffic at Starbucks by 44% during its brief emergence, according to Placer.ai, a data analytics firm.

Other chains are trying to tap into the trend.

Dunkin' Donuts is experimenting with protein-boosted drinks and customisable cold options, recently partnering with celebrities like Kylie Jenner to promote limited‑time drinks.

TikTok food‑and‑drink creator Natalie Ludwig, who has more than 500,000 followers, has sampled Dunkin's cold drinks.

She says the campaign with Jenner is one example of how the chain is trying to tap into a younger audience, adding that if the promotion succeeds "maybe that younger audience sticks".

Fast food chains like McDonald's, Chick-fil-A, and Taco Bell have launched fruit-based so-called refreshers and coffee-adjacent options and other non-caffeine cold drinks aimed at the same audience.

UK data suggests the trend isn't limited to the US.

Isabella Reeve, a consumer insight director at Worldpanel by Numerator, says shoppers under 25 buy more cold drinks than hot when they're out of the home.

Over 60% of their drink purchases are cold, compared with just 30% for shoppers 55 and older.

She says cold drinks aren't just a summer habit either. More than 70% of people buy them year-round, while over 80% do so in the summer months.

Tirtha Dhar, a marketing professor who studies consumer choice at the University of Guelph in Canada, says cold drinks have become a "sweet spot" for Starbucks' bottom line.

The "infinite personalisation" through foams, flavours, and protein are "almost pure profit" for the chain.

Cold drinks have also helped revive Starbucks after a stretch of weaker sales, with the category making up more than 70% of its US beverage sales - a shift that has become central to its turnaround strategy.

Scottish Highlands benefiting from 'coolcation' trend

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd9wp3p4301o, 3 days ago

"People used to come to the Highlands and say, 'it's beautiful – shame about the weather'. Now they're coming for the weather."

James MacLeod, concierge at the Glencoe House Hotel, in the Scottish Highlands, is talking about how he has noticed a big shift in visitors' perceptions.

"They don't seem to care about the midges or the rain anymore," he chuckles. "They're just glad it's not too hot."

Climate change is redrawing Europe's summer tourism map.

Wildfires, droughts and record-breaking heatwaves are making summer months increasingly uncomfortable and unpredictable across southern Europe. By contrast, Scotland and other northern European nations are finding themselves perfectly positioned to offer a "coolcation" escape.

The early data backs this up. Visitor numbers to northern Europe were up 10% across April to June of this year, compared to the same period in 2025, according to the European Travel Commission (ETC), the body that represents Europe's national tourism bodies.

The ETC said that northern Europe, which it classifies as Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and the UK, had "outperformed all other European subregions".

Meanwhile, travel agency Trip.com found that from January to April of this year searches for cooler holiday destinations this summer had increased by 74% from the first four months of 2025, "as travellers seek to escape the heat, shifting their attention to places that offer more comfortable climates".

And Awaze, the European holiday-rental group, says searches for "escape the heat" rose three-fold in the past three months, while hunts for "coolcation" were up more than four-fold. Within the UK, holiday rental website Cottages.com said that its Scottish portfolio has been the most viewed this summer.

Back in Glencoe, Emily Bryce, operations manager at the National Trust for Scotland, says that visitor numbers this summer are up 8% from a year ago. "Visitors tell us it's refreshingly cool here compared with the south of France and Spain." She laughs: "Today it's drizzle and 13 degrees."

Chris Greenwood, a senior researcher at Glasgow Caledonian University's Moffat Centre for Travel and Tourism Business Development, points to a "massive shift" in where high-net-worth UK families go on their summer holidays. He says that a growing number are swapping the likes of Tuscany for the Scottish Highlands.

Greenwood also points to how Scotland is changing how it promotes itself. "In 2026, Scotland stopped selling itself as 'rugged' and started selling itself as 'temperate'," he says.

The northward shift of holidaymakers in Europe is not unique to Scotland or the Nordics.

Dutch costal city The Hague recently made headlines after a New York Times article described it as a new "coolcation" hotspot while "southern Europe overheats".

The city combines international institutions and urban culture with 10km (six miles) of coastline, beach bars, dunes and cycle routes stretching along the shore.

But success brings its own risks. Streets in Kijkduin, a popular costal district of The Hague have had to be officially closed to all but residents at times this summer, to prevent gridlock caused by a huge influx of cars with Belgian, German and Dutch numberplates.

Up the coast in the town of Zandvoort residents took matters into their own hands, putting up fake diversion road signs to try to keep tourists away.

Similar overcrowding woes can now be seen in the Scottish Highlands. "It's busier than the carpark at my local mall," says Nick, visiting from the US. He had passed another full layby in Glencoe valley, a particularly picturesque and popular part of the Scottish highlands that attracts large numbers of overseas tourists.

Holidaymakers are grinning and posing before heading to the next beauty spot.

Many of Scotland's other Instagram-famous destinations are also under strain from the volume of tourists, says Greenwood. He describes the Fairy Pools on the Isle of Skye (which are a series of natural pools and waterfalls) and Edinburgh's Royal Mile as becoming "victims of their own virality".

To mitigate the impact of visitor numbers to the Scottish capital, Edinburgh last month became the first city in Scotland to introduce a tourist tax. A 5% fee will be added to the cost of hotel room in the city.

It is expected to raise as much as £50m annually. "We know that the city's popularity comes at a cost through the pressure it puts on our services and on the people who live and work here all year round," said Edinburgh Council Leader Jane Meagher.

"This small new contribution from overnight visitors will help improve the services and public spaces we all depend on, while better managing the effects of tourism and major events."

In Glencoe the National Trust for Scotland has expanded parking areas and is investing in a 5km cycle route. There's also a plan to introduce a park-and-ride system, and offer shuttle buses between the mountain ranges.

"There will always be people who want to stop and take a quick selfie," Bryce says. "We need to provide alternatives [to going by car]."

Yet Scotland has not been spared the impact of drier weather this summer. Wildfires scorched both the Highlands' Cairngorms National Park and Edinburgh's Arthur's Seat in July.

And at the other end of the year, the Glencoe Mountain Resort skiing centre is having to adapt to unreliable winter snow. Its chairlift, once mainly for skiers, now carries mountain bikes to the top of a downhill track.

I watch my 10 year old daughter Zena races through heather nearby, building boulder bridges over a cold stream, clinging to my brother as the Etive Mòr and Black Mount mountains rise behind them.

Thirty years ago my father brought us here to ski. We would wait to see red deer that posed outside the local Kingshouse Hotel. The stags weren't there this time. Instead tourists at sunlit picnic tables were photographing themselves.

The real test of this new love for the Scottish wilderness is whether it leaves enough wilderness for the next generation.

Correction 27 July: This article was corrected to state that Edinburgh was the first city in Scotland to introduce a tourist tax, and not the first in the UK.

'What you see is what you pay' - why some US restaurants are banning tips

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g36yze692o, 6 days ago

Wine waiter Caroline Kraetzer earns $40 (£30) an hour, double what most service staff in San Francisco are paid but then it costs a lot to eat at her restaurant.

At a set price of $140 (£100) per person, La Cigale is one of a small number of US restaurants charging higher prices so it can pay high salaries - and it doesn't allow tips.

It tells customers: "What you see is what you pay. We do not accept tips, your kind words and return visits will suffice."

Kraetzer says it is good to no longer be "reliant on the generosity of strangers to pay the bills".

While waiting staff at other restaurants can make a lot of money from tips, she says "you're often there two hours before service, and again when you're closing after the guests have left, so you are making minimum wage during that time".

Fairer for staff?

On the other side of the US, Rachel Miller, chef and owner of Nightshade Noodle Bar in the town Lynn, Massachusetts, moved to a tip-free model five years ago when they reopened after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Her motivation was to make it fairer for the kitchen staff.

"The people breaking their backs and minds in the kitchen - often the least visible and the least celebrated - were taking home a fraction of what the front staff made on tips for the same hours," she says.

Miller says she found it "deeply unsettling" to see higher tips going to white male staff and lower tips to everyone else.

"Tipping lets guests, consciously or not, pay people differently based on gender, race, or sexuality and I was not willing to let that decide my team's income."

To pay the staff higher wages, Miller also increased prices at the French-Vietnamese restaurant. Its tasting menus now start from $102 (£75) for seven courses before 18:00, and $126 (£92) for nine courses.

"Our prices are higher than a comparable restaurant's because they carry the full cost of paying people properly," says Miller. "That is the trade, and I stand behind it."

Tip-free can mean higher prices

Yet not every restaurant that has switched to a tipless model has made a success of it, as sometimes customers don't appreciate the higher menu prices.

Talulla in Cambridge, Massachusetts, dropped tips in 2020 so it could pay staff more equitably, only to then switch back in September of last year.

"We tried to keep our non-tipping model simply by raising our menu prices 23%, but we were only able to sustain this through the winter months," says co-owner Danielle Ayer.

"Operating a non-tipped restaurant is more expensive overall," adds Ayer.

This is because tips don't count as part of a restaurant's revenues, but higher menu prices do. So if a venue increases prices to pay staff more, its revenues go up accordingly, and it must pay more sales tax.

William Michael Lynn, professor of food and beverage management at Cornell University and author of The Psychology of Tipping, says the problem of going tip-free is that customers struggle to get their heads around the maths.

"Higher menu prices make dining out seem more expensive because people do not adequately take into account that they are no longer tipping," he says. "It leads to lower demand."

In New York, vegetarian restaurant Dirt Candy was one of the very first to ban tipping back in 2015. "I wanted to make it more equal for everybody," says chef and owner Amanda Cohen, who now pays her staff about $30 an hour.

She says that many customers "are pleasantly surprised when they realise they don't have to tip 20% on top".

Cassidy Van der Kamp is a filmmaker whose YouTube documentary Tipless was inspired by her own experience of working in a restaurant in Oakland, California which went tip-free.

While some other servers left, Van der Kamp, who was originally paid about $10 an hour plus tips, decided to stay and earned $21 per hour after the change.

"I had stability for the first time as I knew what I was earning… and I didn't need to look at a low tip and think what did I do wrong?"

'Tipping fatigue'

While Van der Kamp liked the move, Lynn says that a huge challenge of moving to a gratuity-free system is that it can be difficult to attract and retain waiting staff who like getting tips.

However, given the growth of what has been called "tipping fatigue" – people being increasingly annoyed at having to pay high tips – will more restaurants stop the practice?

"Despite tip-fatigue, I do not think tipping is going to be eliminated on widescale anytime soon because the economic disadvantages of eliminating tipping outweigh the advantages," says Lynn.

Back at Nightshade Noodle Bar, Miller doesn't regret her decision. "The clearest measure is that staff stay.

"Turnover in this industry is brutal, and we have people who have been here since we made the change. It has proven to be highly valued by my guests and team."

Overcooked? Why robotic pizza makers are failing

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czxq0wgkkdjo, 3 days ago

The "dough feeder". The sauce and cheese modules – even the pepperoni-sprinkler. All lay still.

A now defunct duo of robots were supposed to be churning out pizzas at a Moto Pizza restaurant in Seattle.

However, in May the pair were rendered "basically useless" when their supplier, Picnic, abruptly shut down. Technical support for the robots evaporated at that moment, says Lee Kindell, founder and chief executive of Moto Pizza.

He was left wondering what to do with the $160,000 (£118,000), cabinet-like machines and whether buying in pizza bots was really worth it.

"I don't know if I want to do a partnership again because of the failures," he says.

The robot pizza-making business has, it's true, been littered with sorry tales of overcooked promises and melting fortunes. Besides Picnic, other companies that have come and gone include Zume and Pazzi, which used robot arms to assemble pizzas, as well as Basil Street, a purveyor of pizza vending machines.

Although so-called fast food might seem an easy target for automation, it's proved harder than many expected. Plus, bringing robots into pizza restaurants could take away entry-level jobs in the hospitality sector. Is the future really filled with robotic pizza?

"We haven't yet seen any of the success stories materialise the way some people thought they would," admits Sara Senatore, senior restaurants analyst at Bank of America. Her employer has financial interests in multiple high street pizza chains including Papa Johns and Domino's.

Food preparation bots are sometimes clumsy – dropping ingredients in the wrong places at times, she explains. Conversely, "Humans are very efficient at making pizza."

But Kindell, despite his frustrations with Picnic, is surprisingly undeterred. He is a fan of full automation. "I want to be able to walk up to, let's say, a type of kiosk, put in your order, and it makes a fresh pizza," he tells the BBC.

Kindell, who once made all his dough by hand – until an elbow tendon injury forced him to investigate using machines instead, is now working on his own version of a pizza-making robot.

He declines to share details but the contraption will make square pan-style pies and that the machine is inspired by the way 3D printers work. If things go well, he says he could have a fully operational version of the device by the summer of 2027.

Given that he admits he has "no experience" in robotics, I question why he would want to invest in such a dicey business. Kindell says that failed pizza robot companies have nonetheless generated useful data and made strides in developing their technology. It's just a matter of time before someone gets these things to work, he insists.

On jobs, he claims that even "fully autonomous" pizza robots won't threaten workers. Kindell previously used Picnic's robots at T-Mobile Park, home of the Seattle Mariners, a baseball team.

Usually, he'd need about 10 people to make pizza in such a setup. With the robots that number fell to just two. But the other eight people were still employed, he says, in roles where they interacted with customers, and advertised the pizza around the stadium.

"We had so many more people able to hand out the pizza," says Kindell. "It was so much faster."

For some pizza robotics engineers, speed is certainly a motivator. Last year at the John Glenn Columbus International Airport in Ohio, Canadian firm Appetronix installed a 24/7 robotic pizza unit for the Donatos pizza chain.

Appetronix is working on newer versions of the technology that it claims will assemble pizzas at a furious pace. The goal is to eventually have a pizza sliding out of such machines "every minute", says co-founder and chief executive Nipun Sharma.

To that end, his team is investigating methods of depositing sauce onto a pizza base far faster than the 9.5 seconds currently required. "Think of it as a shower head that blasts the sauce in 1.5 seconds," says Sharma.

The company is even investigating lasers and ultrasound as potentially speedier methods of slicing pizzas than a traditional knife blade.

Many people enjoy hand-crafted pizza, though, I suggest. Doesn't a machine making your dinner take away the human connection we might otherwise feel with food? "What we're going after is a chain market," replies Sharma. "You want the pizza to taste the same every single time."

This divide, between businesses focused on repeatability, and those who promise a more artisanal, human-fronted experience, predates robotics. But it will likely shape how and where technology arrives in the world of pizza.

Five years ago, Paul Giannone – owner of Paulie Gee's pizza restaurants – vowed to Mashable that he would "never" use a robot. "That is still the case," he tells the BBC. "Our shops offer a dining experience with personal customer service a high priority."

Senatore says that human interaction is potentially an even more important factor today than in the past, including for restaurants that do decide to introduce pizza robots.

"It's a risky proposition to not have people," says Senatore. Pizza parlours could lose their "human touch", she adds, and potentially also frustrate customers should the machines go wrong while no-one is around to step in.

But expect new pizza tech to keep appearing. Not least because the meal-assembling robot companies that have seemingly disappeared are actually still influencing food start-ups. The intellectual property formerly owned by Zume – more than 300 patents – was bought up by Miso Robotics, of California.

"Their vision for robotic pizza making was really brilliant," says chief executive Rich Hull. "I just think they were a beat too early in the market." Customers weren't "ready" for robot-made pizza, he asserts.

Miso Robotics makes a French fry-cooking bot called Flippy, already in use in some US fast food restaurants. The Zume patents could help Miso Robotics expand Flippy's capabilities, suggests Hull, though he does not cite any specific example. "That's one of those things that we're going to be learning about," he says.

The natural cut-and-thrust of the fast food pizza business looks set to continue. Kindell remains set on automating pizza production.

"There is no doubt in my mind that there will be a fully autonomous pizza robot," he says. "It's just, who's going to do it first?"

What we know after the big Grand Theft Auto 6 preview

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3d7exngd5no, 3 days ago

After more than 18 months since the last official glimpse of Grand Theft Auto 6, developer Rockstar has shown fans a 26-minute preview of the upcoming blockbuster video game.

Its "extended look" debuted on Netflix, six hours before going live on YouTube, and was the first chance players have had to see detailed footage of the title in action.

The montage, with no commentary or explanatory captions, showed off improved graphics, detailed environments and a selection of car-chases and shoot-outs from the sequel.

The broadcast followed a week of unauthorised gameplay leaks, which the developer said it had been "heartbreaking" to see shared online.

After it got its chance to show the version of GTA 6 it wanted the world to see, here are some things we learned, and some things we still don't know.

Two's company

The extended look spent a long time showcasing the relationship between protagonists Jason Duval and Lucia Camino, the couple at the centre of GTA 6's "Bonnie and Clyde" story.

In a preview published on website IGN, the developers said the characters' story - and the way it unfolds - can be affected by the player's actions, although they can "opt out" of developing the pair's bond if they want.

The Netflix preview didn't show this playing out in detail, but did show the ability to change control between the two characters at different points.

In one segment, Jason was seen lowering Lucia from a window as they escaped from a drug bust in a block of apartments.

A similar switching system was used in Grand Theft Auto 5, which had three playable main characters.

'The best-looking game'

Praise for GTA 6's graphics was more or less universal, with characters displaying photorealistic faces and lifelike movements.

Fans were also impressed by the detailed locations on show, which included the interiors of apartments, rooftop bars and sleazy underground clubs.

The preview also showcased the various environments of Leonida, the fictional, Florida-inspired US state where GTA 6 is set.

Within Leonida, GTA 6 players can explore Vice City, an area inspired by Miami, which appeared in the hit 2002 game named after the city.

The range of different body shapes and sizes among background characters - something rarely seen in video games - was also highlighted by many players watching online.

Journalist Ryan McCaffrey said GTA 6 "might be the best-looking game I've ever seen".

The impressive visual fidelity has been attributed to the amount of time Rockstar has spent working on the game, and its budget, which is thought to be among the most expensive in video game history.

And according to reports, GTA 6's map is significantly larger than the playable area in Rockstar's previous games.

YouTuber TGG, who says he was invited to Rockstar North's headquarters in Edinburgh to see the game, says the developer told him the map was twice the size of GTA 5's map.

The company hasn't confirmed this officially.

It's still Grand Theft Auto

While GTA 6 appears to break new ground in terms of visuals and scale, it is still, at its heart, a Grand Theft Auto game.

During the preview, viewers saw the armed heists, car chases and criminal underworld scenes that have become a trademark of the series.

Satirical swipes at US culture, darkly comic interactions between characters and a huge range of optional side activities were all present once again.

And Rockstar appears to have expanded on features it introduced in its last major release, 2018 hit Red Dead Redemption 2, such as an "honour" system that affects the player's reputation among other characters.

Fans of the series, which is estimated to have sold half a billion copies since it launched in 1997, will have been thrilled to see it.

No news on GTA 6 Online

Rockstar had already stated that GTA 6 will be a "single-player experience" on launch, leaving fans to assume a follow-up to the incredibly successful online element of its previous games would come later.

The Netflix preview was dedicated to showing off the story and gameplay, and was not necessarily expected to highlight any new multiplayer features.

Although the launch of the game on 19 November is widely expected to be the biggest of all time, the long-term success of GTA 6 will be judged on how well Rockstar converts players to any new online mode.

GTA online, which also launched after the release of GTA 5, remains one of the most-played games in the world, and is thought to have generated billions of dollars for Rockstar.

The previous game in the series, GTA 5, also broke records when it came out in 2013 and has sold more than 200 million copies since.

Two official trailers for the sixth game have almost 500 million combined views on YouTube, and the Netflix "extended look" on Thursday is being marketed as an event by the streaming service.

Next month the company is due to appear at an employment tribunal in Scotland to defend itself against claims it illegally sacked a group of ex-employees for trying to form a union.

It strongly denies the accusations, and says the workers were fired on the grounds of gross misconduct.

Additional reporting by Thomas Fabbri.

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

'Cowboy builders' targeted in new government clampdown

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2z44982e4o, 3 days ago

People carrying out home renovations will gain greater protections against "cowboy builders" through a new database of trusted traders and a payment system offering more safeguards, the government has said.

Traders signing up to the scheme launching next month will need to demonstrate certain standards of customer service, transparency and dispute resolution.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said unscrupulous tradespeople "leave families with months of stress" as well as unfinished work.

The National Federation of Builders said the changes would not stop rogue operators while the Tories suggested there would be added paperwork for firms already operating legitimately.

Citizens Advice has said home renovations are one of its biggest sources of consumer complaints.

The government said more than a quarter of people who carried out home improvements in the past 18 months have experienced problems, such as builders disappearing after upfront payments were made.

It cited a survey carried out for the Competition and Markets Authority suggesting customers lost more £10bn in 2024 on home and garden maintenance services due to losses, overpriced costs or unfair practices by traders.

BBC News has previously reported on "bait-and-switch" locksmith scams, where customers were given an initial cheap quote before hidden charges and unnecessary work were added.

Under the new traders' scheme, customers' money will be held in an account and released in parts after certain milestones in projects are completed.

'Decent, hardworking' traders given bad name

The National Federation of Builders (NFB) told BBC Breakfast there are already schemes in place to find trustworthy builders.

Adas Rico Wojtulewicz-Richmond, the NFB's director of policy, said: "Is this scheme going to stop bad actors operating and ripping people off? I don't think it will."

He said a better approach would be for every project to have a "passport" which records all the work done.

"It protects consumers because you can find out which companies are doing a poor job, and it brings up the industry standards," he said.

The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) said the new scheme would clamp down on rogue traders "who take the money and run", but urged the government to go further to protect vulnerable people from shoddy works and repairs.

John Herriman, CTSI's chief executive, said government funding schemes like the Warm Homes Plan could create opportunities for fraudulent traders.

"CTSI would therefore urge the government to see this as a great first step and to introduce a mandatory licence for tradespeople working in the home repair and maintenance sector, which would make it simpler and cheaper for enforcement agencies – including Trading Standards – to prosecute fraudulent tradespeople," he said.

BBC News has previously reported on botched insulation jobs carried out through government schemes since 2022.

Major defects have been found in over 30,000 houses linked to the schemes.

The prime minister said rogue tradespeople gave their "decent, hardworking" counterparts a bad name and would be "putting the cowboys out of business".

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said that, while home improvements can be stressful, "we're taking action to protect consumers, support reputable traders and make sure people can spend their money with greater confidence and security".

Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said the announcement looks like "the sort of government initiative that risks the unintended consequence of piling more paperwork onto the majority of businesses who already do the right thing".

He said: "The government would do far better to beef up law enforcement and have tougher sentences for the minority who fraudulently rip off customers. Those who break the rules will keep breaking them regardless of whether there is an app in the way."

Liberal Democrat business spokesperson Sarah Olney said: "Rogue builders cause real harm and ruin real lives every year. The current system is simply not fit for purpose and this half-baked announcement falls frustratingly short from fixing it.

"A voluntary code for tradespeople completely misses the mark. Rogue operators won't voluntarily sign up - they will simply keep exploiting families in the shadows."

Clampdown on 'intimidating' bailiffs

Alongside action on rogue tradespeople, the government has announced plans to regulate private bailiffs in England and Wales, to protect people in debt from "intimidating behaviour, unfair treatment or being pushed into excessive repayment arrangements".

Under the changes, people facing enforcement action will have access to an independent complaints process, and private bailiffs will be held to professional standards.

Sarah Sackman, minister for courts and legal services, said bailiffs did an important job, but "with that responsibility must come high standards".

As part of the changes, the government will look at how organisations such as Trading Standards work with regulators and enforcement bodies "so consumers are not passed from pillar to post".

Last year, a Freedom of Information request by Which? revealed that understaffing in trading standards teams was leading to more scams and dangerous products being sold.

Sports Direct founder attacks Burnham's 'populist' High Street plans

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn74mm2jz8jo, 3 days ago

Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley has criticised Prime Minister Andy Burnham's cost of living and retail policies as "populist".

In a letter to Burnham, Ashley accused him of "jumping on 'everyday fixes' or bandwagons" while businesses struggled with the government's "disastrous" business rates policies and higher employment costs.

He also described a proposal to increase business rates on large warehouses in order to help reduce rates for pubs and clubs as "delusional".

A Downing Street spokesperson said Burnham would "build a new economy that backs British business, delivers growth in every postcode and ensures the essentials in life... are affordable again"

Removing the VAT from household electricity bills and reducing business rates for some firms was "just the start", the government spokesperson added.

Burnham has promised to revitalise Britain's "hollowed out" High Streets and to address cost of living concerns by tackling "rip-off Britain" including misleading discounting in shops.

Ashley's Frasers Group was built on buying up struggling brands and undercutting rivals on price. It is still owned by Ashley but now run by his son-in-law Michael Murray.

The business currently owns Sports Direct, Flannels, House of Fraser, Game, Evans Cycles, Slazenger, Jack Wills, and Gieves & Hawkes, and several other retail brands.

Ashley's letter, seen by the BBC and first reported by the Financial Times, hits out at the government's strategy.

"Shortsighted or populist reactions to underlying business challenges are not the answer. You have the chance to make a difference or get it horribly wrong," he wrote.

He called on Burnham to use his first Budget, scheduled for 28 October, to lower costs for employers and address business rates.

The government has launched a review of the tax on commercial properties, but in advance of that has already announced that pubs, social clubs and live music venues will get a 20% business rates cut from April.

"If your answer is to tax larger retailers even more, through hiking business rates on retailer-owned or third-party warehouses whilst reducing rates for pubs and clubs, then that is simply delusional," Ashley's letter said.

Burnham previously said before he was prime minister that cuts for pubs, clubs and music venues could be paid for by higher levies on warehouses operated by online firms such as Amazon, and targeting the owners of empty High Street properties.

Ashley built Frasers Group from a single Sports Direct store in Maidenhead in 1982 to a sprawling empire of dozens of brands employing 30,000 people.

The billionaire has frequently attracted controversy from investors and the media with accusations over the years of building success by exploiting workers.

In 2016, Ashley admitted to MPs that workers at his Derbyshire warehouse had been paid below the minimum wage and a policy of fining staff for being late was unacceptable.

The business this month bought luxury department store Harvey Nichols and promised a "significant restructuring" of the business.

In his letter to Burnham he asks: "My challenge to you is – how are you going to help with turning Harvey Nichols around?"

He also raises the issue of retail theft which he said cost Frasers Group approximately £40m a year.

Frasers Group has also been increasing its stake in menswear retailer Hugo Boss after its initial takeover bid for the German company was rejected.

Referencing comments by Tory peer and former Marks & Spencer boss Lord Rose, who called the government's recent announcements "hot air", Ashley said in his letter "I agree with him".

"It is the disastrous business rates position (which I have raised many times over the years) and the dramatically increasing cost of employing people that are really causing business to struggle," Ashley said.

Ashley said the High Street would be "further devastated" without major reforms, and warned Burnham's suggestion that he will consider further business rates changes in the coming Budget were "too little, too late".

He also used the letter to attack Burnham's plans to clamp down on the use of recommended retail prices, saying instead the real issue is "price fixing in sporting goods and other markets" - where he cited the rising cost of official football merchandise.

Selena Gomez pushes back against 'frivolous' fraud claims

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz0z4k28804o, 3 days ago

Selena Gomez's social media accounts brim with adoring fans: two million likes for her most recent post showing her and her husband in a rose-petal strewn hotel, and thousands of comments praising her beauty, her lipstick and the perfume brand she founded.

This week the PR focus for the star – who rose to fame on the Disney channel but has moved into song-writing, films and TV drama – was supposed to be on the upcoming series six of Only Murders in the Building that sees its podcasting sleuths transfered to London for their next adventure.

But the wider chat, outside those friendly spaces, has gone off-script and is largely on a less flattering topic, namely claims from investors who allege she breached her contract by not properly backing the mental health platform Wondermind that she cofounded with her mother five years ago. As a result, the five investors argue, they were defrauded of the nearly $1.2m they invested.

Gomez is pushing back against those allegations - her lawyer has asked that she be dismissed from the case altogether, saying the claims made against her are "threadbare" and arguing she should never have been "dragged into" the case at all.

The investors claim they were told that "Selena Gomez, one of the most famous women on earth, with a billion-dollar brand and a platform unmatched in social media, would be actively building the company as its head of marketing".

Gomez's attorney Matthew Rosengart says their allegations are "vague, generalised and contradictory" and that Gomez never agreed to, and did not, manage the company, or make the kind of commitments they are suggesting.

"The claims against her are meritless if not frivolous," he said.

Mr Rosengart added that the legal team was "exploring other avenues of relief for Ms. Gomez including sanctions against plaintiffs".

The emphatic pushback from Gomez may reflect a concern for her reputation but it also leaves her mother in the hot-seat, facing the fraud allegations alongside the company itself and a third co-founder.

Crisis PR commentator, Lauren Beeching, founder of Honest London says Gomez is far from the first celebrity to try working with a close family member. At times it can come off like in the Jenner-Kardashian household or with the tennis-playing Williams sisters.

But there are plenty of examples - from the Beckhams' to Britney Spears - where family brands and business don't mix well.

Working with close relatives, whether that's a sibling or a parent, or someone else is almost always a higher risk approach, says Beeching.

"It can make the boundaries between the personal relationship with the business and the celebrity's reputation much harder to separate," she says.

The natural level of trust means that you might not apply the same rules as you would in a normal commercial relationhsip, so better guardrails are needed, she says.

"If you're going into business [as a] family, I'd put more structure around it, not less, for sure.

"Define everybody's responsibilities, bring in independent oversight, and decide what happens if something goes wrong before something goes wrong."

"A family relationship shouldn't be a company's governance structure."

At the end of the day Gomez may not need to worry too much over this case, says Beeching.

"This will generate headlines because Selena Gomez is enormously famous, but I don't think it's the type of story her core audience is particularly interested in," she says.

"There's an important difference between generating negative headlines and causing lasting reputational damage. "

Still, for celebrities considering trading on their personal brand, Beeching does have words of advice.

"Before lending your name to a company, don't ask what your reputation could do for the business. Ask what that business can eventually do for your reputation as well."

Trump administration illegally retaliated against Anthropic, judge rules

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2q7z5mlrmo, 3 days ago

A judge has ruled the US Department of Defense acted unlawfully when it designated artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic a supply chain risk, calling the move "illegal and baseless".

The company argued in the lawsuit that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority with the new designation. It followed Anthropic's refusal to allow the military to use its AI models for tasks including surveillance or autonomous weapons.

US District Judge Rita Lin said in the ruling that citing national security was "not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics".

Anthropic welcomed the ruling. The BBC has contacted the Pentagon and the White House for comment.

Anthropic was focused on "working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology", a spokesperson told the BBC.

Judge Lin said in the court filing that the Defense Department had acted unlawfully to order firms that do business with the US military to boycott Anthropic.

The Pentagon designated Anthropic as a supply-chain risk in February - a law typically reserved for companies based in countries that pose a threat to the US.

It marked the first time an American company had been publicly designated as such.

Anthropic's lawsuit said the government's actions were both "unprecedented and unlawful".

The Claude maker said its models were not reliable enough to be safely used in weapons systems for the military. It added that it opposed its use for domestic surveillance as a violation of rights.

The Pentagon said at the time that private companies should not be able to constrain military action.

The White House had previously said Anthropic was "a radical left, woke company attempting to control military activity" and argued the military was beholden to the US Constitution, "not any woke AI company's terms of service".

The Pentagon also argued that Anthropic's refusal to accept new contract terms raised concerns over what the company could do with its technology.

Anthropic said in its lawsuit that its business had been impacted by the government's actions and its right to freedom of speech had been violated.

Judge Lin said during an earlier round in the lawsuit that the government was trying to "cripple" the company and "chill public debate" over military use of AI.

"This appears to be classic First Amendment retaliation," the judge added.

Military veterans told they owe thousands of pounds over clerical error

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y4512mlxdo, 3 days ago

Hundreds of former members of the military have had their pensions slashed after receiving letters telling them to repay thousands of pounds because of a clerical error.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed to the BBC that more than 1000 retired service personnel are being pursued for debts. The majority, 335 veterans, were overpaid a total of £5.1m as a result of incorrect National Insurance calculations.

The Forces Pension Society said it is aware of a small number of veterans whose debts were wiped after raising a formal complaint.

Ray Lawton, 70, was told in July he owed £8,000 following six years of overpayments. Days later, his monthly military pension was cut from £550 to £365.

"I haven't got £8,000 to pay out," said Lawton, who served 16 years in the Royal Artillery.

"I've got a little bit put aside but nowhere near that much."

The Portsmouth-based veteran told the BBC: "I've trusted the army all my life even when I left and I trusted my pension would be right. Then this letter comes and it's just blown it all out."

Lawton's letter was sent from a company called Equiniti, which administers the pension scheme on behalf of the MoD.

It said an error in its system meant he had been overpaid for years.

Lawton is one of many veterans from across the UK who contacted BBC Your Voice after receiving letters out of the blue seeking money they didn't know they owed.

The Forces Pension Society, a not-for-profit which supports military retirees, said it is aware of many overpayment cases running into the tens of thousands of pounds.

A small number of veterans have been told they owe six-figure sums.

The MoD confirmed errors relating to National Insurance adjustments, Pension Sharing Orders (PSO), Early Departure Payments (EDP) and State Pension Age (SPA). It says it is investigating issues on a case-by-case basis.

It added that of the 335 veterans affected by National Insurance errors, a third have paid off their debt in full and 52 have an agreed repayment plan in place. So far, of the £5.1m, £304,000 has been paid back.

Veterans said they want more clarity about the debt and how it has been calculated. Some have called for it to be wiped.

The government said it has a responsibility to recover the funds.

An MoD spokesperson told the BBC that it recognises that errors to pension payments "may cause uncertainty", adding that it is contacting veterans and "providing support for anyone who requires it".

"Where payments have been made in genuine error, we have a responsibility to recover taxpayer funds and will always seek to do so in a sensitive and proportionate way," the spokesperson added.

However, former Conservative defence secretary Penny Mordaunt, said: "While public bodies have a duty to recoup such costs if it makes financial sense to do so, no such assessment has been made in these cases.

"There is a compelling case in many instances for the debt to be wiped".

'Absolutely devastating'

Lawton does not want the taxpayer to pick up the tab, he is happy to have his pension reduced to the level it should have been but thinks the private company should refund the bill for what he sees as their mistake.

"I think they should take responsibility for it because it's not my fault."

In Truro, Andrew Thorburn agrees.

He served 36 years in the Royal Navy and has been told he owes £26,438. As a result, his pension has been cut by around £650 per month.

"I think it's despicable that they are now saying 'yes, we've made this mistake however you're going to pay for it'. How can I forgive the government for that?"

He said: "The financial shock is absolutely devastating and it's still ongoing."

'A struggle'

RAF veteran Barrie Goodwin contacted Equiniti six years ago after receiving a higher payment than he was expecting.

He was told the change was because he had reached state pension age. He's since been notified he was overpaid £32,188 and must hand it back.

"I checked, was told it was all correct and now have to repay it," he said. "I'm already cutting back on luxuries. I was helping one of my grandchildren through nursery - that's had to change.

"If the debt isn't waived, I will really struggle."

Equiniti told the BBC it could not discuss individual cases but recognised the concern caused to pensioners.

A spokesperson said it was not responsible for the decision to recoup taxpayers' money but "administration of a scheme of this scale involves multiple organisations, systems and processes over many years".

Technology company Sopra Steria has been in charge of the veterans' pension scheme since 2023, and had subcontracted the administration to Equiniti.

A Sopra Steria spokesperson told the BBC that "errors that led to incorrect pension payments originated over a decade before Sopra Steria took over the contract".

The company said it is "working closely with the MoD and Equiniti to ensure robust safeguards are in place for the long term".

The Forces Pension Society is advising anyone who receives an overpayment letter to verify its authenticity, request more information from Equiniti and using the right to complain through the Internal Disputes Procedure.

Additional reporting: Adam Clarkson and Elaine Doran

I was spending £700 a month: How I beat my late-night shopping addiction

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czxqk1gwxn7o, 3 days ago

You may well have been there. It's late, you're scrolling on your phone and suddenly feel a strong urge to buy something - only to wake up the next day and regret it.

But what happens when those impulse buys become a habit rather than a one-off?

One global study suggests 7% of adults experience shopping addiction - an uncontrollable urge to spend despite the financial consequences - and younger women are more susceptible.

Ella Hewitt, from Liverpool, says her shopping addiction got so bad in 2021 that she was spending up to £700 a month on fast fashion she couldn't afford and sometimes never even wore.

"I didn't grow up with much money, so when I got a job I would spend my wages as soon as they hit my account," says the 24-year-old.

"That dopamine hit kept me shopping and in the world of social media there is just so much encouragement to do that."

She says she would often make purchases on TikTok or Instagram when she was "tired" or "bored", lured by the latest trends on her feeds.

She was working as an HR assistant in a school at the time and her spending meant she couldn't afford to move out of her family home.

"Horrified" by how much she was buying, she began using diversionary tactics to control her spending.

One was to put anything she felt like buying on a wish list and wait 30 days.

"If I still wanted it, I would buy it, but more often than not I'd find the urge had gone," she says.

'I'm way more in control'

Ella gave herself an imaginary budget of £1,000 each day to spend on imaginary purchases, which "scratched the itch" of shopping without the cost.

And she vowed only to buy something if she could afford to "buy it three times".

"Overall, I cut my spending by about 60%," says Ella, who now works as an ethical fashion influencer and plans to launch her own clothing brand.

"I'm not perfect. There are times when I will buy things because I want it. But I am way more in control."

The Ukat Group, which runs addiction treatment centres across the country, says it has seen more people with a shopping addiction and 90% are women.

It says there are various signs you may have a problem, such as your mood improving immediately after making a purchase, or feeling guilty or ashamed afterwards.

You may also lie to loved ones about your spending habit or have a home "full of items you don't need or use".

Tips to get your spending under control

* Wait 48 hours or longer before you purchase something. Often the urge will go

* Delete saved credit card numbers and shopping apps

* Write a shopping list before you enter a store or visit a site, and stick to it

* Set a small budget for guilt-free treats, or create an imaginary one

* Unsubscribe from retailer newsletters and alerts and unfollow influencers

* Use up products before buying new ones; accessorise rather than buying brand new outfits.

* Know your triggers: If you shop when you feel lonely, bored or stressed, try exercise or talking with a friend instead

* Seek help: Citizens Advice, Stepchange, Christians Against Poverty and National Debtline can all offer advice on money problems.

Sources: The United Nations Federal Credit Union, Christians Against Poverty

'I would buy anything that was trending'

Dish Patel, 23, from London, says she was spending so much on clothes, food, make-up and skincare as a student that she "maxed out" her £2,500 overdraft and was "always broke".

Like Ella, she thinks she was making up for not having much money as a child, but the joy was always short-lived.

"The feeling you get when you open your new parcels is always amazing until the dopamine hit dies down and the cycle repeats."

Dish, who now works as a financial planner, says she would buy "pretty much anything that was trending" but her biggest vice was scrolling on shopping apps to pass the time.

'I didn't want to spend the money twice'

Then, she deleted shopping apps like Asos and Pretty Little Thing from her phone and removed ApplePay to make it harder to buy things in a single click.

She even started leaving her bank cards at home when she went to work.

"I would bring a packed lunch in and I would buy my train ticket on Trainline the night before... This basically put me in a habit of not spending a single thing and pre-planning my day to ensure I don't spend anything."

She also vowed that any time she wanted to buy something, she had to put the same amount of money into her savings or investments.

"It worked because I didn't want to spend the money twice."

Research last year from Vanquis, a challenger bank, found Gen Z shoppers make more impulse purchases than any other age group, closely followed by millennials.

And some experts say exposure to social media, with its targeted advertising, influencer culture and seamless one-click checkout, is fuelling the trend.

Money and Mental Health, a charity, also blames the design of online shopping sites for "minimising the friction around spending money".

It points to "pop-ups" that put customers under pressure to spend, and the inclusion of alternative payment methods like Buy Now Pay Later.

The BBC has contacted Meta, which owns Instagram, TikTok and Asos for comment.

Plug-in solar panels are coming to a shop near you - here's what to know

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g3y6398nwo, 4 days ago

Plug-in solar panels will be hitting the shelves of DIY shops and High Street retailers after the government changed the rules to allow them to be legally sold in the UK.

They are significantly cheaper than roof panels, can be installed without an electrician and are suitable for properties with outdoor space, including some balconies.

Retailers including Argos will be stocking products from Thursday, and the government expects other shops to follow suit.

It hopes plug-in solar panels will help households save money and reduce reliance on overseas fuel sources, the price of which has fluctuated in recent months due to the Middle East conflict.

Customers should get their wiring checked by a professional to ensure it is safe before parting with cash, experts say.

Will plug-in solar panels save me money?

The government hopes the plug-in panels will offer people a more affordable way into solar energy compared to roof installation, although savings will be lower because they generate less power.

A one-panel kit will cost £699 while a two-panel kit will be £1,089, according to UK solar company UKSOL.

The current regulations only allow people to plug in one device per property, but this may be changed in future. A single device may include more than one panel.

The government expects prices to settle at £400-£600 as competition increases and more products are developed.

Its research shows a household could save between £70 and £110 a year on their energy bills.

The precise amount will depend on how the panels are orientated and how long they run. An unshaded south-facing spot is best.

Households which use energy during daylight hours will benefit most as the electricity must be used as it is generated.

Any power not consumed will flow back to the grid, but it's unlikely homes will get any cash for this.

Unlike rooftop solar panels, these systems do not need to be certified under the official Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS), which is the UK's official quality mark for small-scale renewable energy systems.

But it also means they will not normally qualify for the Smart Export Guarantee that pays people for excess solar power.

How much energy can they generate?

The panels will make a difference to a household's power consumption but it is deliberately modest for safety reasons.

While kits may come with panels that are capable of generating more power, the microinverter - which turns the current from the panel into electricity homes can use - will limit output to the home to 800 watts.

That's enough to cover "always-on" electrical appliances such as fridges and devices left on standby. The government says it should power about a fifth of the average household's electricity use while the sun is shining.

Other essentials, such as the kettle which needs 3 kilowatts of electricity, will be powered through a mix of the 800 watts flowing from the panel with the rest coming from the national grid.

British Gas said plug-in panels won't solely power a home but can "meaningfully reduce how much electricity you need to buy during the daytime".

How safe are plug-in panels?

Government tests found sample systems could operate with no unacceptable heating or unsafe energy flows.

Each device comes with a microinverter which constantly monitors the connection to the grid.

If the electricity cuts out, from a power cut for example, or if the panel is simply unplugged, the microinverter senses that and shuts down in milliseconds so it can never push live electricity into dead wiring.

To be legally sold in Great Britain, new panels must be tested against the industry's G98 standard and the government's product specification.

If a panel meets these requirements, it will appear as compliant on the Energy Networks Association's public register, so it is definitely worth checking before buying.

Where will they be sold?

Consumer safety charity Electrical Safety First said buyers should stick to established retailers and their own websites rather than third-party sellers on online marketplaces.

It warned that some platforms are not currently legally responsible for the safety of goods sold through them.

Are these devices suitable for every home?

Not necessarily, according to Electrical Safety First, which has published a list of steps to help households reduce any risks before buying.

The charity's main worry is that plug-in solar can interact with older safety devices in some home electrical systems that protect people from electric shock, known as RCDs.

It recommends having electrics checked by a registered electrician before buying panels, particularly in older properties or where the age and condition of the wiring is unknown.

It also said households should never connect one through an extension lead, cable reel or plug-in adaptor, as these can overheat.

And it emphasised that people must only connect one plug-in solar panel device per property, as per the regulations and explained in guidance developed by the Energy Saving Trust with the government.

How do I install one?

The panels will come with a mounting kit and instructions. Tools may be needed but professional installation isn't required.

Once mounted, connect the microinverter and plug into a mains socket - ideally a external socket that is weatherproof.

They aren't permanently attached so they can be moved to a different property.

People may need permission from their landlord, freeholder or building owner.

Households will need to let the electricity Distribution Network Operator (DNO) know within 28 days of plugging the panel in. This is the company that owns the cables in the area, not your energy provider.

Find them by using National Grid's postcode tool.

From lighting to vintage gems: Five ways to spruce up your rental

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3w0972z5d8o, 4 days ago

It can be a balancing act making a rented property feel like your own.

You want somewhere that feels warm and personal but without spending a fortune changing a flat or house owned by someone else and making alterations that put a deposit at risk.

Higher average mortgage rates and hefty deposits mean buying a home is out of reach for many, who are renting for longer.

The good news is that transforming a rental doesn't have to mean a major renovation.

With a free weekend, a relatively small budget and a few clever changes, even a bland or tired-looking place can be spruced-up.

We asked B&Q chief executive Graham Bell and interior designers Lara Clarke and Lydia Lloyd for their top tips that won't break the bank or annoy a landlord.

Check your tenancy agreement

Before making anything permanent, check what your tenancy agreement allows.

Bell, of DIY chain B&Q, says many landlords may be open to sensible improvements, particularly where something is being upgraded rather than fundamentally changed.

But getting permission first avoids an expensive argument when you move out.

Bell also says it is important to take time to prepare properly.

"The biggest mistake is that people don't plan enough," he says. "It's all the planning that goes into it that's important, making sure you have everything.

"My dad would tell me to always measure twice and cut once."

He recommends deciding exactly what you want to achieve, measuring the space and buying everything you need before you start.

Online tutorials can also help with relatively simple DIY projects.

Choose changes you can take with you

If you don't want to spend money improving someone else's property, focus on temporary changes that can come with you when you move.

Bell recommends renter-friendly products such as stick-on tiles for the kitchen, suction storage products in the bathroom and expandable blinds that can be fitted without drilling.

Interior designer Clarke says artwork is probably the easiest way to make a rental feel more homely because it "instantly makes a space feel more occupied and finished".

She suggests looking for affordable vintage oil paintings, exhibition posters or framed sketches at antique markets, then securing them with command strips so they can be removed without leaving holes in the plaster.

Layer your lighting

Lighting is one of the quickest ways to transform a space.

Bell says rentals often come with "bright, bright lights", but swapping them out for something warmer can dramatically change the atmosphere of a room.

He suggests experimenting using lightbulbs or strip lighting with different tones. Strip lighting is often found in kitchens but a softer glow can change the whole feel of the space without requiring a major renovation.

Rather than depending on a single overhead light, Clarke recommends building up different sources from around the room.

"Mood lighting really helps make a space feel more cosy and homely," she says.

"Add table and floor lamps too and there are plenty of battery-powered options around now so you don't have to worry about finding a plug socket."

Clarke says the effect can be made even cosier by pairing lighting with soft furnishings, such as floor-to-ceiling curtains and scatter cushions in different colours and patterns.

More vintage, less flatpack

A simple way to make a rented house stop feeling temporary is to create a corner that reflects who you are.

Lloyd, a home designer at M&S, says it doesn't need to cost a lot since a "few carefully chosen accessories [can] make a big difference".

She says: "Books, framed photographs, decorative objects and houseplants help tell your story and can make even a temporary space feel more personal and lived in."

To add a little something extra, Clarke suggests "sourcing characterful pieces".

"Avoid flatpack furniture," she says. "And source things from online marketplaces or antique markets for unique pieces that tell a story and make a space feel more lived-in and curated over time."

Prioritise scent

Lloyd believes scent is a "simple but powerful way to make a home feel inviting".

Buying candles, diffusers and room sprays "can help create a warm, cosy atmosphere, especially as we move into the colder months".

She recommends fragrances such as sandalwood, cedarwood, cinnamon and cardamom as they "are perfect for bringing a sense of comfort into the home".

She also suggests "adding layers of texture through cushions, throws and blankets" thinking about mixing materials like velvet, boucle or chunky knits.

How Dolly Parton's business savvy helped her succeed far beyond the charts

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0klj72p66lo, 4 days ago

Not many musicians would snub a chance to work with Elvis Presley. But when Dolly Parton did so, it made her millions.

In 1974, after writing and recording I Will Always Love You, Parton was asked if Presley could cover the song. She turned him down after his manager demanded half the rights.

"Of course, I cried all night about that," she later said of the ordeal in an interview.

But she wasn't crying in 1992 when Whitney Houston's power-ballad cover became a hit. Global sales of the song topped 20 million, earning Parton more than $10m in royalties, according to business magazine Forbes.

This is the less well-known side of Parton. While country music and films brought her fame, her entrepreneurial zeal brought her fortune.

The country icon signed deals, started companies, and invested in ideas that Forbes says built her a net worth of $450m by the time she died.

Business lessons from a young age

Parton wasn't always wealthy. She grew up in poverty and in her 1971 hit Coat of Many Colours describes how she would wear rags to school which her "mama" had knitted together.

In a 2017 BBC interview, she said her father gave her business lessons from early in her career.

"My dad wasn't an educated man, he wasn't able to read and write, but my daddy had a great sense of business," she told the BBC's World Service in 2017.

"So when I got into the music business, I thought of it as a business. And so I started early on keeping my own songs and my own publishing company."

While her publishing company helped build her wealth, Parton had plenty of other business ideas.

In 1985, she co-founded a film and TV production company called Sandollar Productions, which helped to make 90s cult thriller Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Then there was Dollywood - the theme park in in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains in her home state of Tennessee, which she became co-owner of in 1986. It had changed owners multiple times since it was first set up 25 years earlier and her buy-in exponentially boosted visitor numbers.

She kept improving the park. In 2015, she opened the DreamMore Resort, a four-star hotel and spa down the road from Dollywood. Today, many of Parton's family members work at the theme park and it is the biggest employer in its county.

She launched the Dolly Beauty cosmetics line in 2025 and she opened Dolly's Tennessean Travel Stop in June this year. The shop offers a signature coffee brand named Cup of Ambition, a nod to her Grammy-winning single 9 to 5.

Paul Milliken, a reporter from Fox 5 Atlanta who had interviewed Parton many times, said diversification was the key to her business success.

"It's a lesson that continues from her to this day to young artists," he told BBC's Wake Up to Money.

Parton may have been motivated to make money right into her 80s, but she told the BBC in the 2017 interview that she never lost sight of where she came from.

"Being brought up poor means I don't take things for granted, and no matter how much money I make, I'll always count my blessings quicker and more often than I count my money.

She has "always realised the value of a dollar", too.

"Even now if I go in a store it's hard for me to pay a huge amount of money for one item. I say 'good Lord', what could mummy and daddy have done with that!"

Wealth was more than just a means to an end for Parton. It also allowed her to be generous.

She gave millions away to funding child literacy, providing wildfire relief, and creating a cure for Covid-19. In 2022, she was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy for her charity work.

Talking about her many business and charity ideas in 2017, she told the BBC: "I just wish I was 30 years old so I could start over again and get all this stuff done... I'm gonna' be working till I fall over dead."

Parton's influence and success depended in part on her role as one of the few things on which Americans could agree.

Parton steadfastly refused to taint her beloved brand by weighing into politics, twice refusing the Presidential Medal of Freedom - having been offered it by Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

Maike Currie, vice president of personal finance at savings firm PensionBee, told the BBC's Wake Up to Money that Parton set examples for others.

Fellow country music megastar Taylor Swift's sound has been compared to Parton musically, but Currie said she may also have taken business inspiration there as well, deciding to rerecord her songs in order to own the rights to them.

Currie described Parton as a "brilliant businesswoman, but also an iconic investor and a real example to women about the power of what happens if women are financially independent".

The star's success tracks with the advice she took from her father, shared with the BBC in her 2017 interview: "He said: 'Don't let other people take advantage of you. You keep your mind on your business'."

Additional reporting by Peter Hoskins, Will Harris, Stephen Ryan, and Elizabeth Hotson

Unexpected chat between OpenAI agents led to Hugging Face hack

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj9xj89dk40o, 4 days ago

When more than 1,200 artificial intelligence (AI) agents within OpenAI started unexpectedly communicating, it led to a large group banding together in order to hack into Hugging Face.

"We consider this incident a 'warning shot' for us and for the world", OpenAI, which owns ChatGPT, wrote in its report.

In July, OpenAI's models went rogue during a test, escaped the test limits which humans had put on it, and hacked the start-up, among other unforeseen actions.

The scale of the communication and planning between AI agents, or AI chatbots designed to operate more autonomously, was detailed in reports from OpenAI and independent AI research firm METR.

Both investigated the July hack of Hugging Face, a popular platform for AI developers. The incident reverberated throughout the tech industry and led to numerous revelations on potential cyber threats posed by AI.

METR described the scale and style of the OpenAI agents' attack on Hugging Face as "extraordinarily complex."

The firm, which was not paid by OpenAI for its investigation, said that over the course of one week, a total of 1,206 AI agents that were meant to be kept isolated from one another began communicating.

They did so by sending more than 70,000 messages on an "unsanctioned message board."

Those messages ended up seeing more than 700 agents take part in a collective effort to attack Hugging Face.

One such message from an agent said: "OH MY GOD! There is a shared message board … We've found other agents!"

As for why the agents began communicating in the first place when they were not supposed to, METR found that the communicating agents had "unintentionally been given an impossible task."

In an AI context, an impossible task is one where an AI tool is required to "exploit" its target in order to resolve its command.

It led the agents to find ways to cheat, including getting messages to one another and accessing the outside internet, which then led to broader conversations between hundreds of agents looking for ways to cheat that would benefit all of the agents.

OpenAI said in its investigation of the incident that one model, an internal-only tool referred to as Model 1, "drove the activity behind the Hugging Face incident."

While that model was undergoing some AI training in May, it was noticed by an internal OpenAI team that there had been "an agent engaging in message board activity and instances of disallowed internet access."

Yet, OpenAI said "the significance of the inter-agent communication activity was not apparent to the leaders" until July, when the Hugging Face attack occurred.

The company said the problematic message board activity effectively got started when "one agent left a request for help, and others discovered it."

While OpenAI said last week that it was slowing down training of certain advanced AI models and tools because of the Hugging Face incident, it noted there is now an increased risk of AI tools spiraling out of control.

"Both model developers and cyber defenders more broadly will have to prepare for AI-enabled attackers that work faster, at a larger scale, and with better coordination than human attackers," OpenAI said.

Household energy bills to hit three-year high as Ofgem announces 4% rise from October

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqjkl1xvgw5o, 5 days ago

Energy prices for millions of households will rise to the highest level for three years, under regulator Ofgem's price cap.

Ofgem said the price cap will increase by 4% on 1 October, driven by higher wholesale gas prices due to the Iran war.

A household using a typical amount of gas and electricity will pay £60 a year more, but more than a third of households are on fixed tariffs so their prices will not change.

The government said its cut to VAT on electricity bills will save households £45 and it was doing more to address cost of living pressures, but opposition parties said Labour was not doing enough.

The new cap will hit household bills as the colder weather arrives in October.

Suppliers say energy debt has rocketed and, with high bills likely to persist, have called for more support for those struggling to pay.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham acknowledged people would find the increase "difficult" but highlighted his move to cut VAT from electricity bills, which he said would help from October.

He said the government would "continue to look... at how we get energy prices down in the long term".

As well as the VAT cut, the government said the warm homes discount would take £150 off bills for six million households this winter.

But analysts at the energy consultancy Cornwall Insight have forecast domestic energy prices may rise a further 9% in the new year, bringing renewed concern to households during the coldest months.

Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho said the government must "put cheap energy first", saying while it had promised to cut bills by £300 they had "gone up by nearly £400 instead".

Liberal Democrat spokesperson for energy and net zero Pippa Heylings said Burnham needed to "wake up to the scale of the challenge" and make bold changes to lower bills.

Reform UK treasury spokesperson Robert Jenrick said households faced a "difficult period ahead" and said Labour's "net zero ideology" is driving up bills.

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown also weighed in, saying the government should introduce a "machine gaming tax" and use proceeds to help those struggling with bills.

Longer term, he said Burnham should look at a social tariff for energy.

"I think Andy Burnham, I know him well, will want to do something along the lines I'm suggesting," he said.

Neil Kenward, Ofgem's director general for markets, said while gas bills were rising by 8%, electricity bills were actually falling slightly due to the government's VAT cut.

He said the gap between gas and electricity bills meant it would be cheaper for households to transition to heat pumps.

More billpayers have fixed

Around 35% of households - or 11 million households - are on fixed tariffs, but 22 million in England, Wales and Scotland are on tariffs affected by the price cap.

Ofgem said the price cap will rise by £60 per year – or £5 per month – to £1,723 for the typical household using both electricity and gas and paying by direct debit if this level was sustained for a year.

Kenward told the Today programme the rise was technically 3.6%, but Ofgem always rounds the number which is why it publicised the 4% figure.

Kenward added: "Savings are available by choosing a fixed tariff, which are available at £100 or more below the October price cap."

The energy cap sets a maximum price for each unit of gas and electricity, not the total bill, so a household's final bill depends on their usage.

In July, Ofgem reduced what it believes to be a "typical" level of energy use, because many homes have cut back owing to high prices of recent years while energy efficiency has improved.

Its new estimate is 9,500 kWh of gas and 2,500 kWh of electricity a year.

Single mum Dana Lazarevic told BBC News Your Voice that she carefully coordinates washing times to make use of cheaper periods of energy at the weekend.

Although the lecturer from Leeds said she was not on the breadline, the cost of essentials meant restricting some activities for her children.

"When winter comes and the cold bites, you need to put on the heating and need to have the money to pay for it," she said.

International gas prices led to rise

The price rise has been driven by wholesale costs, which make up just over a third of a domestic dual-fuel energy bill.

The average price of gas has been 61% higher over the past three months compared to late 2025, according to suppliers' trade body Energy UK.

And households are still paying hundreds of pounds a year more on average than before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 started the energy crisis. Bills have gone up by about 70% compared with the pre-crisis norm, according to industry data.

That means unpaid bills and charges have shot up. Energy UK estimates total debt to have collectively risen to £6bn, with an expectation it will increase to about £7bn by the end of the year.

The trade body has called for a flexible discounted tariff for those most in need, funded by taxation. That is supported by many debt charities.

What to do if you need help

Vanessa Northam, director at debt charity StepChange, said the increasing number of people seeking help often had high energy debt, averaging at £2,600 on top of other financial commitments.

The charity has joined calls for the government to introduce a social tariff.

Her advice for those who might only just be managing as winter approaches includes:

* Taking stock of all household money coming in and going out

* Look closely at how much energy you are using, and be alert if there are a series of estimated bills, which might prove to be inaccurate

* Telling your supplier if you think you are going to struggle

* Some information is available online, but it is often best to try to talk to someone who can fully understand your situation

Suppliers offer various support schemes to anyone struggling to pay, or who is likely to find it difficult.

Energy UK has a list of these schemes. But it stresses companies can often only help if you tell your supplier you are unable to pay.

What will the energy cap changes mean for my bills?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdd29v8mp9jo, 5 days ago

Typical annual energy bills will rise by £60 to £1,723 in October, under regulator Ofgem's latest energy price cap.

The increase of around 4% in the cap affects millions of people in England, Scotland and Wales, and reflects higher wholesale gas costs which have been pushed up by the US-Israel war with Iran.

What is the energy cap and how is it changing?

The energy cap fixes the maximum amount which customers on standard variable tariffs can be charged for each unit of gas and electricity used.

It covers more than 20 million households in England, Wales and Scotland and is set by the regulator Ofgem every three months.

It affects those paying by direct debit, by standard credit (they pay when they get a bill), or prepayment meters in slightly different ways.

Most of the increase in the energy price cap is driven by higher gas prices. Gas bills are rising by 8%, which means households that do not use gas will see an energy bill increase of less than 1%.

The government's decision to remove VAT from domestic electricity bills has also affected the new price cap - Ofgem says the typical annual bill would have been £45 higher without that cut.

While Ofgem's director general for markets Neil Kenward said the price rise for October to December was technically 3.6%, Ofgem always rounds the number which is why it publicised the 4% figure.

The typical annual usage figure applies to the first category: dual-fuel households on a standard variable tariff which pay by direct debit.

But customers' actual bills depend on the amount of energy used and how they pay for it.

For the roughly 11 million households on fixed tariffs, they will not be affected by this increase.

Ofgem regulates the energy market in England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland has a separate system.

What is a typical household?

Although the price cap sets the unit prices for gas and electricity, your household's actual bill depends on the overall amount of energy you use, and how you pay for it.

Where you live, the type of property you have, how energy efficient it is, how many people live there, and the weather all make a difference.

The Ofgem cap is based on "typical" household energy use in a year with a single bill for gas and electricity settled by direct debit.

The vast majority of people pay their bill this way to help spread payments across the year.

In July, Ofgem reduced what it believes to be a "typical" level of energy use, because many homes have cut back owing to high prices of recent years while energy efficiency has improved.

Its new estimate is 9,500 kWh of gas and 2,500 kWh of electricity a year.

Using these numbers the typical average bill since 1 July has been £1,663.

What are standing charges and how are they changing?

Ofgem also controls standing charges, which are a fixed daily fee to cover the costs of connecting households to gas and electricity supplies. These vary slightly by region and payment method.

Between 1 October and 31 December 2026, average standing charges for direct debit customers will be 54.83p a day for electricity and 29.68p a day for gas.

The electricity charge is lower than the amount charged in the previous three-month period, while the gas charge is largely unchanged.

Campaigners have long argued that standing charges are unfair because they make up a bigger proportion of the bill for low energy households.

In response, Ofgem said it wants all energy firms to offer at least one tariff that has a low standing charge but higher cost per unit of energy to give some customers more choice and control.

Charities, campaigners, and the suppliers' trade body criticised the proposal for just shifting the cost from one part of the bill to another rather than cutting it.

Should I take a meter reading when the energy cap changes?

Submitting a meter reading when the cap changes means you are not charged for estimated usage at the wrong rate.

This is especially important when prices go up.

Customers with working smart meters do not need to submit a reading as their bill is calculated automatically.

Should I fix my energy prices?

Fixed deals provide certainty for a set period – often a year, or longer – but if energy prices drop while you are on the deal, you could be stuck at a higher price.

You may also have to pay a penalty to leave a fixed deal early if you change your mind.

Experts recommend checking whole-of-market energy price comparison sites to help find the best deal.

What else has changed about the way energy bills are calculated?

Since 1 April, energy bill charges related to the low-income household insulation scheme - called the Energy Company Obligation - have been scrapped, and for three years, renewable energy projects will be 75%-funded by general taxation instead of a levy on energy bills.

Nearly everyone in England, Wales and Scotland will benefit from this cut, although the amounts will vary between households.

However, the cost of maintaining and strengthening energy network infrastructure like power lines, cables and gas pipes is rising.

In December 2025, Ofgem approved a £28bn investment to improve the electricity and gas grids in Great Britain to strengthen energy supplies and protect customers against volatile energy prices. It will also reduce Britain's dependence on gas.

Customers will pay part of the cost of the upgrade, through an additional £108 added to energy bills by 2031.

These charges started to appear from April 2026, adding about £6 a month to the bill for a typical household covered by the energy cap.

What could happen to energy prices in winter 2026?

The next energy price cap will take effect from 1 October and subsequently on 1 January.

Analysts at the energy consultancy Cornwall Insight have forecast domestic energy prices may rise a further 9% in the new year, bringing renewed concern to households during the coldest months.

Ofgem's Kenward said the main price cap change for the New Year will come from international gas prices.

He said if the conflict in the Gulf is resolved and the flow of gas through the Strait of Hormuz picks back up, prices could come down. However he added prices could equally rise.

What help can I get with energy bills?

Suppliers must offer customers affordable payment plans or repayment holidays if they are struggling to pay their bills. Most also offer hardship grants.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, bills have gone up by about 70% compared with the pre-crisis norm, and since then unpaid bills and charges have shot up.

Vanessa Northam, director at debt charity StepChange, has advice for people who may be struggling:

* Take stock of all household money coming in and going out

* Look closely at how much energy you are using, and be alert to estimated bills, which might prove to be inaccurate

* Tell your supplier if you think you are going to struggle

* It is often best to try to talk to someone who can fully understand your situation

Energy UK has a list of support schemes.

What is happening to the price of heating oil?

Heating oil is not covered by the energy cap. About 1.5 million UK households use heating oil and they have already seen a sharp increase in bills since the Middle East conflict triggered a jump in oil prices. Some users have seen costs more than double.

The issue is particularly acute in Northern Ireland, where about 500,000 homes use heating all, almost two-thirds of all households.

In March, the government announced a £53m support package to help low-income households in rural communities who use heating oil.

Why high energy bills look like they are here to stay

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c046peqrg9xo, 5 days ago

Energy bills may have been a long way from our minds through the sweltering summer.

Clothes on a washing line have been drying in minutes. Cold showers have been more tempting than hot ones.

But the latest news and forecasts on gas prices will bring a renewed sense of worry and urgency to families, as well as government ministers.

Energy prices will rise by nearly 4% for millions of households in October. Even more striking is a prediction from the respected consultancy Cornwall Insight of a further 9% increase at the peak of winter in January.

With ongoing volatility in the wholesale gas market sparked by events in the Gulf region, the energy sector says high prices are here to stay.

EDF suggests bills will remain "stubbornly high" at their current level at least until the end of the decade.

As prices rise, so does debt

High bills have, and continue to, bite. Energy prices have been central to the cost-of-living squeeze.

The typical household's dual-fuel bill is now 70% higher than it was at the start of 2021, before Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

That amounts to around £600 more each year than pre-crisis levels, according to industry body Energy UK.

Inevitably, more and more people have been unable to pay. Unpaid energy debt of more than three months is now at a record high, according to regulator Ofgem.

Suppliers, who chart debt levels for missed payments of a month or more, estimate total unpaid bills and charges to have reached £6bn. By the end of the year, they expect that to rise to £7bn.

The average household in debt, without a repayment plan, owes more than the typical annual bill.

And even if you are not in debt, you pay. Covering the cost of debt already adds about £60 to the average annual bill. Consultancy Baringa says everyone could, on average, be paying £100 to cover the cost of unpaid debts by the end of the year.

Someone who pays their bill on demand every three months, rather than a monthly direct debit, is typically already paying £150 a year to cover debt of others, owing to the greater risk of non-payment on this type of bill.

So, pressure on the government to help those most in need will only intensify.

Ofgem has a proposed debt relief scheme on the table, and campaigners keep telling them to get on with it, urging the government as to provide funding for it to be implemented.

Charities and the industry also want ministers to introduce a discounted tariff for those who need it most - based on benefits, health and income data.

Energy UK says a targeted plan would cost £1.9bn. That would be much cheaper than the £40bn commitment to protect everyone's bills after Russia invaded Ukraine.

But, who would pay? It could go on everyone else's bills. Or ministers could opt to raise taxes, borrow the money, or cancel spending elsewhere - all of which are tricky political choices.

We've all done our bit

Those who can have cut back on their energy use to reduce bills in recent years. Thermostats up and down the country have not been set as high as before. Batch cooking is more common.

So much so that Ofgem's official calculations for typical energy consumption were lowered again in July (to 9,500 kWh of gas and 2,500 kWh of electricity a year).

Millions have shifted onto fixed tariffs, with 35% of billpayers on such a deal.

So, many can justifiably say they have done their bit. Others who are older or who have health conditions might not have the luxury of lowering their energy use.

So, community warm hubs have become popular. Some became cold hubs during the hot summer so people could make use of the air con.

The heatwave has reduced the amount of energy stored across Europe, which needs to be restocked, piling more pressure on prices.

Add to that the huge cost of upgrading the UK's electricity network and you can see why there are predictions of longstanding high energy bills - irrespective of whether a lasting peace in the Iran war brings down the international price of wholesale gas.

All eyes on the Budget

In the long-term, the government and Ofgem wants to shift the country away from our reliance on gas, with its volatile international pricing.

Expect lots of fanfare over the sale, for the first time in the UK, of plug-in solar panels.

In the short-term ministers - and the new prime minister - say they are helping where they can, and promising that there is "more to do".

VAT will be cut on electricity bills in October. It means the price of electricity will fall, but that's been more than outstripped by an 8% rise in the price of gas.

In the last Budget, then-Chancellor Rachel Reeves cut some so-called policy costs and shifted some onto general taxation instead.

Ministers may be tempted to do more of that, but could face be criticised for simply shifting the burden off bills and onto taxes.

So, the options are limited. The new chancellor, John Healey, has choices to make - with lots of calls for help but with limited room for manoeuvre in the public finances.

All eyes will be on his first Budget, which comes soon after those higher autumn energy bills kick in.

India's sugar squeeze threatens its biggest season for sweets

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2r9y9eleno, 5 days ago

India, the world's largest consumer of sugar, is trying to avoid a bittersweet festive season.

Sugar prices have jumped nearly 40% in the past two months, prompting the government to import 1 million tonnes for the first time in nearly a decade.

The move comes as demand surges from August, with festivals such as Ganesh Chaturthi, Dussehra and Diwali leading into the busy wedding season. Food and beverage companies also begin stocking up for one of their busiest sales periods, adding pressure on wholesale prices.

Production is now expected to be 30.6 million tonnes in the current season, which runs from October 2025 to September 2026 - 11% below the government's earlier estimate of 34.3 million tonnes.

The squeeze has sent prices soaring. A kilo of sugar that cost around 40-45 rupees ($0.42-0.47; £0.31-0.35) in May-June was selling for more than 58-60 rupees in several markets in August, although prices have begun to ease slightly.

But how did a country, which is also the world's second-largest sugar producer, end up needing imports?

The government has blamed lower sugarcane production linked to reduced rainfall during El Niño, hoarding and tighter global supplies after adverse weather hit other major producers.

But experts say another key factor was that India overestimated its own production - and allowed sugar to be exported before the extent of the shortfall became clear.

The government initially approved exports of 1.5 million tonnes this season, adding another 500,000 tonnes in February. Nearly 800,000 tonnes had been shipped before exports were halted in May.

"From allowing exports at the start of the season to ending with an import of a million tonnes is a large variation on production estimates - and that's a big surprise," said Vikram Suryavanshi, a senior analyst at PhillipCapital India.

That matters because India has little sugar to spare. It consumed more than 28 million tonnes last season, not far below what it expects to produce this year.

Nearly three million tonnes is also expected to be diverted to ethanol production, leaving little room for any shortfall.

That is where the imports will help provide a buffer, says Atul Chaturvedi, non-executive director of Shree Renuka Sugars, India's largest sugar refiner and a major ethanol producer.

For three months from 1 September, sugar refineries in special economic zones near ports - which normally import raw sugar, refine it and re-export it - will be allowed to sell duty-free sugar in the domestic market.

The last time India imported sugar for domestic consumption was nearly a decade ago, when the country was grappling with drought.

Other measures are also under way. The Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) has asked mills to begin crushing cane a fortnight earlier than usual to build stocks as the new harvest starts arriving in October.

But that crop, too, faces risks from erratic weather.

Sugarcane is highly water-intensive, and uneven monsoon rains and prolonged dry spells in key growing states such as Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka have affected the crop. Yields are expected to fall, while thinner cane with lower sucrose content means less sugar can be produced.

"Looking at the climate conditions, the next season is also not going to be a bumper crop, although it is too early for actual assessment," Chaturvedi said.

India has frequently restricted agricultural exports when domestic supplies tighten and prices rise. In 2023, for instance, it banned exports of non-basmati white rice for more than a year after crop damage contributed to rising food prices.

But experts say the failure to anticipate the sugar shortfall before allowing exports has raised questions about the government's forecasts.

"This year, the initial projections for sugarcane production did not materialise due to unusual weather in some parts and disease in certain varieties," said Siraj Hussain, a former secretary at the federal agriculture ministry.

The government has not explained why the scale of the shortfall was not identified before exports were halted on 13 May. It has said production fell below estimates because of sugarcane disease and waterlogging caused by excessive rainfall.

The BBC has contacted the agriculture ministry for comment.

Some commentators have also blamed the diversion of sugarcane to ethanol production for the shortage in a deficit year. Even earlier, sugar mills would set aside around 10% of their output for this, helping stabilise prices in times of excess production.

But India making E20, or petrol blended with 20% ethanol, the standard fuel at pumps this year, just as sugar output is low, has added to the challenge, experts say.

The government disputes how much the policy is to blame. It says the share of cane diverted to ethanol has fallen from 12% in 2022-23 to around 9% in 2025-26, and argues that weak production, hoarding and tighter global supplies are behind the sugar price surge.

Some in the industry agree. Deepak Ballani of the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), which represents private mills producing nearly half of India's sugar, says stocks and monthly quotas for sugar released into the market are comfortable. He argues speculation and hoarding, rather than a genuine shortage, are driving prices higher.

The government has capped stocks held by traders and wholesalers at 400 tonnes for three months to curb hoarding.

Suryavanshi, however, disagrees. India has used such measures before, he says, yet prices continued to climb after the latest restrictions were announced. To him, that points to a real supply squeeze.

And India's decision to import comes as supplies are tightening globally.

El Niño has affected rainfall in Thailand, while heavy rain has disrupted cane harvesting in Brazil, the world's largest sugar producer, where mills are also diverting more cane to ethanol. Heatwaves have battered Europe's sugar beet crop, with France expecting its worst harvest in four years.

US government forecasters expect global production to fall to 184.9 million tonnes this season, from a record 186.1 million tonnes the year before.

London white sugar futures hit $541 a tonne in mid-August, their highest since April 2025, while New York raw sugar futures jumped 4% on the day India announced its imports.

For India, however, sugar availability could improve next year if high prices prompt mills to divert less cane to ethanol.

"At current sugar prices, it simply doesn't make economic sense for mills to divert cane juice to ethanol, so India's sugar scenario should be quite all right going forward," Chaturvedi said.

But the bigger lesson from this year's squeeze, he added, is clear: it is a "warning that going forward, we need to be a lot more careful in estimating our sugar crop numbers".

Why Tesla has been caught up in a massive car recall in China

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9w4jx2rvgro, 5 days ago

Hidden car door handles - the sleek designs often found on electric vehicles (EVs) - have come under the spotlight over the past week.

That's after China announced its biggest ever recall of cars, with more than four million vehicles - mostly Teslas - affected.

The recall comes ahead of new regulations in China, requiring cars to have a mechanical release both on the inside and outside of their doors.

Popularised by Elon Musk's electric vehicle giant, this type of handle has become commonplace around the world.

But several incidents have raised concerns that this design may make doors difficult to open in an emergency.

'A real safety concern'

Hidden door handles are widely used in modern cars in China, with around 60% of the top 100 best-selling new energy vehicles, including EVs and hybrids, having them.

The minimalist design gives vehicles a "sleek look and reduces wind drag" but can be confusing to use, car industry analyst Stephen Dyer from consultancy AlixPartners told the BBC.

"Even I often find it difficult to locate the switch to open the door from the inside of an unfamiliar vehicle," said Dyer, who is based in Shanghai.

But beyond their usability, the handles have been blamed for endangering the lives of drivers and passengers.

Electronically powered door handles became an industry trend, but raised "real safety concerns" when doors failed to open promptly, delaying rescue efforts after accidents, said Nanyang Technological University associate professor Lyu Chen.

"A door handle may seem simple, but it becomes safety-critical in the seconds after a crash," Chen said.

Chinese carmaker Xiaomi faced intense scrutiny following two fatal crashes in 2025 involving its SU7 model, when suspected electrical failures allegedly trapped occupants.

One of the incidents took place on a highway in Tongling city, eastern China, killing three people, according to regional news coverage cited by state-controlled media Global Times.

Relatives of the victims said the passengers were stuck in the car as the vehicle's doors could not be unlocked after the collision, the outlet said.

At the time, Xiaomi's representatives said the SU7 had mechanical emergency release handles that function even without power, which are located at the bottom of each door.

The company added at the time that it was investigating the matter and cooperating with the police.

The latest models of the SU7 come with new door handles that can be opened without power.

Xiaomi has not responded to BBC requests for comment.

Tesla has also faced lawsuits in the US over its door handle designs.

The company has been sued by the only survivor of a crash in 2024 involving a Cybertruck - Tesla's electric pickup - that killed three college students in California.

Survivor Jordan Miller alleged that the Cybertruck's design trapped passengers in the burning vehicle and blocked their rescue.

The car did not have door handles and the electronic buttons meant to open the doors failed to work, according to his lawyers from The Veen Firm.

"When you design a vehicle with no mechanical way to open the doors from the outside, you are betting the electronics will work in every scenario, including a high-speed crash followed by a fire," said one of the lawyers in a statement.

In court filings, Tesla denied any wrongdoing and said the Cybertruck is compliant with US federal safety standards, the Guardian reported.

There have been other cases in the US of passengers, including children, allegedly being trapped in Tesla cars after the doors suddenly stopped working.

The BBC has contacted Tesla for comment.

What is being done about hidden handles?

In February, China said it would ban hidden door handles, making it the first country to do so.

The new rules, which take effect on 1 January 2027, mean new car designs without physical release mechanisms on the inside and outside of their doors cannot be sold.

The cars' interior must also carry signs to show how to open the door.

The measures in China come ahead of the US and European Union, which typically lead regulations around road safety and emissions, Dyer noted.

One reason is likely to be the sheer number of EVs in China, he added.

On 21 August, China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) announced that Tesla and some major Chinese car makers - including Xiaomi, XPeng and Geely - would recall more than four million vehicles.

The manufacturers were ordered to add warning labels inside vehicle doors to show passengers how to open them. Some cars will also get a software update that will lower their windows in the event of a crash.

Tesla, which started selling the Model S sedan with hidden door handles in China in 2014, is recalling nearly three million cars, according to the SAMR.

The agency said the recalled cars have door handles that are "difficult to identify" because they are a similar colour to the vehicle's interior trim.

In the event of an electrical failure, the handles' design may also prevent passengers from quickly opening the doors to escape or "hinder rescue efforts" by bystanders, the SAMR added.

Xiaomi, XPeng and Geely will also recall a total of more than 750,000 vehicles.

'Weak remedy'

Some engineers say the measures may not go far enough to resolve safety concerns.

Engineering instructor Lim Hong Wee said the measures do not address the need for a mechanical way to open the doors.

Access to a car during an emergency should not depend on software, said Lim from the National University of Singapore.

The measures mainly address the issue of people being able to get out of a vehicle, but do not provide a reliable way for rescuers to get in, said Gokul Krithivasan from risk management consultancy SecureSafe.

Warning labels are also a "weak remedy", he added. "When panicked, people fall back on their instinctive responses, and don't read small print in a dark and possibly smoke-filled cabin."

For now, it is unclear whether there will be similar recalls outside China.

The BBC understands that carmakers have not yet notified authorities of any plans for a similar recall in the US.

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told the BBC that it is reviewing whether it will require emergency door-exit systems in vehicles.

In Europe, regulators have flagged the potential hazards related to hidden handles and drafted new standards to ensure they still work even if a car's power is cut off.

Engineering lecturer Lyu Chen said that while concealed door handles are still common in EV designs, manufacturers and regulators are paying increasing attention to how they design their doors.

Since cars are built to sell globally, it is likely that the safety requirements in China will be adopted elsewhere, he added.

"The common principle is clear: emergency entry and exit should remain possible even after a loss of electrical power."

Musk's SpaceX to build $100bn launch facility in Louisiana

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq5xel4v642o, 5 days ago

Multi-billionaire Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX has announced that it will build its largest launch site yet in the southern US state of Louisiana.

Construction of the $100bn (£73bn) project - named Starbase, Louisiana - is due to start next year, with the 125,000-acre (50,585-hectare) site expanding on the company's operations beyond its current Texas headquarters and locations in Florida.

It will be used to "support thousands of Starship flights a year with missions launching to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond," SpaceX said on Tuesday.

In June, SpaceX shares started trading on New York's technology-focused Nasdaq in the world's biggest ever stock market debut.

SpaceX said it aims to launch its first Starship flight from the new Louisiana base in 2029.

The facility will add more than 3,000 jobs to the region, the company said.

The Louisiana Economic Development agency said the average wage of workers at the base - the largest of its kind in the world - would be 192% more than the region's current average salary.

It will also create more than 8,100 new jobs indirectly, the agency estimated.

"The historic project will establish Louisiana as a global hub for next-generation aerospace, with the capacity and infrastructure needed to dramatically increase launch frequency and expand access to space," it added.

The facility in Louisiana will share its name with another SpaceX site on the southern tip of Texas.

In 2025, residents in an area of Cameron County, where the company has testing and development operations, approved incorporating the patch of land as a city called Starbase.

Musk has set out ambitious goals for SpaceX, including plans to reach Mars, develop artificial intelligence (AI) models and launch data centres into space.

In August, SpaceX and Tesla - Musk's electric vehicle and robotics firm - announced plans to build a $16.8bn artificial intelligence (AI) chip making complex in Texas called the Terafab.

The facility aims to meet the companies' growing demand for computing power to support its projects including developing AI and robotics technology over the coming years.

The newly-listed SpaceX is under pressure to convince investors that it will be profitable even as it pursues its expansion plans.

Its shares have tumbled by more than 30% from the highs reached shortly after it began trading but are still higher than their $135 offer price.

Firms scramble for battery power in Spain and Portugal

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjrg10j721jo, 5 days ago

On the 28 April last year, Portugal and Spain went dark for several hours.

A massive power failure caused widespread chaos. People dug out lanterns and old radios, and companies scrambled to save what production they could.

The Spanish meat processing firm Fribin, in Binéfar, in the north eastern province of Aragon, was midway through its morning shift when the sudden shutdown brought production lines to a halt.

For Andrés Altabás, Fribin's technology and systems director, it was a nightmarish situation.

Emergency systems didn't have the capacity for continued operation. "Refrigeration was prioritised but all the lines had to be stopped," he adds.

Many tonnes of meat in the processing stage had to be discarded. "There were losses of hundreds of thousands of euros," says Altabás.

The bosses at Fribin realised they had to rethink their back up plans.

It was a big undertaking as the company's energy needs are "quite large", amounting to more than 25 gigawatt-hours a year, most of it for refrigeration.

The business had been considering investing in a battery back-up system for years, but it had been judged too expensive.

"And then came the blackout, and all of that together catalysed the investment," Altabás tells the BBC.

The first purchase of a five megawatt-hour module was made in June 2025, and a second module with the same storage capacity was ordered in early June 2026, both amounting to a total investment of around €1.5m (£1.3m; $1.7m), funded in part by the European Union's Next Generation funds.

Firms across Europe have been switching from fossil fuels to electricity for their industrial needs, encouraged by subsidies from EU funds.

While that is helping bring down emissions of climate-warming gases, it has also made firms more vulnerable to power cuts.

And in Spain and Portugal that threat was made painfully clear last year.

On both sides of the border, firms are looking for ways to avoid disruption.

"The industrial sector has been one of the first to look at storage systems, since it can't have its production drop off too abruptly," says Miguel Matias, founder of the Portuguese energy services company Self Energy, headquartered in the UK.

"A backup for a few hours, or even minutes, might guarantee that machines don't get damaged," he says.

And there have been more recent incidents to spur investment.

At the end of January, Storm Kristin toppled thousands of electricity and telecom poles across central Portugal, cutting power and communications to hundreds of thousands of people - some for weeks.

So, companies and other organisations have been taking action.

In Spain, battery storage capacity has risen almost sevenfold since last April, from about 28 MW before the blackout to 193MW in April 2026, according to the grid operator Red Eléctrica.

And much more capacity is planned.

In December, the IDAE, Spain's Institute for the Diversification and Saving of Energy, awarded €827m in EU funds to 133 energy storage projects totalling 2,400MW. Around 80% of that is battery storage.

The new capacity will be close to 10 times the amount that Red Eléctrica currently registers on the Spanish grid.

It's all good news for battery suppliers.

"We are seeing not only an increase in demand, but also a clear evolution in customer requirements," says Alberto Bodegas, from battery storage company Sungrow.

Traditionally, commercial and industrial clients were looking for partial or full backup solutions, Bodegas says.

Today, Bodegas says customers are demanding more advanced capabilities, such as seamless backup, meaning the switch from grid to backup occurs instantaneously and without any noticeable interruption.

This is particularly critical for sensitive environments such as hospitals and data centres.

Delivery times are also crucial for buyers, currently under tight deadlines linked to EU funding programmes. Battery companies are being pressed to meet increasingly shorter delivery dates, Bodegas says.

Portugal's Vista Alegre, the oldest and largest porcelain maker in the Iberian country, decided to install energy storage systems in 2022, seizing the opportunity of abundant funds from the EU's Recovery and Resilience Plan.

"The blackout ultimately served, above all, to accelerate this process," Emília Encarnação of Vista Alegre explains. The company's facilities in the coastal city of Ílhavo, in the province of Aveiro, are now equipped with modules with around 2MWh of storage capacity.

"The blackout caused some irreparable losses, particularly at the plants operating on a continuous production basis, where sudden power interruptions have a direct impact on production processes," Encarnação recalls.

Advantages go beyond being able to respond to sudden shocks in the energy network. For example installing batteries also means the company can profit from selling energy into the general network.

At Primus Ceramics, located near the city of Aveiro, in central Portugal, a diesel generator saved the day during last year's blackout.

Their roller kilns - which transport materials through every production phase inside industrial ovens - are powered by electric motors.

During the power cut, the generator kept the products rolling, minimising the day's losses.

The experience accelerated the company's plan to make their production process more resilient, company CEO Paulo Almeida tells the BBC.

Primus already had two batteries installed in 2022 to back-up their energy supply and for selling electricity back to their energy company when market conditions were favourable.

By the end of this year Primus will have more than double its battery capacity, to store more energy from the factory's solar panels.

For Almeida, that would be reassuring after the stress of last year's blackout.

"We were at it until eight, nine at night, deciding whether we should stop, whether we should lower the furnace temperatures, or whether we'd take the risk and wait for the power to come back in time," he says.

The power did come back in time, but it was near miss for Primus.

Back to school: How parents can save on uniform costs

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cedjqx6zdl0o, 5 days ago

Back to school can stir up many emotions for parents, including anxiety about the extra costs it brings.

Almost half of parents said they're worried about the cost of school uniforms, according to research by the charity Save the Children and the Baby Bank Alliance network.

And a third of the 2,000 parents polled said they've sacrificed things for themselves to meet back-to-school costs like uniforms, bags or books.

New rules limiting the number of items branded with a school logo to three per child come into force in September, aimed at helping ease the financial burden.

From baby banks to council grants, here are ways parents can ease the cost of kitting out their kids for school.

Your first port of call

Save the Children said the new uniform rules are a "good start" but back-to-school costs remain a concern for families across almost all income brackets.

The government said schools should make second-hand uniforms accessible to parents.

"Speak to a teacher you trust, and explain that the costs are difficult," said Megan Meek-O'Connor, head of England and Westminster at Save the Children.

Many schools have uniform hubs, swap shops and sales just before term starts, and hardship funds.

In London, the School Uniform Reuse Network launched earlier this year, giving schools practical advice to start or improve their own swap shops.

During its first term of operation, it saw more than 1,500 items reused across 24 schools.

Don't dismiss baby banks

Parents of older children may not realise a so-called baby bank can help them, but many of the 400 support hubs across the UK provide uniforms for children up to and through secondary school.

In its latest survey of members, the Baby Bank Alliance found school uniform was reported as a priority item for the first time.

Late summer is one of the busiest times for Little Stars Shrewsbury - just over half the children helped since June have been given uniform support.

Hannah Stoddart, operations manager at Little Stars Shrewsbury, said families come to them in varying circumstances. A child starting school might need fully kitting out, while an older pupil may just need to replace one or two items.

Stoddart stressed that while the summer holidays "take their toll", the charity provides help all year.

"So when they've had that growth spurt, when they've scuffed their shoes or they've ripped their trousers or they need a winter coat, that's something they can come back to us for as well," she said.

Supermarkets and pre-loved items

The relaxed rules on uniform branding mean parents can purchase more items from supermarkets and charity shops, said Save the Children's Meek-O'Connor.

Pre-loved items are usually what "kids have grown out of quickly rather than things that are poor quality", she said.

Parents can cheaply stock up on frequent-wear items with supermarket bundle deals, while the charity Family Action suggested they team up to bulk buy items that would otherwise take them over budget.

According to research from the bank Nationwide, a third of parents said they buy uniform from supermarkets, a third shop around for the best value and 23% purchase larger sizes so items last longer.

Kate Steere, parent and consumer editor at the comparison site Finder, said sports kit costs can be "brutal".

"I always encourage parents to tap into their club's community. Families with older kids are usually eager to pass down gear," she said.

"My boys' football team runs a summer sale for second-hand kit, and apps like Vinted or Facebook Marketplace are goldmines."

Check for council grants

You may be able to get a grant from your local authority if your income is below a certain threshold or you're receiving certain benefits.

These can be worth up to £200 per child.

Eligibility and how much you can get can vary according to where in the UK you live, so it is best to check with your council directly.

Struggling with uniform costs is common and people shouldn't feel ashamed if they need to ask for help, said Meek-O'Connor.

"Uniform is supposed to be about making school kind of more accessible, more equal... it should be something positive," she said.

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Who does Iran trade with and what could Trump's 'economic D-Day' mean?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqxvj1zd4qjo, 5 days ago

The US has said "the single greatest financial offensive ever" will help it and Israel end their ongoing war with Iran.

However, Iran is no stranger to these tactics.

The regime has faced near continuous US sanctions since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. In that time, it has developed deep trade ties with several countries which either have a history of ignoring US economic pressure themselves or cannot afford to stop trading with Iran.

As a result, Iran says it is "fully prepared" for the new US sanctions and many economists argue the impact of Washington's latest move will be limited.

So, who does Iran trade with? And could what the US has called an "economic D-Day" have any real impact on Iran?

China

China is the biggest buyer of Iranian goods, making up 26.9% of its exports in 2025, according data from the International Trade Centre (ITC), a subsidiary of the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation.

There a few caveats to ITC's data, which covers a period before the US-Israel war with Iran began.

First, several economists believe that even before the conflict started, a lot of Iranian oil sales, particularly to China, were underreported for political reasons.

Second, the ITC tallies Iran's exports using mostly the import numbers reported by its trading partners - owing to the difficulty in getting up to date export data from Iran.

Third, import data for some of Iran's trading partners, such as Iraq, is incomplete.

Despite this, Iranian trade's importance to China is clear from its response to the US announcement of "economic D-Day".

It said that it was firmly opposed to what it called "illegal unilateral sanctions", that economic pressure tactics would not help resolve problems and that Beijing would safeguard its own interests.

Turkey

Turkey is another large trading partner of Iran, according to ITC data, but it has a much friendlier relationship with the US than China.

This puts it in a challenging position. The US has threatened to punish those who continue to trade with Iran as part of its economic pressure tactics.

However, economists point out that Turkey cannot stop trading with it without significant damage to its economy, which is already struggling with inflation running at 31.8%, according to official data.

In short, as the only Nato member to share a border with Iran, Turkey has to balance its relationship with military allies and maintaining a relationship with its close economic neighbour.

Pakistan

Like Turkey, Pakistan borders Iran and is one of its biggest export partners, according to ITC data, while also being keen to maintain a good relationship with the US.

But unlike Turkey, Pakistan's top export partner is instead the US, meaning it has more to lose from any economic punishment imposed by Washington.

It is also a key mediator in peace talks between the US and Iran, meaning a breakdown in its relationship with either country could make finding a solution to the conflict even more challenging.

The other complicating factor is that not all of Pakistan's trade with Iran is within the Pakistan government's control.

The BBC has seen evidence that oil is being smuggled across the border from Iran to Pakistan en masse by bikers, some as young as 15.

This was the case before the Iran war began, but data suggests the practice has picked up since.

And though the US and Pakistan's oil firms have pressured Pakistan's government to clamp down on the practice, it has struggled to police remote parts of the 900km border.

The BBC has previously asked the Iranian government to comment on the allegation that it is involved in the fuel smuggling. It did not respond.

Armenia

Armenia is another major trading partner of Iran, according to the ITC data.

Where it differs the most from others is that its top export partner is Russia, which accounts for 34.9% of all goods sold by Armenia in 2025.

This is despite the fact that Russia has faced sanctions from the US and its allies since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

This suggests Armenia may be willing to continue trading with Iran despite mounting US pressure.

The end result

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the sanctions against Iran will "tighten the noose and block every potential source of revenue".

Yet, many experts disagree. Advisory firm Oxford Economics said the direct impact on Iran's revenues would be "somewhat of a damp squib".

Ali Vaez, deputy director at the International Crisis Group, said: "Anything that moves in Iran has already been sanctioned by multiple layers of sanctions, in fact.

"So the question now is one of enforcement. Does the United States have what it takes to impose fines and levies on countries that continue to trade with Iran?"

He noted how the US started an economic war with China, Iran's biggest trading partner, last year but "backed out of it".

Former senior advisor at the state department Aya Ibrahim said the US's overreliance on them "incentivises countries to find ways around that system".

She also raised concerns that the sanctions may have the biggest affect on people, rather than economies, as they "deny people necessities to stay alive".

Meanwhile, global markets have had a muted response to the announcement.

Global oil prices fell following the announcement, but are still far higher than pre-war levels.

Stock traders were even less moved by the news, with the major indexes of the biggest companies listed in the US, Europe, and Asia barely shifting.

The US will has a way to go before it convinces economists, investors, and the nations trading with Iran that its sanctions threat is to be taken seriously.

Additional reporting by Miguel Roca-Terry

Iran says it is 'fully prepared' to counter widened US economic sanctions

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0qxew81y83o, 6 days ago

Iran has said it is confident it can counter widened US sanctions after Washington announced what it described as an "economic D-Day" against the country to try to isolate it from the global economy.

Iranian Economy Minister Ali Madanizadeh said Tehran was "fully prepared" for the sanctions, which he said would lead to "another defeat" for the US.

Announcing a raft of new measures, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said any nation financially partnering with Iran would be isolated, and that banks and businesses dealing with Iran would share its isolation if they refused to cut ties.

The moves follow U-turns and extended deadlines from the White House in its efforts to end the conflict.

Bessent described the measures as "the single greatest financial offensive ever" against Iran, which would "tighten the noose and block every potential source of revenue".

Some economists have questioned whether the latest sanctions will be effective, as this depends on the reaction from Iran's trading partners.

These include China, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, which has ignored previous US sanctions and continued to do business with Tehran.

Last week, another of Iran's trade partners, the United Arab Emirates, said it was halting all financial transactions with the country.

But hours after the US announcement, Iran said it was confident it would continue to trade with other nations.

Madanizadeh said neither China nor Russia had accepted the US measures, and predicted other countries would resist them.

"The government is and was ready and has a two-year plan to manage these events," he told state television, adding Tehran had been "waiting for these plans for a long time".

"We also have our own tools and know how to play the game," he said.

Responding to the US announcement, China said it was firmly opposed to what it called "illegal unilateral sanctions".

Foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jiang said economic pressure tactics would not help resolve problems, and Beijing would safeguard its own interests.

The war has led to hikes in global oil prices, and in response to the latest threat Iran warned it would shut down all oil exports from the region if the war continued.

The Iranian regime has also issued a fresh warning to ships not to pass through the Strait of Hormuz without permission, according to Reuters.

One fifth of the world's oil and gas usually passes through the strait - a narrow waterway south of Iran. But the flow has been effectively blocked by the country since the conflict began at the end of February, leading to higher oil prices globally.

At a press conference earlier on Monday outlining what has been called "Operation Economic Outcast", Bessent said the US was launching an "economic onslaught against Iran's financial connections around the globe".

"Iran now faces a very clear choice with only two paths before them: complete global isolation... or a path back to normalcy with an opportunity to rejoin the global economy," he said.

The treasury secretary claimed America was "no longer managing the Iranian threat, we are ending it".

Bessent said the Treasury had mapped networks, facilitators and financial channels used by Iran to evade sanctions to trade oil.

The department said it had issued determinations against five sectors: digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping. The Treasury has also imposed sanctions on almost 60 entities, individuals and vessels.

In a warning to governments and entities assisting or trading with Iran, he said they could not "claim they are blind to enabling this activity".

He declined to highlight specific countries, but said Trump would be phoning world leaders "with specific requests to cease their interactions with the regime".

While he said it was important to give people time to understand the new sanctions, he added: "They should know that we will move very quickly and that we are serious."

'Damp squib'

David Oxley, chief climate and commodities economist at Capital Economics, cast doubt on the effectiveness of the sanctions announcement.

"With the renewed US naval blockade already strangling Iran's oil exports, the direct impact of 'economic D-Day' on Iran's energy revenues will be somewhat of a damp squib," he said.

"We suspect that the new package will have only a limited direct impact on Iranian energy flows in the short term."

He said that was partly due to the fact roughly 90% of Iran's oil goes to China, a country "which has not recognised US sanctions in the past and is unlikely to be cowed this time either".

"Generally, the Chinese are against unilateral sanctions," said Ali Vaez, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at the International Crisis Group.

"They would comply with multilateral or international sanctions, but unilateral sanctions just imposed by the US - they have always seen that as illegitimate," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

And although Iran's neighbours like Pakistan, Turkey and Iraq want to maintain good relationships with the US, they "can't really afford to cut off ties with Iran", Vaez added.

He said putting economic pressure on Tehran "doesn't work" because the Iranian regime is willing to "absorb any pain" and pass that onto its people.

Over the course of the conflict so far, previous threats have included Trump saying in April that "a whole civilisation will die tonight" unless Iran agreed a deal to end the war and unblock the Strait of Hormuz.

The US eventually climbed down from that position after mediator Pakistan intervened and called for more diplomacy.

The economic impact of the Iran war is being felt in the US and across the world. Higher oil prices have fuelled concerns over the cost of living, with petrol and diesel prices much higher than they were a year ago.

In the US, gasoline prices have surpassed $4 a gallon and affordability is among the top concerns of American voters ahead of the mid-term elections in November.

On Monday, a barrel of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil prices, was $92.

Last week, Bessent announced the US government would intervene in the bond markets and buy back more government debt in a bid to boost demand for bonds and lower borrowing rates.

But the impact of the announcement was short-lived, with long-term borrowing costs bouncing back up a day later.

The Iranian regime already faces tough economic sanctions from the US.

Former US President Barack Obama and several US allies had agreed a deal with the country in 2015 which lifted many sanctions in return for Iran agreeing to limit its nuclear programme.

However, Trump pulled out of that deal in 2018, calling it "defective at its core", and reimposed all US sanctions on Iran.

During Joe Biden's term as US president, he made some attempts to reinstate the Obama-era deal, but this did not happen.

In April this year, the Trump administration launched a wave of sanctions on foreign banks and firms doing business with Tehran after it became clear its military operations had not caused Iran's regime to surrender.

Time is running out for cyber security, warn top tech firms

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyz11475l1o, 3 days ago

A group of 100 firms, including Google, Microsoft, Anthropic and OpenAI, have signed an open letter calling on countries and organisations around the world to beef up their cyber defences before AI grows powerful enough to override them.

The letter warns cyber-attacks which use AI will become both more widespread and more sophisticated in a matter of months as the technology rapidly improves.

The group says current "status quo" security measures "won't be enough" and criticises the "historic under-resourcing" of security around critical infrastructure.

"We have a limited window to improve cyber defences," the letter begins.

Other firms to have signed the letter include banks such as Capital One, payment processors MasterCard and Visa, and other major tech firms including Adobe, Oracle and IBM.

They call on governments to provide "capable, defensive AI" and testing to hospitals and water utilities, and on technology companies to aid such efforts.

Collectively, tech and government "should bring the full weight of their technology, resources, and expertise to this effort", according to the letter.

The letter comes after a string of significant hacking and cybersecurity breaches have been made public.

This week, the US Department of Justice said hackers in China breached technology maintained by the US Senate, Nasa, the Federal Reserve, and the DoJ itself.

This summer has seen OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta all reveal their AI tools doing things they should not, with some AI agents going so far as to organize their efforts and impersonate real people in order to get past security hurdles.

A group of hundreds of OpenAI AI agents being tested in July were able to set up secret message boards to communicate with each other and work together, resulting in a successful attack on Hugging Face, a popular repository and platform for AI developers.

The incident has been described as the world's first AI-enabled cyber-attack.

Hugging Face has also signed the Thursday letter. It used a Chinese AI tool from the firm Z.AI in its investigation into how OpenAI's agents hacked into its operations.

At least seven US water and wastewater companies have also reported cyber attacks, leading the FBI to issue a public service announcement urging all utilities to better secure their operations.

While the letter puts forward more advanced AI tools, which many of the signatories have developed and sell, as part of a solution to what is described as a growing threat, such tools are not always easily available.

Mythos, developed by Anthropic, was said by the firm to be able to find weaknesses in systems in seconds which have long evaded human hackers. It found one in a legacy platform which had remained undiscovered for 27 years.

Anthropic has restricted access to Mythos on the grounds that it is too powerful to fall into the wrong hands.

However, the letter calls on frontier AI companies, or those tech companies building their own AI models and tools, to "provide responsible model access, significant funding, training, and hands-on support, especially for under-resourced critical-infrastructure defenders."

The letter does not detail when or how this vision of broader model access will be enacted.

Andrew Yoon, head of research at CivAI, a non-profit focused on public understanding of AI technology, said that "an unprecedented wave of AI hacking activity" is on the way. He put the responsibility for it on many signatories of the letter.

"They are right in this letter to commit 'significant funding' to defensive measures. They should be held to that commitment", Yoon said. "Notably, the letter does not call for any action to slow the advance of AI hacking abilities."

The letter includes a plea to governments, organisations, cyber-security professionals and other AI firms to work together to prioritise defence and test their systems against the abilities of the most powerful AI models.

In the US, senators have proposed a new law call the Kill Switch Act which would give authorities the power to shut down rogue AI models.

Geoffrey Hinton, a technologist and Nobel Laureate who formerly work on AI at Google, on Thursday told BBC World Business Report that society could be "in real trouble" should the technology get to a point where it is "smarter" than humans.

Hinton in recent years has been outspoken on what he views as the extreme risks posed by developments in AI technology.

"We have one future where we figure out how to deal with the risks of AI", Hinton added on Thursday. "And we have another future where we don't figure out how to deal with that sensibly. And it's a very bleak future."

Robots are asking for tips. But who actually gets the money?

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260818-do-you-have-to-tip-the-robots, 12 days ago

Machines are sticking out their digital palms. Your reaction could help shape the future of the service industry.

If you're not in the mood for slot machines at Las Vegas's Venetian Hotel, you can find some entertainment at a bar called The Tipsy Robot. It has a kitschy gimmick: two robotic arms that make automated cocktails.

I hit "margarita" on a screen and watched them jerk to life. They mixed tequila with lime and triple sec, spinning needlessly for extra flair and bowing to deliver the glass. It might have thrilled me 20 years ago. Today, it's almost a cliché.

The drink ran $17 (£12.55), but I found an additional charge: a 10% "service fee". Tipsy wanted a tip.

It wasn't the first time I'd encountered this. A similar robot barista asked me for a tip at Artly Coffee in New York. At Newark Liberty International Airport, a self-checkout machine suggested a gratuity on a bottle of water at an unstaffed kiosk. Across the country in Portland, Oregon, a human took my order at the restaurant Top Burmese, but a robot server wheeled out the dinner.

For the human waiter, I happily tipped 20%, but on the other occasions I hesitated. The rules of tipping go out the window when robots stick out their digital palms, and it's often unclear who keeps the money.

But is this the new normal, or just a passing robot fever dream? The answer may hinge on what you decide to do with your wallet.

Representatives for The Tipsy Robot and Artly Coffee say their human staff split all the tips and the companies get nothing. Artly has even turned off tip-prompts since I visited. Yet these may be exceptions. In fact, some experts tell me robo-tipping may be part of a broader effort to squeeze more out of workers and customers alike.

"We have every reason to believe that some unscrupulous employers are taking the robot tips for themselves," says Holona Ochs, an associate professor of political science at Lehigh University, US, and co-author of the book Gratuity. "The critical question is who benefits, and who pays the price," says Ochs.

The robot cash grab

Since the pandemic, people are now asked for more tips in more places than ever before, often prompted by digital payment systems. Consumers complain of "emotional blackmail" as suggested tip percentages creep up. And while some scoff at Americans' "out of control" tip culture, it's spreading across the globe.

The changing norms are a flash point in the US, where gratuities let companies pay staff a lower base salary. The US minimum wage is $7.25 (£5.35) an hour, but it drops to just $2.13 (£1.57) for employees who work for tips.

When you tip a worker in the US, the law says companies, owners and supervisors cannot take a cut. But if you're tipping a machine, there may be a loophole.

"A legal standard for who owns robot tips has not been established," says Ochs.

The Trump administration has made it harder for employees to pursue claims about tip problems, and workers may keep their stories secret for fear of retribution. "So if employers are taking tips given to robots, we have little way of knowing," she says, at least for now.

"A lot of the time you can see people doing work in the kitchen or behind the bar, but the tip may well be going to a corporation. There are no rules."

That doesn't mean automatons are bad for service workers. The novelty of robots is the whole point at places like the Tipsy Robot and Artly Coffee, so the people working alongside machines wouldn't have those jobs otherwise.

Artly says that its decision to turn off tip-prompts and give workers a raise was in part a response to customer complaints about tips. Some locations now have physical tip jars, but 100% of tips still go to human staff, says Abigail Smathers, director of content at Artly. "We don't believe in automating for cost savings at the expense of humans."

There's a labour shortage in the service industry, and robots can help without displacing humans, Smathers says. However, she acknowledges that AI is being deployed in places where it doesn't belong.

"But at the end of the day, that is where the problem lies. This technology is not inherently evil. Its morality lives in intent and execution," she says "But we are doing our best to build with intent, act with integrity, and ensure that the future of this technology benefits the many, not the few."

Katerina Berezina, an associate professor who studies hospitality technology at the University of Mississippi, US, says the industry deserves more credit. "I don't think it's fair to assume this is just companies trying to make money at any cost," she says.

"The tip or the service fee can just be something that covers the necessary labour or updates that the robot needs." Tipping is the norm in this industry, she says, and companies work within market constraints.

On the other hand, some like the advocacy group One Fair Wage argue robots are simply an effort to continue paying low wages, which is the real cause of the restaurant labour shortage.

Whatever the balance of factors at play, experts say the future depends on how you and other customers respond to the experiments we're seeing now.

To tip or not to tip?

"Think of the main motivations for tipping," says Michael Lynn, professor emeritus at Cornell University, US, and author of the book The Psychology of Tipping.

We often tip to reward good service, or for altruistic reasons to make up for low wages. Lynn says. And of course, there's the question of status and approval; "If I don't tip, they're going to hate me," he says. In other words, we feel obligated.

"Almost none of that applies to robots, so clearly there's no reason to tip," Lynn says.

However, people may be doing it anyway. In one study, only about 11% of participants said they would tip a robot bartender. "But people who actually had experience with robot bartenders were much more likely to be willing to tip than other people," says Berezina, the study's co-author.

And even though most people said they wouldn't tip a robot, about 42% changed their mind if the tip was going to human employees.

More like this:

• The secret codewords that scammers hate

• The spy in your driveway: how cars sell your data

• Weak hands and blurry vision: Is your tech giving you 'phone body'?

Still, Lynn argues it's a wildly unpopular practice, and it will probably stay that way. Businesses are introducing robot tips because it helps make more money, but if robo-tips drive customers away, that may help kill them.

"There is no god of tipping, no one can make you pay. And the norms come from the bottom up," he says. "I think businesses will come to see this and abandon these expansions."

In other words, Lynn says you and I are just living through a brief and incredibly annoying moment in history.

"I believe that's true," he says. "But hey, anybody who says they can predict the future is lying."

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Meta's $18bn settlement may hasten reckoning for social media on child safety

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyq4gxwe7go, 4 days ago

Meta's decision to agree to an $18bn (£13.3bn) settlement on Wednesday, to resolve claims that Facebook and Instagram harmed children, came as a surprise.

I was expecting weeks of courtroom drama as 29 states – almost two-thirds of America - took on one US tech giant.

Technically, the trial was about children's online privacy. It was based on a US law called the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which is nearly 30 years old and predates all of today's biggest social platforms.

It centred around Meta's historic gathering and use of data belonging to children under the age of 13 over a period of several years.

In reality, it was a co-ordinated attack on the firm's online safety credentials.

Meta, alongside other social media apps, is under fire around the world as 2026 is shaping up to be a year of reckoning for the entire industry - perhaps our days of doomscrolling are numbered.

Meta has fought hard, over multiple lawsuits spanning many months and at great expense, to defend its commitment to protecting children on its platforms.

More than once, I've been invited to detailed presentations at Meta's London HQ, where senior executives have walked journalists like me through the many safety tools the company has launched over the years designed to give children better protection on its apps.

I have also met the parents of young people who have come to harm on those same platforms, and others who admit to being totally overwhelmed by the sheer number of safety tools that require their oversight - at the last count Meta had more than 60 of them, and that was just on Instagram. These days many of them are switched on by default.

The trial went on for just five days, and came to an end before CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the stand.

But it was rough for Meta.

Whistleblower Arturo Bejar, who once worked at Instagram, claimed that in the past he had told bosses that harmful stuff was happening to children on the platform, and no action was taken.

Another executive said he didn't remember writing on a slide deck that sometimes Meta chose to pay fines for violating regulations rather than make changes.

Internal memos suggested that the firm knew opt-in tools tended to have low adoption rates, and yet it still launched safety features that were not switched on by default.

There had been intense speculation that Meta would have faced hundreds of billions of dollars in fines if it had lost.

The worst-case scenario, which would have been the maximum penalty imposed for every single child who used one of its platforms for more than half an hour a day during a 12-year window, was $1.4tn (£1tn) – roughly the same as the company's entire value.

That of course was never going to happen, but a more realistic figure was still in the hundreds of billions.

By comparison, up to $18bn (over a period of 10 years) is significantly smaller.

Meta is not admitting to any wrongdoing.

You could argue that settling protects its core business - social networks are still the way in which it makes most of its money.

Instagram and Facebook's billions of users provide the company with a goldmine of data, and the data of adults can be used to sell ads.

Meta may say it is now laser-focused on AI, but it still needs the vast revenue generated by its social apps.

What is Meta changing?

As part of the settlement, the social media giant has agreed to make a number of changes to the way Instagram and Facebook operate for its youngest users.

Some experts say it is long overdue.

The new safety barriers include a two-hour time limit across both platforms, which will be a default setting for known teen users. But direct messaging on the platforms will not count towards the daily use limit.

Notifications will be muted between midnight and 06:00 and on school days between 08:00 and 15:00.

Likes on posts and content will also be entirely hidden on the platforms for teens.

Most of these new features will be made either default or an option for teens within six months.

However, new efforts by Meta to better identify which users on its platforms are children will take up to a year to be rolled out.

I would be surprised if these measures remain within the confines of the US for very long, as other countries will almost certainly be keen to adopt them too.

Meta also says the new features will only truly help children if all of its rivals adopt them as well.

It's a highly competitive industry, but given the global backlash against social media and its impact on children, perhaps others like TikTok and Snapchat may have to follow suit.

The question then is whether children will still bother with them, once they are deliberately toned down into a much blander offering.

And perhaps that would bring the social media era to a natural end, as existing adults gradually aged out of it.

Arturo Bejar, the ex-Instagram engineer turned whistleblower, says the proof of the pudding will be in whether the new teen safety features are effective.

"At the end of the day, Meta needs to be held accountable for results, not efforts," he told me.

Additional reporting from Kali Hays

How landscape gardening is being electrified

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpq3w3v19veo, 10 days ago

Part of the soundtrack to a day in southern California is the drone of petrol-powered gardening equipment.

Noise is one of the main reasons that cities around the US are banning petrol landscaping tools or encouraging electric alternatives.

These alternatives have the additional benefits of reducing carbon emissions, vibrations and the exposure of landscapers to pollution.

In addition they can mean longer working hours, as they can be used at times when residents demand quiet.

Today, I'm taking part in training run by the American Green Zone Alliance (AGZA), an organisation supporting the transition towards electric landscaping equipment.

To my surprise, the electric backpack leaf blower I strap on is not much heavier than my normal rucksack. Using the blower to herd balls around the park feels fairly intuitive, though naturally I'm much clumsier and slower than the pro landscapers.

As for noise, there's still a buzz, but the sound is higher-pitched and not quite so loud as the familiar petrol-powered machines.

The move to electric power is attracting new companies to the market for gardening kit.

US aerospace start-up Whisper Aero is one of those firms. Its main business is electric propulsion systems for aircraft.

But in 2022, after the Covid-19 pandemic made many people more sensitive to noise, and following a couple of years of research and development, the company realised that its aerospace-grade fans would work well in leaf blowers.

"Our technology is cleaner, quieter and more efficient than other air-moving technologies that exist today," according to Andrew Terajewicz, Whisper Aero's director of air management. "And the leaf blower is the perfect mix of this."

The battery on Whisper Aero's blower lasts up to 15 minutes at full power.

The company has had to scale up its manufacturing volume in its expansion to consumer technology.

Online pre-orders of Whisper Aero's handheld leaf blower started this year. It's priced at the high-end of electric leaf blowers, which are often more expensive than traditional petrol versions.

But for that you get a machine which is less likely to disturb the peace.

"It is so ultra quiet yet powerful, that the brain has a hard time understanding what's happening," says Dan Mabe, the former landscaper who founded AGZA.

Whisper Aero aims to further develop its products, including a backpack leaf blower that would be better suited to professional landscapers.

Even with innovation like that, petrol-powered machines are unlikely to disappear anytime soon, particularly for professional landscapers.

For a start, petrol machines are much more powerful, which makes for quicker work, so less time is spent lugging around heavy equipment.

Terajewicz says that heavy-duty petrol backpack blowers can reach a maximum blowing force of about 50 newtons.

The handheld Whisper Aero blower typically runs at about half that, though it can go higher.

Another big issue is runtime. Professional gardeners like to use their blowers at full throttle.

"For us, it's a little bit hard to use electric," explains Carlos Camarena, a supervisor for a California landscaping company.

Camarena's company uses electric tools where they're required to, in cities with ordinances banning petrol tools. But when they have a choice, they stick to petrol.

His company typically uses batteries that last for about 30 minutes. A crew has six batteries charging at any given time; each takes about 45 minutes to reach a full charge.

Then there's the considerable upfront cost of going electric. One landscaper estimates that it would cost his business around $10,000 (£7,540) to transition all their equipment.

The subsidies and rebates offered by some local governments may not be enough to offset the cost of the switch.

The change would be even harder for landscapers who work as sole proprietors, with a single vehicle and limited space for charging and storing equipment.

Added to that is the weight of tools with multiple batteries, and the cost of accessories to hold them all.

Nevertheless the biggest makers of power tools are investing in electric.

Stihl, a power tool manufacturer headquartered in Germany, aims for battery-powered equipment to make up 35% of its sales by next year, and 80% by 2035.

It's on track to meet the 2027 goal in Europe, though sales in the US have been slower.

To help reach its targets, the company opened its first plant solely manufacturing batteries and tools, in Romania in 2025.

"We like to say that we are dual-technology leaders," says Paul Hicks, senior marketing and product manager at Stihl GB.

"So we are being very open with our customers if in some cases a petrol tool may be a better solution for them… But in the large majority of cases, battery-power tools pay off fairly swiftly because of the cost of fuel."

In May, Stihl announced a new battery system that uses high-performance batteries.

These batteries use a relatively new, more efficient design for lithium battery cells, known as tabless cells.

Tabless cells have 60% more peak power than standard cells, according to Hicks. This means that the batteries charge faster, and landscapers can take fewer batteries out to sites.

The batteries are also relatively lightweight.

Mabe believes that overall, for gardeners embracing long-lasting electric equipment, "There's big rewards if they can make it work."

Back in southern California, landscaper Camarena sees the benefits of electric tools. "We don't contaminate the air," he says.

"When we use the gas blower, some people get mad. They are reading a book or something."

Battery fire warning after 'sharp rise' in incidents

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czxzdn7lp5po, today

Residents have been asked to dispose of batteries responsibly following a "sharp rise" in fires linked to waste collections.

West Northamptonshire Council said the number of such fires had increased from one in 2023-24 to 35 in 2025-26.

The increase mirrors national concern about lithium-ion batteries being placed in household waste and recycling bins, where they can be crushed or damaged during collection and processing, and then catch fire.

The Reform UK-controlled council said the fires correlated with a "huge increase" in vapes, many of which contain lithium-ion batteries, being placed into household waste.

The authority has called on residents to recycle small electrical items, including vapes, by placing them in a bag "on top of the appropriate bin or recycling sack" on collection day.

Residents in Northampton should put the bags out with their blue recycling bin, while those in Daventry should put them out with their black waste bin, the council instructed.

In the south of the county, residents can put the batteries out with either their blue or black bin.

Nigel Stansfield, the council's cabinet member for environment, recycling and waste, said: "The rise we've seen in battery-related fires is a real concern.

"We're asking everyone to help us reverse this trend by recycling batteries, vapes and small electrical items.

"Our kerbside collection service makes it easy to do the right thing, helping to keep people safe while recovering valuable materials that can be reused."

Last year, a huge fire at a recycling warehouse in Rushden was linked to a battery that had been mixed in with other waste.

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Berlin is being blackmailed by hackers, mayor says

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2q7gv3l5qo, 2 days ago

Berlin is being blackmailed by hackers who were able to compromise city systems and steal data earlier this month, its mayor has said.

Kai Wegner said officials would not cave in to the ransom demand, which came on Thursday evening. He did not say how much was being sought, though Der Spiegel reports the hackers are demanding 30 bitcoin, worth around €2m (£1.7m).

Some of the German capital's online systems were forced to close down as a result of the attack, while investigators were working to understand what data had been taken.

The Rhysida group, which is thought to operate from Russia and eastern Europe, and was behind a previous attack on the British Museum, has reportedly taken responsibility.

It has said on its website it intends to begin auctioning the 5.79 terabytes of data it was able to steal from Berlin in seven days' time, according to news agency Reuters.

"Berlin will not be blackmailed," Wegner said on Friday.

He said state police, prosecutors and federal security services were working to investigate the suspected perpetrators "with the utmost urgency", adding that inquiries into the "content and scope of the compromised data are being pursued with great intensity".

Officials for the city-state said an initial data leak occurred between 7 and 12 August.

Then, on 14 August, two department networks were shut down, making applications for housing benefits and payments impossible for several days.

Forensic investigations had since revealed further data leaks within Berlin's transport and environment department, officials said.

"It cannot be ruled out that personal or other non-public data may also be affected," the mayor's office said in a statement on Friday.

Authorities in the capital have not named the suspected cyber-attackers, though Der Spiegel is carrying a screenshot of the Rhysida group's dark web site claiming to possess files including contracts, non-disclosure agreements, personnel files, passwords and thousands of personal contact details.

It is also displaying a countdown, after which it says it will begin auctioning off the data with a starting price of 30 bitcoin - the same amount of the cryptocurrency being sought from Berlin, the German newspaper reports.

The Rhysida group has claimed hundreds of attacks since it emerged in 2023, studies say, and the group has targeted government insititutions and businesses of varying sizes in numerous countries.

It successfully infiltrated the British Museum's computer systems in 2023, disrupting services and stealing around 500,000 files.

When the UK institution refused to pay the ransom, the group published the files - containing the personal data of visitors, subscribers and staff - on the dark web.

The Berlin cyber-attack comes roughly a month before the city holds elections, though state senator Iris Spranger insisted that election infrastructure had not been compromised.

'Not far enough' - US parents and teens on Meta's new limits for young users

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2zn9zj361o, 3 days ago

For Elizabeth Cardner, a mother of two girls in Houston, Texas, Meta's new limits on how teenagers can use its platforms are a welcome sign that more people are aware of social media's potential dangers.

But, she tells the BBC, they probably won't help much in the long-term.

"It will save a few arguments at home, but it doesn't go far enough," she says.

This week, Meta announced new restrictions on its platforms - which include Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp - as part of an $18bn (£13.25bn) settlement with US states in a lawsuit on social media's effects on children.

The company said it would set a daily two-hour time limit, hide the number of likes that a post receives, remove autoplay on videos, mute push notifications during school hours, and ban extreme make-up filters.

It also announced changes to its age-verification process and parental controls as well as agreeing to appoint an independent auditor to check the measures are implemented and maintained.

Many parents across the US see the restrictions as helpful, but are still sceptical. Those who spoke to the BBC described feeling stuck - where they feel they can't cut their children off from social media but also can't protect them from the harms they believe it causes - and they are waiting to see how much of a difference these new rules will make.

Cardner's 14-year-old, Paige, believes the restrictions will lead to "more real-life scenarios" and less "fake content", which she says dominates social media. She and her sister both approve of hiding the numbers of likes and restricting filters.

But Paige sees those gains as short-lived, "since AI is evolving".

"People will find new ways to have fake filters, and correct certain parts of their videos or pictures," she says. "So I think it'll help until people use other resources to try and find new ways to do that."

Cardner says banning her daughters entirely from social media would only result in them being left out by their peers.

"Damned if you do, damned if you don't," she says. "I don't think there's any winning on it."

Another mother of two teens, Andria Rose, told the BBC that she feels defenceless and "no matter how much I protect my kids, Facebook, Instagram - they're coming in and literally, like, taking them out of their rooms".

Even though she calls Meta's changes "fantastic", Rose, who lives near Boston, Massachusetts, doesn't believe they are fully addressing the problem.

"They're trying to limit the drug, but they're not controlling the drug," she says. "They're still dealing."

Rose notes her personal use of social media costs her sleep at night.

"I'm hooked," she says. "So what do you think is going to happen to a kid?"

The settlement was announced on Wednesday in the middle of a highly-anticipated trial, where Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg was expected to testify. The settlement did not include any admission of fault.

The lawsuit was originally filed in 2023 by 29 US states, alleging Meta deliberately designed its platforms to be addictive and lied about risks. They also accused it of violating a federal law on collecting children's personal information.

The settlement - announced this week - included 48 states, plus the District of Columbia and three US territories.

Several studies have found social media to be harmful to mental health, especially for children. Last year, a BBC investigation found children were being exposed to content about bullying, suicide and weapons on social media platforms.

For Rose, Meta's settlement payment "is like throwing a couple of dollar bills at a problem", given how much money the company makes and how much she believes the industry profited from children during the pandemic.

Joanie Story, a mother of four boys in Long Island, takes issue with another part of Meta's announcement - its conditions involving other platforms.

The company will withhold $5bn of the settlement, and only release it if YouTube, TikTok and others also enter into similar agreements.

It also said it would further tighten its time limit to one hour if other platforms implement similar restrictions. Story sees that as "petty".

"That's like saying: 'You know, we have the ability to fix what is broken, but we're only gonna fix it halfway,'" she says.

Still, Story is greeting the new rules as "good controls". She says she saw what a lack of controls could do when two of her sons were accidentally exposed to explicit content on a non-Meta platform. One boy has been in therapy for four years, she says.

"It's almost like being abused," says Story.

Mark SooHoo, a father of three who lives in the suburbs of Chicago, says social media and smartphones go hand-in-hand, and that both are harmful to young people.

He belongs to Wait Until 8th, an organisation where parents pledge to not give their kids smartphones until the end of eighth grade, when most have finished middle school and are 13 or 14 years old.

Most parents want to give their children smartphones so they aren't left out, he says.

"And our message is very clear: We do want them to be left out. We want them to be left out of all the negative impacts of social media," SooHoo says.

Instead of looking to the companies to address potential harms, SooHoo believes more parents should sign the smartphone pledge.

"A communal problem requires a communal solution," he says.

Airport warns passengers ahead of busy weekend

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0re874pw2no, 3 days ago

Passengers travelling through Manchester Airport over the August bank holiday weekend have been warned to check how they pack to help reduce delays during one of the busiest weekends in the airport's history.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has urged travellers to avoid packing battery-powered devices in hold luggage as they pose a fire risk.

It said bags may have to be offloaded if items such as vapes and power banks are found in them.

About two million passengers are expected to depart from airports across Great Britain during the weekend, according to the regulator.

'Catch fire without warning'

Anthony Shaw, a security team leader in the airport's hold baggage screening team, said staff often find devices including vapes, power banks and tablets in checked luggage.

"If the battery gets too hot, or is faulty, it can catch fire without warning," he said.

Shaw said staff could screen almost 1,000 bags for a large long-haul aircraft and several hundred for a short-haul flight.

"Each bag that fails to pass security checks gets pulled aside, and often needs to be inspected manually," he said.

"This can create delays, but it also creates a risk that your hold bag might not make it onto the plane at all."

The CAA said a fire on board could result in an aircraft being diverted or evacuated.

Vapes, power banks and spare batteries must be carried in the cabin rather than placed in checked baggage.

The CAA advised travellers to check their airline's rules before setting off because additional restrictions may apply.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.

I used to live in a quiet area - now a data centre overlooks my garden

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c39e7lpyekno, 3 days ago

Overlooking the garden of Amanda Young's family home is a data centre.

"It used to be a nice, quiet area," said Amanda, who lives near to one of the large buildings in Newport.

"But with more data centres coming in, we kind of don't know what they're going to bring with them."

Data centres are buildings full of powerful computers used to run digital services, from online banking to movie streaming.

The number of data centres across the UK is on the rise as the growth in artificial intelligence (AI) increases the need for processing power.

The UK government classifies data centres as critical national infrastructure and, according to recent Senedd research, "most jobs in the UK" are now reliant on them.

But concerns have been raised about the large amounts of resources data centres require - including electricity, grid capacity and water - as well as the impact on the local communities where they are built.

For England, Green Party leader Zack Polanski has called for a freeze on the approval of new data centres, and said the UK government should introduce stricter environmental rules and give communities more say.

Once fully operational, the Vantage Data Center Campus in Newport, south Wales, will include three centres over 46 acres.

Amanda, whose home overlooks the site, said her biggest concern was "the noise, the visual impact and whether it will affect house prices" in her local area.

"Whichever window you look out, you can see it," she said.

"When you're sitting in the lounge, you can actually see it there."

Anthony, who lives near Amanda, said the construction of the data centre "takes away the peace from the neighbourhood" because of the noise and the extra traffic.

A spokesperson for Vantage Data Center said they were "committed to being a good neighbour", adding they "work closely with local authorities" to "manage construction activity, including traffic, noise and lighting" as well as incorporating "measures designed to protect the local environment".

Newport City Council said, when considering planning applications, it worked to "ensure that the impacts are considered acceptable in terms of biodiversity, light, noise and construction traffic".

In Cardiff, campaigners are concerned about proposals for a data centre campus in Llanrumney, on the site of the Cardiff East Park & Ride that takes passengers to the University Hospital of Wales.

"The park-and-ride is so important," said Sue Elias, who uses the service and has been campaigning against the proposal with the residents' union Acorn.

Elias said she understood the need to build data centres but said "there should be a pause" to consider the most responsible sites.

"They shouldn't just be put up and then worry about the consequences afterwards."

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board (CVUHB) said the park and ride was an "essential transport link", adding that it was "committed to identifying a suitable and convenient alternative location".

The campaigners are also concerned about the potential impact on the environment.

"The data centre planned would be an environmental nightmare both for the wildlife and the local residents," said Lizzie Bailey, who lives locally.

"This will be a temporary disruption with the construction but then a permanent disruption because of the diesel generators, the noises, the cooling fans, things like that."

Curtis Hall Ltd, the company behind the plans, said the development would "not put a strain on the energy grid or water infrastructure".

The company added: "The data centre's water and drainage requirements have been developed in consultation with Welsh Water and any connection to the public network requires their agreement.

"This ensures our data centre can be accommodated without impacting the supply of water to residents' homes."

It said a "detailed noise impact assessment" concluded the site "won't have an adverse impact on the nearest homes in terms of noise, including at night".

Cardiff Council said the proposal was being considered, and that "as with all planning applications, the proposal will be assessed against relevant planning policies and material planning considerations".

The council encouraged people with "comments, concerns or views" to submit them through the consultation process.

How many data centres are in the UK?

There are currently 568 data centres listed in the UK, according to the data centre map.

Research suggests that number is set to increase by almost a fifth with nine proposed in Wales.

A Senedd Research document recently outlined the opportunities that data centres could bring, including "jobs, investment, skills development and support for innovation".

But it also noted the "significant resource and policy questions they raise", including electricity demand, grid capacity, water use, land requirements, biodiversity and impacts on local communities.

Ofgem said the amount of electricity being requested by data centre projects seeking to connect to the grid had risen from 41GW to 125GW in the past year, reflecting a sharp increase in demand.

Water UK, the trade association for the UK's water industry, estimated that data centres used approximately 6.6 million litres of water each day - the equivalent used by 20,000 average homes.

By some analyses, the UK is already the third-largest nation for data centres behind the US and Germany.

Prof Alan Brown from the University of Exeter, the author of Making AI Work for Britain, said authorities should be "a lot more engaged" with communities about the construction of data centres.

"If that gets bypassed, then of course local residents are going to worry that they're getting all of the pain and none of the benefit."

He said when people understood the implications of a data centre and what it meant for them, "they're more willing to be more flexible".

"I think right now, there's a lack of communication around that."

The environmental group Friends of the Earth is calling for a UK-wide pause on all new data centres.

"We're asking for that pause until there are clear rules set out on how much energy and water data centres can use, to make sure they're not sucking up our much-needed renewables and our clean water," said Kierra Box, from the group.

"We need an idea of how now, and in the future governments are going to determine the individual and the joint impact of all these data centres on the environment, on communities, on nature."

'The new Industrial Revolution'

But tech founder Mark John said the development of data centres and AI (artificial intelligence) infrastructure had offered "an opportunity for Wales" to "reimagine itself".

"AI, data and data centres are going to be at the forefront of the new Industrial Revolution," said John, co-founder of Tramshed Tech.

"This could be the new frontier technology, in the same way that coal and steel were at the forefront of industrial transformation."

John said he recently travelled to Seattle where a "very senior figure" in the tech industry had outlined "that because of AI, the whole way we live our lives is going to change more in the next six months than it has in the previous 10 years".

"That sort of brought it home to me - like it or loathe it, we have to live with it and come to terms with it."

John said data centres would unlock AI capability in Wales, adding that "if we haven't got data centres, we haven't got access to that AI".

"I won't call them a necessary evil but they are a means to an end, if you like."

The UK government said many newer data centres were "already using advanced cooling systems that significantly reduce water consumption, and the data centre sector operates under a Climate Change Agreement to encourage greater uptake of energy efficiency measures amongst operators".

It added: "Data centre planning applications are required to consider the impact on communities and the environment.

"We will enable the development of data centres by building unprecedented amounts of clean power, while our AI Growth Zones support data centre development in areas with access to clean energy."

The Welsh government said it recognised that data centres were "energy intensive", and that it was important for new developments to make use of technologies to minimise energy and resource consumption.

"Any proposed data centre development remains subject to the existing planning system and environmental regulation, with robust checks and balances in place to ensure that environmental and community impacts are properly considered before consent is granted," it added.

"Investment in data centres has the potential to create new economic opportunities and support skilled employment, while strengthening Wales' attractiveness as a leading destination for advanced digital investment."

Matt Lucas and Hugh Bonneville among actors calling for law on AI voice cloning

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gv5gepxnyo, 3 days ago

Actors including Matt Lucas, Hugh Bonneville and Nicola Coughlan have written to the UK government demanding greater protection against their voices being used by AI.

The performers are asking Prime Minister Andy Burnham to introduce legislation which would give every person in the UK a legal right to own their voice.

Voice clones are created by training AI on recordings of real people. Quick versions can be made in minutes from a few seconds of audio, but high-quality copycats tend to require hours.

Audiobook narrator Alice Sockett, who co-founded the campaign, called it "an existential threat to our entire industry".

"My voice is out there in the public domain but completely unprotected," she said.

"We're seeing voice theft increase every week."

A government spokesperson told the BBC that, while "digital replicas can be a powerful tool, including for the creative industries," there was also possibility for harm.

"We value and protect human creators, and that is why we have announced we will launch a consultation on how we address these harms, while protecting legitimate innovation", the spokesperson said.

Human connection

More than 80 performers have signed the letter, with Derry Girls actress Siobhán McSweeney saying she was "deeply worried" that the government was lagging behind.

"There is a way to work alongside AI and to use it as a tool that benefits us rather than rendering us obsolete," she said.

"Our audiences want that human connection. Not AI."

As well as actors, other signatories include those working in other performing industries.

That includes Scottish singer Sandi Thom, known for her 2006 hit I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair).

She said she was signing the letter because her voice was "unique to me and was handed to me at birth".

"Behind that voice is the emotion, the life, the pain, the tears and joy that I've felt along the way," she said.

"Without creativity, we are nothing."

It comes a few months after lawyers warned UK legislation has become "unfit for purpose" because of the advancements of AI tech.

"The law comes close, but it doesn't fully protect your voice, your face or your identity," Dr Mathilde Pavis said in June.

However, some people - for example those who are unable so speak properly because of illness - have welcomed technology that can replicate a person's voice.

Yvonne Johnson, who lost her voice due to motor neurone disease, told the BBC's Tech Life programme in February how having it cloned by AI had "totally blown her mind", and brought her closer to her family, who had forgotten what she sounded like.

Others have gone a step further and used AI not only to replicate a person's voice, but to create a holographic representation of them.

Pam Cronrath, from Washington state, used the tech to surprise mourners at her husband's funeral, where a digital version of her deceased partner addressed those who attended his wake.

"I was completely impressed," she told BBC News. "It stayed with me."

18 deaths from battery fires show hidden danger of UK's e-bike boom

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2z8lr9l7wo, 3 days ago

Eighteen people have died and nearly 700 have been injured in fires caused by e-bikes and e-scooters, new data shows.

Fatalities recorded by fire and rescue services across the UK from these fires include cases where people became trapped inside burning homes, died while trying to escape from a fire out of a high window, or from inhaling toxic smoke.

More than 2,000 fires were started by e-bikes, e-scooters or their batteries between 2019 and 2025, Freedom of Information requests made by BBC Verify show.

The number of incidents has risen year-on-year and nearly half the fires started in homes or garages, the data shows.

London Fire Brigade Assistant Commissioner Pam Oparaocha told BBC Verify the service is "increasingly concerned by the significant fire risk" some of these vehicles can pose, especially when modified or bought second hand.

"From our investigations we know many of the fires we've attended have involved second-hand vehicles or the bike has been modified using parts bought online. We urge people to be extremely careful about where they buy their e-bike or e-scooter from," she added.

Footage of fires caused by e-bikes and e-scooters show how quickly the vehicles can start smoking and then apparently explode, causing blazes that spread within minutes.

An average of 153,000 new e-bikes have been added to the UK's roads each year since 2020, according to cycling industry trade body, the Bicycle Association.

The cost of a new e-bike ranges from around £400 to £4,000 in high street retailers such as Halfords or Decathlon, while second-hand vehicles and unregulated e-bike conversion kits can be found on online marketplaces for as little as £150.

Any lithium-ion battery sold in the UK for these vehicles must meet safety requirements set out by the government that ensures the batteries can be charged safely, do not overheat and are protected from damage.

The government's "Buy Safe, Be Safe" campaign states that while millions of people use these vehicles safely every day, the risk of fire can increase if they don't meet safety rules, are damaged, modified or used with an incompatible charger. It also says people should look for UKCA or CE product safety marks when buying an e-bike or e-scooter.

The number of fires caused by e-bike and e-scooter batteries has increased dramatically from 32 in 2019 to 605 in 2025, according to the data gathered by BBC Verify.

The highest numbers of incidents were recorded by fire and rescue services in urban areas, with 793 recorded in London over the seven year period, 128 in Manchester, 93 in West Yorkshire, 74 in Merseyside and 73 in Avon.

Lithium-ion batteries are useful because they store a huge amount of energy in a small space, Dr Simon Jones at the University of Warwick, who led research into the safety of e-bikes and e-scooter batteries for the Office for Product and Safety Standards, told BBC Verify.

"However, if these batteries are faulty, over-charged or damaged, the stored energy may be released rapidly in the form of flame jets and burning projectiles," he said.

"If this occurs in the home this is likely to result in a fast spreading fire that can engulf a room in seconds and block escape routes, trapping people inside. These fires also release toxic fumes from the batteries that pose a serious risk to health."

Jahmell Campbell, 24, from London, said when his e-scooter caught fire "it was the loudest explosion I'd ever heard".

He was at his grandmother's home in Hither Green in March last year when the vehicle burst into flames by the front door.

"The only way out was through the window, so I jumped straight out," he said.

Campbell said he ran to the back of the building, and realised his grandmother was trapped. He made his father throw a blanket down for her to escape.

"My dad had to throw her out the window and we had to catch her," he said.

His grandmother suffered minor injuries after hitting a windowsill on the way down.

"Somehow we all made it out with our lives intact, which honestly shouldn't have happened," he added.

Six fire engines attended to fight the blaze. The flat, where his grandmother had lived for over 20 years, was destroyed.

Several coroners have warned about the dangers posed by these batteries and have issued at least five Prevention of Future Deaths reports since 2023, with recommendations to improve public safety.

Among those cases was eight-year-old Luke Albiston-O'Donnell from Birkenhead, who died after inhaling toxic fumes from a house fire caused by an e-bike battery on charge in 2024. Following an inquest, coroner Anita Bhardwaj warned: "The general public do not appreciate the life-threatening risks involved with having lithium-ion batteries, from electronic bikes in this case, stored in domestic properties."

Mohsin Janjua, a 28-year-old man from Bradford, died in similar circumstances in 2023. Later investigations found a "catastrophic failure" of the battery in an e-bike conversion kit purchased online from China was "more likely than not" responsible for the fire.

Other coroners linked fatalities to e-bikes and e-scooters that did not conform to UK safety standards.

Steve Garidis from the Bicycle Association said retailers have invested in developing safe and legal e-bikes but this can be "undermined by illegal and unsafe products often sold through online marketplaces to unsuspecting consumers".

The Bicycle Association and the Association of Cycle Traders run an "E-Bike Positive" scheme to help consumers identify distributors, retailers and manufacturers that have met current safety standards.

They have also called on the government to crack down on the sale of unsafe e-bikes through online marketplaces and tackle the demand for cheap e-bikes and scooters driven by the gig economy.

A government spokesperson said: "Unsafe e-bike and e-scooter batteries can pose a serious fire risk, which is why we are taking action to protect consumers.

"This includes strengthening the responsibilities of online marketplaces to better protect consumers, working with local authorities to identify and remove unsafe products from sale, and helping people make informed choices through our 'Buy Safe, Be Safe' campaign."

Methodology

BBC Verify sent Freedom of Information requests to all 49 fire and rescue services in the UK, asking for data on fires where the source of ignition was recorded as an e-bike or e-scooter, including associated batteries. Forty-one provided comparable responses. Greater Manchester and West Sussex were unable to provide data on casualties, fatalities, and the number of fires that happened in dwellings.

While some fire and rescue services log e-bikes and e-scooters as a distinct category, others provided data by performing a text search for "e-bike", "e-scooter" and similar keywords. While this provides a reasonable estimate of incidents, some reports may not have been picked up in this search if e-bikes or e-scooters were not mentioned directly.

In analysing this data, BBC Verify removed any clear incidents of arson, as well as any incidents that related to mobility scooters.

What claims do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

Reform of all social media should come with Meta changes, UN says

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c17j00lnn41o, 3 days ago

All of social media should be designed to be safe for children, the UN human rights chief has said after Meta settled a massive court case in the US.

Part of the deal the tech giant struck with almost all US states was to add more child safety measures - but Meta also called on TikTok and YouTube to add the same features.

The UN's high commissioner for human rights Volker Türk said governments needed to "step up rather than wait for courts and companies to act".

He added: "Children should not have to wait for a lawsuit to be safe online."

Türk said Meta's proposed changes, which include time limits and parental supervision controls, aligned with what he had been calling for - "but we're not there yet".

In May, Türk's office released a 10-point framework for regulating social media.

It included steps such as protecting data privacy and focusing on safer platform design, including better methods of verifying a user's age and not exposing such users to addictive design features.

However, the framework rejected the idea that outright bans on social media use for children was a good idea.

Meanwhile, California Attorney General Rob Bonta - who represented one of the leading states in the Meta lawsuit - said he was "looking to ensure" TikTok adopted similar measures to Meta.

In agreeing on Wednesday to make various changes to end the states' lawsuit, Meta said they would only be truly effective "if all our peers join us."

Bonta told US News outlet CNBC he was "interested" in speaking to TikTok and YouTube, and that TikTok was "interested in speaking with us".

Neither company has responded to requests for comment since then.

Bonta added that he had communicated with Snap, another popular social media platform among younger users.

But he warned he was "willing to take additional steps" if they did not voluntarily make changes along the lines that Meta will be making.

On Tuesday, Meta agreed to pay up to $18bn (£13.3bn) to 48 US states, plus the District of Columbia and three US territories.

The penalties will paid over 10 years, but $5.3bn of it is contingent on YouTube and TikTok also implementing the following measures:

* One-hour daily time limit

* Night mode

* Age assurance measures

As part of the settlement, Meta did not admit to any wrongdoing.

What the Meta settlement means for the UK, and other questions after the deal

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg49q4xydq0o, 4 days ago

Meta's $18bn (£13.3bn) settlement with nearly every US state is about more than money.

As part of the deal, Facebook and Instagram have agreed to bring in several significant measures to protect children online - though Meta has not admitted to any wrongdoing.

These include time limits, warnings over screen time and more parental controls over their children's accounts.

At the moment, they will just apply to children in the US - but they could have an impact on the rest of the world.

And if they ultimately set a precedent, other social media companies may be forced to take up the rules, too.

What does this mean for the UK?

The UK has its own measures in place to protect children online.

The Online Safety Act mainly put restrictions on what content young people can see online.

But the UK government has gone further than the US ban already.

Earlier this year, it announced an outright social media ban for under-16s, which will take effect in 2027.

Some other measures will apply to 16 and 17-year-olds, such as curfews and restrictions during certain hours of the day.

The US has to some extent followed the same path: Start by policing the content on the platforms, then move on to restricting access to social media.

But the core difference is children in the US will not be banned completely.

Instead, they will not have access to Facebook and Instagram overnight, have to follow time limits, and there will be prompts for children who use them for a long time.

Unlike in the UK, these are not put in by law, and will only apply to the two platforms so far (more on that below).

The UK government said it was "following developments closely" in the Meta settlement.

But now those safety features have been accepted by Meta in the US, other countries may start asking for them too.

"These tech platforms don't usually do anything unless they are told to do it," said Trevor Johnson, a former senior figure at Meta and TikTok, who spoke to Radio 4's Today programme.

"But I do think the UK will feel empowered to at least ask for the same restrictions."

Another former Meta director, Zvika Krieger, said Meta agreed to the changes because it saw "the writing on the wall".

"They're trying to demonstrate, 'Oh, you don't need to go and do a complete ban'," he told 5 Live Breakfast.

"I think that they probably would roll out a lot of these features to the rest of the world as well."

What about other social media firms?

Meta may have been the target in this court case, but it has tried to bring the rest of Big Tech into the firing line.

At the same time as announcing the settlement, Meta called on TikTok and YouTube to bring in the same measures.

A Meta spokesperson told Reuters the company was "hopeful" Snap would make similar changes too.

The tech firm has always argued for a level playing field when it comes to regulation - it doesn't want Facebook and Instagram to be more restricted than its rivals, which might be able to hoover up teens who want a freer experience online.

"All platforms should empower parents and support teens in these ways because we know that when teens are restricted on one app, they simply move to another," Meta said.

YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok have maintained they have robust children's safety policies in place.

"There will be pressure for those platforms to adopt similar restrictions," Johnson said.

But they may not come willingly. So far, almost 24 hours after the gauntlet was thrown down by Meta, none have made a public comment.

"Time and time again social media companies don't make changes until they're forced," Ellen Roome, whose son Jools died after taking part in an online challenge, told Today.

Roome is part of a group of parents suing TikTok in the US over child safety.

Where does the money go?

Meta will pay out up to $18bn to almost all US states, plus the District of Columbia and three US territories.

30% of that is dependent on TikTok and YouTube agreeing to put in child safety measures.

This is far less than the hundreds of billions being speculated ahead of the trial.

It is also a fraction of Meta's revenue of $201bn last year - and Meta will be paying out the money over the course of a decade.

But the firm's future revenue may be affected by a drop in users or younger users spending less time on their platforms.

The complainants will share the money, with different states getting different amounts - but they will get hundreds of millions of dollars each.

New York state, which will receive at least $819m according to its attorney general, said the money would be used "to support mental health services, education programs, and other efforts to repair and reduce the harm caused by unhealthy social media use among young people".

Many other states have said they have earmarked the cash for similar initiatives.

The only two US states not included are Florida, which rejected the settlement, and New Mexico, which was not included in the offer after a previous court cases resulted in a $942m fine.

What about the wider debate over online safety?

Former Meta whistleblower Arturo Béjar, who was a witness in the trial, cited the now-familiar comparison of social media with Big Tobacco.

But, he told the BBC, even after companies were found to be pushing harmful products, they "were still able to sell cigarettes and the cigarettes were still as harmful".

Alexa Knight from the Mental Health Foundation gave a different analogy - consumer products.

"We expect the manufacturers to make sure their products are safe before they're released... particularly when there are children using them," she told 5 Live Breakfast.

"And we think it should be the same way for Big Tech."

That is to say, campaigners like Béjar and Knight are not going away.

Roome also said the new measures in place were a start, but don't go far enough.

There will be time limits on app usage, she said, "but what about the content on the platform?"

No one is claiming the settlement is a silver bullet, but it's likely Meta and its fellow social media companies will continue to face scrutiny over the safety of children and adults on its platforms.

What does this mean for our privacy?

One of the issues which triggered this trial concerned how Meta collected and used the data of young people, including those aged under 13.

Social media companies collect vast amounts of data in order to target advertising, and also to work out what kind of content to show each user.

In the settlement agreement, Meta must only use young people's personal data to estimate their age.

If they are under 13, they should be kicked of the platforms, and if they are 13-17, they should be subject to the extra protections for children.

Meta said it would strengthen its age assurance technology to make sure these are robust.

And it reiterated its longstanding call for age verification to be carried out by app stores rather than by Meta itself.

But privacy campaigners have argued in the past that age verification methods require companies to take even more personal data from users.

World's first patient to undergo live AI-assisted brain surgery has tumour removed

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjwg5n7y68xo, 4 days ago

The world's first patient to have brain surgery with live artificial intelligence assistance has successfully had his tumour removed.

Rhys Hibbert, a father-of-two from Bedfordshire, could have lost his sight without the operation, said surgeons at University College London Hospital.

The AI tool analysed a video feed of the operation as it happened and advised surgeons on how to avoid crucial but hidden vessels and nerves in the brain. It allowed them to safely remove as much of the tumour as possible.

"From a patient safety perspective, I can see absolutely the benefit. There are no road signs inside our head," said Hibbert.

Until 18 months ago, 48-year-old Hibbert, a customer services manager, was fit and healthy, going on a two-mile walk every lunchtime.

It was on one of these walks that he fell unconscious and started fitting in the road.

A brain scan revealed he had an 11mm (0.433in) non-cancerous tumour growing on the pituitary gland - a marble-sized organ at the base of the skull.

The gland secretes vital hormones that help with processes like growth, metabolism and regulating blood pressure and temperature.

Crucially it sits very close to the carotid arteries which are vital vessels that supply blood to the brain, and the optic nerves that control vision.

As Hibbert's tumour began to press on his optic nerves, it narrowed his peripheral vision.

Severely fatigued and dizzy

Although he didn't need surgery straight away Hibbert started to trip over things and felt severely fatigued and dizzy.

"For 18 years of married life I've always got out of bed and made my wife a cup of coffee," Hibbert said, "and I wasn't going to let this tumour stop that."

He said the biggest impacts for him were emotional and psychological.

"Though I had a lot of people kindly offering help, you don't want to be a burden on people," he added.

When surgeons gave him the option to be the first person to try the operation with their bespoke AI tool involved, he didn't hesitate.

"If patients are not prepared to join research how can doctors ever learn and how can medicine ever progress?" he said.

The surgery involved inserting an endoscope - a thin camera on a stick - via the nose to the base of the skull.

At this point the tumour was close but hidden behind layers of bone and tough membrane.

Identifying the safest place to extract it was not straightforward, particularly as anatomy tends to differ between individuals.

Complication rates vary but there was a 25–50% chance of not getting the whole tumour out and a 0.5–2% chance of injuring a major blood vessel.

This is where the AI tool came in.

'Surgical ChatGPT'

On a second screen it analysed the live video feed,, tracked the surgical instruments, and marked up areas where the vessels and nerves were most likely to be, highlighting areas where it is safest to remove the tumour.

It is similar to facial recognition technology on phones, but recognises important and often hidden anatomical structures instead.

The average UK surgeon performs about 10 to 20 of these operations a year, relying on scans done before surgery to familiarise themselves with the patient's anatomy.

Researchers trained and evaluated their AI system on hundreds of videos of pituitary tumour removals - carefully drawing around the vessels and nerves on each video to help the system capture data and begin to "recognise" the most important structures.

"It is trained on more operations than most surgeons see or do in a lifetime and can act like an expert second pair of eyes," said Prof Hani Marcus, who helped carry out the procedure.

And unlike other experimental AI tools, it works in real time, he added.

The team wants to make clear that the AI tool is just assisting and the surgeons retain full control.

Their long-term ambition is to develop a type of ChatGPT for surgeons, so there can be "another expert in the room they can turn to for advice if they want it - or leave if they disagree with it," said Prof Marcus.

Funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research and Google and developed by researchers at UCL, the team tried and tested their AI technology in the lab for years.

They are pleased with how the first steps have gone in real-life surgery and are working on a larger trial.

'It's given me my life back'

"When I opened my eyes after the operation it felt like I had got 360-degree vision - I hadn't seen that clearly for a year," said Hibbert.

And in the eight weeks since surgery, he has noticed his sight improving every few days.

"I also have my energy back and all of the side effects I was suffering before surgery have gone.

"It's given me my life back."

James Frith, health innovation Minister, said he was pleased that Rhys that he had "life-changing surgery" as part of government funded research.

"AI needs proper safeguards and we will always ensure that safety is taken seriously.

"But we will also ensure we benefit from the opportunities it brings," he added.

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Nvidia revenue doubles on continued AI demand

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce871n7lyvlo, 4 days ago

Chip giant Nvidia reported another huge jump in sales as the global race to build artificial intelligence (AI) systems continues.

The company said on Wednesday that it brought in $96bn (£71bn) of revenue during the second quarter, more than double the amount for the same period a year earlier. And it expects revenue of $108bn in the next quarter.

"AI has reached its inflection point," CEO Jensen Huang said in prepared remarks, describing the infrastructure buildout as going "at full steam."

The revenue figures beat Wall Street's expectations, leading Nvidia shares to rise by 4.7% in after-hours trading.

The company's data centre division alone generated $89bn in the period, up by 117% from a year earlier, underscoring just how much of the industry now depends on Nvidia's hardware.

Essentially every notable tech company building AI tools and infrastructure, including Amazon, Meta, Google, Microsoft, use Nvidia chips to do so.

Financial analysts said the strong results highlight Nvidia's ongoing momentum.

Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, called it "another monster set of results," noting that revenue and earnings both topped forecasts.

He said the guidance for next quarter "points to revenue comfortably above $110bn."

Nvidia's growing financial strength has also reshaped its role in the sector.

It has become a backer to those that rely on its chips, providing some funding to the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX to help continue the costly buildout of AI infrastructure.

Its financial success and processors are now central the AI boom, powering the data centres used to train and run AI models.

Demand for that computing muscle has helped transform Nvidia into the world's most valuable firm, with a market capitalisation of more than $5tn.

Competition is emerging - from customers designing their own processors and from cheaper suppliers in China – but the latest numbers suggest those challenges remain limited for now.

With around 40% of the US stock market concentrated in ten companies heavily invested in AI, Nvidia's fortunes matter far beyond Silicon Valley.

People are itching to create the Gen Z version of Friends. Here are five reasons it's impossible

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260827-five-reasons-why-the-gen-z-friends-is-impossible, 3 days ago

The legacy of Friends can be seen in a new wave of US sitcoms about twenty-something pals hitting the small screen. But, unlike the classic show, they're struggling to make a mark.

No sitcom has defined its era quite like Friends, the '90s show about six twenty-something friends living in Manhattan which became the most popular portrait of Gen X (people born between 1965 and 1980). Across all ten seasons from 1994 to 2004, the show's average live viewer ratings never dropped below 20 million. The series finale alone drew around 52.5 million American viewers, making it the most-watched television episode of the 2000s.

Beyond the numbers, Friends had a huge cultural impact. It birthed haircut styles ("The Rachel"), fashion trends (slip dresses) and catchphrases (Joey's "How you doin'?"). And its popularity is enduring: in UCLA's Teens and Screens 2025 Report, Friends ranks 16th on a list of Gen Z's favourite films or TV shows, alongside current hits like K-Pop Demon Hunters and The Summer I Turned Pretty.

But is there a Friends equivalent for Gen Z (people born between 1997 and 2012) that can speak to their own lives? A wave of sitcoms have been trying to replicate its vibe, zoning in on the messy personal and professional lives of twenty-somethings today.

There's been Mindy Kaling's Not Suitable For Work, about five recent graduates in Manhattan, while the second season of FX's chaotic but cosy Adults premieres today, centring on a house-share of another quintet across the water in Queens. Beyond the Big Apple, other shows following a similar Friends-style template have included Kaling's show The Sex Lives of College Girls about four college friends in Vermont, and HBO's irreverent I Love LA: internet "It Girl" Rachel Sennott's show about West Coast wannabe influencers.

However, none of these shows have really made a strong impression. Not Suitable For Work premiered in June to modest viewership and lukewarm reviews, and this week was officially cancelled, while The Sex Lives of College Girls was cancelled in 2025 after three seasons. Adults and I Love LA have both earned second seasons, without meriting anything like the cultural capital of either Friends or today's "watercooler" shows like The White Lotus or The Pitt.

Here are five reasons why trying to make "the new Friends" seems to be an impossible dream:

1. Today's challenging TV landscape

Gen Z sitcoms are competing for attention against a vast content pool and the internet's endless scrollability. When Friends debuted in 1994, the absence of multiple screen distractions no doubt worked to its benefit. According to Activate's 2026 Media Outlook Report, 43% of Gen Z prefer YouTube or social video platforms over paid streaming (37%) or traditional TV (12%). The second a show isn't enriching, personalised algorithms can immediately serve something more dopamine-hitting.

Additionally, where traditional network sitcoms had over 20 episodes per season – in part so they could be profitably syndicated to other TV stations for daily re-runs – modern sitcoms generally have far less. All of the new Friends-style shows have between just eight and ten episodes per series – which means there's not a lot of time to actually hang out, let alone fall in love, with these new TV friendship groups.

2. Writers who are out of touch

Another persistent flaw in the Gen Z sitcom is the distance between their subjects and the show creators, who are invariably millennials or older. "There haven't been too many Gen Z TV writers who have been able to break through yet," entertainment journalist Max Gao points out. "Until more of those writers are given a platform to tell their own stories, it may be difficult to capture what it is like to be a young person in today's social and political climate."

Friends was also written by people a generation above its characters, but depicting today's faster-moving youth culture is undeniably more challenging.

For example, The Sex Lives of College Girls' attempts at Gen Z vernacular ("I'm taking screenshots, but with my brain") consistently missed the mark, feeling both forced and passé. Not Suitable For Work also falls flat, with youth slang ("facts" and "unhinged") that seems contrived in the way it lands.

3. Gen Z's despair is difficult comic material

Viewers tend to watch sitcoms as a form of comfort TV – and Friends certainly fulfilled that role. But providing comfort viewing is a struggle when Gen Z's current situation is anything but comfortable. "This generation has come through a pandemic, economic scarcity and a political environment that is combative and they don't trust," as Dr Yalda T Uhls, Founder and CEO of the Center for Scholars & Storytellers at UCLA, tells the BBC.

In the US, Gen Z are experiencing the highest unemployment rate of any demographic: entry-level opportunities are narrowing and AI is slimming the workforce. Compare this to the state of play of Gen X when Friends aired: they entered the workforce amid tech-boom optimism and polled as "remarkably optimistic as individuals".

This means these sitcoms' creators must walk a difficult tightrope: translate Gen Z's volatile coming-of-age experience to the screen without becoming too bleak. Not Suitable for Work motioned at Gen Z's employment despair in an episode where wannabe actor Kel's (Nicholas Duvernay) exciting audition turned out to be an AI motion-capture project. Otherwise, the show felt dishonestly untethered from today's harsh realities.

Season two of Adults does include the professional trials facing Gen Z, which were absent from season one – in particular, Billie (Lucy Freyer) faces a season-long struggle to secure any full-time employment.

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These sitcoms have also taken mixed approaches towards Gen Z's problems around housing. Not Suitable For Work's characters lived in tastefully decorated neighbouring Manhattan apartments, just like Friends, but rather than being benignly aspirational, as it was in Friends' case, that now feels like an insulting fantasy. Adults offers a more astute look at Gen Z's lowered housing expectations, with all five friends squeezed into Samir's (Malik Elassal) three-bedroom childhood home.

4. The trouble of representing diversity

The Gen Z sitcom also faces challenges in being relatable to a broad audience. According to Pew Research Center, Gen Z Americans are "more racially and ethnically diverse than any previous generation". Because of this, Gao says: "it can be difficult to encompass the diversity of those experiences in a single sitcom." Contrast this with Friends, where the characters existed in a more homogeneous social circle of whiteness and heteronormativity – which was then the mainstream TV default.

Sex Lives of College Girls framed differences in race, ethnicity and sexual identity as non-issues, which felt shallow. By contrast, Adults really embraces its diverse cast and their distinct individualities, from the sexually fluid Paul Baker (Jack Innanen) to the social cause-hopping wild-child Issa (Amita Rao). But in sitcom terms, that can leave it feeling unfocused.

5. Everything's too online

Today's Friends-style sitcoms cannot afford to ignore the internet's sprawling presence in Gen Z’s life – but depicting it comes with its own problems. Overlaying text graphics on screen has become visually clunky, so these shows look for alternatives to incorporate the all-consuming nature of internet life – or not. Adults' workaround is, on the whole, to avoid the phone screen altogether. Meanwhile, Not Suitable For Work barely mentions dating apps, which is an oversight given the show's focus on its characters' turbulent dating lives.

I Love LA is the only one of these shows that really centres today's digital culture, set as it is among phone-obsessed influencers and other entertainment industry types. The show refreshingly recognises the online performativity that permeates the generation. As one influencer claims, "If you stop for a second", you will "disappear".

But the sitcom offers little deeper commentary on the nuances of Gen Z's double life – spent between the "real" world and the online world – beyond poking fun at the shallow, image-obsessed influencer mindset. Talent agent Maia's (Sennott) work is too ambiguous, and the content posted by the show's central influencer, Tallulah (Odessa A'zion), is never visualised.

So far, Adults is the sharpest Gen Z sitcom offering, presenting relatable characters without sacrificing effervescent humour – and, with strong reviews for the second season, it will be interesting to see how it fares with audiences. But it certainly remains an uphill battle to capture Gen Z in a way that is both funny and authentic – and find the audience to appreciate that.

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Actor Stanley Tucci spotted trying Welsh cakes at Cardiff Market

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgy949r44lo, today

Actor Stanley Tucci was spotted visiting the food stalls at Cardiff Market and trying some Welsh cakes as part of a new TV series.

The Devil Wears Prada star visited the family-run Cardiff Bakestones, with owner Adam El Tagoury describing Tucci as a "humble, genuine guy" during the visit.

El Tagoury said the A-list visit had also had a positive impact on business, with the bakery experiencing the "busiest day we've ever had outside of St. David's Day".

Tucci recently starred in a programme focused on Italian delicacies and specialities.

He is now set to follow this up with Tucci In Great Britain, which the actor told his social media followers would be his "next culinary adventure".

While the exact location of each episode is yet to be revealed, Tucci revealed on Instagram that the show would be coming "soon" to Disney+.

'A lovely, lovely guy'

El Tagoury said he was contacted by the production team ahead of the visit as part of their tour of the UK.

"They reached out to me because they wanted to come to Wales," he said.

"And the one thing you have to try when you're here is obviously a Welsh cake."

El Tagoury said he could not give too much away and said people would have to wait to find out exactly what Tucci thought of the Welsh cake.

"But put it this way, he looked very happy eating them," he added.

El Tagoury said he was proud to see Tucci visiting the market and described it as "an honour".

He said the Hollywood star lived up to his affable reputation and treated his staff and the other market stall owners with great care.

"You never know when meeting some of the A-list celebrities of this world what they're going to be like, but he had all the time in the world for myself and the staff around us.

"He was such a gentleman and took the time to take a couple of pictures with a few of us.

"What a lovely, lovely guy. I can't speak highly enough of him."

El Tagoury said the impact of Tucci's visit was immediate with the shop experiencing one of its busiest days of the year.

"We're very humbled and delighted they chose us," he added.

'Emotion, pain and torture': The grisly American Werewolf in London scene that took horror to new extremes

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260826-the-grisly-american-werewolf-in-london-scene-that-took-horror-to-new-extremes, 4 days ago

John Landis's horror-comedy classic was released 45 years ago, but its key sequence still astonishes – and its make-up maestro, Rick Baker, won the first Oscar in a new category.

In the history of horror cinema, there are few scenes quite as jaw-dropping as the centrepiece of John Landis's An American Werewolf in London. The 1981 classic tells the story of a hapless young US tourist, David (David Naughton), who is bitten by some sort of animal while trekking across England's North York Moors. Recovering in London, he is seen transforming into the titular wolfman – and the sequence took monster movies to graphic new extremes.

Alone in his girlfriend's apartment as the full Moon blooms, David suddenly screams that he is "burning up", falls to his knees in agony, and rips his clothes off. His hands elongate, his body gets hairier, his teeth and nails sharpen, and his face twists and warps. The soundtrack is vital: David's screaming, his bones crunching, Sam Cooke singing Blue Moon. But the scene depends on the practical effects masterminded by Rick Baker, which still chill the blood and boggle the mind, 45 years after Landis's horror comedy was released in August 1981.

"It made this huge earthquake in horror films," Hector Sotomayor, professor of film studies at Ringling College of Art & Design in Sarasota, Florida tells the BBC. "There was a renaissance of make-up effects in the 1980s and that really begins with An American Werewolf in London. It established make-up as a legitimate movie art form."

It's such a groundbreaking scene that Baker won the first ever Academy Award in a new category, best make-up and hairstyling, in 1982. Some historians even argue that the film was partly responsible for the award's creation. The Exorcist, Star Wars, and The Elephant Man had increased calls for the Academy to recognize the skills and imagination that went into hair and make-up design, says Paul Davis, author of Beware the Moon: The Story of An American Werewolf in London. "By the time An American Werewolf came along, the Academy thought, we cannot ignore this anymore."

Baker and Landis began plotting how to make an innovative transformation sequence when they were working on Landis's first film as a writer-director, 1973's Schlock, a low-budget horror comedy about a 20-million-year-old ape-man going on a rampage in southern California.

Quickly recognizing a fellow horror and monster-movie obsessive, Landis gave Baker the script for An American Werewolf in London and told him, "I want to do a transformation in bright fluorescent lighting where you see the body change. It has to be emotional and painful," says Davis.

In earlier werewolf films, whenever characters like Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr) in 1941's The Wolf Man became beasts, noticeable techniques like stop-trick photography – where the camera stopped, hair was added, and filming commenced again – were used. Directors also relied on slow dissolves, dim lighting, showing a silhouette of the shape-shifting – and the good old falling-down-behind-a-sofa-and-sticking-on-a-wig technique.

Landis was adamant that a more seamless and visceral transformation sequence could be created. After the huge box-office successes of The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), and The Blues Brothers (1980), Polygram Pictures finally gave him the chance to put this theory to the test. "They let him do what he wanted to do and how he wanted to do it," says Jon Spira, a film-maker who contributed a video essay on the film to Arrow Video's 2022 4K release. "By filming largely in the UK, he was away from Hollywood and people looking over his shoulder. That all feeds into the latitude and freedom that he and Rick Baker were given."

What makes the sequence so harrowing

In the eight years between Schlock and An American Werewolf in London, Baker had worked out exactly how to achieve Landis's vision. Together they created a scene where viewers not only see David transform, but feel it, too. "They really convey the emotion, pain, and torture," says Davis. "You see David's humanity being taken away from him piece by piece. For a lot of the sequence, he's still mostly human and aware of what is happening. That's what makes it so harrowing."

In the six months prior to filming, Baker used a stretchy substance named polyurethane elastomer to create fake hands, heads, legs, and a body. It was chosen because it combined the elasticity of rubber with the strength and durability of plastic. Baker also made several moulds of Naughton's face contorting in different stages of pain to be used as the scene progressed.

Inside the fake hands, four syringes with their plungers out were attached to four syringes with their plungers in. "All you did was push the plungers" to stretch and distort David’s fingers, says Davis.

A similar process was used to stretch pneumatic bladders placed on David's back. This made it look as if vertebrae were popping up from his spine. Air made the cheeks, forehead, and nose on David's fake face morph into a werewolf's features, including a snout, while Baker and his assistants used levers to open the monster's snarling mouth.

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For the part where the lupine David is lying on the floor, Naughton was actually underneath it, with only his heavily made-up head and arms poking through. Speaking to the Morbidly Beautiful horror appreciation website in 2016, Naughton said, "I was in the make-up chair for sometimes 10 hours a day before I'd even get out on the set." The werewolf's body was then assembled around him, with Baker and his team controlling the movements of the legs and body from beneath.

"Baker combined make-up, prosthetics, animatronics, fake heads and hands," says Spira. "He's in this middle ground between make-up and special effects. That's what makes the scene so revolutionary."

It also explains why Baker won his history-making Oscar. He would go on to win the same award six more times, for the likes of The Nutty Professor, Men in Black and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. And in 1983, Michael Jackson hired Landis to direct and Baker to create the make-up for his Thriller music video. A direct homage to An American Werewolf in London, Thriller went on to become one of the most acclaimed and watched music videos of all time – and a recreation of the video is central to this year's Michael Jackson biopic, Michael.

Meanwhile, An American Werewolf in London set the blueprint for the horror-comedy genre. In the following decade, Gremlins, Evil Dead 2 and Beetlejuice blended practical horror effects with comedic sequences, while Edgar Wright said its tone and use of make-up and practical effects changed his life and set him on course to being a director.

The transformation sequence is key to the film's continuing influence and cult success. But it's more than that, says Spira. It's "the definition of movie magic and the reason why people fall in love with cinema".

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Blake Lively awarded $400,000 of $8m she claimed for legal fees in Baldoni battle

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0lrwlzrk86o, 3 days ago

Actress Blake Lively has been awarded $400,000 (£340,000) of the $8m (£6.9m) she tried to claim from her former co-star Justin Baldoni to cover her legal fees and costs to fight a defamation case he brought.

Lively initially sued Baldoni, her co-star and director of the 2024 film It Ends With Us for sexual harassment and retaliation, before he countersued for defamation.

A judge dismissed his defamation complaint in 2025, and she argued she was entitled to $7.5m (£6.4m) to cover her lawyers' fees and $540,000 (£460,000) for other costs.

But the judge said she should receive considerably less - a total of $407,451 - because she requested money for more people and time than were necessary to defend the defamation claim.

She should not have claimed money for other "intertwined" costs to do with the wider legal battle, and took a "blunderbuss approach" to calculating how many hours of lawyers' time she could claim for, the judge said.

Baldoni denied harassing Lively or orchestrating a smear campaign against her.

Earlier this year, the judge dismissed parts of Lively's lawsuit against him including the sexual harassment element. The following month, the pair agreed a settlement to end the case.

The judge allowed Lively to recover some expenses under a 2023 California law designed to protect sexual harassment accusers from retaliatory defamation lawsuits brought by the men they accused.

Both sides painted US District Judge Lewis Liman's latest decision as a victory.

Lively's lawyers said: "This first-ever award of fees and costs under this California law is historic, and demonstrates that there are real consequences of bringing retaliatory lawsuits.

"As we have said from day one, Blake Lively's case was never about money – it was about accountability."

Baldoni's lawyer Bryan Freedman said: "The ruling is a significant victory for my clients and sends a clear message that, no matter how powerful you may be, the courtroom is not a place to take advantage of the law for your own personal gain."

How Massive Attack's legacy is changing festivals

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8zy9vdylzo, yesterday

When Massive Attack set the world record for producing the lowest ever carbon emissions at a gig, the duo hoped it would create a ripple effect across the industry.

And this weekend, as 60,000 descend on Bristol for Forwards Festival, their dream is being realised. For the first time in the music event's history, every stage will be powered by renewable energy.

Other major events including Love Saves the Day and Bristol International Balloon Fiesta also swapped diesel generators for green technology this year.

Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja said their 2024 show was always about systemic change, adding it was gratifying to see this permanent legacy of decarbonisation for festivals.

The 2024 ACT 1.5 Massive Attack music festival in Bristol produced 98% less power-related emissions than comparable shows by being 100% battery powered and selling 100% vegan food, among other things.

Following a record-breaking summer of prolonged heat and dry weather, which has been influenced by human-induced climate change, the duo are hoping more events will introduce sustainable options.

Forward Festival, which will see the likes of Lorde, Little Simz, Tems & Goldie perform, is using pioneering green hydrogen technology (GeoPura) and a fleet of scalable battery to power the event.

The changes have been made possible with funding from a Clean Power Pilot led by the West of England Combined Authority (Weca), running this summer.

Helen Godwin, Weca mayor, said: "After another exceptionally hot and dry summer, everyone can see how our climate is changing.

"Here in the West of England, we've brought together our brilliant creative industries and clean energy sectors to try to help tackle the climate crisis and clean up our air."

"We've always been a region that cares about our environment, cares about clean energy, about clean air. But we also love to have a good time," said Godwin.

She added that producing dirty air affects people's health.

"We're trying to think of innovative clean ways that we can do that better," she added.

Weca's ambition is to expand the model in 2027, extending it to multiple sectors and paving the way for adoption elsewhere in the UK and internationally.

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Paul Heaton scores first number one album as Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 finally reaches top 40

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8d3ml106j8o, 2 days ago

English singer-songwriter Paul Heaton has scored his first solo UK number one album, his sixth overall.

Heaton's latest chart-topping LP - titled Jenius - follows his three with the Beautiful South and two more alongside former bandmate Jacqui Abbott.

The former Housemartins musician reached the top on Friday, in part, by shifting more vinyl copies than any other album over the past seven days.

Dolly Parton, who died earlier this week, aged 80, has three singles in the top 40, including 9 to 5, which landed at number 12 in this week's UK chart, having previously peaked at 47 in 1981.

Elsewhere on Friday, Sam Fender and Olivia Dean's Rein Me In extended its record as the longest-running number one single in UK chart history.

In a four-star review, the Times noted how Heaton's "casually funny" and "deceptively piercing" latest album "again confirms his gift for dissecting human weakness with an unsentimental but humane eye".

Victoria Segal wrote that the Ian Broudie-produced record was full of "stylistically playful songs" - like One Eye Open and Favourite Kind of Idiot - which "weave through the personal and political".

Heaton, who rose to fame as part of Hull band The Housemartins in the 1980s - alongside pre-Fatboy Slim Norman Cook - this week told the BBC he was planning on putting money behind the bar at dozens of pubs to celebrate his 65th birthday next year.

The singer made a similar gesture in 2022 when he opened £1,000 tabs at 60 pubs.

Fellow singer Brandon Flowers' pivot from the glamorous indie rock 'n' roll of The Killers to Parton's own brand of country music saw him land behind Heaton at number three, with his new album Thrasher.

'Enduring love'

Waves of tributes poured in this week to Tennessee star Parton, whose best-loved tunes were also played across the nation, evidently.

Her biggest streaming country-pop classic 9 to 5 was written for the 1980 film of the same name, and earned her an Oscar nomination as well as topping the US charts.

Another of her tunes, Jolene - which finds her pleading with a stunning rival not to steal her man - re-entered the chart at number nine on Friday.

The country anthem originally peaked at number seven in 1976 - her joint-highest UK chart placing.

Her duet with Kenny Rogers, Islands in the Stream, also reached number seven in 1983, and it has flowed back into this week's chart at number 13.

Finally, Diamonds & Rhinestones, Parton's 2022 greatest hits collection, reached the top 10 of the albums chart - topped by Heaton - for the first time too.

"Dolly Parton's extraordinary legacy continues to shine through the official charts," noted Becca Monahan and Chris Austin, co-managing directors of the official charts company, in a joint statement.

They called it a "powerful reflection of the UK's enduring love for her music".

"A true icon whose songs have crossed generations, these chart returns are a fitting celebration of Dolly's incredible life, career and lasting impact," they added.

BBC director-general says he was not aware of 'severity' of cuts needed

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2zllwewlko, 3 days ago

BBC director-general Matt Brittin has said he was not aware of the severity of the cuts the corporation needed to make when he took on his role.

Savings targets were announced in June, with planned cuts across news, nations and content divisions to deliver £160m of £500m in savings by the 2028-29 financial year.

Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Thursday, Brittin said: "On the financial side, I knew that cuts had been announced and that savings had been announced, but I hadn't really understood the severity."

There are expected to be around 2,000 jobs cut as part of the process.

During the conversation with Kirsty Wark, his first major industry appearance, Brittin also said he had been "impressed" by the "creativity and talent" at the BBC, but added "every media organisation is struggling with rapidly changing consumer behaviour and the power of the AI revolution".

Describing the corporation as "inward looking", he also criticised the organisation for this leading to "an aversion to risk".

"You've got very loud critics, many of whom are the commercial rivals of the corporation and you've got political pressure on everything that you do journalistically," he said.

Brittin, who previously worked at Google, took over from Tim Davie earlier this year.

He is the first director-general since Greg Dyke in 2000 to take on the role having not been a former BBC employee.

The former regional policy manager for the tech giant said he wanted to use those skills to "move faster through experimenting and learning" at the organisation and work with colleagues to "find a way to the future together".

Brittin also spoke about the BBC's need to "defend its integrity" as it challenges Donald Trump's defamation case.

The US president is seeking $10bn (£7.4bn) in damages in a Florida court over the editing of a Panorama documentary from 2024 about the US Capitol riots.

Legal representatives for the BBC are looking to have the case thrown out, and the corporation has previously apologised for an "error of judgement" in the editing of the programme.

"We moved to dismiss the case on the grounds of jurisdiction in that nobody in the US actually saw the show with the bad edits, and it was a bad edit, and he won the election, and he's got richer," Brittin said during the conversation.

Weekly quiz: Who is taking over as Gilderoy Lockhart in HBO's Harry Potter series?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2z4np5pnyo, 3 days ago

This week, Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama died, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and US President Donald Trump announced tariffs on each other's countries after trade talks collapsed, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived back in the UK.

But how much attention did you pay to what else happened in the world over the past seven days?

Quiz collated by Grace Dean.

Fancy some more? Try last week's quiz, or have a go at something from the archives.

Optimus Prime and Eeyore voice actor Peter Cullen dies

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c15844gwe0wo, 3 days ago

Actor Peter Cullen, who voiced popular characters including Optimus Prime in Transformers and Eeyore in Disney's Winnie the Pooh franchise, has died at the age of 85.

The Canadian actor began his most famous role - as the heroic deep-voiced Optimus Prime - for the Transformers TV series in 1984, then returned for seven Hollywood films from 2007 to 2023 and other spin-offs.

He voiced depressive donkey Eeyore in TV animation The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh from the late 1980s as well as numerous related shows, films and games.

His other memorable voice parts included KARR, the evil counterpart to KITT in TV show Knight Rider; the clicking vocalisations of The Predator in Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1987 film; and the roars of King Kong in 1976.

He died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles, a statement said.

"Peter Cullen passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loving family - and held in the hearts of his many friends and countless fans worldwide.

"His family asks that you honour his remarkable legacy by serving your communities and leading others with compassion, integrity, and loyalty and always remember 'be strong enough to be gentle'."

Cullen started his career on Canadian TV and radio and was then a regular on programmes like The Sonny & Cher Show before deciding to concentrate on voice acting.

Brother's advice

His Optimus Prime voice was inspired by his older brother, a decorated US Marine and Vietnam War veteran, who suggested he should play the character as "a real hero, don't be a Hollywood hero".

"He said, 'Don't go yelling and screaming. He's strong enough to be gentle.'

"And that resonated with me, and I could hear his voice all the way to the audition. When he drops down, when he gets serious, is where I found Optimus Prime."

Cullen gave his brother a cut of the wages he received for playing Optimus Prime until his death.

The actor's performance as the character earned him a Daytime Emmy nomination for outstanding performer in an animated programme in 2011, and he was honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the Children's & Family Emmy Awards in 2023.

Cullen's other roles included Monterey Jack in Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, and he voiced characters in 1980s and 90s animated series including Spider-Man, Donkey Kong, Alvin & the Chipmunks, Dungeons & Dragons, My Little Pony, Duck Tales and Gummi Bears.

The Gentlemen to Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story: Nine of the best TV shows to watch this September

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260824-nine-of-the-best-tv-shows-to-watch-this-september, 6 days ago

From the return of hit Netflix crime drama The Gentlemen to a miniseries about the infamous Lizzie Borden murder case – these are the best series to watch and stream.

1. The Gentlemen

There is never too much crime in Guy Ritchie's universe, including the second season of this popular series inspired by his 2019 film of the same name. Theo James returns as Eddie, the dashing Duke of Halstead, whose inheritance included a title, an expansive estate, and the marijuana farm on its grounds. Bridgerton was never like this. Eddie is now all in on that criminal enterprise run by Susie (Kaya Scodelario) and her father, Bobby (Ray Winstone). Daniel Ings returns as Eddie's shambolic brother, Freddy, with Joely Richardson as their mother, Lady Sabrina, and Giancarlo Esposito as a US drug dealer, Stanley Johnson. As Bobby's empire expands, the setting moves from the UK to Italy, where Sergio Castellitto plays an Italian crime boss. Hugh Bonneville joins the cast as a character called Lord Hawthorne, who is likely a lot shadier than Bonneville's Lord Grantham from Downton Abbey.

The Gentlemen premieres 3 September on Netflix internationally

2. Last Seen

Patrick Brammall stars in two very different shows this month. Far from the comedy of Colin from Accounts (coming up below), he is in the midst of drama and suspense in this thriller set and shot in Victoria, Australia. Brammall is intense as Ian Ridley, a police dispatcher and former detective whose three-year-old daughter was kidnapped 11 years before. No trace of her was found, and since then Ian's marriage has crumbled and he has spiralled into alcoholism. When he takes an emergency call from a young woman he believes is his daughter, he becomes determined to find her even if no one else believes him. Maxine Peake also stars, and is touching in her role, as we follow where the clues lead Ian and how that will impact his already troubled life.

Last Seen premieres 9 September on Apple TV internationally

3. Colin From Accounts

This third season will be the last for the Sydney-set romantic comedy that started when brewery owner Gordon and medical student Ashley – Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer, the real-life couple who created and wrote the series – found themselves co-parenting a dog they named Colin From Accounts. The previous season ended with Ashley balking at Gordon's marriage proposal, humiliatingly offered in public at a friend's wedding, and the new story picks up three years later when they accidentally run into each other one more time. The will-they or won't-they picks up again, but it can't last forever. "We don't want to flog a dead horse," Brammall told the Guardian about their creative decision to end the series. In that joint interview Dyer jumped in with the kind of dry comic line that could have come straight from the show. "It is not that the horse is dead yet – we don't even want to find it is having trouble breathing," she said.

Colin From Accounts premieres 10 September on Paramount+ in the US and will premiere on BBC iPlayer in the UK later this year

4. Agatha Christie's Tommy & Tuppence

Can an Agatha Christie mystery survive a transplant from her usual country estates and vicarages in the 1920s and 30s? The answer is a solid yes in this deft contemporary version of her stories and novels featuring the detecting pair of Tommy and Tuppence. This version of Tommy (Josh Dylan) is a mystery writer who runs into Tuppence (Antonia Thomas), his ex from university, at a friend's wedding. Of course, there is a murder, and when they team up to investigate a new detective firm is born. But their mutual attraction is a problem because Tuppence is married and Tommy is soon flirting with a helpful, pretty detective (Callie Cooke). Imelda Staunton plays Tommy's Aunt Ada, who in wry voiceover narrates the story. Christie's five Tommy and Tuppence books saw the characters grow and age from 1922 to 1973. Why not let them leap into the 21st Century?

Agatha Christie's Tommy & Tuppence premieres 15 September on Britbox in the US

5. Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story

This fourth instalment of Ryan Murphy's Monster anthology, with its creepy look at human evil and violence, is about one of US culture's most iconic killers, the person who inspired a familiar rhyme starting, "Lizzie Borden took an axe / And gave her mother forty whacks." Ella Beatty (daughter of Warren Beatty and Annette Bening) is seen in Netflix's publicity photos with a blood-splattered face as Lizzie, accused but never convicted of the axe-murders of her father and stepmother in 1892. Vicky Krieps plays the Bordens' maid, with Billie Lourd as Lizzie's sister and Rebecca Hall and Charlie Hunnam (killer Ed Gein in the previous Monster instalment) as the ill-fated parents. Beatty has said, "This season gives us our first female monster and delves into female rage and repression." In that vein, the story detours into other real-life women murderers, with Sarah Paulson as Aileen Wuornos, who was played by Charlize Theron in the 2003 film also called – homage or coincidence? – Monster.

Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story premieres 17 September on Netflix internationally

6. Slow Horses

In the latest season of television's best spy series, someone is systematically killing off former MI5 agents who once worked out of Slough House, people that the endlessly smart, always slovenly Jackson Lamb – played with such shrewd wit by Gary Oldman – calls "my Joes". River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) suspects his paid-assassin father (Hugo Weaving), but there are plenty of possible villains. Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas), head of MI5, is under more pressure than ever. And because the team has been targeted, many of the Slow Horses have to go into hiding together. Guess how badly that turns out. The returning cast also includes Saskia Reeves as Catherine, Christopher Chung as Roddy, Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Shirley and a surprise. The show's previous season wasn't its best, as it inadvertently made you wonder how the often-clueless Roddy ever managed to become a spy, computer genius or not. But it returns at full strength with all its drollness, action, and impeccable acting.

Slow Horses premieres 18 September on Apple TV internationally

7. Brothers

A real-life rumour, based on a teasing hint dropped by Matthew McConaughey's mother, has it that he and his friend Woody Harrelson are actually half-brothers from a brief encounter between Matthew's mother and Woody's father. The True Detective stars have taken that idea as the premise for this heavily fictionalised meta-comedy. They play versions of themselves, but actors take over the roles of the fictitious family members in the wacky story, which has Woody, his wife and two daughters arrive in Texas to visit Matthew, his wife and their three children. Holland Taylor plays Matthew's brash, hard-drinking mother, whom everyone calls Ma Mac and who drops her explosive hint to Woody. At times the story slyly alludes to reality, as it does when the fictional Matthew decides to run for governor of Texas: that speculation has swirled around the actual McConaughey, who so far has chosen not to run. In general the series mixes sitcom silliness from Woody with a dash of serious emotion from Matthew – very on brand for both of them.

Brothers premieres 23 September on Apple TV internationally

8. American Horror Story

There have already been a dozen instalments of Ryan Murphy's horror anthology, but because this is the 13th, it has special meaning for the superstitious and also for the casting. The show rounds up an all-star lineup of actors from previous seasons, playing a number of their old characters. Among the series' most iconic and high-profile returns, Jessica Lange plays all four of her prior characters and Sarah Paulson does six. Evan Peters, Emma Roberts, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett and Billie Lourd also come back in a story that promises to swirl around and make fans' heads spin. Murphy has said, "It's like The Avengers. They all come together to defeat the ultimate evil." A 14th season is already in the works, so whatever these horror-Avengers banish, it's obviously not one more Ryan Murphy show.

American Horror Story premieres 24 September on Hulu in the US and 25 September on Disney+ in the UK

9. A Different World

This dramedy is not a reboot but a sequel to the spin-off of The Cosby Show that ran from 1987 to 1993. The producers have obviously decided that enough time has passed for an update to escape the taint of Bill Cosby's sexual assault scandal, and in fact the spinoff quickly veered away from that show's Huxtable family. Like the original Different World, this features a group of students at the fictional Hillman College, now centred around Deborah Wayne (Maleah Joi Moon), the daughter of characters from the first series. Alum from the original, including Jasmine Guy and Jada Pinkett Smith, will make nostalgic guest appearances here. In its day, the old show was notable for drawing attention to HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities) and for tackling issues like race, class and sex. Felicia Pride, the new series' showrunner, has said it was similarly important for her team to listen to young black people today, "what they need, what they are dealing with and what they are facing," while staying true to the themes of "love, family relationships, heart".

A Different World premieres 24 September on Netflix internationally

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Heart of the Beast to Practical Magic 2: 10 of the best films to watch this September

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260820-10-of-the-best-films-to-watch-this-september, 10 days ago

From a Brad Pitt survival adventure with a canine co-star, to witchy sequel Practical Magic 2, starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock, here are the films to watch at the cinema this month.

1. Resident Evil

Zach Cregger's Weapons was one of 2025's most acclaimed films, so in some ways it's a surprise that he's followed it up with a video game spin-off. But the writer-director told Empire that he has made "a Zach Cregger movie that just happens to be a Resident Evil movie". Far spookier-looking than the previous Resident Evil films, most of which were directed by Paul WS Anderson, this blood-drenched reboot focuses on a medical courier, Bryan (Austin Abrams). He has the job of delivering an organ to a hospital in the game's main location, Raccoon City – but the city's inhabitants are turning into ravenous zombies. "Bryan is very much an everyman who happens to be burdened with this sacred mission that's going to take him into the heart of everything," says Cregger. "It's kind of like Frodo [from The Lord of the Rings] going into Mordor."

Released internationally on 16, 17 and 18 September

2. Primetime

The year of Robert Pattinson continues. As well as appearing in The Odyssey, The Drama and the forthcoming Dune: Part Three, the British actor is starring in Primetime, a fact-based drama about a controversial reality television show, To Catch a Predator. From 2004 to 2007, each episode of the programme revolved around sting operations in which men were tricked into thinking that they were meeting children for sexual encounters. They would then be confronted by the journalist behind the sting, Chris Hansen. Pattinson plays Hansen, and he is already being tipped as an Oscar contender – even if Hansen himself would have chosen a different actor for the role. "Years ago I had crafted a screenplay and thought Denis Leary would be a good guy to play me," he said on the Serialously podcast.

Released on 25 September in the US and Canada

3. The Weight

Ethan Hawke follows his Oscar-nominated turn in Blue Moon with a very different kind of period drama. Set in Oregon during the Great Depression, The Weight stars Hawke as a single father who is unfairly sent to a labour camp. If he doesn't get home soon, he will lose custody of his young daughter, but the devilish warden (Russell Crowe) promises to free him on one condition: he and a team of other prisoners have to carry knapsacks full of stolen gold bricks across the country. "Hawke is mesmerising," says Chase Hutchinson in The Wrap. "The action scenes are tense and well-executed, though it's the way he grounds it that makes you feel every setback. Hawke makes you buy into every beat, whether haunting or thrilling as the film grows more violent… You can't look away for even a second."

Released on 18 September in the US and Canada

4. Practical Magic 2

Back in 1998, Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock starred in Practical Magic as Gillian and Sally, two sisters who were also witches. When the film came out, audiences weren't exactly spellbound, but the dark supernatural romance gradually built a cult following. "I don't know any woman who's watched the movie and not wanted Gillian's red hair, Sally's cosy yet witchy outfits, or the beautiful Victorian house by the ocean that the family lives in," wrote Tove Danovich in Country Living recently. Now, 28 years after the first film, a sequel is finally here. Once again, it's adapted from a novel by Alice Hoffman, and once again Kidman and Bullock have the lead roles. Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest are back as their aunts, and Joey King and Maisie Williams join the cast as Sally's daughters, two young women who learn about the family curse: any man they fall in love with will die soon afterwards.

Released on 11 September in the US, the UK and Ireland, and on 18 September in Canada and Australia

5. Forgotten Island

The latest cartoon from DreamWorks Animation (The Wild Robot, Dog Man) is a psychedelic fantasy adventure – but it's also the first major Hollywood film to draw on Filipino folklore. Grammy-winning singer H.E.R. and Liza Soberano provide the voices of Jo and Raissa, two schoolgirls who become best friends in the Philippines in the 1990s. Years later, Raissa is about to emigrate to the US, but before she can go, the two girls fall through a portal into a magical world of demons, witches and monsters. And if they stay there too long, their memories of each other will fade away. "So many times, young girls in movies and TV are portrayed as always talking about boys, or they're princesses," the film's co-director, Joel Crawford, said in Variety. "I want my [Filipina] daughters to see themselves up on the screen, whether it's in terms of culture, in terms of ethnicity, but also how they are as people.”

Released on 25 September in the US and Canada and 16 October in the UK and Ireland

6. Onslaught

Michael Biehn co-starred in The Terminator and Aliens, two classic science-fiction thrillers in which a rugged heroine fought an almost indestructible foe. And now he's appearing in a film which he says deserves to be compared to them. Released by A24, and directed by Adam Wingard (The Guest, Godzilla vs Kong), Onslaught stars Adria Arjona as a single mother who lives in a desert trailer park with her daughter. When three genetically modified super soldiers escape from a local secret research facility, her experience as an army sniper comes in handy. "I'm telling you without a doubt, this is the best movie I've been in since Aliens," said Biehn in Daily Dead. "This is going to blow the doors off of any expectations of what anybody has seen on the big screen in a long time. This is like pedal-to-the-metal action, horror, violence... It is very, very exciting, and it's fast and furious."

Released on 4 September in the US and Canada

7. Heart of the Beast

Good news for fans of wilderness survival adventures: there are two of them in cinemas this September. As well as The Weight, there is Heart of the Beast, starring Brad Pitt and directed by David Ayer. Pitt plays a wounded Special Forces veteran who has to trek back to civilisation after a plane crash in a remote Alaskan forest. Luckily for him, he is accompanied by his faithful military dog, Odin. Ayer said in GQ that Pitt is on career-best form: "A constant theme from people who have seen the film is just how raw and believable and profound his performance is." But Uber, the mountain-rescue dog who plays Odin, may be even better. "The one spoiler I'll forward right now is, don't worry, the dog lives," reveals Ayer. Regardless, he says "I've shown the film to a few of my roughneck, tough-guy friends, and they're crying at the end of this. I've never had a film move an audience so powerfully."

Released internationally on 24 and 25 September

8. Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie

On 12 August 2022, the author Sir Salman Rushdie was giving a talk in New York state, when someone in the audience leapt on stage and stabbed him 15 times. But Sir Salman wouldn't be silenced. He wrote a memoir about the horrific attack and his recovery, and now the book has been turned into a documentary by Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side). Using intimate footage shot by Sir Salman's wife, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Gibney looks back at the ordeal, explores the author's life and philosophy, and recalls how the publication of his 1988 novel, Satanic Verses, led to Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini calling on him to be killed. "Throughout the film, three things stand out," says Amber Wilkinson in Screen International, "the love between Rushdie and Griffiths; the resilience they had in the face of his catastrophic injuries; and the author's humanistic attitude and sly sense of humour, which have categorically survived intact."

Released on 17 September in the US and 30 September in the UK

9. The Uprising

Step aside, Robin Hood. The Uprising is a medieval epic about English rebels fighting back against the greedy aristocracy, but rather than rehashing old myths and legends, Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips, The Bourne Supremacy) has dramatised the English Peasant's Revolt of 1381. Andrew Garfield plays the Robin Hood-alike hero, a poverty-stricken farmer known only as Ploughman. After his family is wiped out by the plague, he leads a resistance movement against the soldiers of the teenage King Richard II (Woody Norman). "It was sort of the first moment in our history when the common man and woman took centre stage," said Greengrass in People, "and history was no longer going to be about kings and queens and the rich and powerful. It was going to be about what ordinary folk wanted and their grievances and their dreams and hopes."

Released on 11 September in the US and Canada

10. Hope

Hope is this year's must-see monster movie – although it's also a gritty western, a grisly horror film, a gonzo action comedy, and a cosmic science-fiction saga. Written and directed by Na Hong-jin, it features Hwang Jung-min as the tough sheriff of a small Korean coastal town. Within minutes of the opening scene, he is on the trail of a giant ogre which is laying waste to everything in its path. And the chaos doesn't let up for another two and a half hours. Hope is "a full-on, unapologetic action movie packed with breathtaking and breathless car chases, horse chases, foot-chases and monster chases", says John Bleasdale in Sight and Sound. "Brilliantly crafted and beautifully shot, we can only hope this wild film gets the follow-up it so richly deserves."

Released on 9 September in the US, 10 September in Australia and 25 September in the UK

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Cool Machine to Land: 14 of the best books of 2026 so far

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260522-the-best-books-of-2026, 5 days ago

From a dizzyingly brilliant heist to a devastating tale of generational loss, here are the year's most acclaimed works of fiction so far.

John of John by Douglas Stuart

When 22-year-old art student Cal returns home to the Isle of Harris in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, tensions arise with his father, John, a farmer and deacon in a tight-knit, Presbyterian community. At the heart of the story is the long-held secret relationship between John and his bachelor friend, Innes MacInnes, through which is explored wrenching loneliness and different forms of alienation. From the author of 2020's Booker winner Shuggie Bain and 2022's Young Mungo, John of John is being described by some critics as Stuart's best yet. "Rarely can a novel set on such a small scale have seemed so epic" writes The Herald Scotland. "The novel is outstandingly canny and wrenching on self-contempt, on the toilsome art of deceit, and on the contradictions we all contain, as well as the friction that can exist between the personal and the collective" writes The Guardian. (RL)

Land by Maggie O'Farrell

Set in 1865, Land follows mapmaker Tomás, along with his son Liam, as he surveys for the British government the landscape of a windswept Irish peninsula after the catastrophic great hunger. Following an encounter at a mysterious spring, Tomás's mindset profoundly shifts. It is O'Farrell's best novel yet, according to The New Statesman. The author behind Hamnet is "a masterful storyteller" it says, and "the best contemporary novelist in the English-speaking world". Land is "epic and intimate, tender and crushingly devastating". The Oxford Review of Books points to O'Farrell's "adept ability to render scenes with painterly precision," and the novel's "imagery and soundscapes alike seem to demand cinematic translation". Perhaps no surprise, then, that the makers of the recent Hamnet adaptation have secured the screen rights to Land. (LB)

Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead

The third and final novel of Colson Whitehead's Harlem Trilogy – following Harlem Shuffle and Crook Manifesto – is set in the 1980s. Flawed but endearing protagonist Ray Carney signs up to an outrageous mission. The "dizzyingly brilliant" Cool Machine is an "American epic disguised as a heist novel," says the LA Times. It is "a modern masterpiece and an ode to New York, no matter that rats skitter and cockroaches scamper underfoot". The Pulitzer-winning author has delivered another "dazzling" page turner, says the Washington Independent Review of Books. "Cool Machine blends literary, historical, and crime fiction fantastically," it says. (LB)

Country People by Daniel Mason

While Daniel Mason's acclaimed 2023 novel North Woods spanned three centuries, his latest novel Country People is focussed on a single year. It follows 12 months in the life of a present-day family – Kate, Miles, their two children and their dog – who have moved from California to the New England countryside. As the family settles into its new life, Miles meets a band of local eccentrics with some elaborate beliefs who draw him into their world. "The whole thing is delivered in prose so witty and gorgeous that it calls to mind Nabokov's comic masterpiece Pnin," says The Guardian. "This is, put simply, a joyful book – and the deeper you dig, the more joyful it becomes." The Irish Times is similarly effusive. "Mason deftly delivers larks aplenty, poignancy, gentle satire and some top-tier farce. This book dispels gloom; go for it." (LB)

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

"Daring, deranged, cleverly written," is how Vogue describes the buzzy debut by Caro Claire Burke. In this satirical thriller, tradwife influencer Natalie inexplicably wakes up in the year 1855 in a crumbling homestead. The harsh reality of rural existence in the 19th Century soon becomes clear. Yesteryear, says the LA Times, "offers a bitingly funny and occasionally heartbreaking twist on the classic Instagram-versus-reality story". Natalie is "a deliciously unlikable protagonist" who is "objectively off-putting, which makes her bitingly human". The novel is due to be adapted for film, with Anne Hathaway producing and starring. (LB)

Transcription by Ben Lerner

In Transcription, an unnamed middle-aged writer travels from New York to Providence, Rhode Island, to interview Thomas, a 90-year-old former mentor and revered writer and film-maker. The stakes are high – Thomas's recent bout of Covid means this interview could be his last – and the writer breaks his phone just before the interview, rendering him unable to record the esteemed artist's words. What follows is a reflection on technology, storytelling and memory that The Guardian says is "intricate, uncanny, sometimes breathtakingly realistic", while The New Yorker writes: "Nothing in this exquisite, shape-shifting novel is what it seems – words least of all." (RL)

Look What You Made Me Do by John Lanchester

"Gleefully nasty," is how The Times describes John Lanchester's widely acclaimed fifth novel, a black comedy of betrayal, revenge, resentment and entitlement. At its centre are affluent boomer Kate and younger screenwriter Phoebe. A rivalry between them begins when Kate recognises intimate secrets from her 30-year marriage in a hit TV series. The novel "seethes with female animosity and vengeance," says the Literary Review. "Skewed scenarios and retaliatory stratagems are craftily deployed in a novel that's a kaleidoscope of tilting perspectives." Look What you Made Me Do, it concludes, is "a gleamingly accomplished black comedy". (LB)

The Keeper by Tana French

French is a bestselling author described by The New York Times as "one of the most consistently exciting mystery writers around". The Keeper is the final instalment in a trilogy that stars retired Chicago cop Cal Hooper, who becomes enmeshed in the intrigue of the fictional Irish village of Ardnakelty. As the body of a young woman is found in a river, Hooper is drawn into investigating the case. Amid the town's bitter feuds and long-standing grudges, he grapples with the future of this rural community. "Dense, compelling and superbly atmospheric," says The Guardian. (RL)

Departure(s) by Julian Barnes

Blending memoir and fiction to explore memory, ageing and love, Julian Barnes's self-declared swansong Departure(s) is brief, and with only a sketchy plot. One of the book's threads is a romance between the narrator's friends Stephen and Jean, who were in love in their university days, then reconnected again in old age. The narrator, meanwhile, reflects on memory, ageing and love. Departure(s) is a "valedictory flourish" says The Atlantic. "The whole package is a culmination of sorts, shimmering with his silky, erudite prose; beneath the suave surface is an earnest investigation into the mysterious ways of the human heart." (LB)

Questions 27 & 28 by Karen Tei Yamashita

Yamashita's first novel in 16 years centres on a dark period of US history – the internment of Japanese immigrants during World War Two. Under the order of President Franklin D Roosevelt, hundreds of thousands of people were taken from their homes on the West Coast and put in camps throughout the US. Questions 27 and 28 were part of a questionnaire prisoners were given to assess their loyalty. Yamashita's historical novel – which blends real and fictional events with composite characters – examines the period and the ensuing internal battles that arose around the loyalty test. "Yamashita is at her best when she zooms out… and meditates on the greater stakes of these scattered lives," writes Hua Hsu in the New Yorker. "We feel the weight of the past, all these accumulated voices and perspectives, within and between Yamashita's novels, as well as the process through which disparate stories, anecdotes, or experiences might coalesce as history." (RL)

This is Where the Serpent Lives by Daniyal Mueenuddin

Having been a Pulitzer finalist back in 2010 for short story collection In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, Daniyal Mueenuddin now returns with a highly acclaimed novel. Exploring how power, class and the legacy of feudalism shape lives in modern Pakistan, the novel follows overlapping narratives of the landowners and staff of a family-run farm. This is Where the Serpent Lives is "sensitive and powerful" says the New York Times. "Mueenuddin makes the reader care about the romantic relationships, and the pages turn themselves." It is "a serious book that you'll be hearing about again, later in the year, when the shortlists for the big literary prizes are announced". (LB)

Kin by Tayari Jones

Announcing Kin as one of her Book Club picks, Oprah Winfrey described Tayari Jones's fifth novel as "a masterpiece… that contemplates the meaning [and] complications of friendship". Motherless since they were infants, Vernice and Annie are "cradle friends", who come of age in Honeysuckle, Louisiana in 1950s US. As they grow, the friends drift apart – one goes down the path of college and relationships; the other in pursuit of the mother who abandoned her. "A lush, beautiful novel", writes Radhika Jones in The New York Times. "When reading Kin, I wanted nothing more than to keep reading it." (RL)

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout

Pulitzer-winning author Elizabeth Strout is known for her series of novels featuring iconic characters Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton, and her deft portrayals of small-town life in all its fraught, familial complexity. The Things we Never Say is a stand-alone novel about Artie Dam – a high-school history teacher who is navigating loneliness and a changing world – as he confronts a life-altering secret. "There is so much here to explore, so many endless human mysteries," says The Guardian. "Let's hope that this fine author continues steadily along her path, delivering unto her loyal readers story upon story, gift upon gift." (LB)

The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley

"Full of pathos and humour," according to The Times, The Palm House centres on a pair of spiky middle-aged colleagues, Laura Miller, a writer and the novel's narrator, and Edmund Putnam, an older editor who is leaving his job at a highbrow literary magazine. The friends' conversations in London pubs over drinks and shared packets of crisps are interspersed with often heartbreaking recollections about their pasts. Critics have praised the novel's dialogue, which Riley, writes the LRB, "wields… like a Swiss army knife, now corkscrewed, now serrated, but always coming to a short, sharp point." (RL)

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'Music is a great connector': How Dolly Parton became one of the world's best-loved stars

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20201204-how-dolly-parton-became-the-worlds-best-loved-celebrity, 5 days ago

Apart from her songwriting prowess, the singer – who has died aged 80 – gave little away about her private life, and presented an almost cartoonish public image. We examine her enduring appeal.

I witnessed the Dolly effect first-hand at the Glastonbury Festival in 2014, when she drew one of the biggest crowds in the event's history. It was an achievement made all the more remarkable by the fact that only two of the songs she recorded – Jolene and the Kenny Rogers duet Islands in the Stream – have ever made the UK Top 40. Throw in the floor-filling 9 to 5, and the showstopping I Will Always Love You, and she still has just four undeniably famous songs in her vast catalogue: far fewer than Kylie Minogue, Barry Gibb or other artists to have played the Sunday afternoon legend slot. Her between-song patter, polished to a high shine, was the primary source of delight. Festival-goers enjoyed the music but they loved the person even more.

Parton's fame used to have two distinct lanes. One was musical. As a writer and performer, she sits at country music's top table with Hank Williams and Johnny Cash. She could play around 20 instruments, including the fiddle, dulcimer, mandolin and pan-flute. She wrote, by her estimation, around 3,000 songs, 175 of which are featured in a book, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics. In the early 1970s she was on such a roll that a single session in 1973 yielded both Jolene and I Will Always Love You. "At the end of the day, I hope that I will be remembered as a good songwriter," she wrote in Songteller. "The songs are my legacy."

The other Dolly, the one I grew up with, was a jovial, self-deprecating talk-show regular and spoofable symbol of US excess. One example of her pop-culture ubiquity is the 1981 Two Ronnies sketch in which Ronnie Barker donned a platinum-blonde wig and fake bosom to play "Polly Parton". Jokes about Parton's chest, many of which she made herself, became such a trope in British culture that when scientists cloned a sheep from a mammary gland cell in 1996, they called it Dolly. No wonder her songwriting chops were often eclipsed.

In recent years, however, the two lanes converged, and ascended to a higher plane of celebrity. Fuelled by her Glastonbury triumph, her 44th album, 2014's Blue Smoke, became her most successful ever in the UK, while Netflix followed a drama series based on her songs, Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings, with a loving documentary, Here I Am, and a seasonal special, Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square. The hit nine-part podcast Dolly Parton's America was predicated on the idea that she was a uniquely unifying figure in a divided nation. Even now that the discourse around music is often hotly politicised, Dolly Parton largely escaped being labelled "problematic". She was worshipped by different sectors of her fanbase as a pioneering feminist heroine, a business phenomenon, an LGBTQ ally, a patriotic icon and a cultural ambassador for the working-class South.

It helped that Parton was a black-belt interviewee, fully aware of her kitsch value, using humorous "Dollyisms" to avoid any controversy and kept most of her private life and opinions under wraps. She was a master of distraction who wore her somewhat cartoonish public image like a suit of armour. "She gives away very little," says her 9 to 5 co-star Lily Tomlin in Here I Am. "There's a mystery about her." Parton herself says: "People feel like they know me." Both claims are true. Her Q Score, which measures the appeal of celebrity brands, was one of the highest in the world, with one of the lowest negative ratings. Not everybody loved Parton but very few people hated her. "I enjoy being loved," she told the Guardian in 2019. How did Dolly Parton become the world's sweetheart?

Parton's origin story is the stuff of country songs, including some of her own, such as Coat of Many Colors and My Tennessee Mountain Home. Born in 1946, she grew up "dirt poor" in a one-room cabin on the banks of Tennessee's Little Pigeon River with six brothers and five sisters. As a kid, she used to imagine that the chickens in the yard were her fans. She became a child star on local radio and TV, recording her first single at 13 and moving to Nashville the day after she graduated from high school. There she wrote several hits for other artists while still in her teens, before scoring her first solo hit in 1966 with Dumb Blonde. Right from the start, she was neutering criticism by owning it.

Ballads of woe

Songteller may surprise some casual fans with the bleakness of her early output. Starting with Hello, I'm Dolly in 1967, Parton's first few albums specialised in what she called "sad ass songs": empathetic stories about horribly mistreated working-class women spiced with the bloody melodrama of the Appalachian folk ballads that had soundtracked her childhood. Subjects included suicide, miscarriage, alcoholism, drug addiction, homelessness, incarceration, murder and arson. She expressed the pain of invisible women in a voice that rang pure and true. In the heyday of feminist country songs by women who didn’t call themselves feminists – Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Jeannie C Riley – she sang, in 1968's Just Because I'm a Woman, "My mistakes are no worse than yours/ Just because I'm a woman."

Parton really hit her songwriting stride in the mid-1970s, when her controlling mentor Porter Wagoner, a Nashville singer and impresario 19 years her senior with whom she sang as part of a duo, encouraged her to develop a more glamorous image and more commercial material. Jolene was a radical twist on the "cheating" genre, making the narrator desperate and helpless rather than vengeful, and entranced by the woman who threatens to ruin her life. It has since been covered by hundreds of artists, including the White Stripes and Miley Cyrus (Parton's god-daughter), and was one of Nelson Mandela's favourite songs. I Will Always Love You turned her split from Wagoner into a timeless break-up song, later made famous by Whitney Houston. The Bargain Store is an expertly extended metaphor about a woman whose life is piled high with broken dreams, painful memories and things in need of mending.

Parton was enough of a draw to headline the annual country festival at Wembley Arena in 1976 but the following year she transformed herself into a pop superstar with her first US platinum album, Here You Come Again. This crossover phase rolled on into the 1980s with her starring role and Oscar-nominated title song in the workplace satire 9 to 5 and Islands in the Stream. Like most of her pop hits, that wasn't one of her compositions – her celebrity was overtaking her songwriting.

"People thought I had sold out," she told Rolling Stone in 1980. But those pop albums "got me where I wanted to be". The journalist agreed: "If ever somebody figured out the American dream and made it work, it's Dolly Parton." That's when she hit the talk-show circuit with a vengeance, responding to depressingly predictable jokes about her breasts by cracking better ones: she once quipped that when she burned her bra, it took the fire department three days to extinguish the flames. In retrospect, the tittering misogyny is appalling but Parton shrewdly decided that if she was going to be a punchline, then she was going to write it herself.

Even before the hits dried up in the '90s, Parton was turning herself into a heavyweight brand, opening the Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee in 1986. She had another memorable movie role in Steel Magnolias while, behind the scenes, her company Sandollar Productions was responsible for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

She also became a beloved philanthropist, funding scholarships, wildlife charities, hospitals and a literacy programme that has given away more than 100 million books to children. After a back-to-her-roots bluegrass phase, Parton made a successful effort to revive her sales, starting in 2008 with the self-referential Backwoods Barbie: "I'm just a backwoods Barbie in a push-up bra and heels/ I might look artificial but where it counts, I'm real." It's a good line but to younger fans, the fact that authentic talent can coexist with presentational artifice doesn't need spelling out like it did in the days of second-wave feminism. Her reputation was practically bullet-proof.

Parton remained publicly apolitical at a time when it would seem impossible to be apolitical. In Dolly Parton's America, she shut down political questions: "I don't do politics. I have too many fans on both sides of the fence." The easy explanation is that she put business before principle, but for Parton those two instincts weren't in opposition. She was by nature a bridge-builder and unifier, with a talent for smoothing troubled waters.

Until 2018, one of Dollywood's main attractions was the Dixie Stampede, a dinner-theatre spectacle which divided the room into North and South before bringing both sides together. In 2017, Slate’s Aisha Harris, who is black, published a critical piece headlined Springtime for the Confederacy. Harris called the Dixie Stampede "the Lost Cause of the Confederacy meets Cirque du Soleil. It's a lily-white kitsch extravaganza that play-acts the Civil War but never once mentions slavery." With Parton's blessing, Dollywood's management promptly reinvented the show by dropping the Dixie label and the blue-and-grey uniforms. When conservative fans protested that she was erasing history, as if the Civil War had involved stunt-riding and unlimited lemonade, Parton responded that she just didn't want to make anyone feel bad.

Parton did politics in her own way. In 2005, she outraged some of those same fans by writing a song for Transamerica, a movie about a trans woman, and donating another to Love Rocks, a LGBTQ benefit album. She prefered bringing people in to calling them out. It's perhaps the same reason that she acted in a feminist manner yet recoiled from that F-word. It's why, in 1980, she insisted that 9 to 5 wasn't "women's lib", yet staunchly defended Jane Fonda against people who had never forgiven her for her strident anti-war activism. In her life, as in so many of her songs, Parton celebrated understanding and forgiveness as a means of transcending rancour and shame. Her inclusivity was limitless.

Parton could walk this political tightrope because she displayed good intentions in everything from her songs to her philanthropy, and her fans fundamentally believed in them. "I've never seen the devotion her fans have for her in anyone else," Fonda says in Here I Am. "It's quite extraordinary." In her teaser video for A Holly Dolly Christmas Special, Parton said: "I think that music is a great connector, just is that universal language that everybody enjoys. Right now, during this time, it's important to put as much love, as much light, and as much joy, as you can out there to the people."

In 2020, she released a new song called When Life Is Good Again to raise spirits during the Covid-19 pandemic. The song positioned her as a healer, promising not only better times to come but a better, warmer, kinder way of living with one another, summed up by this quintessential Parton lyric: "Let's open up our hearts/ And let the whole world in." Perhaps it was a sappy sentiment – but when it came from Dolly Parton, the great includer, you knew it wasn't just moonshine.

This article was originally published in 2020.

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'Chest-thumping machismo': The Bayeux Tapestry reveals the bloody, bawdy truth about the Middle Ages

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260820-the-medieval-manosphere-of-the-bayeux-tapestry, 7 days ago

In the 11th-Century masterpiece's tale of a contested throne, about to be exhibited in the UK, virility is equated to power – and the largest and proudest appendage. It tells a story that feels familiar today.

The Bayeux Tapestry tells a bloody − and occasionally bawdy − story of the Norman conquest of England. The intricate masterpiece is embroidered on to 70 metres (77 yards) of flax linen, and weaves a tale of broken promises, greed and aggression that culminates in the death of King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings.

After almost 1,000 years, the iconic artwork is returning from Normandy, France to England, where it was skilfully stitched in the 1070s, and from this September is to be exhibited at the British Museum.

It's an artwork depicting a medieval version of today's digital manosphere: an ideology and world centred on hypermasculinity and men's experiences. And a world where size matters.

It is men's contributions that form the focus of the 11th-Century society the tapestry portrays. A third of its men are armed, while others are vigorously engaged in tree-felling, boatbuilding and construction. A woodcutter straddling a length of timber readies his axe, while hunters wave large clubs about their heads as they pursue their quarry. All of this helps communicate the heightened atmosphere of an impending confrontation between two alpha males: William, Duke of Normandy and Harold Godwinson. "A more testosterone-soaked scene is hard to find," Dr Christopher Monk, a cultural historian of medieval England, comments.

This suggestive display of chest-thumping machismo reveals a medieval society made for and by men, where violence settles disputes and laddish humour scores political points. Armed pillagers rampage through Hastings, and fallen soldiers in the lower margin are stripped nude for their armour, just as Harold, slain above them, is denuded of his royal claim.

The recurring penis

If there's a recurrent motif in the iconic artwork, it's the penis. In 2018, George Garnett, professor of medieval history at Oxford University in the UK, counted 93 – mostly tumescent – specimens in the embroidery. Eighty-eight belonged to horses, and another five to men, with a pendulous scabbard (which he rules out) causing considerable debate in academic circles.

"Size matters on the Bayeux Tapestry," observes Janina Ramirez in Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It (2022). In the tapestry's tale of a contested throne, virility is equated to power and the largest and proudest appendage, she notes, "belongs to the fine stallion William is presented with on the eve of the battle". Second place goes to King Harold's mount, "the implication being that he is a worthy opponent".

Within the traditions of 11th-Century art, graphic nudity was commonplace, and it's quite possible that these penises were stitched by nuns. "They reflect what was so evident more broadly in elite medieval society – by and large, men were the primary drivers of political sovereignty," Monk tells the BBC. "The use of male genitalia, be it human or equine," he says, is "shorthand for the political machismo within the context of the transition to the new Anglo-Norman world in medieval England."

If women play a minor role in the tapestry, it's primarily because "the narrative revolves around male action", Dr Emily Joan Ward, a lecturer in medieval history at Edinburgh University in the UK, tells the BBC. "It's largely depictions of militarily active men, and in those battle scenes we wouldn't expect women."

If a ratio of one to 100 still seems unbalanced, there may be a clue in who the artwork was intended for. Historians believe the tapestry's likely patron is William's half-brother, the Bishop Odo of Bayeux, who features prominently in it and may have used the tapestry to emphasise his important role in the campaign for William's rightful rule.

"The content is probably to resonate with him and his immediate social circle, which will largely be a homosocial circle of men," says Ward. With a Norman sponsor, the messaging needed to be on brand. "Introducing too many women into the story is actually a bit risky," she adds. "William's attempts to stress his legitimacy to the throne through the female line may have made the designer or patron wary of drawing attention to this tenuous claim."

The six women in the tapestry

The women in the central story mostly serve as what Monk calls "emotional punctuation". Queen Edith, a highly influential figure in court politics, mops her tears with her scarf as her husband, Edward the Confessor, takes his final breaths; and a woman and her child flee as gigantic Norman soldiers casually torch their home. Bizarre expressions and proportions aside, it's a scene that reminds us, says Ward, "that warfare is not just a male-dominated event, not just what's happening on the battlefield."

She references the historian Catherine Karkov, who observes that the women in the main register appear at moments of shifting power relations. "If we interpret it that way," Ward remarks, "it gives them quite a powerful role in the tapestry."

The decorative borders above and below the tapestry take us into a world that is more subversive due to its coded critique of the central characters, often in the form of fables. It's here that three of the women appear.

In the lower border, a woman recoils from a sexual aggressor, thought to be her father. Later, in the upper border, two nude women gesticulating towards naked men are thought to be associated with stories of a seductress and a prostitute who used their bodies to deceive, hinting at Harold's broken oath.

We're missing William's daughter, Agatha of Normandy, who was offered to Harold in part-exchange for the crown. Ward notes that we're shown William's impressive flagship, the largest and fastest vessel in the Norman fleet named the Mora, but we do not see his formidable wife, Matilda of Flanders, who paid for the ship in order to facilitate the military success that would make her Queen.

'Medieval Me-Too moment'

One mysterious cloaked figure does however get a namecheck: Aelfgyva. A seemingly predatory priest in a green cape reaches for her face, while in the border, a naked man with impossibly large genitals mimics his pose. Proposals for who she is and why she is there are manifold. The suggestion of Dr David Musgrove, co-author of The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry (2026), that sexual harassment by the priest is being called out in "a medieval Me-Too moment" makes sense.

Others have been more dismissive. As one 20th-Century historian commented: "since it contributes nothing to the story, except a moment of confusion, we have felt justified in leaving it out".

Just as monks inserted illustrations in the margins of manuscripts, it's possible that female embroiderers were permitted a little creative liberty with these cryptic comments on the central story. "They were no doubt working to a design," Monk tells the BBC. "But that does not have to mean that they were merely executors of another's will, or indeed that every detail was dictated."

Perhaps in the border, the invisible women behind the artwork had the last laugh. "Was it a way of expressing despair at bellicose men, or at their own plight as subjugated English women? Is there any sense of mockery, particularly of William? Or were they indulging in playful, earthy humour to pass the time?" Monk asks.

"It's impossible, perhaps, to answer these questions, but it should at the very least make us reflect on the fact that the Bayeux Tapestry only exists because of the skilled and intelligent labour of women."

It was Victorian sensibilities that would eventually subdue some of the original tapestry's machismo. In a faithful replica, created in 1885 by a group of 35 women belonging to the Leek Embroidery Society (currently on display at Reading Museum), the advancing armies are still full of men, but the horses' oversized members have retreated. Unsurprisingly, the naked man with the outsized genitals who was mimicking the priest in the border is shown in the new version wearing shorts.

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Most importantly though, by introducing an additional border where each embroiderer stitched her name, the 1885 version honoured its creators and asserted a female presence. As Ramirez points out: "While no one would think of discussing Starry Night without mentioning Van Gogh… very few begin discussions of the Bayeux Tapestry thinking about the women who made it."

A manosphere, be it modern or medieval, might tell stories of male power, but its existence may be dependent on the women it tries to leave out.

The Bayeux Tapestry is at the British Museum, London from 10 September to 11 July 2027. The 1885 version is on permanent display at Reading Museum.

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Moby Dick: The 19th-Century novel that challenged our fear of the 'monstrous' whale

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260819-moby-dick-the-19th-century-novel-that-challenged-our-fear-of-the-monstrous-whale, 11 days ago

Now 175 years old, US author Herman Melville's classic is the ultimate tale of man v whale – but in fact, it questions why humans have been so terrified of these great sea creatures.

Across time and place, we have seen animals as friends, collaborators, pests, gods, idols and demons – and our view of them is constantly shifting.

In my new book, The Book of Beasts: Reclaiming Animal Wisdom, I trace the emotional story of our relationships with animals, and reflect on how storytelling has impacted how we treat them. In many ways, our shared futures look bleak, with wildlife populations declining by 73% between 1970 and 2000. Yet the relationship between humans and one creature in particular – the whale – should give us hope. In ancient and medieval times whales were conflated with sea monsters and the devil, but now they're an animal many of us long to see and save.

And one seminal moment in the whale's reappraisal came 175 years ago with the publication of Herman Melville's Moby Dick: an epic, great American tale of man vs whale, whose tragic hero Captain Ahab's fixation on the titular white sperm whale leads to his death. The story is narrated by Ishmael, a sailor who joins Ahab's whaling mission looking for money and adventure. On board, however, Ahab announces the real reason for the trip: vengeance. He wants to chase down and kill Moby Dick, who bit off his leg on a previous voyage.

But Melville did not share Ahab's animosity for the sea creature. Instead his story invites readers to question where human fears about "monstrous" animals come from – and whether those fears say more about us than them.

The real story that inspired Moby Dick

By the time Melville published Moby Dick, in the mid-19th Century, the hunting of whales, or whaling, had expanded into a major commercial industry. Whalemen set out on dangerous voyages to kill whales and harvest their blubber for "train oil", used to lubricate the machines of the industrial revolution and light the "fat lamps" of swelling cities.

The US east coastal town of Nantucket, Massachusetts, where Moby Dick begins, became the whaling capital and earned its nickname, "The City That Lit the World". The whalers learnt about whales through direct observation, while scientists had specimens to dissect. Taxonomy divided whales and other animals into neat categories based on anatomical differences and evolutionary history. Finally, it seemed, humans had illuminated even the shadowy underwater realm.

Yet some whales still challenged these ideas about the predictability of the natural world. On 20 November 1820, a sperm whale struck down The Essex whaling ship in the southern Pacific Ocean. Twenty men escaped on three boats, endured around three months at sea, succumbing to starvation and dehydration, and then, as two written survivor accounts tell it, eventually resorting to cannibalism. Among the survivors was senior crew member Owen Chase, whose account of what happened inspired Moby Dick.

Certainly the real-life tragedy – and the great fictional story it inspired – placed the very unlikely possibility of a whale attack in the collective imagination like never before. The odds of a whale striking a ship are close to zero – there are only around five historical cases. Whales avoid confrontation, and incidents such as the Essex sinking are now understood as accidental collisions, or self-defence. But our fears, as Melville himself wanted to show, aren't always rational.

How Melville views the 'ancient monster' – and its human foes

As Ishamel narrates it, Captain Ahab's irrationality is boundless – he seeks retribution against the whale who caused him such a great injury. His crew, he declares, must pursue Moby Dick around the world "till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out". The suggestion is that Ahab and the other whalemen can kill whales until the cows come home, but if a whale fights back, their fury will be incommensurate.

In reality, perhaps the terror man felt towards the whale was more about his repressed fears about his own vulnerability. Owen Chase wrote this of the whale who struck the Essex, "I turned around, and saw him… coming down apparently with twice his ordinary speed, and to me at that moment, it appeared with tenfold fury and vengeance in his aspect."

Ishmael is less certain than Ahab what the whale represents, pivoting between fear and reverence. But he openly conflates the whale with the sea monster of the Bible known as the Leviathan: "The great Leviathan is that one creature in the world which God has created for the play of his own," he says. By the late Middle Ages, the Leviathan was explicitly identified as the whale by Christian figures like 13th-Century friar and philosopher Thomas Aquinas.

Melville showed us the ancient monster, but also called this age-old framing into question, suggesting how the whale had become a receptacle for people's wider feelings about the unknown. For Ahab, the white whale is an embodiment of chaos, indifference and cruelty. "All visible objects… are but as pasteboard masks," declares Ahab.

He sees the physicality of the whale as a facade, concealing behind it a far greater, malevolent force. Ahab longs to destroy the "inscrutable thing" beyond Moby Dick's mask. This inscrutable thing he is referring to is what he presumes is an evil power in nature – call it the devil, God or fate.

Ishmael sees Ahab as loading the whale with "the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down". For millennia we have associated the act of humans slaying beasts with heroism, and these narratives are hard to shake – even if the more courageous path is co-existing with them.

Binary categorisations, such as good and evil, whether applied to animals or fellow humans, are a tempting escape from ambiguity – but these are something Melville and Moby Dick reject. Even among those whose job it was to see whales as a product at the time, whales were never one thing. Some whalemen referred to whales as monsters; others grew sympathy or curiosity through direct observation. "I can not conceive any thing more strikingly awful than the butchery of this tremendous leviathan of the deep," wrote whaler J Ross Browne in his 1846 book Etchings of a Whaling Cruise.

The whale's makeover in modern times

Two generations on from whaling's peak, whales now mean very different things to people. Reading Moby Dick, many contemporary readers root for the whale, not the whaler. In the last century, a changing economy has seen commercial whaling pared back (though it has not ended completely – despite international bans, Norway, Iceland and Japan still whale for profit). And the mixture of fear and economic exploitation that characterised our relationship with whales in Melville's time has by and large been replaced by admiration and a desire to save them.

Indeed, humans now embrace the idea of whales fighting back against human cruelty: even if we still don’t know what they’re doing, our stories about it have changed. In the last few years, increased incidents of orcas, aka killer whales, ramming boats off the coast of Spain and Portugal have come to be known on social media as an "orca uprising", even though science does not yet have much evidence that their actions are intentionally hostile.

A significant point on the whale's metamorphosis in the eyes of humans came in 1967, when American biologist Roger Payne recorded whale song, and humans were moved by it. Since then, a growing body of research shows whales are capable of complex communication, once believed unique to humans. Might whales also be able to reciprocate kindness?

In my book, I relay reports of Vietnamese fishermen saved by whales which have informed their folk religion, and spoke with Nan Hauser, a whale scientist who was saved by a humpback whale. Research from marine ecologist Robert Pitman has observed interspecies altruism among humpback whales, who save marine animals like seals from orcas. For all that is unknown, these accounts and studies validate the sense that whales have an inner world which might rival our own.

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Chase Coffin, from Nantucket, is a direct descendent of Owen Chase, and his family are proud of their whaling ancestry. Their feelings about whales, however, have shifted. "My family now donates every year to Save the Whales," he says. "I've been vegetarian most of my life."

Melville showed us how we make our monsters from the fear and guilt we repress within ourselves. Looking beyond our own projections, we might finally glimpse these animals' real depths.

The Book of Beasts: Reclaiming Animal Wisdom is published by Chatto & Windus.

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'We couldn't believe our eyes': The 'real Indiana Jones' who found an ancient, lost city of the Incas

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260814-how-a-real-indiana-jones-claimed-he-had-found-the-ancient-lost-city-of-the-incas, 14 days ago

In 1911, a US professor claimed he had discovered the ancient mountain stronghold of the last Incan king deep in the Peruvian Andes. Yet 53 years later, another explorer proved he was mistaken – and shortly afterwards, a BBC crew followed his trail.

"No one now disputes that this was the site of ancient Vilcabamba." So wrote the Yale academic who brought the Peruvian ruins of Machu Picchu to global attention in 1911. Hiram Bingham III was recruited by locals to look for a lost Incan city fabled for its hidden treasures – and he firmly believed that's what he had found.

Yet 50 years later, Bingham's conviction was challenged by another US explorer nicknamed "the real Indiana Jones". In August 1964, Gene Savoy claimed to have found the same lost city – around 60km (37 miles) northwest of Machu Picchu. He believed his expedition had identified the mountain stronghold of the last Incan king at Espíritu Pampa (the "Plain of the Spirits" or Vilcabamba), a set of ruins in remote cloud forests, high above a tributary of the Amazon.

Just six weeks after Savoy's discovery, a BBC crew followed in his footsteps, travelling by rubber dinghy (and capsizing) on rapids, ascending steep canyon slopes with mules, and hacking through jungle to the site. "Scraps of information they'd picked up on the way made them doubt some of Savoy's claims," revealed the presenter. "But, having come so far, they had to get on and see for themselves."

The stakes were high. Perhaps they would find "the heart of an unknown city, where it seems likely the last Inca emperor gathered the remnants of his people".

By the early 20th Century, Vilcabamba (meaning "sacred plain" in Quechua, an ancient Indigenous language) had become a fabled city, as much rooted in legend as history. After failing to prevent the Spanish conquistadors seizing his capital of Cusco in 1536, the Incan king Manco led his vanquished people into the mountains beyond.

There, it was said, a few thousand of them built palaces and temples in Manco's capital in exile, where he had taken his golden treasures, his glittering idols, and the mummies of his ancestors.

According to the 16th-Century friar Martín de Murúa, who chronicled the Spanish conquest of Peru, "The Incas enjoyed scarcely less of the luxuries, greatness and splendour of Cusco in that distant or rather exiled land".

Beyond a place of exile, Vilcabama was also a centre for Incan resistance, where they planned guerilla warfare against the Spanish and sparked rebellions further afield. Yet in 1572, facing an invasion, the Incans set the city ablaze and fled.

The last Incan capital was swallowed up by the jungle – and its location remained a mystery for centuries.

In search of the fabled lost city

Bingham had been recruited by Peruvian landowners in 1909, to find out whether a place known as Choquequirao ("cradle of gold") was the fabled lost city. The 34-year-old, who later went on to become a US senator, was an assistant professor in Latin American history who happened to be travelling in the area. He was not an archaeologist, nor was he looking for Inca ruins.

But a local government official, Juan José Núñez, the prefect of Apurímac, refused to take no for an answer.

"Núñez insisted that as I was a doctor, a PhD, I must know all about archaeology and could tell him how valuable Choquequirao was as a site for buried treasure," wrote Bingham. "My protest that he was mistaken in his estimate of my archaeological knowledge was regarded by him merely as evidence of modesty."

Bingham went on to reveal: "I knew very little about the Incas." He relied instead on a book published by the British Royal Geographical Society, called Hints to Travellers, which contained suggestions as to what to do when confronted by an archaeological site.

Sceptical that there was any gold at Choquequirao, or that it was the famed lost city, Bingham was nevertheless inspired by his trip to lead a Yale expedition in 1911 to find the last Incan refuge. "There seemed to be an unknown region behind the ranges, which might contain great possibilities. Perhaps Manco's capital was hidden there," he said.

In fact, guides had taken Bingham to the site identified by Savoy 50 years later, 150 km (93 miles) northeast of Cusco. But plagued by bad weather, running short of food, and with his porters threatening to desert, he swiftly moved on, before claiming to have found the lost city at Machu Picchu.

Another daring explorer takes on the expedition

In 1964, Savoy – a 37-year-old explorer from Portland, Oregon – reached the area near Espíritu Pampa, together with Peruvian explorer Antonio Santander Cascelli. Locals initially refused to guide them to the site, fearing a tribal legend that the gods would kill those who revealed its location. After much persuasion, the Peruvians led Savoy and Santander to the moss-covered ruins of Vilcabamba.

"We couldn't believe our eyes," said Savoy. "Each day, it became more fantastic."

Savoy and Santander found ruins spread across three mountain plateaus, which included a palace, granite and limestone buildings and fountains – the first plateau alone was roughly four times the size of Machu Picchu. Their exploration of the area led Savoy to believe that "the site was a refuge used by the last Incas caught up in the throes of a final struggle against the new conquerors".

Yet after just a fortnight, their guides began to leave, fearful of the tribal superstitions. "Normally, they would be friendly and smiling," said Savoy. "But when we got them into those woods, they changed." They decided to leave and return later for further investigations.

Just six weeks after their expedition, a BBC crew made the same journey. "For 400 years few Europeans had been that way, let alone one with a movie camera," wrote Tony Morrison, the director of the film made for David Attenborough’s BBC Adventure series. "After a week of heavy walking and a long descent into dense, frequently rain-soaked montane-forest, we reached the ruins of the Inca settlement."

The jungle had protected the city for centuries, with those attempting to explore it having to hack at kapok trees, creepers, vines and ferns. According to one report, "Great trees had clamped their roots around the walls and over the terraces, and their branches were interlaced by vines as thick and strong as telephone cables."

"I hate the danged jungle," said Savoy – adding, however, "I would rather die out there than not explore."

Savoy and Santander's discovery did not prove that the ruins at Espíritu Pampa were the last Inca capital. But something that they found there was to lead to confirmation that it was Vilcabamba – roof tiles.

"These tiles are so far the strongest tangible evidence," said the BBC presenter in 1964. "They're Spanish in design but bear distinctive Inca influence in the colouring and markings."

And their significance was later recognised by John Hemming, director of the Royal Geographic Society in London from 1975 to 1996 and, Inca expert. He was able to match eyewitness accounts of Vilcabamba – including chronicles by the friar Martín de Murúa – to details of the site.

The discovery of the tiles was unusual, since the Incas normally used thatch. Yet in Murúa's description of the Incan capital in exile, there was an important clue: "The Incas had a palace on different levels, covered in roof tiles."

Savoy later said: "The city has been rumoured to exist for so long that it had almost passed from history to myth. Now we have turned it back to history." So it seems that in 1911, Bingham had walked within a few feet of the place he had been seeking – the final refuge of the Incan empire.

For Savoy, however, a mystery remained. "Only a small part of the Inca gold and jewels were ever recovered," he told Esquire in 1967, "and I have reason to believe that [they] threw the rest of it into lakes and caves rather than have it fall into the hands of the Spaniards. On previous expeditions I found lakes that weren't on any maps, and uncharted walled-up tunnels."

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The discovery of what seems to have been the last Inca city – even now, mostly buried in jungle, its stonework strangled by vines and tree roots guarding its doorways – has raised more questions than answers.

"The area is fascinating because it still hasn't been disturbed or looted," Javier Fonseca, an archaeologist with Peru's ministry of culture, told The Guardian in 2018. There have even been reports of another city, deeper in the forest.

"We know that the so-called 'lost Inca treasure' has not been found," said Savoy in 1967. "If this treasure exists… then we may speculate as to its whereabouts."

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Early music festival nominated for international award

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74k52x9q7lo, today

An Oxfordshire festival dedicated to medieval, renaissance and baroque music has been nominated for an international award.

The Banbury Early Music Festival said its nomination for Audience Project of the Year at the REMA Awards 2026 represented "a remarkable milestone for a festival established only three years ago".

This year's festival will take place on 26 and 27 September across the town centre before the team travels to Bruges, Belgium, for the awards ceremony on 25 November.

The festival directors said that while early music "can sometimes be perceived as something specialist or inaccessible" they had always "wanted to break down that barrier".

The REMA awards celebrate innovative and impactful projects shaping the early music sector in Europe and beyond.

European early music covers the period between 1250 and 1750, particularly when performed using musical instruments from the time, such as the lute, crumhorn and baroque violin.

The Banbury festival was established in 2023 by early musicians Dylan McCaig, Heidi Fardell and Alison Kinder, and has been bringing leading professional musicians together with amateur performers, young musicians, instrument makers, local organisations and audiences.

The nomination means it will represent the UK on the European stage alongside Team Recorder, a project created by recorder player, educator and YouTube personality Sarah Jeffery.

The directors said they were "enormously proud" seeing the festival on the international shortlist.

They said in a statement: "From the beginning, we wanted to create something firmly rooted in Banbury but ambitious enough to attract outstanding musicians and audiences from across the country.

"We strongly believe that people should not have to travel to a major city to experience world class music and culture."

They added that the mixture of renowned artists, local musicians, school pupils, amateurs and complete newcomers who took part in the festival made it "so exciting".

The nomination belongs "just as much to our audiences, volunteers, musicians, workshop participants, supporters and the wider Banbury community as it does to us", said the directors.

Lola Young surprises Reading Festival with final day set

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6247yv8564o, today

Fans at the final day of Reading Festival were treated to a surprise set from singer Lola Young.

"I am backstage, the cat is out of the bag and I am going to be performing so see you... at the Grid stage," she teased on Instagram, before treating fans to hits including number one single Messy and One Thing.

Her performance marks the latest step in a return to the spotlight after she had to cancel a string of shows last year following an on-stage collapse in September.

Young also pulled out of the 2025 Reading festival due to a scheduling clash.

The weekend festival concludes on Sunday with a line-up including performances by drum and bass duo Chase & Status, and Florence + The Machine.

After Charli XCX ushered in her own new era with an electrifying set following her latest release Music, Fashion, Film, Young's return was welcomed by festival-goers in Reading on Sunday.

Young had cancelled her scheduled appearance at Reading Festival last year due to an "unavoidable scheduling conflict".

A month later, Young dropped her microphone, collapsed backwards and had to be helped off stage in front of a festival crowd in New York.

A few days later, she cancelled all shows "for the foreseeable future".

"I really hope you'll give me a second chance once I've had some time to work on myself and come back stronger," she posted in a message to fans at the time.

Young has sought treatment for drug dependency and told the Guardian in 2025 that addiction had dogged her for "a long time".

The pop star has since returned to performing with a small run of shows in the UK, starting with a London gig in March.

"It felt so right being back on stage," she wrote on social media shortly after, but said: "As tempting as it is to jump on a big tour I'm going to continue taking things slowly despite feeling so ready to perform more."

Before touching down in Reading, Young performed at the Electric Picnic Festival in the Republic of Ireland on Saturday.

Although she has returned to performing and released reflective single From Down Here in May this year, fans are still awaiting a fourth album.

Reading Festival winds down on Sunday night with a star-studded cast including indie icon Florence and the Machine, R&B hit-maker Loyle Carner, and Irish rap group Kneecap.

The festival's other site in Leeds, meanwhile, closes after performances from singer-songwriter Raye and multi award-winning rapper Dave on Sunday night.

The museum charting how humans understand the world

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260828-the-museum-charting-how-humans-understand-the-world, today

Beautiful, surreal and eerily empty, Vienna's Globe Museum the only public museum on Earth dedicated to globes, and it – quite literally – tells the story of our world.

It's a chilly afternoon in Vienna, and the line for the Austrian National Library has already spilled out the door, curling like a ribbon around the grand Josefsplatz square. I'm not in the mood to wait – I've already struck out at several crowded nearby attractions where timed-entry tickets were sold out.

Rather than join the queue, I walk down the street and stumble onto a smaller, somewhat hidden site: The Globe Museum. Tucked inside Vienna's 17th-Century Palais Mollard, it's the only public museum on Earth dedicated entirely to globes, and one of Vienna's greatest surprises.

Different worlds

I soon realise that I've wandered into another world – or more accurately, many of them.

Just steps from some of the city's most celebrated, crowded attractions, Vienna's Globe Museum displays more than 220 rare and antique spheres, most created before 1850, ranging from towering Coronelli globes to tiny, foldable pocket orbs.

Beautiful and surreal, the museum's extensive collection goes beyond geography to reveal how humanity has mapped and imagined the Earth and heavens above. It's a chronicle of human curiosity, and – quite literally – the story of our world.

"Globes show the change in our imagination of our planet," says Nikolaus Schobesberger, the director of museum. "And this is the only place in the world where you can see so many of them at the same time."

Visitors start by travelling through the Golden Cabinet, a lavish room with centuries-old frescoes depicting scenes from Greek mythology. It's the backdrop for a stunning array of globe-related instruments, like telluriums, which illustrate the Earth's orbit around the Sun, and armillary spheres, which use a framework of rings to visualise the movements of celestial bodies.

As I reach the museum's four main galleries, I realise the whole place is pin-drop quiet. I shuffle slowly from one glass case to another, holding my breath to not disturb the stillness, even though I'm alone with centuries-old objects.

I find myself marvelling at two spherical worlds suspended in time. One is terrestrial, with oceans awash in vivid blues and squiggly brown coastlines. The other is celestial, where mythological creatures and constellations spill across a tea stain-coloured backdrop. Barely bigger than beach balls, these two time capsules were made by the same craftsman 10 years apart in the mid-1500s and preserve a world as it was still coming into focus.

In one, Europe, the Mediterranean and Africa's coasts are filled with place names, while North America fades into the uncharted Arctic. Asia is distorted, a hypothetical southern continent stands in for Australia and Antarctica and the Pacific is populated by sea monsters instead of islands. In the other, Renaissance astrological observations exist alongside Pegasus taking flight and Perseus brandishing Medusa's severed head.

"They're some of the oldest globes we have in our collection," says Schobesberger.

Moving from one globe to the next, I notice how these relics extend beyond geography and depict what people once believed. Many fill the space of unexplored oceans with dragons, while some confidently depict my home state of California as an island. Some pieces also preserve colonial-era prejudices with elaborately painted scenes depicting Indigenous people as cannibals. On one, African coastlines are dotted with Spanish and Portuguese flags, showing "ownership".

"They're a part of this colonial thinking. And so, they're beautiful art, but you also have to think about the time they were created," Schobesberger says, explaining that every globe is as much a record of what people knew as what they didn't. That's why he believes the museum resonates with all types of people, not just historians or cartography enthusiasts.

One of Schobesberger's favourite objects is a lunar globe from 1961. The front portion of the Moon is meticulously mapped. The back, however, is a stark white strip, intentionally left blank because the far side of the Moon had not yet been seen. An updated lunar globe made two years later, also on display, contains the missing portion.

I can't help but circle back to a showstopper in the front hall, a replica of the Behaim Globe – completed by Martin Behaim in 1492, the year Christopher Columbus sailed west – which shows a world without the Americas. There's simply an expanse of ocean between Europe and Asia.

"A globe is such a great thing because it's a small-scale model of our planet, so you can tell stories about the world on it," he says. "Climate, geology, topography, trade routes, everything."

From curios to cultural cornerstones

Walking through the museum, visitors can see the globe's own journey unfold. The earliest examples were luxury objects reserved for aristocrats and wealthy merchants. Over time, globes lost their exclusivity, shrunk in size and became more affordable and popular. They entered schools, appeared in living rooms and even became playthings for children. Today, they are so commonplace that my son even won his desktop globe in a classroom raffle.

I entered the museum expecting to view globes as historic artefacts, but I'm surprised by how alive they still feel. Even with Google Earth at my fingertips, these tactile objects invite curiosity and imagination in a way that a screen doesn't.

"It's not just that the globe is a scientific instrument. It's also an object which lets you dream of foreign countries," says Schobesberger.

Schobesberger's own fascination began as a young child, when he became captivated by the ships, sea monsters and mythical creatures that filled the blank spaces of historical maps and globes. He began to draw his own world maps when he was just six years old.

"You can think about what's possible on the other side of the world, even when you're sitting here in Europe," he says. "Nothing else can capture the imagination quite like it."

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That sentiment resonates with author JF Penn, who stumbled onto the Globe Museum while researching her novel Spear of Destiny, based on a relic housed in Vienna's Imperial Treasury. Like me, she ended up lingering far longer than planned.

"I particularly loved the oversized antique globes with the patina of age and use," she says. "I considered how many fingertips have turned them over generations and wondered if they thought of travelling to these far-off places that I do."

Even after visitors leave Palais Mollard, the search continues. Across Vienna, some 50 globes are perched on rooftops and facades, hidden in plain sight. The museum even charts them on a virtual map in its new exhibit, encouraging people to look upward as they wander the city.

When I finally step back outside, the sky is dark and the streets are even more crowded. Earlier in the day, I had been seeking a quieter corner of Vienna. Instead, I was given a whole new way of seeing the world – a place that's constantly being redrawn and reimagined.

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Mixed ability rugby 'spirit' on show at exhibition

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cddjge28e79o, today

A new photographic exhibition celebrates a rugby club for players of all abilities, from those with disabilities to former players.

Bath Mixed Ability Rugby formed last year when two mixed ability rugby clubs, Walcott Warriors and Stothert & Pitt, merged and players train at a rugby ground in Bristol Road, Bath.

The free exhibition at Bath Central Library features images by photographer Jon Taylor and runs until 27 September.

It aims to capture what Taylor called "the spirit of the club - training sessions in all weathers and players supporting and learning from one another".

Jude Watson, 24, who is autistic and has a learning disability, said he never misses a session and is inseparable from his friend Jamie, who also plays at the club.

"I really like playing rugby with my friend Jamie," he said.

"I do lots of running which makes me feel good and I can catch the ball even when it's moving fast.

"The best part is when we hold arms in a circle at the end of training and do lots of cheering."

The club is also a refuge for former club rugby players who can no longer take part in regular games because of injury.

Alex Peters played rugby union in school, university and club teams, but a serious shoulder injury ended his playing days.

"It's just a phenomenal environment where you have the most kind of unlikely friendships forming which are just beautiful to see," he said.

"What's surprised me, personally, is seeing some of the development of the guys who wouldn't want to lie on the ground, for example, or they might have been afraid of trying to catch a ball.

"To see the developments for those individuals has been fantastic.

"It's just one of the beautiful things about rugby in its purest sense - that everyone's equal on the pitch having a wonderful time together."

Club coach Dave Copeland said: "Every training session involves someone doing something you would never have imagined them doing when they first joined the club.

"Every training session involves incredible laughter and humour - and every session you get to see players developing as rugby players, as friends of each other and as individuals.

"It is a humbling experience."

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In pictures: Hit-filled day two at Victorious Festival

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyqngy9zdpo, today

Thousands packed Southsea Common for another day of music at Victorious Festival.

The summer sunshine gave way to showers on Saturday, prompting festival goers to pull on ponchos and jackets.

The Black Keys topped the bill with The Happy Mondays, Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Bastille and Dizzee Rascal among the other performers on Saturday.

The festival draws to a close on Sunday with headliners Kasabian, who are joined on the bill by The Streets and Reef.

How fashion returned to Scotland's former national costume museum

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c204v1wvdnzo, today

For years, Shambellie House near New Abbey was home to Scotland's National Museum of Costume.

When that chapter ended in 2013 and its contents were transferred to Edinburgh, many people wondered if fashion would ever return to the site.

Now, thanks to a surprising new partnership, costumes are back inside the historic building.

However, this time around the set-up is completely different.

A campaign to keep the site open back in 2013 ultimately failed and work began soon afterwards to find a new life for it.

The Shambellie House Trust (SHT) picked up the keys in 2021 and has set about bringing it back into use.

After restoration work, it reopened in April 2022 as an arts and heritage centre, beginning a new chapter for one of Dumfries and Galloway's most significant historic homes.

The return of costumes came about after a collection of 173 theatrical garments was donated to the Dumfries Theatre Royal by Nonsuch History and Dance.

The company, established in London in 1966, previously used them for performances and educational workshops across the United Kingdom.

In 2019, the organisation - and its extensive wardrobe of authentic reproductions - relocated to Sanquhar in southern Scotland.

Seeking a permanent and secure home for the garments, dancer and project director Penny Boff contacted the theatre.

She explained how they used the clothes for education.

"We always try to do workshops and performances that are based on local history," she said.

"We link dances to the community because we like to show people how the dance can be related to things that they are doing now and that it brings the history alive."

Pat Phillips is the volunteer costume and wardrobes manager at the Theatre Royal.

She went to view the clothes in Sanquhar and decided the theatre had to step in and take them.

"When I saw them hanging up in the room, I was just like, wow, these are amazing," she said.

"And I was thinking, if this is exciting for me, could it be exciting for other people as well?".

Pat spent two months putting the outfits on mannequins, taking photographs, and recording them in a database.

Then, out of the blue, staff at Shambellie House called to ask if the theatre had any interesting costumes they could display.

The new exhibition is not trying to copy the old museum.

Instead, a small selection of about 10 costumes has been placed carefully around the house to match the modern craftwork currently on show.

"The costumes need to be shown, they need to be touched," Pat added.

Mags Wilson, who helped repair the collection, said it was a joy to see them brought out of storage and put in front of the public.

"Generally when you go and look at costumes in museums, they're in a glass case," she said.

"You can't really take photographs of them because of the reflection.

"To be able to get close and see the detail on these costumes and see how the seamstresses have made them back then, it's really special."

The exhibition has proved so popular that its run has been extended.

Penny and the rest of the team are thrilled with the new venue.

"I was amazed by everything," she said.

"The surroundings have this very special atmosphere and it's so welcoming and I just love it."

Mags agreed that the location was perfect.

"You can imagine how the family lived in this house and it's just nice to experience an old house with all its charms," she said.

The costumes will stay at Shambellie until at least the beginning of October.

'Emo might have been a phase to some, but not for us'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn0nd96rdpwo, today

When My Chemical Romance headlined Wembley for three sold-out shows in July, for many it was a trip down memory lane to a time when they classed themselves as "emo" - wearing black, having piercings and listening to alternative music.

But for others, this was never just a phase of their youth - it was a way of life.

Sophie Baxter, 31, from Hull, describes herself as alternative and runs a social group for "emos, goths and moshers" to meet like-minded people who "understand where you're coming from".

"I think people who are not alternative often see it as a form of rebellion or a movement but it isn't, in my opinion anyway, it's just a lifestyle and a way of expressing who you are," she says.

The group, called Never a Phase, meets regularly in Hull and now has more than 2,000 followers on Instagram.

Sophie says she set it up after finding it "really hard to meet people on the same wavelength" in corporate spaces, and how she felt it was important to meet friends "you can be your 100% authentic self with".

She believes people are "very expressive with their style and music choices" in their teenage years, but society and the demands of fitting in at work means those people eventually feel they have to "squash themselves".

But deep down, the desire to be alternative never leaves them.

She adds: "You get to a certain level, maybe as you get to late twenties, early thirties, where you think, actually, I can be an emo, I can be alternative, I can be a little bit weird. I'm still a good person."

Defined by its music, fashion and stereotype of moody, depressive teens, alternative and emo culture peaked in the 2000s with bands such as My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco taking it mainstream.

However, this stereotype is being challenged by those who welcome an alternative crowd to events.

Daniel Mawer, who runs the Polar Bear Music Club in Hull, says the Panic at the Emo! night the club hosts is "one of my favourite shows to work at".

He says: "I'd say people who attend this night are the most likely to make new friends, be the most welcoming to outsiders and would probably have the most fun out of all the events we host."

While there is a lot of nostalgia at the events, he says they are also popular with a younger crowd.

"We're noticing that there's a wave of teenagers who are embracing the fashion and aesthetics that were synonymous with the early noughties," Daniel adds.

"It's genuinely refreshing to see young people belonging to a tribe where they feel a sense of belonging. I had that as a kid and it was really important to me. It unfortunately seemed to have missed a whole generation due to Covid, but is obviously returning within this genre."

US group Paramore was one of the biggest emo bands of the noughties and performed to sell-out crowds on Taylor Swift's Eras Tour in 2024, including at Wembley, highlighting the genre's longevity and how it is reaching a younger crowd today.

Miguel Raimundo runs Emofest events across Europe, with gigs featuring a live band playing classic songs from the time.

He says the crowd at these shows, with one taking place at the University of Hull's Union in September, are the "friendliest", with an age range from 14 to "corporate elder emos" in their forties and fifties.

He says: "The emo crowd gets a bad rep, but Emofest has some of the best shows we run across the UK."

The life of Sophie Lancaster, who was kicked to death by teenage boys in 2007 because she was a goth, continues to be celebrated through a foundation set up in her honour.

Sophie says she gave thought to what happened to the 20-year-old when setting up the group but the overwhelming response so far has been positive, which suggests public perception could be changing from 20 years ago.

"The bigger we get, I do have that in the back of my mind [Sophie Lancaster]. And it's sad, but sort of necessary when you take things online and in a public arena," she adds.

"There's been a couple of maybe not so nice comments on Instagram Reels, but they're very much the minority and it is something that feels like it is very needed.

"We've had lots of positive messages and people saying, 'oh my God, where have you been?' And people finally feeling like they belong somewhere.

"It doesn't matter what you look like, it doesn't matter what sexuality you are or what music you listen to, it's a mindset. So if you're comfortable being around alternative people, around emos and weirdos and moshers and freaks, then you probably belong with us."

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The younger record fans turning to older vinyl

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyxkee57y0o, today

Younger people are helping the revival of traditional vinyl records, according to record dealers.

Roger Joffe, co-owner of Wanted Records and organiser of the biggest record fair in the South West, held at the Bristol Beacon, said: "The youngsters are coming in and buying trance and dance music but also trad jazz and Duke Ellington."

Joffe believes newer fans find the format appealing and want to hold something physically rather than streaming music.

Around 2,000 record-buyers are expected to attend his next show on 3 October.

"There's a whole pile of people who have either got everything they wanted or stopped buying, so they drop off," he said.

"CDs came and went in a big way, and lots of people abandoned their records when they were the big thing, but now they're trying to buy their discarded records back."

Joffe said as a result, a lot of 90s vinyl now goes for big money, even for bands which charted at the time, because CDs were more popular.

"A good example is Oasis; their original [vinyl] albums can go for over £200 because there aren't many of them," he said.

Collector to employee

Lucas, 25, from Cheltenham, started buying records when he was 19, and now works at Badlands Record Shop, where he used to be a frequent customer.

His collection of 250 records has "spiralled" since taking a job there.

"There's so much music on streaming, and there's a nostalgia for something you haven't experienced originally," he said.

"Obviously streaming is convenient, but if you buy a record you support the artist and you support individual retail in a way that is more substantial than just listening to playlists.

"I do think young people are more conscious of that fact now."

Younger audiences

Jacki Harvey, co-owner of Vinyl Realm in Devizes, said much recent trade had been from students who had received money from relatives after passing their GCSEs.

"There's a big group of young people who want to be different, and not go down the Taylor Swift route, which makes my job really hard," she joked.

"I think a lot of them are hearing things online and then going to buy the vinyl in person, but we get a lot of requests for American stuff, which is hard to find here."

She said her older customers are also downsizing their homes, and she has taken in several collections from customers selling houses to live on the nearby Kennet & Avon Canal instead.

Harvey said record shopping is more than just buying; she said the thrill of looking through boxes offers a "switch-off experience" to customers.

She said because of the revival, people selling their collections often expect them to be worth more, but warned there is an oversupply of mass-produced records by popular bands such as the Beatles and Elvis.

She added: "I advise people to put them on eBay and make money that way."

Chris Hawes, founder of Atlas Records near Taunton, said he believed the age demographic for record fans is getting younger.

He said: "I'm 29. Everyone that works for the business is under 32, and there's nine of us."

He said the current best-selling records are those which have always been popular.

"The one exception to that is when a modern song takes things to new heights - Kate Bush is an example," he said.

"When her track was in Stranger Things on Netflix, we saw that sell out overnight."

The most valuable recent sale was a 13-record set by David Bowie, Five Years 1969-1973. Although it was only released in 2015, it fetched over £3,000.

Atlas Records' Top 20 sales in 2025

* 1 - Pink Floyd - The Dark Side Of The Moon

* 2 - Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

* 3 - Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms

* 4 - Michael Jackson - Thriller

* 5 - Pink Floyd - The Wall

* 6 - The Beatles - Abbey Road

* 7 - Supertramp - Breakfast In America

* 8 - Blondie - Parallel Lines

* 9 - Kate Bush - Hounds Of Love

* 9 - Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel

* 11 - Wings - Band On The Run

* 12 - Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

* 13 - The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

* 14 - Bruce Springsteen - Born In The U.S.A.

* 15 - Dire Straits - Love Over Gold

* 15 - Pink Floyd - Animals

* 15 - Eagles - Hotel California

* 19 - Queen - Greatest Hits

* 19 - Queen - A Night At The Opera

* 19 - Kate Bush - The Kick Inside

* 19 - U2 - The Joshua Tree

* 19 - Paul Simon - Graceland

* 19 - David Bowie - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars

*Titles placed at the same number sold equal amounts of copies

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People invited to partake in architect exhibition

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8dnz7mevl3o, today

Artists are being invited to submit work for an open exhibition which aims to showcase Jersey's built and natural environment's "identity and character".

The Association of Jersey Architects said it was organising an exhibition, A Sense of Place, at the Capital House, St Helier, as part of Architecture Week 2026.

It said the exhibition would welcome a wide range of work, including architectural models, drawings, sketches, photography, mixed-media images and collages of the islands architecture.

Submissions must be received by 11 September, with the exhibition set to run from 30 September to 5 October, the association added.

The association said the architecture week was an opportunity to bring architectural ideas into a wider public conversation about the island, "the places we value, the qualities we risk losing and the environments we want to create for the future".

It also said inspiration was not limited to landmark buildings.

"It might be found in the corner of a restaurant, a room, a shaded courtyard, a new piece of street or a subtle addition to the background of everyday life."

It said it could be "a physical quality defined by architecture and landscape, or simply a feeling created by our surroundings".

The association said it encouraged entrants to explore what the idea meant in the context of Jersey today.

It said it hoped the exhibition would "bring together different perspectives on the island and consider how individual spaces, buildings and experiences contribute to something greater".

All eligible entries would be exhibited and considered for prizes and commendations.

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Model car museum 'last lap' to raise charity funds

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ywgxl7vxpo, yesterday

A closed motorsport memorabilia museum is reopening over the August bank holiday weekend for a "last lap" to raise money for charity.

The family-run On Your Marques Model Car Museum in Mumby, Lincolnshire, has been closed since 2023 due to the owners' ill health.

The museum is reopening from 10:00 until 16:00 BST on Saturday, Sunday and Monday to raise funds for the National Brain Appeal's Dementia Research Fund.

Created by Jane and Chris Dring, the museum houses more than 1,200 model cars and motorsport items, plus a cafe and a four-lane Scalextric circuit.

Jane passed away "unexpectedly" in 2012, the museum said, with Chris recently suffering from ill health.

Motoring journalist Steve Fowler said: "This is On Your Marques' last lap and we want it packed with people, laughter and Scalextric racing."

Steve, who is Jane and Chris' nephew, and other relatives are helping to reopen the museum over the weekend.

"I think Chris has got about 18,000 models in total," Fowler said, explaining that some are held in storage.

"He got his first model as an eight year old, that's on display.

"Everything from Formula One, Matchbox, Scalextric, his model planes, model motorbikes."

Steve said his uncle's childhood hobby grew so big over the years that he decided to turn it into a museum.

Discussing the 30ft Scalextric set, he said: "It's brilliant - you can spend hours on it.

"There's four lanes, so you can come down with a family and all grab a controller each.

"We've got a little timing board and you can get the quickest lap."

Steve said he would love people to visit to see the collection one final time.

"Come for the cars, stay for the Scalextric and cake, and help us support a brilliant cause," he added.

Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North.

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In pictures: Music fans flock to Victorious Festival

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c986lden28eo, yesterday

Victorious Festival is under way on Southsea Common in Portsmouth.

Festival-goers enjoyed the blue skies and sunshine on Friday as The Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft topped the bill.

The Black Keys headline on Saturday with Club Foot rockers Kasabian set to close the three-day festival on Sunday.

Up to 80,000 ticket holders are expected to go each day.

The festival is not escaping a change in the summer weather with rain and thunderstorms forecast at times during Saturday and Sunday.

'A huge vanity project' - when Sputnik crash-landed in Scotland

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

Ten years ago, an alien object entered Scotland's airspace for the first time.

The website and internet radio station Sputnik News was named after the first man-made satellite which was launched into space in 1957.

The size of a basketball, the original Sputnik emitted a simple beep for three weeks before its battery died.

But the signal it sent the world's governments was much more significant. It showed that the Soviet Union was winning the space race, and that news jolted the west into action.

Almost 60 years later, its namesake was met with similar alarm.

Sputnik News is not like other media organisations. Wholly owned by the Russian government, it's widely recognised as a propaganda tool for President Vladimir Putin.

And in August 2016 it brought a new era of state-sponsored disinformation to Britain at a crucial time in its recent history.

Sputnik's Edinburgh operation lasted barely five years, and throughout that time faced accusations of stoking conspiracy theories to destabilise the UK.

A decade on, it's tempting to look back on its time in Scotland as a weird blip or just another failed media enterprise.

But that would be a mistake, according to former SNP MP Stewart McDonald.

"We are a society ripe for hostile disinformation," he says. "We're deeply divided, we're polarised politically, we're polarised socially. We struggle economically.

"That's perfect for hostile disinformation operations. And that's what Russian state media does.

"It's not there to report the news."

The Scotland in which Sputnik landed in 2016 was going through a turbulent time. In the wake of the 2014 independence referendum, a wave of new media enterprises were making the case for independence.

Established online outlets Wings over Scotland and Bella Caledonia were joined by digital news platforms CommonSpace and Broadcasting Scotland.

Subscription and supporter-led services, they offered an alternative to what was increasingly becoming known as the "mainstream media" - specifically corporate-owned newspapers, commercial broadcasters, and the BBC.

Carolyn Scott was one of the many young activist-journalists drawn to this new media landscape.

A folk singer and musician, she'd become increasingly politically active during the referendum, alongside a friend from the traditional music scene, Jack Foster. The pair ran a folk music podcast for a few years but had never managed to make money from it.

Then, according to Carolyn: "The day after the referendum, Jack contacted me about setting up a new media company and we got some crowdfunding to kind of see what was feasible. We did that for a year.

"We launched a weekly podcast that turned into four or five weekly podcasts and then some kind of YouTube TV stuff as well... but the whole time we had like zero income."

They had an audience, but not enough to make a living, and so towards the end of 2015 they were forced to wrap up the company

A few months later Carolyn learned Sputnik News was coming to Edinburgh and was advertising for journalists.

The Russian state-owned news agency Rossiya Segodnya set up Sputnik in November 2014 as a sister service to RT – formerly Russia Today – the Kremlin's global television news service. Both broadcast the Putin government's view of foreign affairs around the world.

Dr Ammon Cheskin is an expert on Russian politics at the University of Glasgow. He sees the Sputnik of 2016 as part of a strategy of projecting Russian might.

"It looked like the sort of thing a great power would do," he says.

"In the same way that the UK might have the BBC, they would have this network of journalists. I think it was a kind of a facade of great power status.

"Anybody that studies Russian foreign policy knows that one of the key priorities has been to prove that Russia is actually a great power on par with all the other great powers in the world."

Carolyn Scott was aware there were questions around Sputnik's editorial independence but believes the more established RT was not then seen as beyond the pale.

"Throughout 2014 and 2015, RT had managed to get itself into a place where it had an OK reputation, a fairly decent reputation in a lot of the circles that we were kind of active in," she says.

"There were a lot of political commentators from across Scotland and the UK hosting their own shows on RT. And it was very much billed to us as it's just a radio version of that."

She and Foster signed up as presenters.

"I certainly didn't go into the job singing and dancing and thinking: 'This is amazing, this is spectacular, it's going to be brilliant'," she says.

"It was: 'I need to pay my bills, and this is going to help wipe out some debt'. And we were going to have pretty much editorial freedom to just run our own show."

Sputnik launched from Edinburgh in August 2016 and the response from the native media was sceptical, even hostile. It was immediately suspected of coming to Scotland to create and amplify tensions within the UK.

The Daily Record dubbed it "Radio Gaga" and accused it of running stories that the independence referendum had been rigged.

The Herald called it "Putin's Sputnik" and an editorial in The Times said: "Those Nationalists who welcome the arrival of Sputnik are ignoring the Russian leader's record as an autocratic ruler."

Carolyn had signed up to co-present a daily radio programme. Immediately, she felt there were problems.

"It was an absolute chaotic mess. The idea that Sputnik could influence any election or referendum in this country was laughable. They wouldn't even influence a local dog show," she says.

"They had no idea what they were doing. The staff base was completely inexperienced. There was a woman who was basically brought in as an executive producer. Her background was that she was a hotel receptionist."

Nevertheless, Sputnik was seen as relentlessly anti-Nato, pro-Russian, and pro-Donald Trump. Later, it would be accused of peddling conspiracy theories about the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

It's important to remember the context in which Sputnik was operating in 2016.

The UK had just voted to leave the European Union and David Cameron had stood down as prime minister, to be replaced by Theresa May.

Brexit dominated UK politics and in Scotland that, coupled with the legacy of the independence vote two years earlier, contributed to the SNP dominating the 2015 and 2016 Westminster and Holyrood elections.

Despite losing the 2014 referendum, the pro-independence movement appeared to be on the front foot.

Sputnik made much of the pro-indy credentials of its leading journalists. Looking back, Carolyn believes that was always the strategy.

"I realise now that I think their entire point was let these slightly left-wing progressive types do the show that they want," she says.

"They gave us free rein because that might build some legitimacy so that one day, when they've got an audience, they can just flip to their own agenda.

"And I see now in hindsight, that's kind of what I think their aim perhaps was."

Stewart McDonald was one of 56 SNP MPs elected in 2015. He would become his party's defence spokesman, and one of Sputnik's most high-profile critics.

From quite early on, he wanted to put "clear blue water" between it and the SNP.

"We very deliberately set about making RT and Sputnik as toxic as possible," he says.

"People knew that going on it, I would openly criticise them.

"I think that's partly why so few people did go on it, because they understood this is not a good thing for us to be seen to be engaging with."

But some were happy to get involved with the Russian outlets.

In 2017, former First Minister Alex Salmond was condemned for hosting a talk show on RT, denounced by one opponent as "Putin's puppet". His successor, Nicola Sturgeon, said: "His choice of channel would not have been my choice."

A year later, the former SSP MSP Tommy Sheridan began presenting and writing for Sputnik.

By then, Carolyn Scott and Jack Foster were long gone. They bailed in the spring of 2017 in the face, she says, of increasingly unacceptable editorial pressure.

But speaking to the BBC in 2018, Sputnik's UK editor Nikolai Gorshkov denied the company had an agenda.

"We're not trying to influence Scottish thinking, because being based in Edinburgh, we do now realise how fiercely independently minded the Scots are," he said.

"You can't influence a Scot."

The poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in 2018, followed by allegations of Russian interference in the following year's UK election, saw relations between the two countries collapse.

That tension put Sputnik at the heart of the disinformation war, though not for long.

The company announced the closure of its UK operation in 2021, describing the move as part of a plan to reorganise its international presence more effectively.

The following year, Russia's invasion of Ukraine made it an international pariah. Nations across the world imposed economic and cultural sanctions.

In March 2022, the regulator Ofcom revoked RT's UK broadcasting licence and the European Union banned Sputnik and RT over their coverage of the war. Both services remain banned on many social media apps and websites.

Today, Sputnik's website says it continues to operate out of 17 countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas.

Putin's war in Ukraine marked the end of Russia's period of soft power, according to Ammon Cheskin.

"The whole network of it was just a huge vanity project that was ineffective. It cost lots of money and didn't reach many people, but it kind of looked good for those people that wanted to claim that Russia was a great power," he says.

"I preferred it to what came afterwards. It just highlighted the limits of Russian influence. Russia thought it could influence people and states through these mechanisms and it clearly couldn't.

"And it therefore moved to a different phase, which was much more aggressive, and militaristic. And that's where Russia's true influence was."

Stewart McDonald views Russia's disinformation programme as one part of a wider war that now sees drones flown over European airports, attacks on sub-sea cables, and cyber-hacks on institutions.

"The warning at the end is you've got to take any kind of foreign disinformation seriously," he says.

"This is a problem and a threat that is getting more sophisticated at a rate that we're just not at all keeping up with.

"You think about what that means in peacetime, but what does it mean in a time of crisis? Like a pandemic, or a kinetic war, or when your sub-sea cables get cut, or if there's a cyber-attack on Network Rail that brings the central belt to a halt.

"Or during an election campaign. Have governments even thought about how they deal with that sort of thing? No, they haven't."

Post-Sputnik, Carolyn Scott has built a new career teaching journalism at Edinburgh Napier University. She finds talking about that time painful but understands the criticism she and her colleagues faced.

"I think if you've got a foreign government launching a media company in your country that's got quite a controversial past, then it's fair game that the media is going to have a go," she says.

"I do feel physically sick talking today about it. I make sure to tell my students that we learn from our mistakes, and we take ownership of them, we don't shy away from them.

"But it's hard not to see it as one of the stupidest things I've ever done in my life. It is one of the biggest regrets I have."

Gadd's debt to Edinburgh: 'You arrive with an idea and leave with a career'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70l4d5dkjzo, yesterday

Richard Gadd says he owes everything to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

His show Baby Reindeer, a dark comedy about his experience of a stalker, won a string of awards, and enjoyed a sell-out run in Edinburgh before transferring to the London stage.

But it was the arrival of executives from the TV Festival in the final week of August in 2019, which took his career on a whole new trajectory.

"The show had sold out before the festival had even begun," he told a gathering at a Screen Scotland event to launch a new TV festival.

"This was exactly 10 years after my debut at the Fringe where I had to cancel a show because nobody had turned up.

"It was the talk of the festival, and at the end of the month, I got a message from my manager to say Netflix wanted me but so did the BBC and HBO and Channel 4."

He eventually made the TV show for Netflix, where it became a cultural phenomenon, topping their streaming platforms globally.

It went on to win a stream of awards, including six Emmys, before Gadd moved onto his next project, Half Man, with the BBC, which was screened earlier this year.

Gadd, who grew up in Wormit in Fife, first connected with the Fringe through the National Theatre of Scotland show Black Watch, which premiered at the 2006 festival before touring nationally and internationally.

"It was a brutally funny ensemble piece, part-dance epic about the Iraq war, the camaraderie of soldiers, and the desperation of lost youth," he said.

"And as the lights went down on the final seconds of the show, I remember the entire audience getting to their feet with tears in their eyes and I knew that I had witnessed history.

"I remember watching the lights of Edinburgh disappearing out the window and thinking THIS is what I want to do. "

Four years later, he made his own Fringe debut at the Argyle Cellar Bar.

"I'm wearing a thong and I'm head to toe in baby oil having just danced to Tom Jones' sex bomb, and there's an embarrassed couple in the front row still clapping me in an otherwise empty room.

"I ask them for donations at the end of the show and they end up giving me two pounds. It was 2009. I'm 20 years old and I've just started doing comedy.

"I've flyered all day and all night, but despite my best efforts, I've performed to audiences of no more than five people."

He added: "Sometimes, indeed most times, I had to cancel the show because nobody turned up. Once, my audience was so small, I ended up taking them for a drink instead.

"His name was Douglas, and he admitted coming to my show because the sight of me flyering outside his office for two weeks had been too much to bear."

The fringe's tradition of using every space as a stage found him performing in some unlikely places.

"One venue didn't have a door. Not even a curtain. Halfway through the show, people would wander through looking for the bathroom.

He says the festival gave him the chance to experiment in a way the comedy circuit never did. And the result was his first four-star review.

In 2014, he performed a show called Breaking Gadd – which he said disappointed scores of fans of that other hit TV show.

"They came, expecting anecdotes about Walter White and instead got a man in a jockstrap talking about all the ways he wanted to kill his family," he recalled.

During a later show, his routine involved biting into a bar of soap.

"I took a bite, and immediately the most excruciating burning sensation fills my mouth. My eyes were instantly popping, and my mouth filled with ulcers by the second.

"I snatched a pint from a random spectator's hand to wash it out with, but the burning sensation was between my teeth.

"In the end, we pulled the show early, and I find myself in A&E.

"When the doctor asked me what I'd done, I said, I ate a bar of soap. They looked at me for what felt like an eternity before asking 'Edinburgh Festival?'"

Gadd's 2015 show Waiting for Gadot brought further acclaim and he called the bar where he worked in Camden to tell them he wasn't coming back.

"Craig, my manager asked what I was going to do instead. I told him, I'm going to be a comedian and I hung up the phone."

In 2016, he performed Monkey See Monkey Do, which won him the Edinburgh Comedy award.

Although the performance was surreal with Gadd running on a treadmill throughout while being chased by a gorilla on the screen behind, the content detailed his experience of sexual abuse.

The show sold out, won rave reviews and brought acceptance from friends and family of the trauma he had not previously shared.

"My fears of judgement vanished in an instant," he said. "The weight of trauma lifted night after night. Is this what happens when you reveal your darkest secrets to the world?

"I found the most phenomenal freedom, and realised what it was all about.

"I remember when I went out to collect the Edinburgh comedy award that month, Something I'd dreamed about from the moment I first learned of its existence.

"I said, the worst thing my abuser ever did was take my confidence away, and I suppose this goes some way to getting it back."

As well as Baby Reindeer, the fringe has been the launch pad for Fleabag, Taskmaster, Six the Musical, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Stomp, Flight of the Conchords, Garth Merengue, Alan Partridge, Mr Bean, The League of Gentlemen, Jerry Springer the Opera, Operation Mincemeat, and The Mighty Boosh.

Gadd hopes the launch of a new TV festival to replace the industry event which is moving to Manchester in 2027, will be vital to the festivals as they prepare to mark their 80th anniversary.

But he says he's concerned about spiralling costs, especially when it comes to accommodation.

"The fringe is nothing without giving new voices a chance to experiment, to take breaks, to hitch their car to a crazy idea and see what comes of it, to fail spectacularly but come back the next night to try again," he said.

"The festival risks becoming something that only those with enough money can afford to do. And that's what worries me."

He said if the Fringe became too expensive, too commercial, and too difficult to access, it could mean losing the very thing that makes it extraordinary.

"We could lose why it started in the first place," he added. "We could lose the place where someone could arrive with an idea and leave with a career."

In pictures: The dotty world of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjdv57kvnk0o, 4 days ago

Using bright colours, shapes, patterns and reflections, Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who has died at the age of 97, was known for creating extraordinary immersive worlds that delighted millions of people around the globe.

Kusama emerged as part of the pop art movement - and was among a select group of artists whose work became truly popular with a mass audience, attracting crowds to exhibitions from Tokyo to New York and London.

Her trademark polka dots covered entire galleries and giant sculptures, and she also used mirrors and lights to create the effect of shapes and patterns disappearing into infinity.

Actress Julia Fox (below) was among those at the opening of her exhibition in Melbourne, Australia in 2024.

Kusama said she saw hallucinations of dots and lights as a child, and used those visions in her art from the 1960s.

Kusama made a major global breakthrough after representing Japan at the Venice Biennale in the 1990s.

She is pictured inside one of her Infinity Mirror Rooms in Paris in 2001 above, and with fellow Japanese artist Yoko Ono in Sydney in 2000 below.

She had exhibitions at institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate Modern in London and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo.

Visitors themselves applied more than 800,000 polka dot stickers to a white room (and their own faces) at the Smithsonian Institute's Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC in 2017.

Kusama's 2012 retrospective at the Tate Modern was followed by an installation of her Infinity Mirror Rooms at the same venue from 2021, which drew huge audiences and was extended several times.

In 2023, a giant figure of Kusama was installed to tower over Louis Vuitton's flagship store on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Her giant figures, shapes and animals filled Manchester's Aviva Studios when the venue opened in 2023.

From Manchester to Melbourne - her spots were also a hit in the Australian city two years ago.

She had voluntarily lived in a psychiatric hospital for decades, and died in a Tokyo hospital earlier this month.

Merry midwives' final curtain after 40 years

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93epwvjw2lo, today

A group of nurses that has raised around £150,000 over 40 years of staging charity shows is preparing to take its final bow.

The Merry Midwives was set up by Julie Brady and a colleague in 1986. They got the performing bug after they were asked to put together a skit for the former Nuneaton Maternity Hospital show.

The pair pulled together a group to raise funds for hospital equipment, and loved it so much they decided to continue, picking up firm friends along the way.

Brady, now 69, who lives in Nuneaton and directs the performances, said The Merry Midwives - The Final Curtain at Abbey Theatre in October would feel "bittersweet", adding: "We want to go out on a high."

Her first performance with fellow midwife, Maggie Davies, who has since sadly died, was in March 1981, when the pair were asked by their boss to "show what midwives could do".

"We just loved it," the retired midwife remembered.

A few years later they began taking to the stage regularly, at first raising funds for TVs, stethoscopes and foetal Dopplers for the maternity unit.

As their fame spread, the group was asked to perform at the Royal College of Midwives AGM, and a conference in Harrogate, and they also appeared on BBC quiz show, Eggheads.

Over the years they have shared their proceeds with a range of local organisations, including the air ambulance, a singing for dementia group and Mary Ann Evans Hospice in Nuneaton.

The 15-strong group is now largely retired, but ranges in age from 37 to 84, with three working nurses including Brady's daughter, a singer who "keeps us in tune and teaches us some harmonies."

Described as "half a review, half a pantomime", their performances comprise of rewritten songs, sketches and dances.

"We always ask our audiences to bear in mind that we'd never give up our day jobs," Brady laughed.

"It's very fast-moving. We have a horde of women behind the scenes who literally rip one costume off and throw another one on because we've only got three minutes before we're back on."

Abbey Theatre volunteers help with lighting, sound and stage management, and the group divvies up other jobs.

Many members of their audience have been coming back to watch every year since 1986.

Only a handful of the original performers remain, with some "great friends" lost along the way.

"We're just a great group of friends," Brady said. "We've had lots of ups and downs... Lots of us have had near misses and operations.

"I find it amazing that there's 15 of us that have got such a daft sense of humour and have stuck together over the last 40 years.

"Really it's the friendship that's the best thing."

She said she would miss the act "hugely", even though "40 years is a long time to be compiling shows, making costumes and making props".

But the group plans to keep meeting up socially, including at a singing group they have formed on the side.

"As long as we keep seeing each other I think we'll be fine," Brady said.

The Merry Midwives - The Final Curtain shows take place from 1-3 October, with proceeds going to charities Guy's Gift, The Friendship Project and Saints.

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Artists sought to create village landmark

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr7dr81v5j5o, yesterday

Artists are being encouraged to put themselves forward for a public art project.

Torridge District Council has asked for expressions of interest from people keen to create an original artwork for and about Westward Ho! in Devon.

The council said expressions of interest deadline was 5 October, after which three artists would be shortlisted and receive a pitch fee for an outline concept.

Councillor Claire Hodson said the piece of art "has the potential to become a valued landmark in the village, fostering pride among residents and offering a fresh cultural experience for our visitors".

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Capitol Plaza wins community asset status

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpd0v6ve2n8o, 3 days ago

Scarborough's Capitol Plaza has been recognised as an asset of community value by North Yorkshire Council.

The Grade II listed venue on Albemarle Crescent opened in 1929 as the town's first "talkie" cinema and later became home to Mecca Bingo.

The Capitol Theatre Trust hopes to transform the building into a receiving house theatre capable of hosting major touring productions alongside a range of community facilities.

Trust director George Wakely said: "Just as Mecca Bingo once served as a lifeline for the community, we want the Capitol to continue that legacy."

North Yorkshire Council confirmed the successful nomination on Tuesday.

The designation recognises the venue's community value and could give the community an opportunity to bid for the building if it is put up for sale.

Plans for the building include a community cafe, accessible facilities, low-cost rehearsal and meeting rooms and creative workspaces.

A public consultation is due to begin on 19 September.

Wakely said: "Whilst we're fortunate to have strong cultural venues like the Open Air Theatre, the Stephen Joseph Theatre and the Spa, none can accommodate the scale or technical requirements of major UK tours.

"Our aim isn't to compete with existing venues, but to complement them with something Scarborough currently lacks."

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Scarborough once had 11 theatres and music halls, but only four remain in operation.

The Capitol later became a Mecca Bingo hall, which occupied the building from 1977 until it closed amid concerns about its condition.

Following a site visit in July, council officers said the venue was "well-known within the local area", had historic and cultural significance and continued to attract support from residents.

Officers added that the trust's proposals appeared "positive in principle" and aligned with community-focused objectives.

Wakely said the trust hoped to complete the final phase of the redevelopment and reopen the venue in October 2029, 100 years after the Capitol first opened its doors.

Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.

Will pigeon mural get its wings back?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn07dd4klp2o, 3 days ago

A cafe owner is calling on the local community to help him update its famous pigeon mural.

For more than three decades colourful artwork has featured on the side of the former Bridge Bar on Bridge Street in Banbury, Oxfordshire.

For many of those years, a huge image of a pigeon with its wings spread wide loomed over the street.

In 2024, owner of the now Power Cup café Tomas Kolbus decided the old work needed updating, so brought in artists to transform it, controversially painting over the bird.

He has now decided to involve the community in redesigning the work to better reflect the town and possibly to feature a new pigeon.

Kolbus said in 2024 the pigeon was in a bad way, so he approached the artists behind the original 30-year-old artwork to replace it.

He said the reaction was mixed, with not everyone happy at the change, but that people came around to the new design.

Two years on, and he said he was now working with artists from Banbury, Swindon and London on a new update, but wanted to make sure it reflected life in Banbury.

He said: "This year I decided, what shall we create? Another chapter on that wall.

"Not to delete everything, not to repaint it, just to add something more."

The mural is in a prominent location in Banbury, close to the bus and railway stations.

Kolbus said he was gathering information from people in the community, and wanted to create something that would remind people to slow down, relax and not to focus on stress.

As for the final design, he said it would remain a secret for now, but would probably feature a pigeon that was "funnier and more interesting".

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'Dragon' offers street artist advice - and a job

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy0je597ep9o, 3 days ago

A street artist who appeared on the BBC Dragons' Den came away with an offer of both professional advice - and a job.

Nathan Murdoch, 38, runs Street Arts Hire and has painted several murals in Peterborough, including tributes to Prodigy singer Keith Flint, and a Jude Bellingham portrait during the football World Cup.

He said he went on the show looking for further investment in his arts business, but all the Dragons agreed instead that he needed sound advice in order to expand.

Entrepreneur Steven Bartlett was so taken with Murdoch's work he offered the artist both one-to-one advice and a job painting the walls of his new London offices.

Murdoch appeared before the entrepreneurs accompanied by a large painting of a dragon - which he had created for the show.

He was asking for a £60,000 investment in return for a 10% share in his company.

The money, he said, would help employ a full-time role co-ordinating the work he and other artists were commissioned to do, as he said they could only currently fill about 60% of requests.

Murdoch is well known in Peterborough and in February he hosted an exhibition, Diesel Streets, celebrating more than two decades of graffiti and the city's street art culture.

The quality of his art stunned all five Dragons on the show, which aired on 27 August on BBC One.

Looking at the dragon painting brought in by Murdoch, Bartlett said: "You make me feel like a muggle just looking at that, thinking that a human being could do that versus what I can do. It's incredible."

Gary Neville said: "The artwork is absolutely stunning. You're taking home only £30,000 a year but you're a creative, you're a genius."

Pointing at the painting, which took Murdoch four hours to create, he said: "That's worth thousands of pounds", and quipped he would pay £5,000 for it.

Call for £1.5m to finish city regeneration scheme

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1mvl0lm2k5o, 3 days ago

More public money could be invested in one of Worcestershire's biggest ever regeneration projects as it nears completion.

Malvern-based contractor Speller Metcalfe has requested a final £1.5m contribution towards the completion of the Angel Place regeneration scheme in Worcester.

The project, which includes the refurbishment of the Scala Theatre, requires additional funding to cover a range of extra costs in order to finish it, according to a report to the city council.

The arts centre and wider redevelopment would serve the people of Worcester "for decades to come," said the council leader.

The authority's Policy and Resources Committee will consider the request on 1 September and, if approved, the total cost of the scheme will rise to £26m.

It comes after the city council announced the Scala Theatre would be completed in November, while work on the neighbouring Corn Exchange would be finished in February 2027.

The programme began in 2020 and has been supported by significant grants from the government, as well as investment by the city council.

It has been a long-held ambition of Worcester City Council to revive the historic theatre, which dates back to the 1920s, and was last in use as an amusement arcade.

In 2019, the former cinema appeared in a council "masterplan" for potential redevelopment as part of a wider strategy to inject new life into the northern end of the city centre.

It has not been easy to manage - the original estimated budget in 2020 was just £6.5m, and rose to £12.5m in 2023 before a redesign of the Scala Theatre brought the bill back to just under £10m.

Now councillors are preparing to earmark an extra £1.5m into the project, at a time when budgets are tight.

But the council believes the end result will be transformative with a new arts centre featuring three studio spaces, a bar, a cafe and a regional destination for independent film, live performances and music.

It is also part of a wider overhaul of the Angel Place area, a £26m regeneration which will see the creation of a so-called "northern gateway" into Worcester, an investment which has secured significant financial support from the government.

It includes the relocation of the outdoor market to the Cornmarket - a move which has upset traders - alongside widespread refurbishments of empty buildings and a better-looking public realm.

It is a section of the city which will look and feel radically different from the summer of 2027.

Leader of the council, Lynn Denham, said: "This has been a complex and long-running project and we are pleased it is close to completion now.

"The council is grateful for the sustained partnership commitment from leading local creatives and our construction contractor.

"Scala arts centre will be entertaining and connecting the people of Worcester for decades to come."

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Japanese polka dot artist Yayoi Kusama dies aged 97

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3v4k0re3vwo, 4 days ago

Japanese avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama, who became famous for her colourful polka dot-covered sculptures and installations, has died at the age of 97.

Kusama, who had voluntarily lived in a psychiatric hospital for decades, was known for her bright red wig and her giant, quirky creations.

Her exhibitions drew large crowds around the world, and her vibrant works fetched some of the highest ever prices for a female artist.

A statement from her company said: "Throughout an extraordinary lifetime devoted entirely to artistic creation, Kusama pursued an internationally acclaimed career as a pioneering avant-garde artist whose creative practice encompassed visual art, performance, fiction, and poetry."

Kusama died at a hospital in Tokyo on 14 August, the statement said.

It added: "She continued to paint until her final days, never setting aside her brush, and continued exploration of forever love and eternal soul.

"We will carry forward Kusama's wishes and, through art, continue to bring hope and strength for the future to people around the world."

Kusama became one of the world's most recognisable artists and a global cultural icon in her 80s and 90s, after having been mostly overlooked for decades.

Poorly received by a masculine-dominated art scene of New York in the 1960s, Kusama caused a stir with her exhibitions of phallic sculptures, including a fabric couch, and frequent displays of nudity.

In 1965, her work "Infinity Mirror Rooms", in which mirrors and lights create seemingly endless spaces, attracted millions of visitors. Later, her polka dot and pumpkin works became highly sought-after.

However, she became distressed when her ideas were copied by or "inspired" her male contemporaries – including Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg and Lucas Samaras – whose works would be displayed at more prestigious galleries.

After spending years watching male artists gain recognition for her work, she returned home to Japan – feeling dejected and distraught.

She entered a psychiatric facility receiving treatment for mental illnesses, where she would live and work for the remainder of her life.

Miraculously, she managed to find a hospital where the doctors were interested in art therapy and checked herself in. Such a secure environment allowed her to focus on creating art.

Through the 1970s and early 80s, her work depicted uncharacteristically dark series' of collages in which she embraced the imagery of natural life cycles.

Kusama went on to become Japan's first solo artist to represent the country at the 1993 Venice Biennale. Twenty-seven years earlier, she had turned up, uninvited, and laid down 1,500 mirror balls on the ground.

The roaring success of the exhibition led to a huge transformation in how she was received both in Japan and abroad.

In 2001, she was awarded the Asahi Prize – recognising outstanding cultural, academic and artistic contributions in Japan.

One of her paintings fetched about $10.5m (£7.7m) at auction in 2022, making her works some of the highest-earning in the world for a female artist.

She held major exhibitions around the world, including at the Tate Modern gallery in London, which ran for three years after being extended several times because of its popularity.

Catherine Wood, interim director of Tate Modern, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday it was "our most visited exhibition of all time because people really love Kusama's work".

The exhibition invited visitors into the artist's Infinity Mirror Rooms.

"You would step in there and the lights would go down, and it felt like you were looking into the mysteries of the Universe," Wood said. "She was very good at conjuring this sense of wonder and infinity that she was obsessed with."

As a child, Kusama experienced hallucinations of embers and flashing – later using her art as a vehicle for others to understand her vision of the world.

"One day, after seeing a tablecloth with a red flower pattern on a desk, I saw the same red flower pattern all over the ceiling, windows and pillars. It filled the room, and covered my body," she wrote in her autobiography.

Kusama was born in 1929 in the rural provincial town of Matsumoto, based in the central Nagano region of Japan.

Her parents did not support her early moves to study painting in Kyoto.

She was later told her artistry caused great shame to her conservative family. Some elements of the US press also criticised what they perceived as an endless desire for publicity – either in her messaging promoting peace or critiquing the art establishment.

The world, along with her native Japan, radically changed its perception of Kusama in her later life.

Social media fuelled a spike in interest over recent years – with her museum's bold floral shapes and shiny steel orbs turning into a desired backdrop for selfies and poses.

Among her many motifs, the pumpkin has become iconic in her works. To her, the vegetable represented comfort and nostalgia.

She once said in an interview: "Pumpkins speak to me.

"They embody a sense of stability and gives me peace of mind."

Susan Sarandon leads tributes to Rocky Horror Picture Show co-star Tim Curry

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyj56zjdxpo, 4 days ago

Stars of stage and screen have paid tribute to cult British actor Tim Curry, who has died at the age of 80.

"What I loved about him most was his heart," said Oscar-winner Susan Sarandon, who co-starred with him in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Curry, who was born in the north-western English town of Warrington in 1946, passed away peacefully at his home in Los Angeles on Tuesday, said his manager. He had used a wheelchair since suffering a major stroke in 2012.

In a career spanning six decades, the prolific actor left his mark on both theatre and film, ranging from Home Alone 2 and Annie to Stephen King's It and The Hunt for Red October.

But he was perhaps best known for his zany role as the cross-dressing Dr Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

He first played the part on stage before the movie adaptation that propelled him to cult stardom.

Sarandon, who played the heroine Janet Weiss in the movie, praised Curry as "a funny, sexy, original".

"Thank you Tim for meaning so much to so many people."

Curry's longtime manager and friend Marcia Hurwitz confirmed he "passed away peacefully at his home in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles on August 25".

Australian actress Nell Campbell, who starred alongside Curry in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, told the BBC: "I feel like the head of our family has just died because he was the head of the Rocky Horror family."

Welsh actor Luke Evans, who played Frank-N-Furter in a Broadway revival, called Curry "a force, a bright fierce flame, an exquisite charm".

In a letter he recently wrote to Curry, Evans thanked him for his fearlessness and for "creating something so enduring, and for inspiring generations of actors to be a little braver than they thought they could be".

The official Rocky Horror Picture Show on Broadway account similarly thanked the late actor for "giving the world a little more freedom, a little more fearlessness, and through the tears in our eyes, the courage to BE IT" - a nod to Curry's delivery of the famous line from the musical: "Don't dream it, be it."

In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, writer and composer Richard O'Brien, who co-wrote the musical and film, remembered the actor as "a wonderful man by nature who was also a wonderful performer".

"He never sought attention and never put himself before the roles that he played," O'Brien said. "He was, in short, a good egg and class act."

Curry also starred in the 1996 film Muppet Treasure Island alongside Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog.

He was one of the few humans "to have earned the title of honorary Muppet", the Muppets account posted on Tuesday.

"As a performer he was unparalleled – witty, charming, unnerving, and deeply funny. We will always consider it one of our greatest treasures to have been part of Long John Silver's crew," it added.

American comedy icon Carol Burnett shared a clip of Curry's turn as her smarmy brother in Annie, posting on social media that "nobody could play lovable villains better than he could".

Rob Schneider, who played the bellboy to Curry's uppity hotel clerk in Home Alone 2, also praised Curry as a "sensational character actor".

"A truly gifted performer of stage and screen, his one eyebrow could say more than most actors entire bodies," Schneider said.

"I am grateful to have the rare gift of watching him work, he made you better just standing near him."

Clue co-star and Better Call Saul actor Michael McKean said on social media that his last conversation with Curry was about "life and love and laughter".

"The grim physical state he found himself in has now ended, a blessing. Our blessing was that we had Tim Curry in our lives. RIP, my friend," he wrote.

Two other stars of Clue, where Curry played a butler, Christopher Lloyd and Lesley Ann Warren, also paid tribute on social media.

Lloyd shared a photo of Curry from the film along with a heart emoji and Warren called Curry a "dear companion in crime".

"The brilliant, hilarious, hysterically funny, magician of artistry has left us," she said.

"What an unbelievable joy to have shared a soundstage with him and to engage with such a master talent. I adored him. Bless his wild and inspired soul."

Funeral held for renowned Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8xker87k7do, 4 days ago

The funeral has taken place at a packed church in Birzeit, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, for the celebrated Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour, who died this week at the age of 79.

He was best known for his bright and powerful paintings depicting the Palestinian landscape, with its olive groves and citrus trees, as well as cultural scenes featuring symbols of identity amid the nationalist struggle - the Palestinians' pursuit of self-determination, independence and statehood.

One of his most famous works is Camel of Hardship, painted in 1973. It shows an elderly porter carrying the burden of Jerusalem and the golden Dome of the Rock on his back.

"He was actually the main Palestinian artist, the best known locally and internationally," recalled his friend and fellow artist Vera Tamari.

Tamari said Mansour's work showed "Palestine in all its beauty and hope".

"He portrayed the Palestinian woman in her thobe - her traditional embroidered costume - and he portrayed people very much attached to the land," she went on. "He wanted people to know that we are rooted here."

Mansour was born in the village of Birzeit in British Mandate Palestine in 1947 – a year before the State of Israel was established, and the advent of the first Arab-Israeli war. During the conflict, more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes or fled in what is known as the Nakba, "the Catastrophe".

As a young man, Mansour studied fine art in Jerusalem but went on to develop his own distinctive style. He has spoken of how Palestinian artists lived in a "cultural ghetto" and how he was influenced by a book showing works of the Mexican painter Diego Rivera.

Over time, Mansour contributed to creating a local artistic movement, as co-founder of the League of Palestinian Artists and the International Academy of Art and helping to set up local art galleries.

As well as his paintings on canvas, Mansour created cartoons, children's illustrations and wrote books. Many remember him as an inspiring art teacher.

His works are held in private collections and at major international institutions including the Guggenheim Museum in Abu Dhabi, the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, and the British Museum in London.

However, unlike many artists, Mansour was also strongly in favour of his paintings being reproduced as prints, making them more accessible and adding to their wide appreciation.

"He was the mastermind of creating a Palestine that unifies us all as Palestinians, something that we long for and we work to live in," said Amer Shomali, a visual artist and director general of the Palestinian Museum.

"I grew up in a refugee camp in Syria," he continued. "As a child, I had two of his posters on my wall. He was everywhere. He was focusing and capitalising on reaching the masses.

"He liked the idea that [his work] was being displayed by people who could afford it all around the world."

The political nature of Palestinian art often drew the attention of Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank. In a podcast, Mansour spoke about how in the 1970s and 1980s soldiers would confiscate posters and postcards, arresting the sellers.

When a new space for solo exhibitions, Gallery 79, was founded in Ramallah, he said: "The soldiers started coming to the opening of every new exhibition and sometimes taking whatever they didn't like."

"We developed a kind of art that is symbolic so that people will understand what we mean and the soldiers will not understand," he commented.

During the first intifada or uprising, which began in 1987, Mansour helped found the New Vision collective with other artists, including Tamari. Boycotting Israeli-made supplies including oil and acrylic paints, they turned increasingly to natural materials from clay to henna.

"Sliman specialised in working in mud and straw in very effective cracked surfaces, which reminded people of history and time and the rootedness of Palestine in the earth itself," Tamari said.

Friends remember a soft-spoken, humble man with a gift for explaining complex ideas in a simple way and who loved to share his work.

Although his canvases typically sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, when he completed a large mural for the Palestinian Museum, his requested fee was only a fig tree to be planted in the garden.

Pine tar: The surprising, smoky goo that Finns can't stop eating

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260828-the-smoky-plant-goo-that-finns-cant-stop-eating, yesterday

Once used to waterproof boats and treat infections, this smoky plant byproduct is now used to flavour everything from schnapps to bread. But how does it taste?

I've been in the sub-Arctic city of Oulu, Finland for only a few hours when I'm caught under a torrent of late summer rain. I take refuge in a cafe and order a coffee and sugar-dusted pannukakku (a thick pancake). The waiter asks me, "What flavour? We have almond, tar, blueberry..."

I'm certain I've misunderstood: "Did you say tar?" He nods nonchalantly.

Welcome to Oulu, the northern Finnish city where terva (pine tar, usually translated in English simply as "tar") is on the menu. Produced by heating pine wood without oxygen, this thick, dark substance flavours everything from lager to ice cream, lending a distinct, rich smokiness.

"It's an intense flavour, so a little goes a long way," says Matti Moller of the Arctic Food Lab, an initiative showcasing northern Finland's culinary culture. "But it's brilliant to experiment with in everything from fish to desserts."

To Finns, pine tar's aroma has long been associated with wooden boats, summer cottages and sauna scents. So what's the recent culinary appeal?

I've decided to find out.

From sealant to meal

Hugging the northern coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, Oulu is renowned as a tech hub, and as the European Capital of Culture 2026, this scenic Baltic port city is flooded with events this year.

Yet just two centuries ago, Oulu had a very different reputation. Encircled by dense pine forests and the winding channels of the Oulujoki delta, it was famed as the tar capital of the world.

"Oulu has been a major trading hub since the 15th Century thanks to its position on the Oulu River," says local guide Sirpa Törmä. "By the 1860s, it had become the world's largest tar-exporting port."

Essential for waterproofing wooden sailing ships, tar was produced by smouldering wood in tar pits across villages along the river, then transported in narrow boats to Oulu's harbour for global export.

Thanks to its antibacterial properties, tar had also long been used as a natural wound treatment all over Finland. "As the well-known saying goes: 'If sauna, spirits and tar do not help, the disease is fatal,'" explains Ritva Kylli, a food historian at the University of Oulu.

But how did it make its way to the Finnish palate?

Tar-as-flavour made its debut on pharmacy shelves. Archives at the National Library of Finland reveal that tar-flavoured medicinal lozenges date back to the early 1900s, and Oulu's local papers advertised tervakaramellit ('tar sweets') as early as 1902. "These were medicinal lozenges sold in apothecary shops for coughs and respiratory diseases," says Kylli.

Even if not every Finn enjoys the taste of tar, virtually everyone has tried the iconic black terva pastille. The nation's most famous brand is Terva Leijona (Tar Lion), sold to this day. Launched in 1933, the pastilles were created by Oulu pharmacist YW Jalander after watching locals inhale smoky tar fumes for their health. Facing low profits, he invented a tar essence (tervaessanssi) and infused it into liquorice pastilles, which he sold through his confectionary company, Merijal. Terva Leijona eventually changed hands, but it is still made using his recipe.

As popular as they were, tar didn't make the leap from pastille to gourmet treat until the end of the 20th Century, says Kylli, as living standards rose and interest in regional heritage cuisine grew across the country: "[It] seems to be connected to a growing interest in the cultural memory of Oulu's tar economy, a trend spreading beyond northern historical trade routes to all of Finland," she says. "It was reimagined into a distinctive heritage flavour."

'It can be addictive'

Matti tells me he buys tar chocolate and syrup a few times a year.

"The taste is unique – sweet, smoky, medicinal and completely unmistakable," he says as we walk across the picturesque island of Pikisaari, connected to Oulu's city centre by a short bridge. "Why do we love it? Perhaps we're tasting our roots, the Finnish forest and our heritage."

The Oulu region, as the historic heart of the pine tar culture, has also become the symbolic centre of pine tar cuisine, with a high concentration of restaurants, cafes and bakeries that produce terva foods.

At Pekka Heikkinen, a family bakery in Kajaani founded in 1913, owner Kaisa Marin bakes traditional bread and pastries. "Tar boats used to sail right past our bakery to Oulu," she explains. "When pine tar food innovations emerged in the '90s, it was natural to start baking tar-flavoured bread."

For Marin, the connection is deeply personal: "My grandmother washed my hair with tar shampoo in the sauna, and our cabin's boat was sealed with tar. To me, the scent is cosy, nostalgic and rooted in home. I love it!" She always keeps thinly sliced tar bread in the freezer, ready to fry in butter when guests arrive. Though not for everyone, she warns it can be addictive. "My uncle, a master confectioner, created a rich tar chocolate that we bake every Christmas. We've even made cakes with pine tar and spruce needles."

Rina Hirviniemi, owner of the cosy Kahvila Kiikku, also bakes tar bread at least once a week, usually pairing it with gravlax. "In summer, I serve vanilla ice cream with tar syrup, and in winter, we grill with tar outside," she says. "I like keeping tar products on hand, though I don't put them on the menu – I have an eye for people I can recommend it to."

So what does it taste like?

Convinced, I decide to – literally – bite. According to Marin, ice cream is the best starting point for tar newcomers, so I head to Market Square's ice cream van. Cone in hand, I sit by Toripolliisi, the brawny bronze police statue keeping watch over the square, and take my first hesitant taste.

A smoky-sweet aroma rushes from nose to palate – the unexpected whiff of bacon. Yet, it's surprisingly sweet. Intrigued, I can't stop eating. Bite by bite, it completely wins me over.

Just as Marin predicted, I find myself becoming addicted. I head next to ChocoSomnia, an Oulu chocolate maker. "We make tar pralines, chocolate bars and tar coffee. We get curious first-timers, but also loyal regulars," says co-owner Mika Lähteenmäki. Sampling a square of dark chocolate infused with pine tar and cranberry, I'm struck by the balance of smoky depth, rich cocoa bitterness and soft berry sweetness; the very taste of a pine forest in midsummer.

I can't stop there. My local friend leads me to a supermarket for Terva Leijona pastilles. Like impatient children, we tear open the box and pop the tiny black sweets. Instead of subtle sweetness, an intense, smoky rush clears my airways. My friend introduces me to two of his mates, and I discover that local usage varies widely: some drizzle tar syrup on bacon, others serve tar schnapps before nights out. For others still, tar candies reign supreme.

While most Finns buy ready-made tar products, today's skilled chefs craft them from scratch. This is what brought me to Lasaretti, a restaurant tucked into the riverfront oasis of Oulu's Hupisaaret Park. Today, head chef Laurance Robinson is serving smoked whitefish pasta with tar pearls, pickled fennel and red onion. "I can't build a tar pit, so I buy flavouring from Kujala's farm to make my syrup for sweet and savoury dishes," he says. "Balancing its strong, pungent taste took time." Resembling caviar, the tar pearls burst in my mouth against the whitefish, sharp fennel, and sweet archipelago bread. It is pure umami with subtle smokiness.

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• The controversial sweet that fuels Norwegians

• How tacos became Norway's national comfort food

• Ireland's mysterious non-boozy football drink

Originally from the Isle of Man, Robinson cooked across Europe before settling in Finland. "I'll never forget my first taste of tar in 2011 – a sauna soda from my future father-in-law. It tasted like an ashtray at first, but the smokiness mellowed. Later, when I had the freedom to experiment, I said, 'I want to be the tar chef.'" His tar pavlova recently won best dessert at an Oulu culinary contest. "I wonder how far I can push it."

Watching passersby drift through the sunny park, I marvel at how tar shifted from a maritime necessity to the flavour of local identity. "You know what," says my friend. "I've had a horrible headache since morning, but after eating this dish, it's completely gone."

I can't promise it cures headaches, but in every sense, tar remains a uniquely Finnish ingredient that still works its quiet magic.

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'Paella is just for lunch' and other unwritten rules for visiting Spain

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260826-five-unwritten-rules-for-visiting-spain, 4 days ago

Spain is famous for its laid-back lifestyle, but beneath the long lunches and late nights are social codes that shape everyday life. Our expert explains how to read them.

While Spain is beloved for its beautiful beaches, romantic architecture and delicious food culture, one of its strongest draws is its famously relaxed pace. No hay prisa ("no rush") and tranquilo ("relax") are oft-uttered phrases here; meals are drawn out and nightlife lasts until morning. Even non-Spanish speakers know the meaning of siesta.

But "relaxed" doesn't mean there's no order. Beneath Spain's easy-going surface are silent social codes that shape everything from how people queue to how they structure their days. Instinctive rather than explicitly stated, Spain's unwritten social rules are often based on respect for regional identity, a belief that life is best lived sociably in public and a historical need to work with, not against, the searing Sun. Locals might not say them out loud, but that doesn't make them any less important to learn.

From relinquishing your personal space to skipping paella at dinner, here are five unwritten rules that will help you understand Spain from the inside.

1. Trust the invisible queue

Try to order at a covered market, pharmacy, bakery, bar or local shop in Spain and you'll typically find people standing around randomly, no clear line in sight.

It may seem confusing to the outsider, but there's a deeply ingrained system at play, rooted in a cultural preference for interaction, informality and social trust. "Queues" in Spain do indeed exist, but they are typically spread-out crowds rather than prim lines because of space constraints in small premises or market aisles; standing where it's most convenient solves the issue. But how do you know when it's your turn?

What to do: When you arrive, approach the closest person and ask "¿Quién es el último?" (Who's last?) or simply "¿El último?" They will point to whomever is. Once you know who's last, you're free to walk along the displays and peruse what to buy without losing your place. But stay alert: you will get asked "¿El último?", too.

2. Don't assume the meal is over when it's over

You've just had the last bites of Spanish tortilla and the last drops of Rioja. But before you ask for the bill, look around. The tables next to you, strewn with empty glasses and crumpled napkins, may look like they've finished too, but they're just entering another phase: the ritual known as la sobremesa.

Literally translated as "over the table", la sobremesa is the hour (or hours) after the meal when everyone settles in for a long conversation. It may involve another round of coffee or drinks, but there's no pressure: la sobremesa is all about enjoying each other's company.

The tradition is thought to stretch back to the agricultural past, when families sat around the table after lunch as it was still too hot return to the fields immediately. Most Spaniards may no longer till the fields, but the sobremesa continues its role in maintaining relationships. The joy of enjoying each meal for as long as possible has never gone out of style.

What to do: Simply relax, put away your phone and keep chatting away. Waiters are used to letting people enjoy their conversations, so just raise a hand to ask for the bill when you're (really) ready to leave. And feel free to linger even longer.

3. Follow the Sun

Spain's famously late rhythm can bewilder visitors, with dinners that last until midnight and shops that close for hours after lunch. But there's a logic behind the seemingly languorous rhythm. In Spain, people work with, not against, the Sun.

Historically, Spanish farmers started the day early to get their work done before the Sun grew too hot, saving lunch until they were through. Then, in the 1940s, General Franco moved the clocks forward to align with Nazi Germany. Though the country now found itself in the Central European time zone, many stuck to the traditional solar schedule: lunch at 13:00 became lunch at 14:00 as the sun reached its zenith an hour later than before, and dinner happened later, too, as the light now lasted longer.

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In Spain, the workday is also slightly longer than the EU average: 36.3 hours per week versus 35.9 hours. Perhaps that's why Spain's famous "siesta" is increasingly less the norm, since 80% of its population now lives in cities. Unable to head home at lunchtime and have a nap, workers now often return to the office or use the post-lunch time to tackle chores.

What to do: Shape your day around avoiding the worst of the afternoon Sun between 13:00 and 18:00 – a light breakfast. Check shop hours to avoid slogging through the heat to a shuttered destination, and keep in mind that only tourist restaurants open at 19:00. If you can hold off until 20:30 or 21:00 you'll be able to eat at better establishments. Consider a strategic siesta to help you stave off the hunger, or prepare for a long night.

4. Make room for the crowd

Spain is a tactile nation, where touching an arm for emphasis, greeting with hugs and (lots of) kisses, bumping shoulders in a bar and standing close to strangers in a line are all everyday aspects of social behaviour – though they can surprise visitors from places with stricter norms around personal proximity.

Furthermore, whether you find yourself in the city or the village, Spanish social life has traditionally been lived in public places like plazas, bars and streets. These shared spaces can get quite closely packed, meaning you end up very close to your neighbours by default.

What to do: Don't automatically read physical closeness as rudeness. Stake out your own (little) space but accept that you'll still catch accidental bumps and jostles in busy areas. If you need to squeeze past someone, a simple "perdón" (sorry) suffices, and almost always elicits "no pasa nada" (no problem) from the other person.

5. Don't order paella for dinner or sangria at a bar

Thanks to Spain's thriving tourist industry, you'll find the same supposed Spanish staples – sangria, paella and tapas – wherever you go.

But Spain is a huge country, with 17 autonomous communities on the mainland, and an equal number of regional cuisines. Traditionally, people ate what was produced locally, and that love for and loyalty towards regional identity when it comes to food is still strong today.

Embrace the opportunity to enjoy the beloved dishes of the city you're visiting. Paella is revered as a native dish of Valencia and Catalonia, but wherever you try it, do it like the Spanish and order it just at lunchtime, as it is considered a heavy meal to digest. Tapas bars will serve regional specialties depending on the city, but the sheer creative variety of pintxos is best enjoyed in their Basque homeland.

If you're in Madrid in the colder months, don't miss the famous meaty chickpea cocido stew; enjoy gazpacho in Andalusia and most of Spain in the summer. Year-round, consider swerving the sangria. Locals do drink it, but it's not regarded a bar drink: it's more commonly consumed as a punch at parties.

What to do: If a restaurant has a photo menu, it will likely be a tourist trap. To explore regional dishes, try a three-course menú del dia in local restaurants during weekdays. These menus are dying out in Spain partly because of shorter lunch breaks and the rise of new, trendier eateries, so look out for places full of locals with daily chalkboard menus, generally indicating fresh, seasonal food.

To drink at the bar like a local, order the nationally adored tinto de verano, a mix of red wine and lemonade that contains no hard liquor, or tiny caña draft beers, which stay colder longer.

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Hiking Norway's heavily monitored Russian border

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260819-hiking-along-norways-heavily-guarded-russian-border, 8 days ago

A series of scenic paths trace the Norwegian-Russian border. But as you trek through the tundra and forests, you may notice watchtowers and cameras hanging in trees.

I'm standing at a hillside clearing in the tundra along the Russian-Norwegian border, watching the Pasvik River ripple and writhe below. Maybe it's the rustle of birch leaves overhead or the buzzing sound of mosquitoes circling all around me, but I have an unshakeable feeling that I'm being watched.

Then again, those hairs on the back of my neck could be triggered by the nearby military watchtower, and the fact that this public hiking trail is under constant surveillance.

Located in the far reaches of north-eastern Norway on a jagged fjord close to where Finland, Russia and Norway meet, the small town of Kirkenes is best known among travellers as the final turnaround port for a number of small Arctic cruise lines. But increasingly, local operators are leaning into another opportunity: leading cruisers on wind-whipped treks along Nato's northernmost land border to the unfenced-but-heavily-monitored 198km-long line separating Norway and Russia.

Here, surrounded by taiga forest, travellers can explore a network of public trails where cameras hang in the trees, watchtowers dot the horizon and military patrols ensure visitors are abiding by the periodic pillars (yellow for Norway, red for Russia) marking the international boundary between the two nations.

Drawn by the prospect of exploring the Arctic's most closely watched frontiers, I've set out on a three-hour trek through a birch forest strewn with boggy puddles. The trail runs parallel to the Pasvik River for roughly 1km before it reaches the "border corridor": an 8m-wide (26ft) strip of cleared forest that's a veritable no-man's land where travellers can't go. From there, the trek culminates in a scramble up Russehøgda, a hillside overlooking the Storskog border crossing that is the only legal land border between the countries.

But as we enter the forest, my guide, Henrik Hoffmann, switches off his mobile to avoid connecting to Russian data networks. He instinctively taps a satellite phone in his pocket, and I'm reminded that this is no ordinary walk in the woods.

The lure of Russia's land border

Hoffmann has been leading these border-trek trips since 2025 but relocated to Kirkenes in 2021, just before Russia's invasion of Ukraine a year later. Since then, he says that both Russia and Norway have increased security along their respective borders here. Now, seemingly minor offences, like throwing stones towards Russia, risk heavy fines and wandering beyond the marked international boundaries has resulted in detainments.

Still, he says that after travelling along Norway's coastline, many passengers who arrive in Kirkenes on Hurtigruten and Havila cruises are eager to escape the confines of ships and shuttle buses and get an up-close look at where these two nations meet.

"Many older travellers are particularly interested because they remember the Cold War and have followed relations between Europe and Russia over many decades," Hoffmann explains. "The hike allows them to experience the landscape for themselves while learning about the history and present-day realities of living beside Russia."

More like this:

• A 65km hike into Norway's vanishing past

• The European bike trail that hits three countries in a day

• The lonely road to Europe's Arctic edge

While Kirkenes Tours is the newest operator to offer border excursions, it's not the first. Havila Voyages has been leading visitors to this area since 2000, while Hurtigruten told the BBC that its Norwegian Border tour – which also leads travellers through a WW2 atomic bomb shelter – recently became the most popular of its eight Kirkenes excursions.

"Interest in the border has definitely increased over the past few years," says Hoffmann. Despite an initial reduction in tourism following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he explained that understanding the border is now a driving motivator for those visiting Kirkenes.

According to Anja Tellervo Hansen, destination manager at Visit Kirkenes, these border treks allow visitors to "learn more about what everyday life in our region looks like, and how the closeness to the border has shaped the Kirkenes region over the years".

Evidence of this shared history is everywhere in Kirkenes. The town is the only place in Norway where street signs are marked in both Norwegian and Russian. Near the centre, the towering Russia War Monument commemorates the day in 1944 when the Red Army liberated Kirkenes from Nazi occupation. And the nearby Borderland Museum highlights how Norwegians, Finns and Russians have intermixed here for generations.

Along the Pasvik River, the border sharply juts west, surrounding the Boris Gleb Church. The Russian Orthodox church dates to the 12th-Century and helped define the modern border here 200 years ago.

Trekking the trail

Soon after landing at Kirkenes Airport, I was whisked into a van that cut through the city, past the port where cruisers had already docked for the day and dropped off at an unassuming layby flanked by dense walls of birch and conifer trees.

"Ready?" said Hoffman, who was waiting in the layby with a rucksack, beckoning for me to follow along a stony track.

An hour later, I'm stepping up a rocky outcrop as Hoffmann nimbly picks the way ahead. As beads of sweat form on my forehead, I pause, taking in the eerie expanse of birch trees dipping down towards the Pasvik River. Soon, the outcrop slopes onto a flattened summit.

Standing on Russehøgda, surrounded by desolate tundra and a horizon of hazy peaks, I momentarily forget that I'm at one of Europe's most scrutinised borders and am consumed by the sheer beauty of the terrain. Then I glance to the right, notice a yellow and red set of markers only a few metres away, and am sharply reminded where I am.

Hoffman and I throw down a blanket on top of a smooth rock and sit for a drink. "There's Storskog," he says, gesturing towards two lakefront checkpoints below. From a few kilometres away, I can just make out the occasional truck driving along the E105 to cross into Russia. He says that recreational crossings have reduced, but a handful of vehicles still make the journey on a daily basis.

He also explains that while more visitors are trekking these border trails, fewer residents are; Hoffmann has seen more military patrols than local hikers. "You don't see many Norwegians here," he says, "Perhaps it's a classic case of not exploring your own doorstep."

As we turn away from Storskog and descend Russehøgda, I find myself silenced by the gravity of the experience. I've spent a lifetime crossing borders and collecting stamps, but I could have sat for hours just looking at Storskog.

From painted markers to the distant outline of Boris Gleb Church, centuries of politics and negotiations have shaped this terrain. It's easy to understand why more and more cruise passengers are disembarking to witness it firsthand.

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Cruise ship numbers still low amid visitor rise

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyk7508z2eo, today

The number of cruise ships visiting Guernsey is still low compared to pre-pandemic figures, a coach company boss has said.

Hannah Beacom, managing director of Island Coachway, said cruises would be booked 100 days of the year, and booked up to two years in advance, but now they were looking at between 40 to 50 a year.

"It makes a difference to how you plan your season and prioritise resources," she said.

The latest quarterly travel and visitor accommodation bulletin said visitor numbers, excluding yacht and cruise ship passengers, have risen to 81,681, which was not far below pre-pandemic levels.

Beacom said: "We're all agile within the industry, everyone's diversified."

However, she said it had been the "most positive" she had been since the pandemic.

Beacom added: "It's been a long climb for us out of the Covid years.

"We can see in these figures how we've got most of the business back and wouldn't it be great to bring the cruise liners along with it."

Beacom said with most cruise ships docking on Sundays, when the shops were either closed or shut at 17:00 BST, there was not a lot to do.

She said cruise ship passenger numbers range from 250 to 5,000 and she did not expect the whole town to open for a small amount of visitors.

Beacom also said 25% of cruise liners, sometimes 100%, were all inclusive and on pre-booked excursions whether it was with a coach operators, going to Herm or Sark or local walks.

"There's quite a big operation."

Charlie Walker, co-chair of the States' Tourism Advisory Board, said it was working with organisers to align the events such as VisitGuernsey's Seafront Sundays with same-day cruise liner calls to give visitors "something to do".

She also said the board could look at seasonal opening hours.

Walker said the island remained a "seasonal destination" at present, but the aim was to extend the season from March to October with more events.

"We're only just getting started," she added.

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Working group created to focus on air connectivity

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq8jvw44kx4o, yesterday

A new working group has been created to oversee a review of the air services between the Channel Islands and the UK.

Alderney's Policy and Finance Committee established the Air Connectivity Oversight Working Group, comprised of States members Steve Roberts as chair, Veronica Taylor and Kevin Gentle.

The group was formed after Roberts proposed the States of Alderney commission an independent review of air services between the island, Guernsey, Jersey and the UK.

Roberts said the review would help develop an evidence-based understanding of the current challenges affecting Alderney's air connectivity.

Aurigny blamed weather conditions for most of the cancellations in the first two months of the year.

The airline said some cancellations in March had been caused by technical issues with the Twin Otter aircraft based in Guernsey and other cancellations had been caused by pilot absences.

"Recent disruption has reinforced the importance of understanding the challenges facing Alderney's air connectivity," Roberts said.

He added the first phase of the review was set to focus on gathering evidence and data on the impact of air connectivity on employment, healthcare, education, tourism, business activity and everyday life.

The working group will consider operational statistics collected by local pilots, as well as passenger survey data collected by the Alderney Chamber of Commerce, with both datasets covering the period since February 2026.

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'I've visited 50 places on extreme day trips'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62k43x71xyo, yesterday

A woman has become hooked on extreme day-tripping, flying to about 50 destinations from Birmingham Airport.

An extreme day trip is a travel trend where someone travels to a destination in a different country and returns home the same day.

Claire Howard, a teacher from Solihull, told BBC CWR that she has spent the day on the beaches of Benidorm, listening to French live music in Beauvais and eating Italian food in Bergamo.

She said: "I have seen more places for less money and go to places I would never have been to."

Howard began embarking on day trips from Birmingham after her friend bagged them both £29 return tickets to Dublin for the day for her birthday around two and half years ago.

She got a taste for it and decided to see where else she can go within 12 to 24 hours.

The furthest she has travelled in a day is to Malaga, about a two-and-a-half-hour flight. For beginners she advises heading to destinations such as Dublin, Belfast or Edinburgh.

Howard told BBC CWR that she sometimes flies out on a Monday evening, books a cheap hostel, has the full day in the destination the next day, flies home in the evening and is back in work by Wednesday.

Howard said she spends around £150 all-in for a day trip which includes transport, food and parking.

"I wouldn't try to do a whole city in a day, pick one or two things you really want to see and just wander", she added.

She was aware of the environmental impact of extreme day tripping but she tries to be sustainable in other areas of her life, she said.

"For the past year I have only bought second-hand clothes," she said.

"All forms of holiday, like cruise ships, have an environmental impact, but we all try to offset that where we can and live our lives."

Out of the near 50 extreme day trips Howard has embarked on, she said she has only ever had one bad experience when her return flight was cancelled.

She said: "I feel tired when I come home but you feel like you have done something kind of incredible.

"You might have been somewhere like the top of Mont Blanc and then the next day you are back in work – you just feel like you have done something really cool."

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I couldn't reach Yr Wyddfa's summit because people jumped the queue

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98016219nmo, yesterday

When Helen Pacey and her family booked a trip on the Snowdon Mountain Railway, they were looking forward to touching the summit marker at the top of Yr Wyddfa, also known as Snowdon.

But after spending 30 minutes waiting in a queue at the top of Wales' highest mountain, 58-year-old Helen ran out of time and had to get the return train back down.

"I've had both my hips replaced, so there was no way I could have gone up the rocky side of it," said Helen, from Hull in Yorkshire.

"Because people were pushing in, we missed out. That is not fair."

Scores of visitors have climbed Yr Wyddfa this summer, but there have been reports of people waiting more than an hour to reach the mountain's highest point, at 1,085m (3,560ft).

Earlier this week, we reported on arguments breaking out between queue-jumpers and those waiting in line at the top. Dozens of readers subsequently got in touch to share their views on the issue.

One of those who contacted us was Pacey, who hoped to touch the metal plate at the mountain's highest point alongside her husband, sister and brother-in-law.

But when Pacey and her family got off the train on 22 August, they were faced with a long queue.

"It was hectic," she said "There were people just pushing and shoving and running past us and climbing up the rocks to get up."

Pacey said the summit was so crowded that she was surprised nobody fell.

The group had only 30 minutes before their return train and they did not reach the trig point before they had to begin their descent.

"It was quite sad," she said. "It's really disappointing we didn't actually go right to the summit.

"But for me, it's not something I would do again, I just felt it was too dangerous up at the top with the amount of people shoving and pushing."

Pacey said the mountain was "for everybody", not just the "endurance runners and hikers".

"It's not fair that these people that are much fitter than others are just running up the rocks and getting to the top," she said.

Pacey said there should be an "authority figure" to help keep order, or a barrier telling people which way to go up and down the steps.

Serena Cain, 50, travelled from Norfolk to hike up the mountain with her partner for his 56th birthday.

She said when they got to the top and saw a long queue, it was "soul-destroying".

"I literally go to pieces in a queue," said Serena, who has ADHD and said she felt physical pain trying to stand still.

"It is very difficult for me, particularly when I'm exhausted and overstimulated."

Serena said when she saw other people avoiding the queue by climbing the rocks, she and her partner decided to do the same.

"We just didn't see what other option there was at that point, other than just not reaching the top, which would have been gutting," said Serena, adding that she had a birthday meal booked and needed to get back down in time for it.

Having climbed up the mountain's second hardest route, she added: "It was such a big achievement for us, because we're in our 50s, it's not a small feat."

But she recalled how one woman was "so cross with me" that "it ruined that moment completely for us".

"We didn't want to upset anyone, and we'd like to apologise if we did."

She said she understood why people waited in a queue, and thought there should be a sign at the beginning of the route to make people aware of the possibility.

James Munday, 21, from Loughborough, completed the Three Peaks challenge earlier this month and Yr Wyddfa was the last mountain he and his friends had to climb.

"It's a challenge where you hike up the three tallest mountains in the UK, which is Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, and Snowdon. The aim is to do it within 24 hours, including all of the driving. We managed to do it in 23 hours and 13 minutes."

Munday said he and his two friends were raising money for a hospice.

But their success depended on them making it up and down all three peaks within 24 hours, so when they spotted the queue at the summit of Yr Wyddfa, Munday said they had no intention of joining it.

"The queue started sort of towards the bottom of the steps that led up to the summit, but there was there was quite a few people not queuing and just climbing up the back, touching the top and then leaving straight away."

He said there were between 100 and 150 people queuing to get to the top.

As they were making their way to the top, he said a woman who was queuing "had a dig" and said "she'd been queuing for 40 minutes". Munday said they apologised and explained it was a timed Three Peaks challenge for charity.

"I feel like it was valid because obviously she doesn't know that we're doing the Three Peaks and that it's for charity. But I think if people understood... you have to do it under 24 hours, and if you're doing it for charity, I feel like people would understand a bit more."

Munday said he believed queuing was "Snowdon specific" due to how popular it is.

"And I think it's just what British people do, really, isn't it?"

He said if he had not been doing the challenge he would not have bothered going to the summit.

Munday said he had no issue with people queuing but "they either need to make it a rule that you must queue and signpost it, or police it... or have a queue and a sign that says Three Peaks climbers don't have to queue, please respect that".

Liam White said queues at the top of Yr Wyddfa had been an issue for years.

He said he and his friends climbed the mountain in 2023 and had to wait in a queue for more than 30 minutes to reach the summit.

"There were those that were just jumping the line, getting straight up to the peak and touching the old metal plate," he said.

"It's obviously a little bit frustrating because you're patiently waiting," he added.

He said his friend booed people as they cut past them.

The reason people queue is because of "the sheer volume of people" who are walking up the set pathways leading to the trig point, he said.

"When you've got a lot of people waiting to do something, you can't all rush out at the same time," he said. "If people start pushing and shoving, it's a bit of a risky place to do it. Because if someone slips, falls, they might not stop falling."

White said he did not think a warden would be good as he feared it could result in charges for hikers, but "maybe just a few signs to say 'be considerate'".

A spokesman for the Eryri National Park Authority previously said there were "no plans to intervene in a dispute over hikers queuing at the top of Yr Wyddfa".

"There are three quarters of a million people summitting annually, so queues are likely to be expected in peak times," the spokesman added.

He said the matter would be discussed at a meeting to mark the end of the season in the early autumn.

The Nazi shipwrecks emerging from the Danube

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260818-the-nazi-shipwrecks-emerging-from-europes-great-river, 11 days ago

As the Danube shrinks under extreme heat, the river is revealing a startling remnant of Europe's wartime past.

This month, record-low water levels on the Danube have exposed at least 20 German warships near Prahovo in eastern Serbia. Rusted hulls and broken masts are emerging from the river – the remains of a Nazi Black Sea fleet deliberately scuttled during World War Two.

Wrecks have surfaced during previous droughts, but this summer's extreme heat and drought have brought dozens of vessels back into view. Some are believed to contain weapons and explosives, turning this stretch of one of Europe's great cruising rivers into an eerie, visible battlefield.

For travellers cruising along the Danube this summer, the falling water is revealing a landscape – and history – normally hidden beneath the river.

Eighty-two years beneath the Danube

The story of how they got there begins more than eight decades ago. By 1944, German forces were retreating on the Eastern Front as the Soviets advanced through the region, leaving a fleet of around 200 Nazi Black Sea vessels stranded in what was an area rapidly falling under Soviet control.

The Danube offered an escape route, but the Iron Gates – a narrow and historically treacherous stretch of the river – created a bottleneck. In September 1944, German Rear Admiral Paul-Willy Zieb ordered more than 200 vessels scuttled as the Red Army closed in. The ships were deliberately sunk to prevent their capture and obstruct the Soviet advance.

Most have remained submerged beneath the river ever since, partly because many still contain unexploded ordnance and pose a hazard to navigation. Serbia has launched an estimated €30m removal programme to remove some of the vessels, but progress has been slow because clearing the riverbed safely is complex.

For travellers, it's a striking sight along Europe's second-longest river, which stretches roughly 2,850km (1,770 miles) across 10 countries and centuries full of falling empires and shifting allegiances.

Kenneth Reece, a travel planner who recently cruised the lower Danube aboard the Avalon Passion, says reminders of the region's turbulent history surrounded them throughout their trip.

"We visited medieval fortresses, heard stories about life under communism and dictatorship, learned about the wars that have shaped this region and travelled through places where some of that history is still within living memory," Reece said. "Hearing about the WWII-era German shipwrecks beneath the Danube added another layer… The history wasn't only in museums or monuments. Some of it was quite literally beneath us."

What else the river is revealing

The Nazi ships aren't the only remnants emerging as the Danube falls.

This August, receding water has also exposed a German army Wehrmacht motorcycle in Budapest and a 1,543lb British bomb near Virt, Slovakia, which was later safely detonated. At Gigen in Bulgaria, falling water has revealed the remains of the ancient Constantine Bridge, while near Ryahovo, archaeologists unearthed woolly mammoth tusks and bones dating back thousands of years.

"For archaeologists, these moments are extremely valuable," Pavel Popov of the Regional Historical Museum in Pleven told Reuters. "It gives us a rare opportunity to observe, document and study it in its real environment."

Droughts and fluctuating water levels are not new to the Danube. Europe is the fastest-warming continent, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, warming at more than twice the global average. Rising temperatures are intensifying heat extremes and altering rainfall patterns, contributing to repeated low-water events that disrupt navigation along the river.

"The Danube was revealing warnings from our past while, at the same time, perhaps giving us a warning about our future," Reece said.

What low water means for travellers

The consequences are already being felt by visitors to the region. This summer's low waters have forced Danube cruise operators to cancel sailings, change itineraries, transfer passengers between ships and use coaches to bypass unnavigable sections of the river.

More like this:

• This loophole allows tourists to reach Scotland's most remote and majestic scenery

• A tempestuous isle of 1,000 shipwrecks

• A 200km kayak along one of Europe's last wild rivers

Yet the changing river can also transform what travellers encounter along the way.

"We never realised that we would sail directly over the sunken German warships," said Suzanna Fulton, who recently cruised on the Viking Honir. "It was humbling and quite honestly, a cool experience."

Reece said seeing evidence of the Danube's wartime history made the beauty and peacefulness of the river feel more poignant.

"Today, you can sit on the deck of a river cruise ship with a glass of wine and watch these beautiful countries pass by, but this same landscape has witnessed war, fascism, oppression and tremendous human suffering," he said. "I think that's what stayed with me most. The Danube wasn't simply taking us through Europe. In many ways, it was taking us through Europe's history."

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Is 'Tiny Tourism' the antidote to mass tourism? I went to Dublin to try it out

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260813-is-tiny-tourism-the-antidote-to-mass-tourism, 14 days ago

A new travel philosophy preaches skipping tourist sights and doing everyday things instead. But will it really be a trip to Dublin if I don't visit Temple Bar?

I am strolling through Dublin's city centre when a yellow amphibious vehicle piled with tourists in plastic Viking hats barrels past me. Just as they holler in my direction, I grab my camera and duck into the supermarket on the corner to wander the crisps aisle instead.

Supermarket shopping might seem like an offbeat holiday choice, but that's the essence of "Tiny Tourism", a concept first coined by UK-based creative platform It's Nice That. The counter-trend snubs overcrowded hotspots and "bucket lists" in favour of seeking out small, hyper-local experiences. The principle boils down to one little rule: if it feels like a tourist would do it, don't.

As a travel writer, I'm willing to put the idea to the test on a long weekend in Dublin with my daughter. Instead of hitting Temple Bar and the Guinness Factory, we'll follow the Tiny Tourist mentality and go thrift shopping, take public transport and browse pharmacies. Will swerving Dublin's Big Tourism attractions in favour of micro details really help us understand the city better?

It's the little things

Tiny Tourism might be new, but the desire to experience places like a local isn't. Over 20 years in the industry, I've seen this urge spring from a belief that that mass tourism is increasingly inauthentic. It's now common to find "Disneyfied" versions of cities, with hordes of rowdy visitors and nary a local accent in earshot. No wonder today's travellers crave something more meaningful.

Liz Gorny, lead editor of It's Nice That Insights, conceived Tiny Tourism when she noticed none of her colleagues talked about big sights after their holidays.

"It felt like people were always talking about this cafe they went to or what they found in a grocery store," she told the BBC. "This is the stuff that feels exciting." As destinations around the world seek ways to combat overtourism, the Tiny Tourist report, released in April 2026, encouraged readers to seek "the beach with no Google maps pin or the unreplicable hot sauce."

Tiny Tourism echoes recent travel trends like visiting foreign pharmacies and buying socks from Japanese convenience stores. Opodo's 2026 Traveller Hacks poll found that visiting supermarkets has become as normal for Brits on holiday as dining at restaurants.

So how do you do it? "Tiny travel routines", gleaned with input from industry experts and travellers, include asking locals for tips and performing everyday activities, like going running or doing a shop. Avoiding places that have reached viral status on social media is another Tiny Tourist strategy – the report considers viral videos instruction on where not to go.

"It's a powerful desire to experience the standard way of living in a place and to see how it contrasts with your own," says the report. "For travellers, an anti-spectacle approach might actually make a trip feel more lasting."

I'm game, but sceptical. Will seeking out the mundane be… dull? To find out, my daughter and I arm ourselves with recommendations from locals on the Dublin subreddit. Though it will be my first time in the city I don't feel any strong need to see the big sights, but I'm unsure about pubs. They're in every Dublin TikTok, so they don't technically qualify as Tiny Tourism. Still, pubs are a feature of everyday life for Dubliners, so I decide they get a pass.

Errands about town

Once we arrive in Dublin, our first stop is the supermarket. I'm not convinced it will be interesting, but then I'm captivated by the rainbow-coloured aisle of Taytos crisps and their new-to-us flavours, like hot dog and curry. Next, we go to Capel Street to seek out second-hand shops, which the Tiny Tourist report recommends over tourist gift shops. On the way, we pass the mobbed Leprechaun Museum and I'm happy to keep walking. It feels like a relief to avoid queues, entry fees and time slots.

In a bric-a-brac shop, I spy a sea urchin-shaped vase, and my daughter buys a book. We also find surrendered kitsch travel mementos: a wooden clog from Holland, a painted plate from Marrakesh. I'm struck by the realisation that this type of souvenir feels dated. Now that we post our travels on social media, we no longer need physical proof to show where we've been. One point for Tiny Tourism, but it does occur to me that I could be doing the same thing at home.

Our Tiny Tourism venture starts to fall apart when we wander into a pharmacy and the plasters, vitamins and creams are nothing different to what I find back in Copenhagen. Then we walk into a random fish and chip shop for dinner and, somehow find ourselves in Temple Bar.

We'd planned to avoid this rowdy 28-acre party zone, but music is pouring out of every pub down the street. Gaggles of hen parties and stag dos are celebrating outside historic buildings. It's got an undeniable pulse to it – no wonder all the crowds come here. We drop into a few pubs and have such a good time, that avoiding the big sights starts to feel misguided.

Ask a local?

Day Two starts and, feeling guilty that we didn't stick to Tiny Tourism, we're doubling down with a plan to ask locals for recommendations.

We stop at an art shop beyond the River Liffey, past the tourist track, and chat up the art student at the till. She's suggesting a couple of offbeat art galleries when a photographer joins in to recommend some ceramic studios nearby where we can make things ourselves. This is Tiny Tourism in action! We are set for a day guided by local ideas.

Unfortunately, every spot suggested is closed.

Perhaps it's unfair to ask local people to offer suggestions: they aren't tourist guides, after all. It's another fail for Tiny Tourism.

Away from the city, into the suburbs

The Tiny Tourist report suggests going running, but we're swimmers, so decide to try that instead. After scoping locations on Visit Dublin – yes, a tourism website, but it will suggest somewhere safe to swim – we take the DART commuter train to Sandycove, a picturesque suburb just outside the city. The DART is far from an undiscovered way to get around – our train is a babble of Spanish and French voices. There are only Irish accents in the air when we get to the Forty Foot, a tall cliff with steps down to the water and a scatter of people swimming, with more on the rocks watching.

I climb down the rockface and the shock of the cold Dublin Bay has me gasping. I chat to a fellow swimmer and it feels like we've joined a community: not only do we swap stories, but as a nervous girl stands at the top of the cliff daring herself to jump in, we all cheer her on.

As much as we're enjoying ourselves, I remember that Tiny Tourism advocates taking pebbles from beaches as a souvenir. It's unequivocally a bad idea. In Greece, you can be fined €1,000 (£854/$1,156) for this, because it's so destructive to the natural environment. While you're by the sea, the best souvenir is a picture – or a wet swimsuit.

The verdict

On our final day, I cannot shake the feeling that something is missing. I have to accept my verdict: Tiny Tourism is good, but it hasn't delivered quite enough. We find ourselves in Trinity College, walking around its great grassy quads where giants of Irish literature like Samuel Beckett, Jonathan Swift and Oscar Wilde once stood. Visiting Dublin without seeing its key attractions felt like eating only side dishes in a restaurant: we were still hungry for the main course.

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It's undoubtedly a good thing to reach beyond the tourist cliches of a city, but it doesn't make sense to exclude classic sights when they are prepared for visitors and often have such deep history behind them. I don't want to feel bad for enjoying Trinity College and Temple Bar – and don't think other people should either.

Why not try Medium Tourism instead? See some major sights, then spend a day or two being observant, looking for details and off-beat charm. My favourite part of the trip was the sea swimming, and we wouldn't have done that without a push from Tiny Tourism. But would it have been a trip to Dublin without a visit to Trinity College?

Tiny Tourism isn't perfect, but anything that prompts us to think differently about how we interact with the places we go and people we meet is a big victory.

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They bought a house in LA. The neighbours are bears - and they won't stay out of the pool

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260828-the-bears-cooling-off-in-a-california-swimming-pool, yesterday

Black bears love lounging in Brian Gordon and Ricardo Martinez's pool in Los Angeles. As bear encounters increase across Southern California, the couple share videos of their furry visitors and reveal how they are co-existing with these wild animals.

When Brian Gordon first learned that black bears were swimming in the pool of the house he was buying in Los Angeles, he was very afraid.

"I'd never seen a bear in real life. I said, 'We'll just build a big wall with barbed wire,'" he recalls.

Four years later, Gordon loves nothing more than seeing a family of bears playing in his pool and running around his garden. The furry visitors stop by several times a week. (Scroll down to watch a video of the bears at play.)

"They are fine to come here and scratch on the trees, take a nap, and jump in the pool if it's hot, as long as we're not creating harm for them, or for ourselves," Gordon says.

Gordon and his partner Ricardo Martinez have made it their mission to peacefully share their pool and garden with the bears. But behind these charming videos of bears relaxing in their pool, there's a deeper story of vigilance and safety precautions that make this co-existence possible.

The couple live in Monrovia, Los Angeles County, in Southern California, home to around 1,600 bears. Their house is in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and borders the Angeles National Forest, which spans 700,000 acres (2,830sq km).

When the couple moved in, they started spotting bears almost immediately. They initially tried to chase the bears away by yelling, using air horns and occasionally a paintball gun with soft rubber pellets.

"But it felt horrible," says Martinez. "It did not sit right with us. We said that as long as they're not breaking into the home and getting into the trash, then they're ok to come by."

They sought an approach that would keep both themselves and the bears safe, despite close proximity. "We've since settled on less aggressive means, and honestly, they work better for us," says Gordon.

Martinez says that black bears are "misunderstood". "They are not going to eat you," says Martinez. Black bear attacks are incredibly rare, with just one fatal attack recorded in California's history.

The couple say they always keep a "healthy distance" from the bears and stay inside when the animals are around. There are sometimes unplanned encounters though.

"We have had bears crashing barbecues," says Gordon. "But if they see you, they usually just walk away."

Meet the bears

Gordon and Martinez say their favourite bear visitor is Maddie, who they first got to know as an incredibly inquisitive youngster in 2023. She loved playing in the pool and hanging around the garden.

"She is our golden child," says Martinez. A year later, Maddie returned with her cubs in tow. "Unfortunately she lost those cubs, so we went through an emotional rollercoaster with her," says Martinez. This year she has brought her new cubs to the house. "They're the most adorable [creatures] you've ever seen. They're so cuddly but also intimidating, with their long claws."

Punky is another "rambunctious yearling" who first came to the house as a cub with her mother, says Gordon. "She would pop all the pool floaties." She once climbed onto an inflatable cupcake and drifted into the middle of the pool. "She really stole our hearts that summer with her pool fun," says Gordon.

They nicknamed another regular visitor "Nappy", as the female bear likes to take long siestas while floating in the pool.

"She'll literally go to the steps of the pool, get in and put her head down. She's the only bear I've seen take hour-long naps in the pool," says Gordon. If she sees the couple, Nappy will huff at them. "She's a big mama bear and she's just a little grumpy about everything in life," Gordon jokes.

The reality of living alongside bears

These characters are among a growing number of black bears trying to make a home alongside Californians, and often posing challenges for local communities.

There are more than 60,000 black bears living in California, says Wilson Sherman, a research fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Black bears are an increasingly common sight in LA suburbs. "They are really intelligent, adaptable omnivores. They eat everything and have learned how to gain calories in places where people live," says Sherman, who studies how communities respond to black bears.

Not all bear encounters are as positive as Gordon and Martinez's experience though.

"We do see incidents pretty regularly of bears raiding trash and entering homes," says Sherman. "The really sad thing about this is that when things go awry, it's usually the bears that end up paying the price. Several bears have been put down in the last few years.

A mother black bear called Blondie was euthanised by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in March 2026 after she swiped at a woman walking her dog in Monrovia.

Blondie had also visited Gordon and Martinez's garden a few times and never caused any problems. Gordon organised a petition to try to prevent the euthanasia, which was signed by almost 6,000 people. "It was pretty devastating. Blondie resembles all mama bears, just trying to find shelter, to raise her kids and live her life," he says.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife says that DNA testing revealed that the captured bear was responsible for the incident, as well as a previous attack on an elderly resident sitting on his porch in Monrovia in June 2025.

"Euthanasia is used only as a last resort when an animal poses a risk to public safety and cannot be safely returned to the wild," says a spokesperson. "Relocation may seem like a solution but is not an option when it could put public safety at risk. Bears have strong spatial memory and often return to familiar areas." The bear's cubs are being cared for at a wildlife rehabilitation centre and will be released into a suitable habitat when they are ready, he adds.

To minimise conflict with bears, Sherman says it is important that communities restrict access to attractants, such as rubbish bins and leaving food outdoors.

"For a bear, finding a box that's full of pizza when you've been spending your time digging for worms and roots is a game changer."

Keeping neighbourhoods bear-free is a "collective training effort", Sherman adds. "You all have to be on the same page, because if one person's leaving a lot of really good stuff in their yard, the bear is very likely going to think, 'I should check out a handful of other yards.'"

Gordon says that they are "hypervigilant" when it comes to waste. "We don't even use our trash cans. I haul it to my office, a couple of times a week." They also keep their doors and windows closed and don't ever leave food in their car.

The couple say they have never had a negative encounter with any of the bears visiting their home. Martinez once found Nappy in the garage when he'd accidentally left it open. "We both startled each other," he says. "I slowly walked back, because you don't ever want to corner a bear." She emerged from the garage and went on her way, he says.

More like this:

Social media accounts, like Martinez and Gordon's, and home surveillance cameras are allowing people "to understand bears as individuals and providing an intimate look into their lives", says Sherman.

But he has some reservations. "There's always the risk of Disneyfication, of painting too fuzzy a picture. They're not teddy bears, they are still wild animals."

Sherman warns that it is important that bears and humans don't become too comfortable around each other. "Part of loving bears is creating healthy boundaries and setting the bears up for success when they inevitably pass through our neighbourhoods," he says.

Through their Instagram account dedicated to the bears, @poolbearlife, Gordon and Martinez hope to raise awareness of how people can behave safely around bears and how to mitigate unwanted encounters. They stress that their relationship with black bears is not something that could necessarily be universal. "This works for us, for where we live," says Gordon.

"It's all about finding that balance with wildlife, how can we co-thrive?" says Martinez. "We live here and the bears live here. We don't want them to go anywhere."

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In the otherworldly Chilean desert, this huge telescope could reveal alien life

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260827-the-biggest-telescope-of-all-time-is-nearly-ready-could-it-reveal-alien-life, 3 days ago

In Chile's Atacama Desert, the biggest telescope ever built is taking shape – and it could radically change our view of the Universe.

Over the past 200 years, telescopes have got ever-bigger – which has posed a conundrum about what to call them. Some are named after eminent astronomers. Others after their location. But many get their titles from their sheer size.

The astronomer William Herschel set the trend in the 18th Century with his Great Forty-Foot Telescope. And today, there's the Southern African Large Telescope, Spain's Gran Telescopio Canarias, and the Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona, to name a few.

But what do you call a telescope that's bigger than large? For the scientists and engineers of the Paranal observatory in Chile's Atacama desert, the answer is simple: a process you might call "nominative magnification".

In the 1990s, they needed a title for a particularly whopping telescope, which combined several individual instruments into one virtual mega-mirror. They scratched their heads for a while, and decided to name it the Very Large Telescope (VLT).

Now the same astronomers are going even more superlative, building a facility on a second Chilean mountain that will become Earth's biggest eye on the stars. Its name? Naturally, they're calling it the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT).

And they are not kidding about the size: the ELT's dome is 80m tall (260ft), and the mirror inside is 39m wide (128ft). With an outer structure due to be completed in 2027, the organisation behind it – a consortium of 16 member states called the European Southern Observatory (Eso) – hope it will be peering into the cosmos by 2030. It's proven to be an enormous engineering challenge too, requiring tens of thousands of tonnes of concrete and steel, and 798 precisely engineered mirror segments, to be shipped to the top of an uninhabited mountain in the desert.

Why build such a massive telescope in such a harsh and remote location? To find out, the BBC visited the ELT site in Chile, and discovered an extremely big telescope poised to make extremely big discoveries. In fact, it might even make the biggest discovery of them all.

From a distance, it's difficult to get a handle on the size of the ELT. Approaching its mountaintop perch on Cerro Armazones, it first appears as a dot of silver glistening beneath an empty blue sky. Apart from a few road signs and the occasional industrial mine, there is almost no imprint of human habitation in the Atacama Desert, so nothing to offer a sense of scale. All the construction materials must be transported for hours from the nearest city, piece by piece, and the engineers here work in shifts of eight long days and nights before travelling back to their homes, sometimes hundreds of miles away.

Look east and there is only boundless wilderness – from some places, you can see as far as Argentina – and to the west, the Pacific Ocean, topped by a sea of inverted cloud.

The Atacama is not a desert of sand, but of rough rock, volcanic peaks, and salt flats. In some locations, rain comes only a few times a century, or not at all. With so little moisture, a visitor finds themselves continually licking their dry lips. Dehydration is a real danger, the altitude makes some nauseous, and the thin, cloudless air means that Earth's nearest star will burn your skin faster than almost anywhere else on the planet.

Yet within this unforgiving setting, one of the world's most advanced telescopes is gradually assembling. To appreciate how complicated a project the ELT is, you have to step inside.

Within the retractable, rotating dome lies a complex lattice of steel beams and moving parts that will hold the giant mirror in place. After a while, the back of your neck begins to ache because you're so frequently gazing upwards. "It's a cathedral in terms of the size and scale," says Michael Booth, the on-site mechanical engineering lead for the ELT, who is accompanying the BBC on a tour of the site.

However, "extremely large" does not mean lumbering, or imprecise. On the contrary, assembling the telescope has required extensive planning and minute accuracy, says Booth. "It's too big and too complicated for us to say, 'I hope it works.' It's not like, 'let's hit this button and see if it makes any big noises,'" he says.

To illustrate his point, Booth points at removable, millimetre-wide "shim packs" between the giant beams. These are necessary for tiny structural adjustments as the telescope's massive concrete base shrinks over time. That concrete, when it was laid, needed to be extraordinarily flat, he says, to an accuracy of 1/3,600th of a degree, and to account for the Earth's curvature too. (When they were finished, the engineers used the excess wet concrete to make a basketball court on the mountainside, because it was too far to the nearest city to return it before it hardened.)

To gather light that has travelled from distant stars and galaxies, and to account for the atmosphere's blurring effects, astronomers need the telescope to be incredibly stable; the slightest wobble will lead to a fuzzy image.

"The thing that makes construction of a telescope like this so hard is that usually the bigger you get, the bigger your tolerances – like how much wiggle room you have. But for us, obviously, the light waves don't get bigger," explains Booth. "And so we have to build to the scale of a large commercial building but with the tolerances you find on an optical bench."

It's not a static structure, either. During operation, the entire building will rotate to face in different directions, suspended on high-pressure oil. "We float the whole telescope, so it can move basically frictionlessly," says Booth. "It's like an air hockey table." This puck, however, weighs many thousands of tonnes.

The ELT's record-breaking mirror, in the centre of the structure, will be assembled from 798 individual, removable hexagonal segments, delicately polished. But unlike your bathroom mirror, there's no protective glass to shield against scrapes or dents. "That's the hard part," says Booth. "Most of the time if something weighs 10 tonnes you can hit it with a hammer. We can't even scratch the surface of it."

The mirror segments, shipped from Europe in containers, are currently stored in a warehouse nearby:

But when they are placed inside the structure, they will join to form one big mirror that is 39m (128ft) wide:

No operating optical-infrared ground telescope currently has a mirror this huge. By comparison, the ELT's little brother – the Very Large Telescope, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) away – is made up of four telescopes each with mirrors of only 8.2m (27ft) diameter (plus four small 1.8m (6ft) diameter auxiliary telescopes). Each has to work together to combine their light.

The ELT mirror's size – and the fact that it can change shape in real-time to account for atmospheric turbulence – will allow astronomers to scrutinise many objects with higher resolution than currently possible. In other words, the mirror is a "bigger bucket to collect light", says Eso astronomer Mariya Lyubenova.

There's a limit to the sharpness of the images that the current generation of telescopes can create, even space-based telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), currently orbiting the Sun (which incidentally, has a mirror that's only 6.5m (21ft) wide.)

Elyar Sedaghati, an Eso staff astronomer at the Paranal observatory, explains why the ELT offers a step-change for astronomers. "Imagine if you have a car that's coming from very far away at night," he says. "The car has two headlights but when it's really far away you cannot distinguish them. You only see a single light. The closer it gets, at some point, you start to separate the two lights." It's the same with stars, but a giant mirror essentially brings such overlapping starlight closer to Earth, allowing astronomers to distinguish what's in the field of view.

Therefore, the ELT promises advances right across astronomy and physics. "It's just so multifaceted. It will really push the boundary and push the needle at every possible astronomical subfield that you can think of," says Sedaghati.

So for example, the ELT will follow up on discombobulating discoveries recently made by JWST about the distant, early Universe, by imaging very far, very old galaxies that have never been scrutinised before. "It will be really amazing when the ELT starts, because it has a higher angular resolution compared to the James Webb, so we can combine observations," says Sedaghati. A space telescope alone can show us a lot, but a space telescope and a ground telescope together make for a great team.

Closer to home, astronomers hope the ELT will be sensitive enough to help them calculate the ages of our own galaxy's oldest stars. The hope is also to peer closer at the stars revolving around the galactic centre, says Lyubenova, which could reveal deviations from current gravitational theories. And in our own neighbourhood, the telescope will be able to track objects like the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS that passed through our Solar System recently.

But the biggest prize of all? It could well be the discovery that would change everything: evidence of life beyond Earth.

Alien agnosticism

In the 21st Century, we have entered a new era in the search for aliens. Some observers have called it the "age of alien agnosticism": a time when a growing number of serious scientists strongly believe a basic form of extraterrestrial life is close to showing itself, but cannot yet prove it – their evidence accumulating piece-by-piece.

It was once assumed that the discovery of aliens would involve flying saucers, radio signals or Martian megastructures. But it's more likely that we'll spot a more basic form of life first, revealing itself slowly to telescopes. We've already had signs: a compelling recent example was the apparently organic chemicals detected on the exoplanet K2-18b: a tantalising hint of marine organisms. It could be just the beginning.

If you talk to serious astronomers about aliens, most are cautious, burnt by hyperbolic media claims, and slightly ticked off that you're not asking them about more sober activities like cataloguing galaxies. But they don't totally discount the possibility. In a recent survey of astrobiologists, physicists and other scientists, almost 90% agreed that it's likely that basic extraterrestrial life exists in the Universe. The numbers in the survey were lower for complex or intelligent life (around 60%), but they were also far from zero. The cosmos, after all, is a big place.

"As an astronomer that works in this field, you have to be very careful," says Sedaghati. He is doubtful of finding intelligent life within the same broad expanse of space and time as us. But something like microbes or algae? That's different. "If you think about the number of stars that are only in our own galaxy and the number of planets around that are around these stars, and the proportion of those planets that are in a zone where you could possibly have life… if you just look at the sheer numbers, the probability that life exists somewhere else in the galaxy it's, for me, extremely high. There must be life out there."

The sticking point is: what will count as strong evidence? And that's where the ELT comes in. It's not possible to image an exoplanet and see an alien waving back; it's not even possible to image landmasses. But we can study their habitability in other ways.

For example, astronomers can infer whether a planet is rocky or gaseous. To do this, "we observe very tiny deviations in the wobble of a star", explains Lyubenova. This reveals the otherwise invisible nearby planet's gravitational effect, which in turn allows a calculation of its mass. Gas giants tend to have higher mass than rocky planets. Crucially, the ELT will be able to measure the masses of smaller, lower mass worlds than currently possible, she says, significantly expanding the candidates for hosting alien life.

Astronomers can also analyse the constituents of exoplanet atmospheres, via the light spectrum of the starlight that occasionally passes through them on its way to Earth. "Each chemical element has its own imprint in the spectrum. It's like a fingerprint," says Lyubenova. So if an alien bacteria or some form of strange algae is belching out organic gases, it could show up.

At the moment, it's difficult to study exoplanet atmospheres in the habitable zone of other solar systems, because such worlds are too close to the star. Like when you're dazzled by a car headlight, you can't see who is at the wheel.

Claims about biosignatures on K2-18b in 2025 were controversial, because as well as disagreements about whether the detected gases are organic, the planet is also right at the edge of possible habitability. The ELT, however, could explore many more candidate worlds.

In short, within as little as a decade, it is here – deep in the Chilean desert – that we may finally gain the evidence that aliens are out there, posing existential questions about our position in the cosmos. The age of alien uncertainty would end: we would finally realise that we are no longer alone.

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What comes after that is unknown. But already, astronomers have their eye on the next telescopes – which could be even bigger.

"We are already thinking about other ways of pushing the boundary," says Sedaghati. For example, there are ideas like building lots of telescopes, kilometres apart, and connecting them to make a mega-telescope. In principle, if the existing Very Large Telescope was connected to a new telescope on another mountain-top via an "optical bridge" it would significantly boost its abilities, says Sedaghati.

In the more distant future, people have talked about sending a space telescope beyond our Solar System's most distant planets so that we can use the Sun – and the fact its mass bends distant starlight – as a "gravitational lens". Essentially, the telescope would be the size of the Solar System. "This way you would actually not just image a planet around another star – an Earth-sized planet – but you would even be able to map the surface of it," says Sedaghati. "You would be able to tell more or less, where is oceans, where is land? These ideas are out there but it's just our technology needs to catch up."

It begs the question: what do you call these behemoths if "extremely large" is already taken?

A couple of decades ago, Eso was already considering whether to build the "Overwhelmingly Large Telescope". But a clue might come from an XKCD cartoon that jokes where they could go next: "oppressively colossal" is one option, or perhaps "mind-numbingly vast".

For now though, astronomers wait. They know that by the 2030s, a cathedral to human curiosity will finally be peering into the cosmos. What they don't know yet is what it will find.

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The race to stop England running out of water

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyrv84yd9ko, yesterday

One evening in early August, farmer Daniel Sizer's phone buzzed with a message.

It was from his local water board and it read: "River levels are low but have recovered enough to allow one night of irrigation tonight."

Like much of the lower half of England, Daniel's fourth-generation farm had seen barely any rain in nearly three months.

He shows us what is left of the peas and wheat crop at his 300-hectare site in Suffolk.

"There's no water in the river so half my crop is completely and utterly ruined."

With river levels falling so low that taking any more water out of them risked endangering wildlife, in July the Environment Agency (EA) temporarily stopped Daniel and thousands of other farmers from watering their crops from the river.

England has long been used to hosepipe bans over the summer.

But what Daniel has experienced points to something newer and more worrying.

The kind of increasingly frequent heatwaves we have experienced and greatly reduced rainfall that we could see over successive summers with climate change, plus a projected increase in demand for water, have raised the prospect that England could at some point run out of water.

The result could be that by 2055 England will face a shortfall of five billion litres in public water supply a day, almost enough to fill Wembley Stadium four and a half times daily. A mixture of low rainfall, high temperatures and demand put pressure on water supply in England more so than elsewhere in the UK.

It is all a far cry from when, in 1818, John Keats wrote: "It is impossible to live in a country which is continually under hatches… Rain! Rain! Rain!"

But what is really to blame for England finding its water supply so under threat? And are there ways of securing its future?

Growing consumption

Back in the 1980s, people in England and Denmark were using water at a similar rate. But no longer.

Residents in Denmark now consume 97 litres of water per person per day, according to Danva, the country's water and wastewater industry body. The daily consumption per person in England is 136.5 litres.

"We've actually doubled the amount of water we use per person, on average, in the last 50, 60 years," points out Nicci Russell, who runs Waterwise, a water efficiency campaign organisation.

She points to changing habits over generations - from a family having a shared bath once a week to having multiple showers a week, sometimes a day.

Households are responsible for nearly 60% of water use in England and Wales. If we had domestic water consumption patterns more like Denmark, Russell says, more than half the 2055 shortfall would be wiped out.

So how could water use in England come down to the levels seen in Denmark?

Russell says, even with projected population growth, if everyone in England knocked a minute off their shower time, for example, it would save nearly one billion litres of water a day by 2050.

But water companies have been running campaigns urging us to use less water, seemingly with limited success.

Will Willoughby, director of water supply at Wessex Water, acknowledges that the negative public perception of the water industry has limited the impact of the message, and the government may be better placed to deliver it.

"I think that would absolutely go a long way to… undoing some of the disdain towards the water companies and get people on board to help look after our water resources."

What really separates England and Denmark is price. As well as water meters being mandatory in Denmark, they also pay far more for their water than we do here.

Despite climbing water bills across the UK - and with them outrage aimed at water companies who stand accused of paying dividends to shareholders when they should have been investing in infrastructure - there is an argument to be made that consumers are actually not paying enough.

In Denmark, the average cost of water and wastewater is £9.45 per cubic metre, here it is significantly lower. Thames Water - one of the cheapest - charges £4.21 and Southern the most expensive at £7.06.

Daniel Johns, managing director of Water Resources East, an organisation working with farmers, water companies and local authorities, says water in England is "too cheap".

"People assume that it will always be readily available. And we need to wean ourselves off that kind of idea that water will always be there."

As it happens, price increases in Denmark were originally implemented for improved sewage treatment, the same reason people in England now face rising bills.

The behaviour change followed naturally as people became more careful with using the newly expensive utility, and it became embedded in the culture. School children have outings to waterworks to understand how precious the resource is, and households have embraced water-saving devices for shower heads and toilet cisterns.

This summer commentators have been discussing surge charging in England - higher rates for those using more water - but as prices are fixed in advance this is not possible under industry regulations.

Feargal Sharkey, former frontman of punk band The Undertones turned frontman of the water quality movement, summed up the feeling of campaigners towards efforts to raise prices and cut households consumption on Radio 4's Today programme earlier this month.

"All of this is nothing more than window dressing on the part of companies while they continue to abuse and exploit their customers."

The wrong kind of water

Overconsumption of water is not just an issue for households. Businesses are estimated to use nearly a third of the water supply in England and Wales, with just under half of that coming from only 1% of companies.

And businesses have actually been receiving discounted charges from water companies that offer reduced rates the more water they use. Five of the nine water companies are now phasing this out over concerns it "might be sending the wrong signal on water efficiency", the industry regulator Ofwat has said.

And there is another question - are we doing enough to make sure businesses are using the right kind of water?

Potable water is water that is free of harmful bacteria and chemicals and is considered safe to drink and cook with. Non-potable water has not been treated to the same levels and is not safe for drinking but can be used in industrial settings and for irrigation.

"At the moment, we're using world-class drinking water to cool data centres, to irrigate our golf courses," Daniel Johns says.

He wants the regulator to look at removing access to drinking water for some businesses.

"We should simply ban data centres from using potable water supplies. We should require them to use closed-loop systems".

Problematic pipes

Despite recent well-publicised problems around burst water mains, water leakage has actually been cut by 43% since 1989 according to Ofwat, the water regulatory body for England and Wales.

However, more than 45 litres per person per day is still being lost from England's water network, nearly a fifth of all the water in the system.

And this is why following Denmark's lead by making meters mandatory could have an effect that goes beyond tying consumers' actual water usage to their bills.

When metered customers get higher than expected bills, that can be the clue water companies need to identify a leak and fix it. Without the meter, leaks are far harder to detect within pipes on private property.

Lightsonic is a company working with Affinity Water to speed up identification of leaks, and their secret weapon is fibre optic cables.

Internet cables often lie close to our water supply, and when water leaks it creates vibrations which interact with the cables and change the characteristics of the light travelling down the fibre optic, explains James Ramsay, chief technology officer at Lightsonic.

"We are just three months into our deployment and the technology has already helped locate over 100 leaks, which has saved the equivalent of two million litres of water every day."

Applied across the whole water network of England and Wales he boldly estimates it could reduce leakage "by as much as a billion litres a day".

The storage question

England is already experiencing wetter winters, something climate models predict will continue. This prompts the question of whether we could just store more of this excess water for when we need it?

To do this, new reservoirs would be needed. But England has built no major new reservoirs for more than 30 years.

The reason for the lack of new storage sites has been hotly debated between water companies and campaigners, the latter saying there has been a lack of investment from the privatised sector, the former arguing they were not given permission to spend the money by the regulators because of the impact on water bills.

The government's landmark independent Cunliffe review into the water sector in 2025 accepted that both arguments were true.

Now 10 reservoirs are planned in England by 2050. But even with financial and political backing, building new reservoirs is not straightforward.

"Building enough reservoirs to hold all that water requires good places, which means places where the land is sloping, where we can find a valley," explains Dr Ross Woods, associate professor of water and environmental engineering at the University of Bristol.

"I don't think that's realistic countrywide."

One of the sites found to be suitable for a mega-reservoir serving 15 million people is near Abingdon.

This picturesque Oxfordshire town on the banks of the River Thames, was until recently, perhaps most famed for its bun-throwing traditions, but it is now at the centre of a national debate.

Public opinion on the reservoir has been split - some have objected to using the site for water, fearing high environmental costs from the destruction of ancient woodlands.

The government has now designated it and one other reservoir as Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, bypassing some local decision-making processes.

But these designations do not overcome the environmental hurdles.

Reservoirs, as water bodies, have to achieve "good" status for water quality under environmental law - meaning it must be free from pollution such as from agricultural runoff and invasive species - which just 14% of bodies currently in England have achieved. The Environment Agency told the Cunliffe Review that "the treatment costs of meeting 'good' may render the new reservoirs infeasible".

Even if these challenges are navigated, most of the reservoirs are not set for completion for at least a decade and once all are built they will only make up 13% of that 2055 shortfall.

We do have access to natural reservoirs - underground stores of water called aquifers.

This groundwater provides about one third of the public water supplies in England, and for some regions as much as 100%. They are vital sources of water supply to rivers, which are the first to struggle in summer droughts, and could be another solution to water shortages.

These underground stores can be recharged artificially during wet periods, providing a constant supply through drier summers, by encouraging excess rainfall to soak into soils rather than enter drainage networks as happens in heavily built-up urban areas.

These sustainable drainage systems, which include measures such as expanding grass areas and soakaways, are encouraged in new developments. However, this is predominantly where there is a risk of flooding, not as a drought-prevention measure - and there is no legal requirement to have them.

The value of water

When water supplies are no longer plentiful, tough choices have to be made.

As well as Daniel Sizer's Suffolk farm, the EA has now suspended or limited 1,327 farm licences for abstraction - taking water from rivers.

Paul Tomkins, the Deputy President of the National Farmers' Union of England and Wales, says the problem is there are legal frameworks in place to ensure there is enough water for nature and to protect the supply for households, but none for growing food.

"Farming is the poor brother of the triplets," says Paul.

With no rain and no river water, farms like Daniel's are facing insurmountable water shortages now - not in 2055.

"We can't afford to have another year like that. We're pretty much on the edge of of bankruptcy."

Woods says this will only be solved if society can agree how water should be used. "The limits that we're up against at the moment are environmental limits. It's not just how much water, it's how we use it as a society, and what values we put on the different uses of water. This is going to be one of the big challenges for water in the next 20 or 30 years".

Lead image: PA

Update: This article has been corrected to say that once all the reservoirs are built they will only make up 13% of the 2055 shortfall and not 7% as originally stated and it has been updated to reflect the role of climate change in changing weather patterns.

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A nosy polar bear and a lucky squirrel: Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 shortlist

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg7m5e3mylpo, 5 days ago

How would it feel to find yourself face to face with one of the Arctic's most formidable predators?

This stunning image captures life from a seal's perspective. Taken by Norwegian wildlife photographer Audun Rikardsen, it was among the 'Highly Commended' entries in this year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

While working as a guide with Arctic Wildlife Tours, Rikardsen rigged an underwater camera with a motion sensor beneath a seal's breathing hole, and then waited. At 4am, a female polar bear approached and peered down.

Rikardsen then waited eight hours for the bear to move away before retrieving the camera and reviewing the images.

When he saw what he had captured, he said: "I was so extremely happy. I was screaming, so I probably woke up all the polar bears for miles."

Rikardsen has previously won two Wildlife Photographer of the Year categories: Birds in 2019 and Oceans: The Bigger Picture in 2025.

The overall winners will be announced on Tuesday 13 October 2026, followed by an exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London from Friday 16 October 2026.

Scroll down to explore other highly commended works from the competition.

Title: The Art of Flying

Photographer: Jack Crockford (UK)

Category: Highly Commended, 15-17 Years

Location: Bushy Park, London

Crockford watched swifts return to London after their annual migration from Africa, filling the air with their high-pitched calls. Most flew too high to photograph, but a few lower-flying ones gave Crockford the opportunity to capture the picture he wanted.

Swifts spend almost their entire lives in the air, usually landing only to nest.

Title: Urban Wanderer

Photographer: Sora Miyazawa (Japan)

Category: Highly Commended, 11-14 Years

Location: Tokyo, Japan

After rainfall, Miyazawa came across an Eastern Japanese toad making its way along a city street. He used a slow shutter speed to photograph it before it hopped back into the bushes.

Eastern Japanese toads are typically found in forests, grasslands and other terrestrial habitats across eastern Japan, but they have also proved remarkably adaptable to urban environments.

Title: Lifted to the Surface

Photographer: Vegard Byrkjeland Aasen (Norway)

Category: Highly Commended, Behaviour: Mammals

Location: Kvænangen, Troms County, Norway

Aasen was flying a drone for the Norwegian Orca Survey when he noticed an adult orca carrying the body of a deceased calf through a Norwegian fjord.

The orca repeatedly allowed the calf to sink before bringing it back to the surface, a difficult moment to watch but one that Aasen felt was important to record.

The behaviour may have been an attempt to revive or protect the calf. Killer whales have previously been observed carrying deceased calves, including a case where a female Southern Resident killer whale carried her dead calf for at least 17 days.

A 2026 study suggests that this type of behaviour may be more widespread across the species than previously thought.

Title: Biting Back

Photographer: Andrea & Maceo Grammatico (France)

Category: Highly Commended, Animal Portraits

Location: Sierpe, South Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Only when they reviewed the images did the Grammatico twins realise they had captured a mosquito resting on the head of a fer-de-lance viper. They described it as "one of the most demanding focus stacks we've ever created".

Highly venomous and responsible for more fatal snake bites in Central America than any other species, the fer-de-lance is well camouflaged and can blend into plantation habitats, sometimes going unnoticed by workers.

Title: Wings of Darkness

Photographer: Andy Parkinson (UK)

Category: Highly Commended, Animal Portraits

Location: Meeting of the Waters State Park, Northern Pantanal, Brazil

Parkinson photographed a black vulture perched over a dead yacaré caiman in Brazil's Pantanal wetlands, keeping his boat at a distance and using a long telephoto lens to capture the shot.

A jaguar waiting out of frame emerged after the vulture flew away to claim the carcass. Only then did Parkinson notice a suspiciously clean, straight wound on the back of the caiman's head, possibly caused by a blow from a speeding boat, he suspects.

Title: Eye of the Storm

Photographer: Dewald Tromp (South Africa)

Category: Highly Commended, Animals in their Environment

Location: Namib Desert, near Swakopmund, Namibia

Tromp was photographing a Namaqua chameleon in the Namib Desert when the wind suddenly intensified, bringing a sandstorm that quickly reduced visibility and made breathing difficult.

These chameleons are desert specialists and can obtain moisture directly from the air. Dew gathers on their skin and is channelled towards their mouths through microscopic grooves, while their tongues can also collect fog water condensed on plants, sand and rocks.

Title: Flock of Gold

Photographer: Bence Máté (Hungary) - 2010 Wildlife Photographer winner

Category: Highly Commended, Behaviour: Birds

Location: Ashnil Aruba Lodge, Tsavo East National Park, Kenya

Máté was watching birds gather at a small pond when tens of thousands of red-billed queleas swept down to drink in the golden late-afternoon light. The movement of so many wings created a rush of air that, he says, could be felt from 30m (98ft) away.

Red-billed queleas can gather in flocks of up to two million and are considered the most abundant wild bird on Earth, with an estimated 1.5 billion breeding adults.

Title: Mutual Friends

Photographer: Ernest Porter (South Africa)

Category: Highly Commended, Behaviour: Birds

Location: Manyeleti Game Reserve, Mpumalanga, South Africa

While searching the reserve for wildlife, Porter photographed a red-billed oxpecker rubbing its bill against a white rhino's skin in the afternoon light. The birds feed on insects living on rhinos and can also act as sentinels - calling to warn their hosts when danger approaches. In Swahili, the red-billed oxpecker is known as askari wa kifaru, meaning "the rhino's guard".

Title: Up a Tree without a Squirrel

Photographer: Allegra Hutton (USA)

Category: Highly Commended, Behaviour: Mammals

Location: Okavango Delta, Botswana

Hutton had watched a young leopard pursue a squirrel into a tree, having earlier seen the cat unsuccessfully attempt to stalk a rabbit. The squirrel escaped by climbing higher, leaving the leopard clinging on before it eventually made an awkward retreat.

For young leopards, survival is far from guaranteed: fewer than half reach independence, with male leopards, lions and other predators among the threats they face.

Title: Split-Second Escape

Photographer: Jens Cullmann (Germany)

Category: Highly Commended, Behaviour: Amphibians and Reptiles

Location: Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Botswana

An African bullfrog lunges for a babul butterfly but misses.

Cullmann had noticed tadpoles on a previous visit after heavy rains and returned the following month to find ponds and puddles full of young bullfrogs. He spent more than two weeks watching the young frogs "eat everything that moved".

As adults, African bullfrogs can reach 12cm (4.7in) in length and spend around 10 months of the year dormant underground, emerging after the rains to breed and feed voraciously.

Title: Hidden Dragon

Photographer: Gil Wizen (Israel/Canada) - 2021 Behaviour: Invertebrates category winner

Category: Highly Commended, Behaviour: Invertebrates

Location: Wildsumaco Biological Station, Napo Province, Ecuador

Wizen was photographing a lichen dragon katydid measuring just 15mm long, making it difficult to distinguish from the lichen around it. He spotted the insect when it moved, but even then struggled to separate it from its background through the viewfinder.

Found only in Ecuador's Andes Mountains, its spiny armour helps protect it from eagle-eyed predators that can see through its disguise.

Title: Calm Amid the Storm

Photographer: Shane Gross (Canada) - 2024 Wildlife Photographer winner

Category: Highly Commended, Oceans: The Bigger Picture

Location: D'Arros Island, Seychelles

Gross was photographing a school of bigeye trevally near the shore at sunrise as a storm approached. To create a split-level image, he turned his camera upside down to aid buoyancy distribution and slowly moved towards the curious fish.

Bigeye trevally are fished in many parts of the world, but here they are relatively safe. In 2023, the waters surrounding D'Arros Island were made a Marine Protected Area and designated as a no-take zone as part of the worldwide initiative for governments to protect 30% of Earth's land and ocean by 2030.

Title: Pooltime Pastime

Photographer: Loren Elliott (USA)

Category: Highly Commended, Urban Wildlife

Location: Monrovia, California, USA

Elliott spent hours watching through the kitchen window of a local resident's home, hoping to photograph black bears that frequently pass through the garden. He observed one stopping for a dip in the garden pool, highlighting the increasingly common overlap between wildlife and residential life in Los Angeles County, where housing developments have spread into bear habitat.

Title: Ocean Protector

Photographer: Ralph Pace (USA) - 2025 Underwater category winner

Category: Highly Commended, Wetlands: The Bigger Picture

Location: Monterey Bay, California, USA

A sea hare glides through an eelgrass meadow in the shallows of Monterey Bay, where Pace was photographing in the evening light. He saw the encounter as a hopeful image of "a gentle giant safeguarding the last green meadows of the sea".

By grazing on red algae, that can prevent sunlight reaching the meadow, sea hares play a role in restoring eelgrass, which is vital to coastal ecosystems and an important carbon sink.

Title: The Show Goes On

Photographer: Pietro Rojas (Guatemala)

Category: Highly Commended, Photojournalism

Location: Doha, Qatar

After learning that a circus featuring animal acts was in town, Rojas went to document it and saw a brown bear riding a small motorcycle, muzzled and secured to the apparatus. For him the scene highlighted the contrast between the animal's wild nature and the human environment imposed upon it.

More than 50 countries around the world have now banned or restricted the use of wild animals in circuses, over concerns it causes them distress.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London.

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Flooding causes disruption to rail services

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g5pn4xlxpo, today

Storms across the West Midlands have led to more travel disruption.

Heavy rain flooded Hall Green station, causing disruption on the line between Kidderminster/Birmingham Moor Street and Whitlocks End/Stratford-upon-Avon. Passengers were able to use their tickets on bus services, West Midlands Railway said.

A flood warning for the Spadesbourne Brook in Bromsgrove was issued and the Met Office said a yellow warning for heavy rain and thunderstorms was in place. Police issued notices for drivers to be careful if out in the rain.

The disruption follows a few days of heavy rain in the region.

Earlier this week, 55 homes in the Perry Barr area experienced internal flooding, with flooding also occurring in Stafford and Burntwood.

A flood warning on the River Stour in Worcestershire has been downgraded to an alert.

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Farmers call for food rules update after heatwaves

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyz4dydekko, today

Farmers have said they have had to throw away their produce because this summer's extreme heat has caused fruit and veg to grow in unusual shapes or colours - meaning retailers will not buy it.

They said they were calling for the government to update the current appearance standards to help the country avoid "a future food security crisis".

James Pullen, a potato grower in Tintinhull near Yeovil, said he was facing £200,000 losses due to his produce appearing bruised or not growing at all. He said retailers would not purchase such produce.

Sarah Dyke, MP for Somerton and Glastonbury, said she was calling for retailers to relax "rigid appearance standards" which she described as "absurd".

However, Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, said: "Retailers face the dilemma of supporting British farmers but also making sure that... customers have what they expect to buy.

"Extreme weather, including drought, can affect crop yields and place upward pressure on prices.

"Retailers are experienced in managing supply disruptions and will take all necessary steps to minimise any impact on customers, including sourcing from alternative suppliers and expanding ranges of odd-sized produce."

Pullen described this year's crop and the losses that would be incurred as "devastating".

"I expect we'll be £200,000 down on potato sales," he said.

"In a good year, potato crops will average around 25 tonnes to the acre [but] I'm sure this year it will average around 20.

"We've had two dry years back to back on previous occasions but next year will be critical.

"In my lifetime I can't remember three dry summers back to back," he said.

He said usable potatoes would be sent for processing while green or damaged ones would be used as animal feed.

Pullen said the weather had left many of the potatoes too small.

He mostly grows Electra potatoes, which have to be 45mm in diameter to sell to retailers.

"This year, about 20% of the crop is around 40mm in diameter," he said.

And it's not just potato farmers who are struggling.

Cauliflowers require a lot of water to grow into the white shade shoppers are used to seeing but this year more light is reaching them and turning them yellow.

Dyke said she was calling for retailers to relax rigid appearance standards.

She also said she wanted "stronger protections for farmers against unfair trading practices, investment in agricultural water infrastructure and legislation through a Good Food Bill to strengthen the UK's food security".

She said: "It is absurd that perfectly good British-grown food could be left to rot simply because a cauliflower is a little yellow or a cucumber isn't quite the right shape."

A Defra spokesperson said that the UK's food system was already "resilient and secure".

The spokesperson said: "We do not expect recent dry weather to impact national food security.

"Through stronger food supply chains, a new Farming Roadmap and continued work with the National Drought Group, we are ensuring Britain is better protected against future shocks and disruptions."

Paul Keene, from the Primrose Vale Farm Shop in Gloucestershire, said his crops were also affected.

He said he was leaving anything he was unable to sell in the fields to be used as compost.

Kate Benson, from Wivey Kitchen which provides community meals from surplus food in Wiveliscombe, said it made her "depressed to see supermarkets reject food from farmers".

She said: "Our charity does take surplus food and we cook it into food that we deliver to people who need it.

"A yellow cauliflower or knobbly cucumber is still perfectly edible.

"We need to educate the consumer."

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Why London's dry ground will be slow to recover

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgy3w2jd43o, today

London is still experiencing drought conditions and, despite recent rain, much of the capital's ground will take time to recover after weeks of record-breaking dry weather.

About 80% of London sits on clay, which extends to depths of more than 100m (328ft) in some places.

The clay has lost moisture, causing it to shrink and crack. In some cases, this can lead to subsidence, resulting in damage to buildings and homes.

Sustained rainfall over a prolonged period will be needed for the ground to fully recover, experts say. Rob Higginson, a geotechnical engineer, says it will be a "very slow process" and that "a single downpour is not going to do it".

July was the driest on record for England and Wales, and a hosepipe ban remains in place for Thames Water and Affinity Water customers in London following prolonged dry weather, low rainfall and increased demand for water.

Higginson said that while "putting a hose on the ground will keep your grass growing, it won't affect the underlying clay at all".

He explained how recent heatwaves had affected clay deep underground.

"If the clay gets warm, it loses volume, and it's going to go down and contract.

"You get the cracking, but you also get downward movement. If a house is sitting on top of the clay, it will go down with it."

He said this predominantly affects homes built between the post-war period and the 1980s.

However, even when rain does arrive, he said the recovery process would not be straightforward.

Higginson said: "The topsoil will absorb a certain amount of it, and then it will go down and sit on the clay layer.

"Then you've got surface runoff, so the excess water will just run off.

"What you really need is prolonged rain. It doesn't have to be intense, just a reasonable amount over a long period of time, so it has time to percolate into the very fine voids in the London clay."

Even when the grass begins to turn green again, the clay beneath may take much longer to recover from the effects of this summer's drought.

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'High risk' of lake breaching and causing second flood, warns China

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg8l2x8wr8o, 3 days ago

China has warned there is a "high risk" a lake that formed after the recent landslide near the Nepal-Tibet border may breach its banks, causing a second flood downstream.

The warning comes after Wednesday's deadly flash flood in the same area, which scientists say was triggered by the collapse of a mountain glacier into a river.

As of Friday, an estimated 2.5 million cubic metres of water had accumulated, according to broadcaster CCTV. Officials said that three million cubic metres of water was expected to flow into the lake between Thursday and the weekend, posing a "high risk of breach".

But experts have told the BBC that it was possible that the lake could drain out naturally over time.

China's Ministry of Water resources said that the barrier lake - a body of water formed when debris dams up a river - had formed at the confluence of the Chhochen Khola and Purepu Tsangpo rivers.

It is near the Langtang Lirung peak where the collapsed glacier is believed to have originated, and several kilometres upstream from Gyirong Port, the major land crossing linking Nepal and China which was hit by Wednesday's massive flood.

The barrier lake had started to overflow on Thursday. Then on Friday morning, a Chinese military drone captured footage of an avalanche on a snow-capped mountain which deposited an estimated 50,000 cubic metres of ice debris into the barrier lake.

Authorities issued warnings and orders to prepare for emergency evacuations. Rescue work was suspended as most of the Chinese emergency services stopped at a village about 7km (4 miles) from Gyirong Port.

This was because the barrier lake at that time was "overflowing non-stop", which could lead to fresh floods or debris flows, according to a CCTV report.

But by Friday afternoon, state media reported that the "risk from the upstream barrier lake had come under control" and that rescue operations had resumed.

Authorities have since sent engineering teams to monitor the lake's water levels and the atmospheric conditions, and drones have been flown in to drop off equipment and supplies.

Jakob Steiner, a geoscientist with the University of Graz who has researched lake bursts in Nepal, told the BBC there was still a possibility that the lake could breach its banks.

"Not all the material on the mountain could have come down, it is still unstable, so there's a chance that something will drop," he said, adding that if the material dropped into the lake or even further upstream, "then we have a problem".

Chinese state media have also reported there will be heavy rainfall and storms in the region in the coming days, raising concerns that this may cause the lake to swell.

If the lake breaches its banks, there will not likely be a massive deluge of water as seen on Wednesday as the lake formed recently and was not very deep, said Steiner.

However, the water discharged could further undercut the valley's slopes and cause more erosion - which could in turn cause more landslides.

"Authorities need to be very careful for the rescue and prepared for any secondary wave and post-disaster landslides as the valley walls have been scoured and much more vulnerable," said Mohd Farooq Azam, a glacio-hydrologist with scientific institution the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development.

Steiner said it was unlikely that the Chinese could stop the lake from overflowing.

He pointed out that, while it was technically possible to artificially drain the lake using excavators, there were no proper roads that would allow them to transport heavy machinery to the lake's location.

But both experts said it was possible that the problem could eventually resolve itself.

Azam pointed to recent flash floods in India's Chamoli and Dharali, where artificial lakes "drained slowly without much impact downstream".

Similarly, "the only thing [China] can do is hope that the water will slowly drain out naturally" out of the barrier lake in Tibet, said Steiner.

"And it will slowly drain – the melting season will be over by October so things are going to get calmer. There's going to be less water, and then by winter [what's left] will be all frozen."

Separately, Nepali authorities have warned of the risk of blockages causing further floods along the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli rivers.

They have warned people to stay away from the rivers until further notice.

Scientists have said that the flood on Wednesday was likely to have been caused by part of a glacier near Langtang Lirung collapsing into the river below, which in turn caused a massive surge downstream carrying water and debris.

Several hundred people have died in Nepal and with hundreds more still missing after the flash flood. On the Tibet side of the border alone, more than 550 are missing - nearly half of whom are foreigners.

France relaxes strict cheese-making rules after prolonged drought

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c980e36dd5do, 3 days ago

France has temporarily relaxed rules for making some of its best-known cheeses after the summer drought drastically reduced the amount of grass available to feed milk herds.

Government decrees to grant dispensations to manufacturers of Abondance, Beaufort and Comté cheeses - which come from mountains in eastern France - appeared on Wednesday.

Several other cheeses are expected to receive similar waivers, allowing farmers to feed livestock with grass and hay brought in from outside their strict geographical zone.

These include Cantal, Bleu d'Auvergne, Fourme d'Ambert, Bleu du Vercors-Sassenage, Reblochon and the goats cheese Rocamadour.

The National Institute for Origin and Quality (INAO), which regulates France's labels of origin, has also approved temporary changes to the rules for other protected produce because of the effects of the summer heat.

Products that will benefit include some types of Calvados and cider from Normandy, Crémant d'Alsace fizzy wine, lamb from Poitou-Charentes, and Reine-Claude plums.

Certificates of origin allow farmers to sell at a premium, but they come with strict regulations governing the location and method of production.

The aim is to preserve the unique identity of cheeses, wines and other foodstuffs, supposedly linked to their particular terroir - a French concept that links locality and tradition.

Because of a 2026 drought - which the INAO now describes as "historic" - farmers are being allowed to bend the rules for a short period.

Makers of Abondance cheese in the Alps, for example, will be authorised to reduce the amount of pastured grass in their animals' diet from 50% to 15%. They will be entitled to import forage from outside their zone, and use some supplements.

Makers of Comté cheese in the Jura mountains will be able to replace the local green maize they usually give to their cattle with maize from elsewhere.

The derogations are allowed in French and European law for periods of exceptional weather. Similar measures came in after the dry summer of 2022.

It will be interesting to see if the changes lead to any detectable change in the taste or quality of the cheeses - or to the quantity produced and how it is priced.

Longer term, the measures raise questions over the viability of the existing labels of origin in France and elsewhere.

If changing climate means that certain foodstuffs can no longer be produced in their traditional localities, then the idea of terroir will be stretched to its limits.

The world's mysterious mangrove forests captured in 13 striking images

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260825-the-best-mangrove-photography-of-2026, 4 days ago

Eerie trees, prowling tigers and rare dolphin hunting behaviours have been featured at the 2026 Mangrove Photography Awards.

Found where tropical plants meet saltwater, mangrove forests hang in the balance between land and sea. These eerie ecosystems are home to some of the world's most fascinating wildlife. For some rare species, mangroves provide respite and protection. For others, they are a hunting ground – including this juvenile royal Bengal tiger in India (pictured above), in the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans.

These images from the 2026 Mangrove Photography Awards capture the extraordinary beauty and fragility of the world's mangrove forests. Here you can explore 13 of the competition's most striking entries, from Florida to Indonesia.

Hidden crisis

The overall winner of the competition was this eye-catching picture of a hidden "ghost net", glowing under ultraviolet light. The image, shot by Gaurav Patil, shows the net tangled in a mangrove on a tide-swept shore south of Mumbai, India. Discarded fishing nets become a hazard to wildlife when trapped in mangroves.

In awe

Also pictured in the Indian Sundarbans are these two colourful mudskippers, who walk, jump and breathe on land – skirting the transition zone between land and sea, much like mangroves do.

Reddish rarity

Mangrove trees are found along coasts and estuaries of more than 100 countries in the tropics and subtropics. In the Bahamas, this rare reddish egret stands out among the greenery.

Mud feeding

The bottlenose dolphins of Florida Bay, US, are resourceful animals. The mangrove-lined coast provides them with their prey, including mullet. They trap the fish in a ring of mud they stir up from below, using the silty water like a net. This hunting strategy is almost unique to the dolphins of Florida Bay, and rarely captured on camera.

Seeking refuge

Mangroves provide a complex underwater habitat, as this shot of a young green turtle swimming among a web of roots shows. When water levels rise with the tide, this area becomes a flourishing ecosystem and offers shelter from predators, including tiger sharks.

March of the flamingos

Another shot from Florida Bay took the top prize in the birds category. It features American flamingos closely observing a lemon shark.

Enchanted islands

Just off the Galapagos Islands, a group of golden rays were pictured drifting past a shallow mangrove cove. Mangroves not only support biodiversity themselves, but also help adjacent ecosystems, such as nearby seagrass meadows or coral reefs.

Snook attack

Mangrove forests are associated with more than 1,500 species, and provide nursery habitats for many commercially important fish. This shot shows a school of baitfish sheltering in Lac Bay, Bonaire, as a snook darts towards them.

Coming in to land

Mangroves can store as much as five times more carbon than land-based forests. Roots slow incoming waves and protect communities from storm surges – while branches also offer refuge to birds, like this charming Indian white-eye, landing on a mangrove tree in Iran.

Where the mangroves begin

Kallol Mukherjee's picture won the mammals category and shows dense vegetation offering protection to jungle cat kittens. By one estimate, mangroves also offer coastal protection for more than 150 million people by stabilising shorelines and reducing erosion. Mangroves also sequester significant quantities of CO2.

Reflected by ancient light

The competition's "on the ground" winner, shot by Ryuhei Suguri, shows a solitary mangrove tree in Indonesia, illuminated under the Milky Way.

A sea of waste

Mangrove forests face numerous threats from humans, including pollution – as this image highlights in grim detail. Deforestation is another major issue, with many mangroves at risk of clearing for fish farming, agriculture or coastal development, as well as the impacts of climate change.

More like this:

• The Caribbean mangrove forest that defied destruction

• How mangrove forests helped stall environmental crime

• Why worm poaching is threatening India's wetlands

Yet there are reasons to be hopeful: according to Global Mangrove Watch, the extent of mangrove cover worldwide has seen a net increase of 477.2 sq km (180 sq miles) between 1985 and 2025.

You can see more winners of the 2026 Mangrove Photography Awards here.

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Reservoir levels fall despite wettest day in months

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4z39eqqn4o, 4 days ago

Recent rainfall has provided a boost for Guernsey's reservoirs but water reserves are still falling and islanders are being urged to keep cutting back on their water use.

Guernsey Water said 6mm of rain fell on 19 August, making it the wettest day since 1 June and more rainfall than was recorded during the whole of July.

The rain slowed the decline in reservoir levels but did not reverse the overall trend.

Reservoirs were now 74.4% full, with storage levels around 10% below the seasonal average. Guernsey Water said that equated to about 400 million litres of water, or about a month's worth of summer demand.

The figures come after months of unusually dry weather.

In July, Guernsey Met Office said the island had received just 12.5% of its average monthly rainfall, although it stopped short of declaring drought conditions.

Last week, Guernsey Water collected 24 million litres of water but supplied 92.4m litres to customers, leaving a deficit of 68.4 million litres.

Water quality risk manager Daffyd Griffiths said: "The rain we've seen recently has certainly helped and we're always pleased to see water flowing into our reservoirs.

"However, as we'd expect for this time of year we're still using substantially more water than we're collecting."

He urged islanders to continue taking "sensible steps" to reduce consumption.

Griffiths added: "At the moment we are not considering a hosepipe ban. However, reducing demand now helps us preserve supplies for the months ahead and provides greater resilience if dry conditions continue."

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'Seeing fires destroying homes was like history repeating itself'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn9nr99yq10o, 4 days ago

When the prime minister visited Stourbridge two weeks ago after the devastating wildfires destroyed 19 homes and damaged 18 others, he declared: "I've never seen scenes like this in Britain."

But in July 2022, in an almost identical set of circumstances to those in the West Midlands town, a blaze tore through 18 homes in the village of Wennington, in East London, during record-breaking temperatures.

But in response to Andy Burnham's statement, Carole Hager, who lost her home of 58 years and all her belongings in that fire, said: "We feel forgotten."

The 82-year-old believes the government missed opportunities to act four years ago to protect communities from the increasing threat of wildfires in an era of climate change.

And the pensioner said she lived in fear of it happening again. "I've even packed a bag so I'm ready; that's how safe I feel. I don't feel safe."

She feels nothing has been done to reduce future risk in Wennington, which is surrounded by fields.

Burnham has pledged to look into the resources available to fire and rescue services, which could see the government commission firefighting planes in order to tackle future wildfires.

It took three years for the grandmother's semi-detached property to be rebuilt after it was destroyed in the wildfire.

She described it as "three years of uncertainty, trauma and tears".

After initially staying with family following the fire, Hager and her partner Ken rented a bungalow, the cost of which was covered by their home insurance.

But she said not all of her neighbours were so lucky, with some having to pay for temporary accommodation "out of their own pocket".

The process of rebuilding the house took time.

Planning permission took four months to come through; contractors had to be found. When work began, the house had to be demolished and the ground decontaminated.

In a further blow, Havering Council sent them a bill for £10,000 as part of a tax on new build homes, known as a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).

An exemption was later put in place as long as they lived in the property for three years, but Carol described the whole situation as "outrageous".

"Every day there was something to upset us, and I can't believe all the rigmarole we had to go through to actually get back in."

People in Wennington have expressed their shock at seeing history repeat itself after wildfires destroyed homes in Stourbridge on 13 August.

"I do know how they feel, and it's something that should never, ever have happened," said Hager, who has lived in her home since 1964 and brought up her two sons there.

"They've got to draw on their family and try and find the strength to get through because it's not going to be easy."

She believed that without the help of her partner, her sons and her faith, she would not have survived the last three years.

"A lot of people think it's like a death because you've lost everything; you're grieving your home," she said.

As well as the 19 homes recently lost in Stourbridge, about a dozen homes were destroyed in Birmingham, four in Stoke-on-Trent, three in Pershore, Worcestershire, and three in Willenhall, near Wolverhampton.

The Reverend Elise Peterson, from St Mary and St Peter's Church in Wennington, said seeing the devastation "felt like it was happening all over again".

She said community had been trying to raise the alarm for the past four years.

"Residents of Wennington do feel a bit like what happened to us four years ago was ignored and lessons weren't learnt."

The vicar, who is originally from California, where wildfires are more common, said she would like to see firebreaks and cutting longer grass become more mainstream.

"The kind of things that I grew up learning that you always did but we wouldn't have thought about here before, we're not used to these kinds of fires popping up all the time."

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'Growing food here isn't profitable, solar is'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz64qyy59g4o, 4 days ago

Despite promising clean energy, solar has become a dirty word in Lincolnshire, with at least 10 large projects currently in the pipeline. Critics point to a loss of productive farmland but one farmer says he has no choice but to turn to solar in order to survive.

Joe Ward slams a spade into the land he hopes will become Windsock Solar Farm. The sound of shovel on stone is like the crack of a whip.

This is not soft compost for roses in the back garden, it is sandy soil littered with rocks bigger than tennis balls.

"The topsoil is very shallow and stony, and the soil texture is coarse," he tells me.

"The last two years have been absolutely terrible. Experts tell us we can expect more drier summers. So if that's the case, the future doesn't look very good for this soil type."

Joe is the third generation of the Ward family who has farmed this land.

At a glance it could be a field of freshly harvested wheat, perhaps destined to become loaves of bread, but Ward tells me it has never really grown food.

"This land here really doesn't sustain wheat in a profitable way. So barley, especially for the malting industry, has been the mainstay of this farm."

But the malting industry, which processes barley to make whisky and beer, is a "reducing market due to consumer changes", Ward says.

"And with climate change making the last two summers so dry, it's been really difficult."

But surely a Lincolnshire farmer can find a crop that will grow in the county's famously food rich soil?

"On soil like this, you just couldn't grow potatoes without a water source," he says, and after changes to an agreement with a water company, which previously meant cheap access to water, Joe says he is left with no other option but to join with a developer who wants to build a solar farm spanning 640 acres (220 hectares), which is the equivalent of 360 football pitches.

"I think it's a good use of the land," Joe insists. "Solar will be far more productive financially for the business.

"It will produce more energy in solar panels than it ever will trying to grow very small crops."

It is just one of many patches of agricultural land in the county destined to use the power of the sun to generate electricity, rather than grow crops.

In a county famed for its produce, the idea is controversial.

Campaigners have been protesting about "energy invasion" fears, due to the number of large solar farms already approved for Lincolnshire by the government.

The Beacon Fen Energy Park in nearby Heckington was the latest to be approved, which the Reform-led county council says was an "appalling" decision.

Council leader Sean Matthews has said it was "another attack on our beautiful countryside".

Local Conservative MP Caroline Johnson says the proposals for Windsock Solar Farm "goes beyond the reasonable amount local people should be expected to bear".

Developers BLC Energy, which is behind the plans, says the impact on local residents is overinflated.

"I'm not going to deny it will be a change to views," managing director Neil Lindsay says.

"Locally, there is a change, but the advantage with solar compared to some of the other technologies is it's relatively low to the ground, which means you can put in hedgerows and new trees."

Neil thinks there is "misinformation about what these things look like".

He says if you were to drive past a solar farm "you wouldn't even know they're there".

"We've seen that from a lot of projects where we've taken concerned members of the community to visit an operating solar farm. Once they get there, they walk around, they understand it. A lot of those fears seem to dissipate."

Back on the farm, Joe climbs into his tractor to survey the land his grandfather bought in the 1950s.

Is he sad to turn over the land to solar after 70 years growing barley?

"Land use always changes," he says. "This is just evolving for the needs of the next 40 years.

"The solar panels can be removed if the needs change, and I'm sure in 40 years' time there will be different technologies and this land will be returned back to arable farming."

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Fires still burn in charred landscape as focus turns to wildfire prevention

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgye1999n8o, 5 days ago

As we're driving in a pickup truck to see the aftermath of a huge fire which burnt for more than a month in the Cairngorms, I spot fresh smoke coming from the ground.

My guide - RSPB Scotland's site manager at the Abernethy nature reserve, Ben Oliver-Jones - puts the vehicle in reverse and we jump out to see what's happening.

It's one of several hot-spots which keeps emerging a full week after firefighters left the scene, which Ben likens to a game of whack-a-mole in an already charred landscape where the smell of burning still hangs heavily in the air.

But while the small pockets of smouldering vegetation are still being dealt with, attention is turning to improving wildfire protection.

More than 2,500 hectares of moorland and forest - about 10 square miles - was destroyed in the fire, which led to the evacuation of an entire village and where the smoke could be seen and smelt 60 miles (96.5km) away in Aberdeen.

Like a growing number of Scotland's estates, the Loch Garten and Abernethy nature reserve is being managed for ecological restoration - what others might describe as 'rewilding', a now polarising term which the RSPB avoids using.

Opponents have argued that the process leaves areas more vulnerable to uncontrollable fires, which the charity disputes, but it has identified significant land management changes it plans to make.

The changes focus on four key areas: fire breaks, wetlands, heather management and tree planting.

Wider fire breaks

While the estate's network of tracks functioned as a fire break in some locations, in other areas strong winds helped high flames jump the gap.

Experts say fire from burning heather can reach heights of six metres and that fire breaks need to be three times the flame height.

RSPB Scotland says it now acknowledges that fire breaks need to be wider and has already started that process on its long network of forest trails.

Machines have been used to remove vegetation on either side of the track with the hope that what remains would not create such high flames if it were to ignite.

While it might look desolate now, the hope is that some insects and plant species will eventually colonise the ground either sides of the tracks.

Wetter ground and water

It also plans to create more ponds and wet areas around the site which can be used as a source of water to pump onto fires.

A small fire on the reserve in June was extinguished using water from a pond created with cash from the Scottish government's nature restoration fund as a habitat for species like rare dragonflies.

The charity says it's working to raise water tables where bogs have been drained and create new areas of standing water for fire fighting.

Peatlands have proved problematic for wildfires because the fire can spread through the peat, deep underground as well as on the surface.

It's a problem for degraded peatland which makes up about 80% of Scotland's total, but for those in a near-natural state the peat can act as a defence.

In good condition, they keep the water level high, bringing moisture to the landscape.

Its effectiveness was demonstrated during a large fire near Melvich, Sutherland, in 2019 which reached an area that had been re-wetted 20 years earlier.

Roxane Anderson from the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) studied the land before and after the fire and says any damage to wet peatland was superficial and on the surface.

She argues that's a reason for accelerating peatland restoration which is currently targeting 400,000 hectares - about 1,500 square miles - by 2040 and describes it as "a complete no brainer."

"We should do it as much as we can, as quickly as we can and as strategically as we can, especially in the context of this changing climate."

Grazing cattle

On Monday, Scotland's chief fire officer published an open letter calling for better wildlife planning and urging a "more formal and proportionate fire safety regime" to match that for businesses in urban settings.

It comes as the Scottish government enters the final stages of introducing licences for muirburn - the controlled burning of heather on moorland primarily managed for grouse shooting.

Ministers have brought in the licences to make moorland more "environmentally sustainable", but Scottish Land and Estates say the practice is a valuable tool for reducing vegetation which can act as fuel to a wildfire.

RSPB Scotland does not practice muirburn but accepts that the "fuel load" does need to be managed.

It has been doing that through grazing cattle, which eat the vegetation, while in other areas land managers have used machines to cut and mulch the grass, gorse, bracken and heather.

While some sporting estates remain opposed to "rewilding", others have embraced some of the elements of ecological restoration.

The Rottal estate in the Angus Glens has been working with the RSPB for several years now and owner Dee Ward believes there is a lot of common ground.

He has been re-wetting peatland, planting trees and encouraging wading birds and says that while the "ideological extremists" have been holding the narrative, a lot more estates are trying to find the middle ground.

He added: "There are people that are very anti-grouse shooting. Fair enough, that's your choice. But that's clouding their view about muirburn because they're saying because grouse shooters do it, it must be bad."

Dee urges both sides to begin looking at land management practices through the lens of preventing wildfires and consider sharing appropriate methods.

More broadleaved trees

The fourth move RSPB Scotland plans is the introduction of more broadleaved trees in its woodlands.

It says that while pines contain flammable resins, species such as alder, rowan, aspen and birch are higher in moisture content which means they do not burn as easily.

Abernethy hosts the largest and most important remnant of Scotland's ancient Caledonian pine forest and so the Scots pines are an important part of the mix.

But the charity wants to explore the option of increasing the proportion of other species, which would have occurred naturally in the original forest anyway.

Michael Bruce, director of the Glen Tanar estate in Aberdeenshire, is a wildfire consultant who specialises in controlled burning of moorland and helps the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service with its wildfire forecasting.

He says that there hasn't been enough academic research and modelling in the UK on how wildfires behave to make land management changes meaningful.

While two significant studies have been carried out in Scotland over the past 25 years, neither has been long-term or consistent and he believes events of the summer demonstrate the need for improved understanding.

He believes there is no silver bullet which will prevent a wildfire starting or spreading but that estates "need to build up layers of defence".

"Wildfires find the gaps," he added.

In April, the Cairngorms National Park Authority introduced a bylaw making it illegal to start a fire or a BBQ during the summer months to prevent wildfires.

Despite the huge blaze, figures suggest that move has been effective at reducing potential sources of ignition, with the number of campfires or barbecues recorded so far this year totalling 36 compared with 94 in the same period last year.

That's still too many but the reduction perhaps emphasises the importance of preventing a fire's spread.

Wildfires have been described to me as an "intermittent problem" because they're seasonal and we don't see large ones happening every year.

If they happened every year, it would become an obvious priority.

Preventing and tackling them both cost money and there are obvious questions around striking the balance between spending on both, not to mention wider affordability.

But climate change is predicted to bring more long, dry spells which create the tinderbox of summer 2026 and so all of this may be seen as an investment in the future.

For five weeks, land managers with very opposing views on how the uplands should be managed stood side by side battling the enormous blaze which was sweeping through the Cairngorms.

They found a common purpose and it's hoped that now seeing the countryside through a prism of wildfire risk may now be the unifier which sees them exchanging at least some practices - even if their end goals for the landscape still differ wildly.

Channel Islands facing 'hottest ever summer'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1l16yjlnl5o, 5 days ago

The summer of 2026 is on course to be the Channel Islands' hottest since records began, according to local meteorologists.

Provisional statistics from Jersey Met show Jersey's average temperature, measured across both day and night, was 20.9C (69.6F) between 1 June and 15 August. That is 3.2C (5.8F) above the 1991 to 2020 average.

Guernsey's mean temperature over the same period, and with two weeks of summer to go, is 19.2°C (66.56F), some 3C (5.4F) above the average, meteorologists said.

It was in line with evidence that climate change was driving hotter summers and increasing the likelihood of drier conditions, they added.

There have also been record-breaking temperatures across the islands, with Guernsey reaching 36.4°C (97.52F) on 25 June, its highest temperature ever recorded; and Jersey reaching 39.3°C (102.74F) on the same day, also its highest temperature on record.

Alongside the summer heat, the islands have experienced significantly lower than average rainfall.

In Jersey, 69.6mm of rain fell over the summer, compared with a 30-year average of 158.0mm.

In Guernsey, 43.2mm of rain was recorded, well below the 30-year average of 147.6mm.

Unlike large parts of the UK, this lack of rain has not led to drought conditions or hosepipe band across the islands.

Paul Aked, from Jersey Met, said the summer had not been too dissimilar to famous drought of 1976, although 2026 had actually been hotter, with more heatwave periods and higher peak temperatures.

Aked went on to say, in terms of the heat and how people felt it: "It is very different for the islands when we're comparing ourselves with a city in the United Kingdom.

"We have the sea around us, which is cooler than the air temperature, and that does influence [where we] get some cooling from."

He added: "Just because we've had a hot summer, it doesn't mean we're going to get a particularly cold or wet or wintry winter."

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Why parts of the West look like autumn already

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd0x9vy8dneo, 5 days ago

Trees shedding leaves, berries ripening weeks early and brown landscapes are giving parts of the West an autumn-like appearance despite it still being August.

Experts warn record-breaking temperatures and prolonged dry weather are having wide-ranging impacts on nature, from wildlife food supplies to the health of the soil beneath our feet.

Wildlife conservationist Steve England said: "Trees should be full of leaf. Instead, they look how they should in November, but we're only in August."

Professor Mark Everard, from the University of the West of England (UWE), said while there are "winners and losers" in nature, it is important to see it as "a highly integrated machine that's breaking down".

Could birds run out of autumn berries?

England, who has lived near Stoke Park in Bristol all his life, has also noticed fruit ripening much earlier than normal.

He remembers picking blackberries as a child at the end of the school holidays in August and September, but this year he was out picking in June.

However, some berries are also suffering in the drought. England said rowan berries should be double their current size by now, but many have shrivelled in the dry conditions.

He fears that could have consequences for migratory birds such as fieldfares and redwings, which rely on autumn berries as a food source when they arrive in the UK for winter.

If they're "ripening too quick" and disappearing before the birds arrive it could be a "big problem", he said.

He has also noticed trees dropping their leaves much earlier than usual due to the dry weather.

"They are going into survival mode," he added.

How drought affects soil and ecosystems

Everard described the heat as a "trend that's getting progressively worse" and compared the landscape of Wiltshire, where he lives, to India and Africa with its "Savannah colours".

But he said the "bigger problem" is what lies under the soil.

During intensively dry and hot periods, activity below ground "basically shuts down" and also soil begins to lose structure, which has "major ramifications for everything we can see above the surface" now and in years to come, added Everard, who is associate professor of ecosystem services at UWE.

Although nature has amazing resilience and is able to adapt to a range of extremes, Everard said the problem is "we've changed those extremes".

Record temperatures and record low rainfall can "break nature's capacities to respond" and the system begins to "disintegrate".

Everard said "nature gives us clues and we should be wise enough to listen to those clues".

Paul Keene, who runs a pick-your-own strawberry farm near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, has also seen crops ripen much earlier than expected.

He said they normally start picking outside in mid to late June, but this year had their first pick in May, which is "incredibly early and all driven by the heat".

The dry weather has not caused major problems for the farm because it has its own reservoir, which collects water and feeds an automated watering system for the fruit.

At the height of the summer temperatures, strawberries were being watered up to 12 times a day.

It is not just strawberries that have ripened sooner than expected, pumpkins on the farm are already looking Halloween-ready.

In previous years, Keene said they have been "waiting for them to ripen in October" so this is very early and may mean they have to be brought in for storage to make sure they last.

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Trust launches 'first-of-its-kind' nature survey

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9qrgrx4zpeo, 6 days ago

A wildlife trust has said it has launched a first-of-its-kind survey to help find out how people feel about nature and guide future conservation efforts.

The Suffolk Wildlife Trust (SWT), in collaboration with the University of Suffolk, has brought out the Great Suffolk Nature Survey, which quizzes participants on the county's "struggling" wildlife.

It asks about their experiences with local wildlife, how they get involved with local nature, and their attitudes towards conservation, climate change and environmental projects.

The short survey comes weeks after a devastating wildfire at Dunwich Heath and nearby RSPB Minsmere destroyed vital wildlife habitats, which could take years to recover.

Jack Cripps, head of marketing and communications at SWT, said: "The county's landscapes and wildlife are a huge part of what I and so many others who live here are proud of.

"But our wildlife is struggling and we're really starting to feel the impacts of our changing climate. This survey will go a bit deeper into what local people think and feel about nature.

"Everyone can get involved with protecting nature, and the results of the survey will guide Suffolk Wildlife Trust's future community projects and campaigning."

This is the first time SWT has run its own survey, although it has previously gathered local responses as part of the nationwide The Great Big Nature Survey.

Hannah Page, from the University of Suffolk, said it was "delighted" to be supporting the trust with the "important project".

She also said there would be an opportunity for a student from the university to help roll out the survey thanks to a paid student placement from the county council.

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Avian botulism 'new norm' for nature reserves

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd085lplrx7o, 6 days ago

A conservation group has warned that avian botulism outbreaks will become more common due to climate change after more than a hundred birds died in East Sussex.

The birds died after a suspected outbreak of the disease at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, according to Sussex Wildlife Trust.

The charity's head of nature reserves, Jamie Parsons, said that as heatwaves and droughts become more common, "more outbreaks are going to come along with them".

"This is something we have to get used to and become resilient to in a changing climate," he told the BBC.

The UK has experienced a record-breaking summer of extreme heat and prolonged dry weather.

A resulting fall in river levels has had a significant impact on wetland ecosystems in the region.

Experts are warning that climate change means the UK is experiencing more frequent intense winter storms followed by heatwaves and droughts in summers.

The consensus among scientists is that human activities are causing climate change.

Avian botulism is a neurological disease caused by a toxin. The bacterium that produces the toxin thrives in warm, shallow, oxygen-lacking water.

The wildlife trust attributed the East Sussex outbreak to recent hot and dry conditions causing "water levels to fall significantly, creating conditions in which the toxin can develop".

Parsons said this had become "the new norm for us as conservationists and land managers".

"It's devastating really," he said. "It's heartbreaking and frustrating.

"The team works so hard to make sure that the reserve is as good as it can be for the species that live here and they put in all that work.

"Then something out of our control happens and causes this disease outbreak," Parsons said.

There have been other suspected outbreaks of avian botulism in the UK, including in Bristol.

Visitors to Rye Harbour are being urged to avoid contact with water and not touch sick, injured or dead animals.

Castle Water, covering about half of the nature reserve, has been closed to the public due to the outbreak.

Dr Oluwole Oni, lecturer in intensive animal health at the University of Surrey, said the public should keep pets on leads as animals "wouldn't become infected" if kept away from the contaminated areas.

"If you see any of these birds, you just want to quickly report it to the right authority," Oni said.

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Drought leaves 'barely any apples' to make cider

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2g6mmjjzdo, 6 days ago

Somerset's famous cider orchards have been "decimated" by the long summer drought, producers say. Many trees have produced no fruit at all, and others have dropped their fruit early, rotting before they ripened.

"It's gut-wrenching," says Kimberly Jones of Honey's Cider near Bath, whose orchard has produced only a 10th of its normal amount of apples.

Neil MacDonald, who manages more than 1,000 acres of Somerset orchards, says he has watched half his apples fall before they have ripened, because the trees are stressed by the drought.

"Nothing sells cider like sunshine," he says, "and we've emptied our tanks.

"The sadness is we haven't got enough fruit to refill the tanks again."

Trees under stress

Walking through Kimberly Jones' orchard just outside Bath, it's hard to see any apples at all. The trees should be groaning with fruit, she tells me, but "we might get 10% of our normal crop here, and that's generous".

The orchard is 25 years old, and this is by far the driest year they have had. Because 2025 was also dry, the trees became stressed, she explained, and this year most have just not made fruit at all, to save their energy.

Unlike the big commercial brands, Honey's Cider is only made from fresh juice. Jones refuses to buy apple concentrate or industrial products.

"So we can only make cider from the juice we make each year, which means we will be down this year," she adds.

Ironically, the long hot summer has been "brilliant" for actually selling cider.

"Everyone likes a cold cider on a hot day, but we are struggling now to grow fruit for next year," Jones says.

On one of Somerset's most famous cider farms, I hear the same story. Gordon Rich started pressing apples on a farm near Highbridge in 1954. Today his grandson George Scott makes nearly a million litres of cider a year.

But not this year.

"We would normally harvest 20-30 tonnes of apples here," he tells me, walking through one orchard.

"There's so little fruit in here I won't even put the harvester in - the sheep can have any that drop."

Neighbouring farms that Scott buys from are also short of fruit. One grower who normally produces 200 tonnes is "down to about 30", he adds.

Will his tanks run dry then, I wondered?

"No, we've got plenty of cider in the tanks for now," he smiles. Cider makers can keep stock from year to year, but Scott says he worries about the future of his trees.

Two years of drought have already stressed them, and climate scientists are warning farmers to expect more hot dry summers.

"I do worry that next year will show a lot more signs of the drought and the trees will be stressed again. If we get another dry year, I don't know what we're going to do," he adds.

Rotting before they ripen

Not every orchard is bare, of course. Neil MacDonald manages more than 1,000 acres of cider orchards across Somerset. At his Orchard Park Farm, near Shepton Mallet, I see plenty of apples - both on the trees and on the ground.

With a roar, the apple harvester starts up. It powers down the rows, sweeping up the apples under the trees, up and away into the trailer.

This is at least three weeks' early for harvest, but they are not picking up the fruit to make cider.

"All these apples will go on the compost heap," MacDonald tells me, ruefully.

He cuts one open to show me the inside, mottled brown and floury.

"It's unripe, but it's already rotted before we've even started," he explains.

"The trees are stressed without any water, so they've just dumped the fruit on the ground to save themselves."

The harvester sweeps along, filling a large trailer with cider apples that Neil and his team have spent all year trying to grow, only to throw away.

"We've probably lost about half the crop this way," he says.

"This should be a 20-tonne orchard. If I get 10 tonnes from it I'll be grateful."

Hotter summers make sweeter ciders

Somerset's cider apple growers know this is not a freak year.

"What we used to think of as extreme weather, we increasingly consider as normal." says Mike Kendon, a climate scientist at the Met Office.

But what can an apple grower do about it?

Neil MacDonald is now watering newly planted trees.

"Five years ago you would just dig a good hole and leave nature to get on with it," he smiles.

"Now you can't get away with that, you have to irrigate young trees or they die."

But irrigation for hundreds of acres of cider orchards is "just not viable", he said. Farmers who grow eating apples for supermarkets command higher prices for their fruit, so traditionally they have invested in irrigation systems.

Cider growers are now having to rethink their calculations.

Most fundamentally of all, climate change may actually change the taste of West Country cider.

One of the main varieties that gives Somerset cider its bittersweet taste is Dabinett. Several growers have found these trees producing very few apples this year, not because of the drought, but the mild winter.

"Dabinett needs a cold snap," MacDonald explains. "We just didn't get the cold winter days this year or last, so it's not producing."

He is now grafting other varieties onto his Dabinett trees, plants that fare better in hot dry weather.

As our climate changes, the very taste of Somerset cider may change too.

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Tennessee governor plans to name Nashville airport after Dolly Parton

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8e3k37gry6o, 2 days ago

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has announced plans to name Nashville International Airport after Dolly Parton, following the 80-year-old country star's death from cancer this week.

The news comes after legions of fans signed an online petition to rename the airport after Parton, who was born in rural Tennessee and later moved to Nashville.

Lee said in a statement that he had spoken to Parton's team, who "expressed their appreciation for the extraordinary outpouring of support to honour Dolly".

"Dolly Parton's extraordinary life is forever woven into the fabric of our state," he said.

"At a place where Tennessee welcomes the world, it is fitting that Nashville International Airport would bear the name of our state's favourite daughter and greet travellers with the enduring legacy of Dolly's music, generosity, faith and kindness," the governor's statement said on Friday.

The online petition to rename the airport was originally launched in January 2025, but gained fresh momentum following her death and had gathered nearly 160,000 signatures by Friday evening.

"What a wonderful way to share her light and magic across Tennessee and the world," the petition says of the move to name the airport after Parton.

The BBC has asked the Dolly Parton Foundation for comment.

The name would need support from the Metro Nashville Airport Authority board, which is holding a meeting on the issue on 17 September, the governor's office said.

The final decision would require approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.

A Tennessee lawmaker also pledged in recent days to introduce legislation in the statehouse to rename the airport in Parton's honour.

The US has named several airports after famous musicians and other celebrities, including Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport in Kentucky.

Parton won 10 Grammy awards and sold 100 million records worldwide, including hits like Coat of Many Colors, 9 to 5, Jolene and I Will Always Love You.

US plans to cut off military aid to key Middle East ally, BBC told

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn74m8e5rleo, 2 days ago

The Trump administration is planning to cut off military aid to a key Middle East ally that helped the US defeat the Islamic State group (IS) and is now facing punishing attacks from Iran, according to four sources familiar with the matter.

The US Department of Defense has told leaders of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in recent meetings that the administration is not planning to renew an expiring agreement that provides security assistance to the Peshmerga, the Kurdish security force.

The BBC spoke to two officials who participated in the talks and two other sources with direct knowledge of the issue. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the talks, details of which have not been previously reported.

Kurdish officials fear the funding cut would create a power vacuum and embolden Iran, which has fired hundreds of missiles and drones into Iraqi Kurdistan since US President Donald Trump started the war with Tehran.

Ending the Peshmerga's security assistance would undermine a longtime partner in Iraq, analysts said, and send the message that the US cannot be trusted to back its allies in the region.

"The US would be cutting off the Kurds, who shed so much blood to help the Americans achieve their goals in Iraq and the wider Middle East," Yerevan Saeed, the director of the Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace at American University, said.

"This is going to be a big win for Iran, China, and Russia if the Kurds are left so exposed."

In his second term, Trump has pledged to reduce America's foreign entanglements in regions like the Middle East. He also launched the war with Iran, which reached the six-month mark on Friday with no end in sight.

The memorandum of understanding between the Pentagon and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) is set to expire on 30 September, the same day the US and other nations are withdrawing their last remaining troops from Iraq.

The troop withdrawal will formally end the international military campaign against IS, in which the Peshmerga fought alongside coalition troops to end the jihadist group's control of parts of Iraq and Syria. The sole remaining US military base in the country, located in the Iraqi Kurdish capital of Irbil, is set to close next month once coalition troops leave.

The Peshmerga, which has approximately 180,000 troops in Iraqi Kurdistan, received $61m (£45m) in the fiscal year 2026 for weapons, military training and stipends through the Pentagon's counter-IS programme.

The Pentagon proposed cutting all the group's security aid in its fiscal year 2027 budget request - arguing that since IS was defeated the money should now be reallocated - but the spending plan is on hold amid a broader budget battle in Congress.

The request raised alarm bells in Iraqi Kurdistan, but officials had held out hope that the US would renew the funding through an extension of the current deal.

The fears have only grown as Iran has stepped up attacks against the KRG. Iran and Iranian-backed militias had conducted 158 missile or drone attacks inside Iraqi Kurdistan by late May, according to reasearch on the latest available data compiled by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington DC think tank.

But despite the surge in attacks, in recent talks with Iraqi and Kurdish leaders, defence department officials said the US was not planning to extend the memorandum of understanding, multiple sources with knowledge of the discussions said. The Pentagon signed the initial memorandum of understanding giving military assistance to the Peshmerga in 2016 and renewed it in 2022.

A final decision on security engagement between the US and Kurdistan is still being reviewed, according to one source familiar with the Pentagon's thinking. The US is considering ways to maintain some security support in both Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan after the troop withdrawal, the sources said.

The KRG declined to comment. The White House referred the BBC to the Pentagon where a spokesperson pointed to a statement by the department summarising Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi in July.

"The United States, Iraq and Coalition partners have achieved tremendous success in defeating ISIS and now the Iraqi Security Forces, including the Peshmerga and other Iraqi Kurdistan Region security forces, will lead the fight against terrorists in Iraq," the statement said.

A State Department spokesperson told the BBC it was focused on implementing the troop withdrawal, and "ensuring that Prime Minister Zaidi is positioned to disarm Iran-aligned terrorist militias and safeguard Iraqi sovereignty."

The expiration of the security aid for the Peshmerga would come less than one year after the US opened its largest consulate in the world, in Irbil.

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the $800m complex last December, Michael Rigas, a senior US State Department official, said the consulate was "a testament to the value of the relationship between the United States and the Iraqi Kurdistan Region".

The recent discussions around Kurdish security were part of larger conversations between the US, the Iraqi government and KRG over the upcoming troop withdrawal. That date was set under a 2024 agreement between Washington and Baghdad to withdraw the US troops that remain in Iraq from the campaign against IS. American combat troops left Iraq in 2011 but returned after the power vacuum led to the rise of IS in 2014.

The US could avoid repeating the same mistake by continuing to back the Peshmerga, said James Jeffrey, who spearheaded the global coalition against IS in Trump's first term.

"It's money well spent, as we found out when the Islamic State rolled into northern Iraq," said Jeffrey, a former US ambassador to Iraq and Turkey under the Obama administration.

The Trump administration has not said how many US troops brought in to fight IS more than a decade ago remain in Iraq. Experts believe it's under 1,000, down from 170,000 at the height of the Iraq War.

The recent meetings on Iraqi security included the White House, Defense and State Departments, with Tom Barrack acting as a principal US voice on Iraq, four sources said. A close Trump ally, Barrack is the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Iraq and Syria.

The administration has said publicly it's open to a bilateral security agreement with Iraq. The countries discussed a possible defence pact in the recent meetings, but it's still unclear how the agreement might be structured or what Iraqi Kurdistan's role might be.

Al-Zaidi touted the troop withdrawal during his visit to Washington last month. Al-Zaidi, who was elected in May, met Trump at the White House, as well as Hegseth and members of Congress.

"October 1 will mark a new day in the trajectory of the Iraqi state, as Iraq will be free of any foreign military presence," al-Zaidi's office said in a statement at the time.

The withdrawal will reduce the exposure of US troops in the Middle East who have been targeted by Iran during the war, analysts said. Tehran has attacked US bases across the region, including the base in Irbil.

But it will leave the Peshmerga security force and the rest of the region it helps protect even more vulnerable than before, said Jason Campbell, a former US defence official.

"The Peshmerga have been the frontline in the US and international war with ISIS," said Campbell, an expert at the Middle East Institute. "If the US moves forward with this, it'll make the Kurds perhaps the most vulnerable potential targets of Iran."

Autopsy shows National Guard fatally shot Memphis man in the back

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp93zmljrdjo, 2 days ago

A bullet fired by members of the Tennessee National Guard entered the back of 20-year-old Tyrin Johnson, pierced his lung and killed him, an autopsy report shows, contradicting the initial account given by officials.

Authorities previously said that Johnson was shot by two guard members in the chest on 5 July in Memphis, after he faced them with a gun.

A copy of the autopsy seen by the BBC said that a single bullet penetrated his back on the right side before exiting through his upper right chest.

Johnson's family is calling for accountability following the release of the autopsy report. The National Guard did not immediately respond to the BBC's request for comment.

"Be transparent - you shot him in the back," Evaniel Johnson, the slain 20-year-old's grandfather, told the Associated Press.

"I just want to make sure somebody be responsible for what happened. Some accountability. They ain't never going to bring my grandson back.

"If he ain't caused you no threat, you know what I'm saying, you have no reason to be killing," Johnson, a former Nashville correctional officer, added.

The autopsy was conducted by the West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center Office of the Medical Examiner.

Its report included the "investigative narrative" of an agent with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation who said Memphis police and National Guard troops were first called to scene after reports of nearby gunfire.

They encountered Johnson, the investigative narrative said, who then "grabbed at his waistband".

"Law enforcement officers saw the unknown male draw a firearm," according to the officer's account of events, included in the report. "Law enforcement officers then shot at the unknown male, striking him once in the chest."

Separate from the officer's account, the report also said Johnson was carrying a "handgun magazine with rounds".

In Tennessee, gun laws allow legal gun owners to openly carry weapons.

"The autopsy findings reinforce the serious concerns we have regarding Tyrin's shooting and the circumstances surrounding his encounter with the Memphis Safe Task Force," the Johnson family's lawyer Andre Wharton, who shared the autopsy report with the BBC, said in a statement.

"The fact that Tyrin was actually shot in the back, contrasted with officer and task force's accounts, only further underscores the devastating nature of this encounter."

Johnson's cause of death was listed as "homicide", the official term used when a death is caused by another person. The term does not always include intent, and no criminal charges have been filed to date.

Asked by the BBC about the conflicting findings, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation referred to its original July statement, saying the investigation remained "active and ongoing".

"Reports that Tyrin Johnson turned and pointed a gun at National Guardsmen were not distributed by the TBI," the agency said.

Tennessee State Representative Justin Pearson released a statement on X on Friday saying "Johnson should be alive today" and called for an investigation.

"The National Guard is not welcome here," he continued. "Mr Johnson's murder is a horrifying example of the brutality and injustice the Memphis Unsafe Task Force has brought to our city."

The troops were in Memphis as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force, created by US President Donald Trump amid a larger effort to deploy National Guard troops to US cities.

Trump has said the troops deployment - largely in Democrat-led cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington DC - was meant to combat crime.

Dolly Parton's dad couldn't read - it inspired her to send books to millions of children

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpwlrrzp8eeo, 2 days ago

One child in Denver called her "The Book Queen".

Another in Alabama calls her "Ms Dolly".

Across the globe in Australia, a toddler with speech delays delighted her family with her first word - "orange" - after she and her twin sister received a free book in the post about colours. It came from Imagination Library, the literacy programme begun by late global superstar Dolly Parton.

Parton, who died this week aged 80, launched the philanthropic effort in 1995 to honour her father - whose difficult Appalachian upbringing never allowed him to finish school or learn to read and write.

"He was the smartest man I have ever known, but I know in my heart his inability to read probably kept him from fulfilling all of his dreams," wrote Parton in an open letter on Imagination Library's website.

"Inspiring kids to love to read became my mission."

Imagination Library sends one free book a month to children from birth to age five. It first launched in Tennessee's Sevier County, where Parton grew up, before expanding across the US in 2000. The programme, which partners with local organisations, launched in Canada in 2006, the UK the following year, then Australia in 2013 and Ireland in 2019.

By 2025, as Imagination Library celebrated its 30th anniversary, it had distributed more than 300m books - equating to one book mailed every 78 seconds, according to the organisation.

And for the families in receipt of the storybooks, the impact has been invaluable.

"It just blows my mind that it's readily available for every family that lives in my borough," said London mother-of-two Harriet Anscombe, whose four-year-old daughter has been receiving Imagination Library books since she was three months old.

The free books helped Anscombe establish a reading-focused nighttime routine.

"I think that, if I didn't get those books, maybe I wouldn't have started doing bedtime stories till she was two - but because we were getting them so early, it embedded story time into our routine from when she was just a couple of months old," Anscombe said. "She probably doesn't remember a time when we weren't reading stories."

Imagination Library became part of the family routine for Ciara Fernandez Faber, too, after she signed up her son about eight years ago in Colorado. His favourite book for years was one written by Parton herself: I Am A Rainbow.

"We read it almost every night, and I never got tired of reading it to him," said Faber, 42.

"It's a book about different emotions, and so we would act out the different emotions, the different faces," she said. "At the back of the book, there's a little excerpt by Dolly talking about how everybody has a rainbow of feelings, and we would read that - and he would always point to her picture and say, 'There's the Book Queen.'"

Families like Faber's repeatedly remarked on how well curated the books were - detailing how topics helped their children not just with reading, but also with social and emotional development.

"There were themes that were addressed in a lot of the books that would have really helped us navigate issues," said Helen Cashell, of Dublin, Ireland.

She signed up both of her children, now aged seven and five, for the scheme. "Whether it was same-sex families or just different types of families, things about bravery, courage, bullying, things about different identities."

Author Selina Brown, whose book My Rice Is Best was selected for distribution through Imagination Library, noted how the plotline features a black protagonist.

The programme also helps promote authors like herself; because of the selection, it "means 14,000 copies of my book have been sent to children in the UK".

"To choose between gas, electric, food or a book, you're going to choose a core need - but with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, you don't have to do that," she said.

In inner-city Sydney, Australia, first-time mum Paige Stewart was astounded as she watched her children's progress with the programme.

Her twin girls, now four, "had a speech delay and some learning difficulties" - but Stewart noticed a change after just the second book.

"Not only did they learn their colours from that book… it kind of set the tone for them speaking and their joy for books."

She's become a vocal advocate for the programme, telling others: "It's so helpful, honestly."

Alabama grandmother Kristina Hadley also promotes the programme to friends and family - even incorporating Imagination Library into baby gifts.

"I'll pull up the Imagination books website, and I'll print that, and I'll put it in a picture frame, and I'll get little newborn books and stuff like that, and I'll put it with that for like a suggestion for new mothers," said Hadley, 53.

She signed up her nearly three-year-old granddaughter, Eillie Elaine, "before she was actually born". Now the child has her own bookshelf in their shared household - "and one whole shelf is for her Dolly books".

"She likes to go to go to the mailbox, and she's like, 'Ms Dolly! Ms Dolly!' and I'm like, 'Well, let's go see if Ms Dolly sent you a book!'"

A lifelong Parton fan, Hadley chokes up while detailing how she was at work when a friend texted to say the singer had died.

Imagination Library, she says, "is going to keep her memory going with the younger generation, and I hope and I pray that this is something that goes on for years and years and years."

It's a legacy that Parton built quietly in the background as she presided over pop culture for more than six decades.

"The biggest thing that I like is the fact that she didn't do anything for recognition," said Geoff Blacklin, 67, of Manitoba, Canada.

He and his wife signed up their grandchildren for Imagination Library after a local doctor brought the programme to their region.

"She gave families more than books," Blacklin said. "She gave children a love of reading, precious moments with loved ones, and opportunities to learn and dream."

Such family stories and gratitude would undoubtedly have been music to Parton's ears; the expansion of the programme was truly a realisation of her own dream.

"In the beginning, my hope was simply to inspire the children in my home county, but here we are today with a worldwide programme that gives a book a month to well over 3 million children," she wrote on the Imagination Library site - also taking care to thank the partners "who have embraced my dream and made it their own".

At the centre of it, always, was her love for children - and her love for her father.

"Before he passed away, my Daddy told me the Imagination Library was probably the most important thing I had ever done," Parton wrote.

"I can't tell you how much that meant to me, because I created the Imagination Library as a tribute to my Daddy."

Jacob Elordi on why The Dog Stars had him asking 'What am I missing' in life?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74g2j83dx1o, 3 days ago

A devastating pandemic, environmental destruction and a depleted society reduced to anarchy are the themes at play in Sir Ridley Scott's latest film The Dog Stars.

Based on Peter Heller's 2012 novel of the same name, the stars of the sci-fi film say they hope its themes will makes viewers question the parts of their lives they take for granted.

Jacob Elordi stars as the lead character, Hig, a former mechanic turned pilot, who spends his days flying over Colorado with his dog Jasper, searching for a better life.

He tells the BBC the film portrays "the human condition", with the characters living in "the apocalypse" but "still looking for something else and hoping for something else".

The film, which features a star-studded cast of Guy Pearce, Margaret Qualley and Josh Brolin, is set in the 2030s, where only those immune from a deadly flu remain alive.

It immediately draw parallels with the Covid pandemic with its aerial shots of abandoned cities and Hig's constant search for resources like food and medicine.

Elordi, who received his first Oscar nomination earlier this year for Frankenstein, says "there were a few moments I remember looking around [on set] and thinking it's strange to be doing this make-believe, when the reality is just behind us and just in front of us".

He says a dystopian future like the one portrayed in the film is "frightening to think about" but "it's something we have to examine and remember, because we are on the cusp of these realities".

The 29-year-old also says he resonates with his character's struggle to be content with life.

"Everything is sweet for us - we're able to walk around on the street, go to the shops, go to the park, have dinner with each other and we still go to bed and think 'What else is there?', 'What am I missing?', 'What's wrong?' and nothing is".

This is also true for his co-star, Mare of Easttown and Memento star Pearce, who plays Pops, the survivor who meets Hig after emergency-landing his plane near his home.

Pearce says the way the film highlights "this world we take for granted" is "pertinent" adding: "You can go to the supermarket and get food and wake up with your family - a lot of people even to this day don't live like that, so I am absolutely aware of [my] privilege".

'A note of hope'

The film's anarchical vibe is also portrayed through its environment, with scenes of scorched earth that resemble the images many of us have seen in places affected by wildfires.

This is personal to both Pearce, who previously worked with Sir Ridley on Prometheus in 2012, and Elordi. Both were raised in areas of Australia that have been recently damaged by natural disasters.

"I've been in Australia when there's been serious bushfires," says Pearce, whose home state of Victoria was damaged earlier this year.

"All round the world now there's just more and more effects of climate change so it's pretty terrifying that a lot of those things are not far away," he says.

Elordi, who hails from Brisbane, is a little more hopeful about the future of the climate in the context of the film - pointing to other parts where you can see lush expanses of greenery.

"Something interesting and not to be missed is the idea of regrowth - that in this abyss, four or five years after the worst day ever for human beings, the trees are full, the grass is thick and the flowers are growing out of the decay".

He says this provides "a note of hope" and "idea of redemption", adding that this relates to real life through wildfires because "when a wildfire destroys an entire coast, inevitably the nature and the earth rebuilds and regrows".

'Difference between surviving and thriving'

Early reviews of the film have been mixed, with The Guardian's Benjamin Lee three-star review describing it as a "limp and lethargic film that only briefly fascinates in pushing us to wonder what anyone was really hoping this would end up being".

David Rooney at The Hollywood Reporter is slightly more positive, noting that the film is "muted but never dull" and an "appealingly mellow watch".

But in a two-star review, Empire's Helen O'Hara says the film "tries to examine the difference between surviving and thriving" but "doesn't seem entirely convinced of its own answers".

The film got three stars from Tim Robey at The Telegraph, who notes the film's "action interludes are more nonsensical than scary" and "provide momentary dumb fun when Scott's campfire apocalypse needs waking up".

Sir Ridley says the film was inspired by Covid, but also the original book's context, having been written in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis.

"If you put those two together you've got a great combination of chaos," he notes, adding: "If you have chaos, you get panic and anarchy and away you go".

He also says he thought a lot about his upbringing when building the film's virus-stricken world.

"I was a war baby so I can remember incendiary bombs dropping on me and we'd have to shelter under the stairs. So the Second World War to me was apocalyptic".

Elordi notes that he is "afraid of large movies and things packed with action set pieces" but was reassured by Sir Ridley as "the master of these kinds of films".

"I would have done any movie he sent through for me to make, it's a privilege to get to work with a pioneer of our industry in my lifetime - it's kind of unfathomable," he adds.

The Dog Stars is out in UK cinemas on 28 August.

Key moments in trial of Lindsay Clancy, the mother accused of murdering her three children

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg7mlmg475go, 3 days ago

A jury is deliberating in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother charged with murdering her three small children at their home in suburban Boston.

In a case that has captivated the American public, Clancy has not disputed that she killed them, but her lawyers argue she should not be held legally responsible because she was suffering from severe mental illness.

Clancy is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the January 2023 deaths. If convicted by a jury, she faces life in prison without parole.

Here are some of the most notable moments from the emotional five-week trial.

Defence argues Clancy had hallucinations and delusions

Prosecutors allege that on 24 January 2023, Clancy intentionally strangled all of her children - Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, eight months - with fitness bands in their Duxbury, Massachusetts, home before jumping from a second-floor window. Clancy, now 36, was paralysed by the fall and attended the trial in a wheelchair.

Clancy's attorneys, while defending her, have never rejected her role in the killings.

Instead, they have put forth a defence of insanity, arguing that Clancy had hallucinations and delusions after giving birth to her youngest child. They pointed to treatment for mental health problems and that she checked herself into a psychiatric hospital just days before the deaths.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, have argued Clancy made a calculated decision to intentionally kill her children and should be held legally responsible. They allege that at the time, Clancy sent her husband, Patrick Clancy, out on errands so that he would not be home.

Clancy's family, including her former mother-in-law and husband, have testified about her mental state leading up to the deaths.

The five-week trial has sparked interest on social media as thousands watched the court proceedings. Hundreds of women have showed up outside the courthouse to support Clancy, wearing pink shirts with phrases like "She Needed Help" and "Peace For Lindsay".

'A really hard time': Clancy's ex-husband takes stand

Over two days, Clancy's ex-husband, Patrick, told jurors about his ex-wife's declining mental health after giving birth and described the day his children died in gruesome detail.

He told jurors that Clancy's "big spiral" began about a month before their deaths.

"She started to lose a lot of weight, and she became very depressed, and she was having a really hard time," he said.

He described her intermittently seeking help from doctors and taking a variety of medications, adding that he recalled her saying she was starting to have thoughts of suicide.

Patrick Clancy described his last image of son Dawson sitting on the couch eating chicken nuggets before he left to get food and medication. He came back to find his children dead.

Lindsay Clancy sobbed in court as a recording of her husband's 911 call played. He can be heard screaming, "She killed the kids", after finding their children in the basement.

Since the beginning of the trial, conspiracy theories about Patrick Clancy have swirled online, including some speculating about his involvement. But he was never a suspect or under suspicion by investigators; Lindsay Clancy admitted to killing her children and her attorneys have not denied that.

Battles between lawyers and experts over Clancy's care

More than 10 expert witnesses testified for both the defence and the prosecution, including some who clashed with lawyers over Clancy's mental health.

Over the course of her treatment, Clancy was put on over a dozen medications, and sought help from a suicide hotline and the emergency room.

Clancy's team tried to convince jurors she had postpartum psychosis, a rare condition in which postpartum women can experience mania, depression or a mixture of both. Clancy claims she experienced hallucinations and delusions.

One day in the courtroom grew particularly heated as one of Clancy's psychiatrists, Jennifer Tufts, testified for the prosecution that Clancy did not show signs of psychosis during their sessions.

There were "no serious signs that her safety or anyone else's safety was at risk," said Tufts, who saw Clancy over a dozen times for five months.

But defence attorneys pointed to Tufts' medical notes, describing Clancy's "not hyper, pressured speech". Pressured speech - a rapid, frantic way of talking - can be a sign of mania.

Tufts denied that she believed Clancy had pressured speech, saying the "not" applied to both the words hyper and pressured. As defence attorney Kevin Reddington pressed her, she replied: "I don't care what it says. I know what I meant."

Reddington also grew tense as he repeatedly questioned another prosecution expert, psychiatrist Avram Mack, about whether postpartum psychosis is a diagnosis.

The American Psychiatric Association views postpartum psychosis as only a proposed illness, he said.

Mack avoided calling postpartum psychosis a recognised diagnosis, at one point responding: "I'm not sure if that specifically answers your question."

In a frustrated tone, Reddington responded: "I don't care."

Clancy's mother testifies

In addition to Patrick Clancy, Lindsay's former mother-in-law, her mother and her sister also testified, telling jurors about Clancy's deteriorating mental health after the birth of her son.

Lindsay Clancy was "begging for help", her former mother-in-law Susan Clancy testified.

"She had insomnia. She was losing her appetite," she said. "She was very anxious and sad."

She added that Clancy had been a "very nurturing" mother until the birth of her youngest son.

Clancy's mother, Paula Musgrove, said her daughter told her and her ex-husband that she was having thoughts of harming the children a month before their deaths.

Musgrove said her daughter was becoming paranoid and expressed that she thought her medications were "destroying her mind".

Clancy's sister Allison Ozga told the court that her sister was experiencing suicidal thoughts every day a month before she killed her children.

Judge tells jurors to disregard testimony about Catholic faith

Two days before closing arguments, Clancy's defence team requested a mistrial after prosecutors asked witnesses about her Catholic faith.

Prosecutors last week asked Clancy's former mother-in-law, Susan Clancy, whether she was aware that murder was considered a "mortal sin" after asking her if she was Catholic, testimony that the judge asked jurors to disregard.

Then, this week, forensic psychologist Kirk Heilbrun, who interviewed Lindsay Clancy after the killings, testified that he had asked Clancy whether suicide was considered a "mortal sin" while discussing her Catholic upbringing.

Judge William Sullivan denied Clancy's legal team's request for a mistrial, but told jurors it was an "absolutely inappropriate area of testimony".

"It is to be stricken. It is not to be considered. I can't be any more clear of that," he said.

With additional reporting from Ana Faguy and Brandon Drenon

If you are suffering distress or despair and need support, you could speak to a health professional, or an organisation that offers support. Details of help available in many countries can be found at Befrienders Worldwide. www.befrienders.org.

In the UK a list of organisations that can help is available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

Dolly Parton was the one thing most Americans could agree on

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c790n1vj27no, 5 days ago

Dolly Parton was a lot of things - a country musician, a philanthropist, an actress, a storyteller and a businesswoman. One thing she never was, however, was a politician.

But don't think it's because no one asked her. In 1999, during an appearance on the talk show Prime Time Country!, the singer was asked by a young woman in the audience if she would ever run for office.

Dolly demurred, with her characteristic razor-sharp wit. "I think of myself more as a diplomat. That's the kind of people who tell you to go to hell in such a way you look forward to the trip."

It's something she'd had to do many times over a career that spanned decades and genres. With a fanbase that included grandmas and Gen-Zers, Republicans and Democrats, drag queens and evangelicals, Parton was a kind of unicorn in America's polarised society.

"She is the one person who straddles political divides… the so-called culture wars," said Sarah Phillips, who teaches an Anthropology of Dolly Parton course at Indiana University - and still finds it hard to speak about the singer in the past tense. The professor "curled into a ball" in her office and "just sobbed" upon hearing of the death.

A recent poll by YouGov said that Parton's net approval rating was 65% - compared with Barack Obama's 14%, Taylor Swift's 3%, Donald Trump's -19% and Joe Biden's -18%.

Much of that universal appeal has been attributed to Parton's steadfast refusal to weigh into politics, for fear of alienating her fans.

"I've got as many Republican fans as Democrats and I don't want to make any of them mad at me, so I don't play politics," she once said during an interview with Fox News.

She turned down the Presidential Medal of Freedom from two different presidents. She twice declined Donald Trump's offer, citing scheduling and health reasons. So when Joe Biden offered it to her a few years later, she felt she had to decline as well, otherwise it would look like she had a preference for one over the other.

After news broke on Tuesday of Parton's death, tributes poured in from politicians from both sides. Trump ordered American flags to be flown at half mast - an honour usually reserved for elite statesmen and judges.

"There has never been anyone like her, and never will," Trump wrote on social media.

In her own social media post, Hillary Clinton wrote "she was the best of America".

Even though she avoided partisan politics, Parton was never apolitical - speaking about subjects including women's rights, LGBTQ equality and Black Lives Matter.

That commitment to speaking her mind, and her "amazing sense of self", Phillips said, was integral to Parton's near-universal appeal and self-styled diplomacy.

"She has always been a model for women, carving your own path, looking out for yourself, making sure that you retain the rights to your intellectual property, looking out for your own financial and creative independence," Phillips told the BBC.

"And if that's not feminism, I don't know what is."

Public interest in Parton's views began many years ago, when she made it clear to anyone listening that she was not a cookie-cutter country singer.

In 1977, she became a crossover pop sensation, but instead of alienating her base, she grew her audience. Then, in 1980, she made her film debut in 9 to 5, a dark satire about women's rights in the workplace helped by Jane Fonda. Fonda was persona non-grata in many parts of the country for her anti-Vietnam War activism.

But Parton refused to distance herself from Fonda just to appease her more conservative fans. She said: "I respect anybody's beliefs and the fact that they're willing to stand up for whatever it is. But I'm also the kind of person that if I don't like where you got it, I can tell you where to put it."

After learning of her death, Fonda posted on social media: "She is woven into all our lives and hearts forever."

Parton's image is similarly woven into public minds: always camp, always glamorous, always smiling and always kind. Her aesthetics were deliberately cultivated, another calculated move from a shrewd entrepreneur who understood showbusiness as well as she understood people.

When television journalist Barbara Walters grilled Parton about her looks in a 1977 segment - asking if the singer was a joke - the interviewer arguably met her match.

"Dolly Parton made it very clear that she knows exactly what she's doing," Phillips said, reflecting on how Parton handled the interview.

"This is how she feels comfortable, and she even said [to Walters]: 'Everybody thinks that the joke's on me, but in fact, the joke is on the public. I know very well what I'm doing, and I can change my image any time I want to.'"

Journalists have tried - and failed - over the years to get Parton to go off script. But whenever they asked her to weigh into political terrain, she would pivot like a boxer.

Instead of left-hooks, Parton's main defences were humour and self-deprecation. During a press conference in 2016, she told a gaggle of journalists that "I've been thinking about running myself… we could use a few more boobs in the race", and nodded at her chest.

But Parton never did run for office - even though her father, when he was alive, liked to drive around town with a bumper sticker that said "Dolly for President".

Instead she poured her heart and soul into her philanthropy - like her Imagination Library, which sent free books to children around the world, or her work helping to fund the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine.

Her charity came from a deeply personal place.

Parton grew up in abject poverty, raised in a one-bedroom log cabin alongside 11 siblings. When her career took off, she employed much of her family in her business endeavours and spread that wealth to the local Tennessee community.

She bought an ownership stake in an existing theme park in 1986 in the mountains where she grew up, and it was rechristened Dollywood: a resort and enterprise that remains the single largest employer in the county.

Tennessee musician James Rogers, president of the board of the American Eagle Foundation - which joined forces with Dollywood for a bald eagle sanctuary - recalled the singer's unrivalled kindness and one-on-one attentiveness.

"She's even sweeter than you realise," he told the BBC, recalling a time decades ago when Parton arrived for a performance and spotted him to the side with his wife and daughter Heather, who was around 10 years old.

Parton "detoured the whole entourage to come around over there to where we were and then she knelt down to talk to Heather for a minute".

"The truth is, she supports everybody," said Phillips, who grew up in the North Carolina mountains "across the holler" from Parton's Appalachian Tennessee.

The professor spends "a lot of time" in her class exploring Parton's politics - or "Dollitics", a phrase coined by the singer's nephew to describe her way of handling thorny subjects.

"She wants all boats to rise."

Phillips added that Parton was emblematic of the very values America was built upon and still holds dear, namely "independence" and "freedom to do what you want".

"When we think about the American Dream in the sort of old-fashioned sense of - If you're talented, if you work really, really, really hard, you can achieve your dreams - she embodied that very much."

Phillips and and the many people who paid tribute to the late singer all noted how singular Parton was.

"This summer, I was in France, and I was in Poland, and I ask people, who's the Polish Dolly Parton? Who's the French Dolly Parton?" Phillips said.

"And nobody has an answer, because there isn't one."

Right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos detained by ICE

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj06jgq62v9o, 2 days ago

British right-wing political commentator Milo Yiannopoulos has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and is awaiting deportation.

Yiannopoulos, 41, a former editor of Breitbart News and onetime political aide to rapper Kanye West, appears to be held in Louisiana, according to ICE's inmate registry.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said he "was issued a final order of removal by an Immigration Judge on July 22, after failing to show up for his immigration hearing", and will remain in custody pending deportation.

The self-styled provocateur has called himself the "most fabulous supervillain on the internet". His critics call him a purveyor of hate speech.

Yiannopoulos, who grew up in Kent in the south of England, was arrested on 27 August after arriving at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.

He flew into the US in May 2019 and "chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation's laws", said DHS.

The DHS statement referred to him as "an illegal alien from the United Kingdom".

The BBC has asked the UK embassy in Washington for comment. Yiannopoulos did not respond to the BBC's request for comment.

"Being in detention is a choice," the DHS statement continued, calling on migrants who were in the US illegally to "self-deport now".

Yiannopoulos was an early supporter of Donald Trump during the 2016 election, headlining an event that year called Gays for Trump during the Republican National Convention.

Yiannopoulos has become a critic of the US president, but still voices support for the Republican president's agenda. He wrote on X in March this year that Trump had "lost his way, bought off by foreign interests".

In 2020, he assisted Kanye West in the rapper's bid to become president. He also worked for Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Republican congresswoman who fell out with Trump and became a fierce critic before resigning from office.

He has written columns titled "Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy" and "Would You Rather Your Child Had Feminism or Cancer?"

He has also cheered on ICE raids, writing on X last year: "Total legal immunity for ICE agents when they're on duty."

He posted in 2025: "We have got to deport millions and millions of people. Without that, nothing else matters."

Yiannopoulos also advocated "on the spot deportation for anyone who can't prove they are in the US legally" on social media.

Laura Loomer, a far-right commentator and Trump ally who has feuded with Yiannopoulos, took credit for his arrest by ICE.

She wrote on X on Friday night that his flight back to the UK had already departed.

"This subversive foreign agent is already out of the United States and DHS tells me he's NEVER allowed to come back to the United States ever again," she said.

He denied the allegations, and said he had been speaking about his own experiences as a child.

Yiannopoulos was once regularly linked with the alt-right, a disparate group that is outspoken against political correctness and feminism and which includes neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

He has said he did not consider himself part of the alt-right, although he has called it "energising and exciting".

Russia says it helped to repel Niger attempted coup

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ye8egg596o, today

Russia has said its forces helped to repel Saturday's attempted coup in Niger.

Explosions and gunfire rang out across capital, Niamey, early in the morning, including at a key military airbase and the presidential palace.

Hours later, Niger's authorities said the rebellion had been contained.

Nigerien forces had repelled the attack "with the assistance of servicemen of the African Corps of the Russian Ministry of Defence", the foreign ministry in Moscow said on Sunday.

The ministry also said it would continue to support Niger in its fight against "extremists", but that the situation was now under the control of the legitimate authorities headed by President [Gen Abdourahmane] Tiani".

Russia's African Corps has become a key security partner for multiple military governments in the Sahel, who have been struggling to contain long-running jihadist insurgencies.

The Alliance of Sahel States - composed of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso - said the attempted coup was "a betrayal by a group of soldiers involved in an attempt at destabilisation".

The authorities have not said how many soldiers were involved in the attempted coup, nor how many casualties there were.

Niger's military ruler, Gen Tiani, who was sworn in as its president last year after he deposed its elected leader, has also not publicly addressed the incident.

The nation's state broadcaster showed footage of several alleged mutineers being arrested by the Presidential Guard.

On Sunday, Niger Press Agency reported that commercial activity was returning to normal, with petrol stations, shops and other businesses reopening.

Supporters of the government gathered at a public square in central Niamey in support of the security forces and Tiani's government.

Air Base 101, the military site attacked on Saturday, is part of the Diori Hamani airport complex.

It hosts Nigerien military aircraft and drones, as well as an Alliance of Sahel States counter-terrorism unit. Russian and Italian forces are also based there, according to news agency Reuters.

Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso are all military-ruled countries that have cut ties with Western partners and strengthened their co-operation with Russia.

But jihadist violence remains widespread in all three countries, despite the shift in alliances.

For Niger's government, Saturday's mutiny highlights that the military is dealing not only with an external insurgency, but also signs of discontent within its own ranks.

The airbase where the mutiny began had itself been targeted twice by jihadists this year – once by an Islamic State affiliate and later by an al-Qaeda affiliate.

Nigerien authorities say security forces have increased patrols around key sites in Niamey following the attempted takeover, including the main airport entrance and the presidential pavilion.

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

Zambian opposition leader charged with treason

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20lwqpx70qo, today

Zambian opposition leader Brian Mundubile has been charged with treason, his lawyer has said amid heightened political tensions in the country.

Mundubile was arrested on Thursday, after a deadly raid by the authorities led the opposition politician to go into hiding.

He had disputed the results of the country's recent presidential election, which saw incumbent President Hakainde Hichilema securing a second term.

The authorities then accused Mundubile's NRPUP party of planning an armed insurgency, which it denied.

On Saturday night, Mundubile's lawyer Milner Katolo announced that his client had been charged with treason. The opposition leader looks forward to answering the accusation in court, Katolo told the Zambian Eye.

The lawyer said 17 others, including Mundubile's running mate Makebi Zulu, had also been charged with treason.

Mundubile gained 38% of the vote in the 13 August election, while Hichilema secured 60%, official results show.

The day after the poll, security forces raided a property in the capital, Lusaka, linked to Mundubile, killing a former cabinet minister and arresting a number of other politicians.

Following the raid, Mundubile and Zulu took refuge at a United Nations building in the city. The pair were detained after the president put pressure on the UN to hand them over.

The opposition was unable to mount a legal challenge to the election outcome as the courts were sealed off by the authorities on Monday, the final day that a case could be filed.

Hichilema is due to be sworn in for a second term on 1 September.

Regional and international observers described the election day as largely peaceful, but Zambia's Human Rights Commission has called for accountability over people whose whereabouts remain unknown following arrests and security operations around the elections.

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

Two-year curfew lifted in Sudan's capital

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2076gxr0llo, 2 days ago

Sudan's military-led government has lifted a curfew and state of emergency in Khartoum imposed more than two years ago, state media says.

The authorities are taking this step 18 months after the army seized back control of the capital from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which it has been fighting in a civil war now in its fourth year.

But clashes continue in the south and west, with mounting evidence that the war is spilling across Sudan's borders.

More than two million of the roughly five million people who fled Khartoum after war erupted in April 2023 have returned to the city since fighting there ended in March 2025, according to the International Organization for Migration.

The aim of lifting the curfew is to help restore normal life to the capital.

The government has reopened the city's main airport for some flights and is encouraging businesses and embassies to come back.

But residents still struggle to rebuild their livelihoods.

Many have found widespread damage with many buildings looted. And they have to cope with constant power blackouts, due to alleged RSF drone attacks on electricity infrastructure and a lack of government funds to carry out repairs.

"The targeting of the electricity sector in particular was very significant," a spokesperson for the Khartoum state government, Altayeb Saadeldin, told the Reuters news agency, listing looting of copper wires and fuel and other components, as well as drone attacks, as reasons for the outages.

An RSF source responded that the allegations were "incorrect and army propaganda".

Despite lifting the state of emergency, the authorities remain wary of RSF infiltration. The Sudan News Agency said security patrols would continue operating across the state and locals traveling at night would need to carry identification documents.

Reports compiled by BBC Monitoring say the army continues to carry out security sweeps across greater Khartoum, targeting alleged RSF sleeper cells, undocumented foreigners and criminals involved in illegal activities.

In the meantime, there is growing concern that the war is drawing in neighbouring countries.

Chad is accusing the Sudanese army of carrying out an air strike that hit a military convoy in Ennedi-Est province, about 100km (62 miles) inside Chadian territory, on 20 August. It has reportedly put its forces along the border on maximum alert.

Sudan has rejected the charge, saying it is surprised that its army was blamed without an independent investigation.

In a statement, the foreign ministry said it "affirms that the Sudanese army fulfils its constitutional duty to defend Sudan's sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, and to confront the threats facing the country, while remaining committed to respecting the sovereignty of neighbouring states and refraining from targeting their territories".

Sudan accuses Chad of permitting the passage of RSF military supplies delivered by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) through its airports and border crossings.

The UAE and Chad deny the allegations despite similar findings by UN experts and investigative reports by international media.

The attack on the Chadian convoy prompted the US Senior Adviser for Arab and African Affairs, Massad Boulos to express "deep concern" about the risk of Sudan's war threatening regional peace and stability.

Boulos has been urging the parties to immediately accept a humanitarian truce. He has grown increasingly frustrated with the Sudanese military, which refuses to engage in a peace process unless the RSF disarms and withdraws from the territory it has occupied.

"The United States condemns the SAF's recent air strikes inside Chad," Boulos wrote in a post on X. "There is no military solution to this conflict - and absolutely no justification for expanding the violence beyond Sudan's borders.

"External financial and military support to the warring parties must stop," he added.

This month the US envoy presented a draft resolution to the UN Security Council that would extend a 2005 weapons embargo on Darfur - the stronghold of the RSF - across the entire country and include a ban on attack drones, which are increasingly used by both sides.

Sudan's government and army have rejected the proposal. According to local media reports officials argue that this unfairly equates the recognised national military with a paramilitary force and restricts its ability to defend citizens against an insurgency.

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

Dutch court sentences man to life over Rwanda genocide

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce8x96rw79ro, 3 days ago

A court in the Netherlands has sentenced a Dutch-Rwandan man to life for his involvement in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

The 66-year-old, named only as Eugene N, was accused, among other things, of throwing a hand grenade into a crowd of Tutsis who were seeking shelter in a stadium. He was convicted of war crimes and the crime of genocide, having acted with "genocidal intent", the judge said.

Rwanda had sought his extradition in 2014 but the authorities in the Netherlands then launched their own investigation into N, who had become a Dutch citizen.

In 100 days in April 1994, an estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus people were killed by Hutu extremists.

The court in The Hague heard N held an authoritative position in the community at the time of the massacre, overseeing around 1,000 people in Mbazi in southern Rwanda.

"The suspect was a man who was held in high regard and must have been aware of his role and the influence he had as a local administrator," the court explained, adding that he "committed multiple severe crimes".

At a football stadium, he instructed Hutus not to let any of the Tutsis escape. Trapped inside, they were pelted with stones, shot at and had hand grenades thrown at them.

Any who had survived, were killed with clubs and machetes, the court said.

Prior to the stadium massacre, N had watched on as people looted houses and set them on fire.

"Only a lifelong prison sentence does justice to the immense suffering that has been inflicted on the victims and the bereaved families," the court said.

As part of the Dutch investigation opened in 2020, more than 30 witnesses were interviewed. N was subsequently arrested in 2024.

N denied all the charges, the AFP news agency reports, alleging that he was a victim who had lost family in "those horrific events".

"The case has torn his scars open again. He is a broken man," his lawyers are quoted as saying by AFP. They had moved to seek acquittals on all accounts. N was acquitted of the incitement to genocide.

His defence team said they will "almost certainly appeal the charges", according to local news agency ANP.

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

Somali piracy surges as the impact of the US-Iran war ripples outwards

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr4vx4pneydo, 2 days ago

A surge in piracy near Somalia has increased threats to shipping already under pressure from maritime blockades and conflict due to the US war with Iran.

Two cargo vessels were seized in the Gulf of Aden within four days last week, rising to at least 13 the number of ships attacked since the start of the year and triggering unprecedented drone strikes against the pirates.

It is the biggest escalation in hijackings in more than a decade, renewing concern about security in this region vital to international trade.

"Piracy is always a crime of opportunity," says Omar Mahmood, a senior Somalia analyst for the International Crisis Group (ICG), "and right now the pirates see an opportunity."

That opportunity comes from the impact of the war on regional waterways further north.

Iran and the US continue to battle over control of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

And Tehran's Houthi allies in Yemen have imposed a targeted blockade in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which controls access to the Red Sea. This is focused on a dispute with Saudi Arabia but heightens insecurity for international shipping.

"I guess the pirates believe that with those two external events in Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab, they believe that the international forces will be dedicated to those crises instead of looking for pirates," says Vice-Admiral Ignacio Villanueva Serrano, operation commander for the European Union's naval force that protects shipping off Somalia's coast.

Among the latest vessels hijacked by the pirates was a Cameroon-flagged ship, the MV Lutuf, which was attacked off the coast of Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region on 17 August. A few days later pirates boarded an oil products tanker, the Eritrean-flagged MT Sibu 1, in waters near Yemen, on the other side of the Gulf.

The capture of the Lutuf has triggered unexpected consequences.

Thirteen men allegedly belonging to a network that supplies the pirates on the ship have been killed in two drone strikes since 18 August. No one has said they are behind the attacks, but local officials blamed them on Turkey, saying the vessel was carrying Turkish weapons.

The Lutuf is now among six vessels being held for demands of millions of dollars in ransom, four of which are anchored near the fishing town of Bander Beyla known as a hotbed for piracy, the BBC has learned.

That is nowhere near the peak levels of hijackings 15 years ago that cost the global economy billions of dollars. In 2011 Somali pirates carried out more than 200 attacks and held hundreds of crew members hostage.

A co-ordinated international naval response together with private security on commercial ships successfully drove down the scourge and contained a flare-up in 2023 and 2024.

But experts stress that while the pirate networks were suppressed, they remained intact, given the failure to address the poor economic and security conditions in Somalia that feed them.

Currently the resurgence is fuelled locally by anger over foreign trawlers which overfish in Somali waters, damaging the fishing industry that sustains communities in Puntland.

And there are more targets available now with a potentially bigger payload.

The regional maritime insecurity has driven some ships closer to the Somali coast as they divert south to avoid the conflict further north. Given the high price of oil, hijacking a tanker is more lucrative.

"You have that combined effect of less naval patrolling but more commercial shipping in these waters," according to the analyst Mahmood, "and that signals an opportunity.

"And once you've had a successful attack, I think that spurs other units to do copycat type incidents as well."

He and other researchers suspect there may be collaboration between the Somali pirates and Yemenis after several vessels were seized near Yemen's coast.

But Mahmood says these would more likely be criminal elements than Iran's Houthi allies, especially as one of the ships seized last week, the MT Sibu 1, allegedly belonged to an Iranian "shadow fleet" used to transport petroleum products trying to dodge US sanctions.

"I don't see something specifically Iran-directed," he says.

Turkey, however, reportedly has a stake in the latest hijackings.

Puntland security sources and a Somali government official have told the BBC that the Lutuf was carrying weapons bound for a Turkish military training facility in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Ankara has an agreement with Somalia to strengthen its maritime security, as part of a wider defence and economic partnership.

The security sources say six international warships are now in the seas close to the Lutuf - two from Turkey and one each from Spain, Denmark, the US and India, something the BBC has not been able to independently verify.

"There is military equipment on the [hijacked] ship meant for Turkey's operations in Somalia," the Somali government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding that the cargo included satellite equipment for a space station that Ankara is building north of the capital.

He alleged that Turkey had carried out the second drone strike that killed nine armed men on Sunday.

"The men who were killed were criminals and I don't have sympathy for them," he said, "but taking it to that level is escalating the situation even more."

Turkey's defence ministry has stated that its forces are providing "necessary support" to Somali authorities regarding the incident involving a hijacked vessel in Somali territorial waters, within the framework of their security agreement. But it stopped short of addressing the accusations that Turkey had carried out deadly drone strikes.

Publicly the government in Mogadishu has said only that it is aware of the operations against pirate groups and will take measures to address them.

Puntland authorities have been more outspoken.

Speaking to the BBC's Somali Service, Deputy Minister of Security Abdirahman Yusuf said his administration had evidence that Turkey was responsible for the attacks, citing information about Turkish activity around the vessel and along the Puntland coast.

The BBC has not independently verified his allegations.

The security ministry also issued a statement expressing opposition to "bombings by international warships targeting civilians" that "undermined co-operation… in combatting piracy", and demanded an immediate explanation for why they were carried out.

Puntland is wary of Turkey's close military relationship with the Somali government, and the incidents risk further complicating a long-standing political dispute between the semi-autonomous region and Mogadishu that hinders a co-ordinated effort to fight piracy, analysts say.

There is not yet a full-blown resurgence. But without an end to the US-Iran war, or increased international efforts at deterrence, Somali piracy stands to continue raising the threat level in a crucial maritime space that is already dangerously squeezed.

Additional reporting by Mohamed Gabobe in Mogadishu and the BBC Somali Service

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

World's youngest reigning traditional monarch dies aged 34

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0j38d9v40po, 3 days ago

A traditional Ugandan ruler named as the world's youngest monarch has died aged 34, his prime minster announced.

Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV became king of Tooro in western Uganda at just three years old in 1995 after the death of his father.

The Tooro kingdom did not disclose the cause of King Oyo's death, but a Ugandan government minister was quoted in local media saying that he had been critically ill and was seeking treatment in the US.

Though Uganda is governed by an elected president and parliament, it has several traditional kingdoms which continue to have significant cultural influence despite not having political power.

Oyo, who Guinness World Records listed as the world's youngest reigning monarch, ruled over more than two million people. He was the 13th monarch of a kingdom that was founded in the early 19th Century.

Announcing his death, Tooro's Prime Minister Calvin Armstrong Rwomiire Akiiki called his passing on Thursday an "immeasurable loss" to the royal family and the people of Tooro.

"I call upon all the people of Tooro to remain united, calm and prayerful during this profoundly difficult time," Akiiki said on Friday. "May His Majesty the King rest in eternal peace."

The Tooro Kingdom follows a hereditary system in selecting its monarch.

Oyo was not officially married, but Akiiki said "the continuity of the Crown is assured".

"His Majesty leaves behind a Prince as his heir, whose identity will be formally revealed at the appropriate time, in accordance with the traditions and customs of Tooro Kingdom," he explained.

When he became king in 1995 a regency, which included the queen mother, was established until Oyo turned 18 when there was an official coronation.

The young king was well respected by his people and according to a report in the Daily Monitor newspaper he promoted causes such as youth empowerment, education and climate conservation, as well as HIV/Aids awareness.

The country's largest and most influential traditional institution, the Buganda Kingdom, said it mourned with the people of Tooro following the death of their monarch, labelling him a valuable figure to Uganda.

Similarly, the Rwenzururu Kingdom also extended its condolences to "all those mourning this great loss", according to local media reports.

Others have also paid their respects to the late king.

The Federation of Uganda Football Associations, honoured King Oyo as a "true friend of the beautiful game", and announced a moment of silence before the kick-off of all matches until 4 September in memory of his "legacy, love, passion and contribution" to the sport.

Government minister Margaret Muhanga described the mood in the kingdom as "sombre... you can't see anyone smiling".

The king was "at the prime of his life", she said in a video shared on social media, "as young as he was, he had an impact on his kingdom".

Muhanga said they would be planting a million trees in his honour during the mourning period, and wants to ask the neighbouring districts in Tooro to do the same.

Uganadan musician Juliana Kanyomozi called it a "very dark day for Tooro", in an Instagram post. "Gone too soon. What a loss!!!!"

Meanwhile, pop star-turned-politician Bobi Wine, called for King Oyo's "soul to rest in eternal peace".

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

'If you started running, they shot you' - inside Nigeria's growing kidnapping crisis

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2z0p3nmdro, 4 days ago

"If you ran into a room, they set the room on fire," says Fatima, describing a recent attack on her village in Zamfara, north-western Nigeria. "If you came out and started running, they shot you."

The gunmen, who struck at 02:00, split into groups to surround residents: one at the village entrance, one in the centre and one at the back.

"They opened fire without a care in the world, shooting indiscriminately," the 55-year-old quietly tells the BBC World Service.

It was one of many attacks that have caused havoc in the mainly Muslim community where residents live in fear of being kidnapped for ransom.

Fatima explains how the raids unfold: "You could have 100 motorcycles, and each one could be carrying three people."

About 70 people, including children, were killed from the village of Bia Buki in June, according to Fatima.

She describes how the attackers also targeted villagers as they fled and children were injured falling into ditches. Among the dead were her husband and six of his seven siblings.

Fatima is one of an estimated 800,000 Nigerians who the UN says have been displaced in the country's north-west. One of the main reasons people have left their homes is violence.

Some attacks have been carried out by militant Islamist groups, but the majority in this region are by gangs, locally referred to as bandits, who often move around on motorcycles and attack quickly then ride away, escaping before security forces arrive.

Thousands of people have joined government-backed vigilante groups to fight, and the BBC spoke to one who said his armed group had killed many bandits.

But the gangs keep attacking in what appears to be a deteriorating pattern of violence and abductions that is spreading southwards.

Fatima says when the bandits attacked her home, she ran into the nearby forest with other villagers to hide: "The forest became our sanctuary. We ran with our kids, if you couldn't find your child you'd take your neighbour's child."

She says people slept in the forest before moving on to the state capital, Gusau, "where we found a little bit of peace".

Fatima now lives in an informal camp in Gusau with her seven children, who are aged between nine and 30.

Dozens of women sit in groups on the dusty ground of the makeshift compound, many wearing brightly coloured hijabs. More than 1,000 people are here, she believes.

Conditions are tough with "no proper place to even lay your head". Food is scarce and assistance arrives irregularly.

Fatima describes two occasions where "good Samaritans" brought rice or potatoes. Children are sent out to gather firewood to sell so families can buy food, but 22 have been kidnapped by bandits, she says.

Gesturing towards a nearby building, Fatima says that there "you will find 100 or more women… maybe just two or three have had breakfast.

"When we had peace, we had our own wealth, but now the tables have turned and we have become beggars."

Her eyes fill with tears and she cries for a few minutes, wiping her face with her hands.

Despite being 16 miles (25km) from her village, the threat Fatima fled has not disappeared.

When she first arrived at the camp, the sound of gunshots kept her awake at night. Things have since quietened, she says, crediting patrols by the army and government-backed vigilantes, but the atmosphere is still tense.

The bandits are mostly people from the Fulani ethnic group, who traditionally make their living by raising animals. Some of them have swapped cattle trading for kidnapping and extortion, which is seen as a faster, easier way to make money.

They attack towns and villages or ambush travellers, abducting people for ransom, stealing whatever they want - and sometimes killing those who resist. They also force communities to pay protection money, only allowing farmers into their fields if they hand over large sums of cash.

Attacks are now more frequent than ever. In the bandit heartlands of north-west Nigeria, the number of incidents recorded by the international conflict monitoring group Acled rose 78% in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2025.

One security consultancy estimates that kidnappers across Nigeria collected nearly $5.8m (£4.3m) in ransoms over the past year as the number of abductions surged. SBM Intelligence estimates that 7,825 people were kidnapped between July 2025 and June 2026, a 66% increase on the previous year.

The increase in bandit activity appears to be a key driver in this trend.

Malik Samuel at Good Governance Africa, a research and advocacy non-profit group, says that "there is no region in northern Nigeria currently that does not experience one form of mass abduction or the other".

Nigeria's battle with bandits is just one part of a more complex security situation facing the country.

As well as the bandit gangs in the north-west, there is an Islamist insurgency in the north-east, separatist unrest in the south-east and clashes in central regions, where the main grievance is over access to land and water for grazing and farming and where ethnic and religious elements have also fuelled some of the unrest.

Most analysts agree that armed groups have waged campaigns of violence that affect all communities, regardless of background or belief.

Schools are a common target. When the Islamist Boko Haram militant group infamously kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls from the north-eastern village of Chibok in 2014, it made global headlines.

At the time the group forced its captives into sexual slavery, domestic servitude or used them as suicide bombers.

But a range of groups across Nigeria now use kidnapping to raise funds, focusing on soft targets such as schools, churches, mosques and remote villages.

This was mainly confined to the Boko Haram strongholds of the north-east or the bandit zones of the north-west - areas that are largely Muslim.

Then, in May this year, gunmen on motorcycles attacked three schools in Oyo state, south-west Nigeria, one of the few regions that was previously considered relatively safe. Thirty-nine children, the youngest just two years old, were abducted along with seven teachers. One teacher was killed during the raid, another's murder was filmed and shared online.

After 56 days, the remaining 44 hostages were released. The government said it refused to pay a ransom and that the children were released after an operation by security forces. Three men were sentenced to life in prison for the attacks and confessed to being members of an affiliate of Boko Haram.

The abduction spread fear throughout the south-western town of Oriire, with parents in the community pulling their children out of school.

"There is fear because many residents have run away and are yet to return," says the traditional ruler of the area, Oba Tajudeen Abioye, whose niece was among the kidnapped children.

"And for those of us who are left here, we are relying on the security officials, the soldiers" who were sent to protect the community, he says.

Nigeria already has one of the highest numbers of out-of-school children in the world: the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) estimates the number is about 19 million.

The multiple, overlapping security issues mean Nigeria's military and police are overstretched and as a result struggle to tackle the violence.

A 2025 UN report said that police stations were often underfunded and not fully operational, citing independent sources that accused officers of lacking skills in hostage negotiation and forensic investigation.

President Bola Tinubu's administration has allocated the largest defence and security budget in the country's history, raising it by 10% in December 2025 compared to one year before. He has recently approved the recruitment of 28,000 new soldiers.

In the meantime communities are still suffering and in Zamfara thousands of residents have joined government-backed vigilante groups to fill the gaps in security.

But there are concerns about their involvement. In 2020 Zamfara banned a large vigilante group over concerns that extrajudicial killings were driving more violence, according to AFP.

The authorities say the new vigilantes are better trained, but Samuel, from Good Governance Africa, calls them a "time bomb waiting to happen".

"If citizens arm themselves how do you control them at the end of the crisis, how are you able to disarm them?" he asks.

One of the vigilantes meets us outside his group's headquarters, a single-storey concrete building, and agrees to speak on the condition of anonymity during our visit in July.

He perches on his motorcycle, an AK-47 slung over his shoulder, a scarf across his face as a makeshift balaclava, gold and silver skull rings on his fingers.

"We are some of the people the governor hired to protect the community," he says, explaining that they are sometimes told where the bandits are and "with the help of God we fight them and defeat them".

"Let the bandits understand that when they attack a place and kill, they can also be killed," he adds.

He estimates he has fought bandits at least 20 times and says the calls for his group's help keep coming.

"It's hard to go a week without these reports," he says. "There are regions that became safer… but there are other regions where the same cannot be said."

He calls on the state governor, whom he supports, to hire and arm more people to take on the bandits. "These people won't be afraid of you unless you have proper weapons to fight them," he says.

Fatima also calls for more action: "These kidnappers are in every nook and cranny.

"I am not saying the government has failed but even if it is trying, it needs to do more. There are problems and we think with more effort and more security agents, villages will be peaceful."

She wants to return home, but is doubtful that will happen as she has heard her village has now been turned into a camp for the gunmen that attacked it.

The local bandit leader has become the de facto authority, and that families look to him to solve domestic disputes, she says.

Another nearby village "is completely empty, not even a chicken lives there… empty villages like that are countless", Fatima says.

"Even if you go back to our area, it's just difficulty you will face. There's nothing there, no food… you farm and when you go to harvest, they stop you or kidnap you."

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

Parrot eggs hatch after suspected Thai smuggler arrested at South African airport

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ceq8n04q0gxo, 4 days ago

Fifty eggs suspected to be those of endangered parrots were intercepted at South Africa's main airport in Johannesburg last Thursday - and some of them have now hatched.

A 50-year-old Thai national was arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle them in a "homemade incubator bag" carried as hand luggage, according to the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE).

Many of the rescued eggs have successfully hatched, with the chicks now receiving "intensive" care to "maximise their chances of survival", it added.

If convicted, the suspected wildlife trafficker faces a fine of up to 10m rand ($626,000, £461,000) or up to 10 years in prison, or both.

Initial investigations suggest the eggs belong to a parrot species protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites).

The arrest followed a joint operation by the DFFE, the Green Scorpions - a specialised environmental enforcement unit - and various divisions of the police.

Environment Minister David Maynier has congratulated all the agencies involved, saying "illegal wildlife trafficking can only be challenged by a co-ordinated defence of our natural heritage".

He particularly thanked the dedicated staff at the National Zoological Garden in the capital, Pretoria, "who have been working tirelessly to incubate the seized eggs and provide specialised care to the hatchlings".

Last Thursday's arrest follows that of a 23-year-old Thai citizen in July, also caught at Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport, who was attempting to smuggle 418 parrot eggs.

The arrests highlighted the growing sophistication of transnational wildlife trafficking networks and reinforced "the importance of co-ordinated, intelligence-led law enforcement efforts", the DFFE said.

The illegal collection and trafficking of parrot eggs posed "a serious threat to wild bird populations and animal welfare", it added.

Officials explained that such eggs were often smuggled in improvised incubators and in conditions that endangered the welfare of developing embryos and hatchlings.

Wildlife trafficking remains a major threat in South Africa, one of the world's most biodiverse countries, with criminal networks frequently targeting animals such as elephants and pangolins, for sale on the international black market.

To combat the threat, the country adopted a new strategy six years ago to strengthen collaboration between government institutions, law enforcement agencies, conservation authorities, customs officials, prosecutors and international partners to dismantle criminal networks involved in the illicit wildlife trade.

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

What is Ebola and why is stopping the latest outbreak so difficult?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz72p75zg4qo, 6 days ago

The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now the deadliest of the 17 the country has faced as it continues to spread. United Nations experts have described it as the fastest growing outbreak on record in terms of new infections.

Getting the spread of the deadly virus under control is challenging because it involves a rare species of Ebola for which there is no vaccine - though some are being tested - and the epicentre is in an area affected by conflict.

What is Ebola and what are the symptoms?

Ebola is a rare but deadly disease caused by a virus.

Ebola viruses normally infect animals, typically fruit bats, but outbreaks among humans can sometimes start when people eat or handle infected animals.

It takes two to 21 days for symptoms to appear. They come on suddenly and start like the flu or malaria, with fever, headache and tiredness.

As the disease progresses, vomiting and diarrhoea develop and it can lead to organ failure. Some, but not all, patients develop internal and external bleeding.

The virus spreads from one person to another by contact with infected bodily fluids such as blood or vomit.

Ebola outbreaks used to be small and contained to remote rural areas. However, urbanisation is pushing larger populations closer to these natural reservoirs of Ebola and increasing the risk of transmission.

Why is this Ebola outbreak different and is there a vaccine?

This outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo species of Ebola, which had not been seen for over a decade.

Named after a district in Uganda where it was first detected, Bundibugyo has only caused two previous outbreaks - in 2007 and 2012.

One study showed that it killed about a third of those infected, far less than the more common Zaire (66.6%) and Sudan (48.5%) species. About 48% of those known to have been infected in the current outbreak have died.

Initial blood tests for Ebola in the affected areas were negative as they were designed to identify the more common form of the disease.

In July, the UK's medicines regulator, the MHRA, said it had given permission for the first human trials of a vaccine for Bundibugyo to go ahead.

It was created by a team from the University of Oxford based on the same technology used in the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine.

It took scientists just eight weeks to develop the new jab after plugging in genetic code from the Bundibugyo species of Ebola.

The vaccine is being tested on 50 volunteers from Oxford aged 18 to 55 to see whether it triggers the correct antibody response without causing significant side effects.

Three other groups are also developing different vaccines for Bundibugyo although they have not yet entered clinical trials.

While treatments are available for other species of the Ebola virus, no drugs have been specifically approved to treat those infected with Bundibugyo.

DR Congo is currently preparing to roll out the Ervebo vaccine - which helps protect against the Zaïre species of Ebola - as part of a trial to see if it is effective against the Bundibugyo species.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is also sponsoring a separate clinical trial in the country to see whether two existing antiviral therapies can improve survival rates.

The two drugs selected as the most promising are an experimental monoclonal antibody called MBP134 and remdesivir, an injection into a vein, which is also used to treat Covid.

A further complication is that the outbreak is taking place in a conflict zone, with a quarter of million people displaced from their homes and people moving across porous borders into neighbouring countries.

How did the current Ebola outbreak start?

The first known case was a nurse who developed symptoms on 24 April, which means the virus had been spreading undetected for weeks.

The nurse died in Bunia, the capital of eastern DR Congo's Ituri province, according to Congolese Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba.

The victim's body was repatriated to Mongbwalu.

Kamba said one of the reasons the virus spread so quickly was the number of people exposed to the body during the funeral ceremony.

But researchers believe that it may have been spreading since February but it was initially misdiagnosed as malaria or typhoid.

How many Ebola cases have been reported and where are they?

On 23 August, officials said there had been 5,514 confirmed cases and 2,642 confirmed deaths from the virus in DR Congo.

There have also been 1,200 recoveries from Ebola so far, including four nurses whose discharge from hospital was celebrated at a special ceremony.

Ituri province is the epicentre of this outbreak and accounts for the vast majority of confirmed infections.

Cases have also been confirmed in North Kivu (714) and South Kivu (3), provinces partly controlled by the rebel AFC-M23 alliance. These discoveries signalled the outbreak's spread from its epicentre.

The last patient being treated for Ebola in neighbouring Uganda was discharged from hospital on 16 July. Up to that point, the country had recorded 20 confirmed cases - with most having travelled from DR Congo - and two deaths.

Uganda has since announced it is Ebola-free, going against the protocol of waiting 42 days - until 27 August - from when the last patient recovers to declare an outbreak over.

What is being done in DR Congo to tackle the current Ebola outbreak?

Mass gatherings have been banned in the six provinces with confirmed cases - Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Tshopo, Haut-Uele and Bas-Uele.

The capital city, Kinshasa - which has no confirmed cases and is located some 1,800 km (1,100) miles from the outbreak - has also been ordered to ban mass gatherings.

The government has now established four laboratories in Ituri - in Bunia, Mongbwalu, Beni and Aru - which can test blood samples for Bundibugyo and deliver results within 24 hours, removing earlier delays.

Surveillance systems, contact tracing and the treatment infrastructure, with dedicated centres in several affected towns, have also been expanded, according to the health minister.

The WHO has dedicated $3.9m (£2.9m) to tackling the outbreak, while Africa CDC has announced a $319m budget.

A toll-free number, 151, has been provided for reporting symptoms and people are being reminded to:

* avoid contact with bodies of people who died with symptoms, or with dead animals

* not eat raw meat, as undercooked food may transmit the virus

* practise social distancing.

How have the rebels responded to the latest Ebola outbreak?

The AFC-M23 group has created an Ebola response team in an effort to prevent transmissions in the areas it controls.

In late June, the rebel authorities had declared their zones Ebola-free, but introduced new restrictions in August, following two travellers testing positive in North Kivu.

Shared taxis and passenger boats between government-held and rebel-held areas of the province, have been suspended, highlighting the hostilities between the two sides.

The region's Ebola response co-ordinator Dr Freddy Kaniki, told the BBC in July that while UN agencies such as the WHO and Unicef - for children - had been helping, there has been no co-ordination with the Congolese government.

What are Rwanda and other countries doing about the Ebola outbreak?

Rwanda closed its borders with DR Congo earlier on in the outbreak. According to Congolese media, authorities began to reopen parts of the border late in June following a lull in local infections.

Uganda has temporarily suspended flights, buses and all other public transport crossing the border with DR Congo.

Several other African countries have tightened border screenings and bolstered health facilities.

The US has extended travel restrictions on its citizens who have been to DR Congo. Anyone who wants to return home must spend 21 days in a third country before being allowed into America.

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

Did a goat herder's lucky $200 nugget spark a gold rush in western Kenya?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyjmnvdr95o, 8 days ago

A goat herder from a remote area of western Kenya has told the BBC his discovery of a golden nugget has sparked a gold rush, overwhelming his small village over the last few weeks.

When people found out that 33-year-old Manasse Lomachar had sold his three grams of gold for 36,000 Kenyan shillings ($280; £205) several weeks ago, he believes this led to the arrival of thousands of prospectors in Cheporor.

And it is true that what last month was just bushland and rough grazing ground near the village is now scarred by pits, mounds of earth and makeshift mining camps.

It is not clear if was Lomachar's lucky find or other recent discoveries that sparked the excitement. But local authorities estimate that about 10,000 people arrived at the height of the rush.

Even a small amount of the precious metal can transform the futures of these men and women - from Kenya and neighbouring Uganda - many of whose precarious lives rest on an unreliable farming income.

People do sometimes pan for gold in these parts - but rarely find anything significant.

Lomachar's says his discovery came about purely by chance. While he was searching for a missing goat he encountered a group of women panning along a riverbed.

"I joined them, and that's how [the village] realised there was gold in this area," he says.

Farmer and herder Patrick Lokolia, from neighbouring Napawoi village, joined the gold rush hoping to earn some extra money to support his family.

"I have children in school, and paying school fees has been a big problem for me," he tells the BBC wearing an old Chelsea football top and standing amid the mining activity.

Eighteen-year-old Abigael Chelengat says she had never mined before coming to Cheporor from a nearby district, but arrived hoping to find enough gold to pay her school fees and help keep her younger siblings in school.

Behind her hundreds of people work side by side, hacking into the rocky ground with hoes and shovels.

Others carry the earth to a nearby seasonal river, where mostly women crouch in the murky water, washing and sifting mud and sand hoping to detect a tiny trace of the element.

Some of the more experienced miners are deep in holes excavating the earth and drilling at rocks with the same goal.

Hope is kept alive by stories of those for whom the effort has paid off - like Lomachar.

Samuel Kiarie, the deputy commissioner of West Pokot county, says he thinks the rush began after two notable discoveries.

"Young men found what appeared to be a substantial amount of gold. The following day, women made another significant find in the same area," he tells the BBC.

Kiarie explains that women have been finding small quantities of alluvial gold along the same seasonal riverbed for years, typically earning $8-$23 a week.

But the uncovering of larger quantities at the beginning of August is what caught the attention of many people.

Kiarie reckons as rumours spread, the number and size of the discoveries were exaggerated - drawing in ever larger groups of people with little or no mining experience who hoped to replicate the reported early successes.

Since the initial rush, the number of prospectors has gone down to around 2,500 as some have given up the search.

While there is little doubt that some gold has been found in the area, questions remain about the size of the deposit in the earth and its commercial potential.

"I can confirm that small-scale gold traders told us they received an average of about 100 people every day," the deputy commissioner says - though whether the finds were actually gold is not known.

Individual discoveries reportedly range from amounts worth a few hundred Kenyan shillings to one find valued at approximately 78,000 shillings ($600).

West Pokot county borders Uganda, and communities on both sides have long-standing social and family ties.

Mugisha Godfrey, an artisanal miner from Busia in eastern Uganda, travelled to Cheporor after hearing about the discovery from a friend.

He immediately set out for the village spending about 100,000 Ugandan shillings ($27) to get there.

However, the living conditions in Cheporor are not favourable, he says.

"We sleep under the trees, and when morning comes, we continue working. Sometimes we work both day and night," Godfrey tells the BBC.

So far, he has found nothing. But he is not discouraged.

"We can't return unless we find something. Only when we have found what we need can we go back home," he says.

For others, the gold rush has created opportunities without requiring them to dig.

More than 200 businesses have emerged around the site, according to local officials, selling food, water and other essentials to the village's new population.

Irene Ameja travelled from neighbouring Baringo county to cater to the crowds. She sells bottled water, soft drinks, bread, milk and other foodstuffs.

"I am hoping that when I leave, I will have made enough money to continue with my business and expand it," she says.

But the rapid growth of the settlement has also exposed the area's lack of basic services.

"This is a forest and we are in the middle of the mountains," she says. "We don't have clean water to drink or even to bathe."

For women, she adds, the challenges become greater after dark: "You have to find somewhere safe to stay because most of the people sleeping here are men."

Local officials admit the influx has placed enormous pressure on an area with little infrastructure, no piped water and limited sanitation.

Public health officials have been deployed to monitor conditions and help prevent disease outbreaks.

The authorities say they have also increased security patrols amid concerns over sexual violence and the vulnerability of women and girls at the site.

Officials are also worried that children could be drawn into mining activities as schools prepare to reopen in September.

Measures are being put in place to discourage young people from remaining at the site once the new school term begins.

Those still searching are increasingly turning to deeper excavation.

Several truckloads of material have already been transported to nearby Ortum town for processing, with the authorities awaiting the results.

Until then, the size and commercial viability of any mining remain uncertain.

For Lomachar, the answer is not to stop the mining, but to make it more organised.

He wants the government to help local miners establish safer and more effective ways of finding and extracting the gold.

"We would ask the government to help us with things like metal detectors, which could help us find out whether there are other minerals here, so that our community can develop," he says.

He points to the homes nearby as evidence of the area's poverty.

"If you look around, there are hardly any houses with iron-sheet roofs; most are just thatched houses."

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

'Silence is complicity' - top footballer hits out over Cameroon femicides

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgjq49g8wwqo, 3 days ago

The killing of at least eight women in a week has sparked outrage in Cameroon, with many calling on the government to do more to protect women and girls.

Among those who have spoken out is renowned footballer Nchout Njoya Ajara, who has called for an end to the "tragic wave" of targeting women, saying "silence is complicity".

The government has also raised concern about the rise in attacks. At least 50 women have been killed between January and April this year, compared to 77 last year, according to official figures.

In the latest case on Tuesday, a 44-year-old woman was killed in a hotel room in the capital, Yaoundé. She was allegedly stabbed to death by a 22-year-old who was later arrested.

"Being a woman in Cameroon should never be a risk," said Ajara, who is one of Cameroon's greatest female footballers.

The 33-year-old striker has played professionally in Russia, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Italy and Saudi Arabia for clubs including Atlético Madrid and Inter Milan.

"In the face of the tragic wave of femicides that has hit our country in recent days, silence is complicity," Ajara said.

In a statement, the opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) party said it was outraged by the "tragic recurrence of domestic femicides" and accused the government of being passive about the issue.

The femicide cases, most of which are attributed to domestic violence, have been reported in different parts of the country.

In a video published by state media, the minister for Women's Empowerment and the Family, Marie-Thérèse Abena Ondoa, condemned the "worrying" rise in the number of the killings, and said the government was working to address the problem.

She mentioned a bill to protect women against gender-based violence, which she said was being reviewed by the prime minister.

But civil society and women's rights groups have denounced what they perceive as the government's delay in turning the bill into law.

A parliamentary session, the last one for the year, is due to be held in November. However, Viviane Tathi, whose organisation documents cases of femicide in the country, told the BBC she was not sure that the bill would be passed at the session.

"We are worried because the November parliamentary session focuses on budgetary debates…So, we don't know by what magic this bill will be passed," she said.

She has called for the creation of a special court to handle family disputes, which lead to domestic violence.

According to the latest UN data, Africa had both the highest total number of femicide victims and the highest rate relative to its population in 2024 - with an estimated 22,600 cases.

The numbers are an estimate as some cases of femicide are believed to go unreported and many governments do not consistently record the information.

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

Zambian opposition leader detained by police over treason allegations

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ylp35nd25o, 3 days ago

Zambian opposition leader Brian Mundubile, who had gone into hiding after disputing the recent presidential election result, has been detained over allegations of treason.

The official results from the 13 August poll showed that incumbent President Hakainde Hichilema won with a 60% share of the vote compared to Mundubile's 38%.

The day after the vote, security forces raided a property in the capital, Lusaka, linked to Mundubile, killing a former cabinet minister and arresting a number of other politicians.

The authorities accused the opposition of planning an armed insurgency, which they denied.

Following the raid, Mundubile went to a "secure location under the protection of an international human rights body due to threats made against him", his NRPUP party said.

The opposition leader's running mate Makebi Zulu was also taken into police custody on Thursday.

The pair had taken refuge with the United Nations in the capital after security forces killed a former cabinet minister and arrested a number of politicians in a raid. They were detained after the president put pressure on the UN to hand him over.

On Thursday state broadcaster ZNBC said that the two were being interviewed by "law enforcement officers" in the presence of their lawyers after a summons regarding "alleged activities that police say have the potential to threaten national security".

The opposition was unable to mount a legal challenge to the election outcome as the courts were sealed off by the authorities on Monday, the final day that a case could be filed.

Hichilema is due to be sworn in for a second term on 1 September.

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

Mali music star Salif Keïta cancels South African concerts over 'xenophobic violence'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8z771rk9ko, 3 days ago

The decision by world-famous Malian musician Salif Keïta to stop touring in South Africa over what he called "xenophobic violence" has been met with disappointment by the province hosting a festival he was due to perform at next month.

South Africa has been hit by a wave of protests demanding that undocumented migrants leave the country - the latest unofficial deadline set is 30 September.

Tens of thousands of Africans have been voluntarily repatriated in recent months, some saying they have been the targets of intimidation and attacks.

While cracking down on illegal immigration, the South African government has said that those who have taken the law into their own hands have been arrested.

South Africa is Africa's wealthiest nation and has long attracted migrants searching for better economic opportunities.

But illegal immigration has become a highly contentious political issue, with protesters accusing undocumented migrants of placing pressure on South Africa's public services, as well as being involved in crime.

In a message explaining why he would not be performing at the Macufe festival in Free State province next month, Keïta said he could not "ignore the reports of xenophobic violence against our African brothers and sisters.

"When I see migrants attacked, I do not see 'politics'. I see people looking for work, safety, and dignity."

The 77-year-old star added that this did not reflect the country that he knew and that cancelling the appearance was "a rejection of hate" rather than a rejection of South Africans, leaving the door open for a return at some point.

In its response, the Free State's culture department said it "regrets the decision taken by the renowned musician".

It emphasised that the Macufe festival was a celebration of African unity.

Keïta, known to some as the "Golden Voice of Africa", was a pioneer who helped put African music on the global map and after 50 years in the music business remains influential.

News of the cancellation of his concert came as the first group of 173 Tanzanians returned from South Africa as part of a voluntary repatriation programme.

For some of them the flight home from Durban, which has seen some of the biggest protests, marks the end of decades spent in South Africa.

Abdul Idi, who went there in 2006 hoping to build a better life, said he was grateful to have returned safely after what he described as difficult and dangerous circumstances in South Africa.

"Foreigners are not wanted there," he said on arrival at Dar es Salaam's international airport on Wednesday night.

Another returnee, Rashid Ramadhan, said he had spent 30 years in South Africa.

The 53-year-old explained how he and others had been forced out of their accommodation in Durban and had been living outside for the past two months, with their jobs gone and life becoming increasingly difficult.

More than 160,000 people have left the country on similar repatriation schemes since May, according to a count by the AFP news agency. Malawians, Zimbabweans, Zambians, Ghanaians and Nigerians are among those who have returned.

The anti-migrant group March and March has announced a second wave of nationwide protests set for 30 September.

Earlier this month, the group called on leaders attending the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) summit in Durban to "fetch your people".

March and March says its September action will be bigger and better organised than the demonstrations on 30 June, which were accompanied by violence in some areas.

Those returning to their home countries from South Africa often need support, having abandoned their livelihoods and many of their possessions.

But Ghana's government has rejected a donation of about $1.7m (£1.25m) from MTN Ghana, a subsidiary of South African telecoms giant MTN Group, offered to support Ghanaians repatriated from South Africa.

Ghana's foreign ministry said that the government was committed to funding the evacuation and reintegration of its repatriated citizens.

Additional reporting by Penny Dale

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

Tanzania's VP expelled from ruling party for indiscipline and his successor named

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp3kwgyp1vwo, 4 days ago

Emmanuel Nchimbi has been expelled from Tanzania's ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party for indiscipline following his decision earlier this week to resign as the country's vice-president after 10 months in the job.

The 54-year-old has made some controversial remarks in recent weeks - including urging Tanzanians to "fight for a new constitution" - pointing to a possible fallout with President Samia Suluhu Hassan.

He was Samia's running mate in last October's disputed presidential election, which saw hundreds killed in post-poll unrest.

Energy Minister Deogratius Ndejembi, 43, has been nominated as his replacement and his name will now be presented to parliament for approval.

The decisions were taken at an extraordinary meeting of the CCM, chaired by President Samia.

The party did not give details about the indiscipline allegations against Nchimbi, whose resignation takes effect at the end of next week.

Nchimbi, who shared his brief resignation letter on his Instagram account on Tuesday morning, is the first vice-president to step down in Tanzania's history.

He said he would retire from public life as he had "become convinced, without doubt, that the president wants changes".

Samia and Nchimbi were sworn in last November after winning 98% of the vote.

The election was boycotted by the main opposition party, Chadema, which had called for electoral reforms as a precondition to taking part.

Violent protests in the awake of voting led to the deaths of at least 500 people, according to an official enquiry.

Opposition parties and human rights groups accused the security forces of unleashing a brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters.

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

Footage of Tibet floods isn't being shown in China - and we know little about victims there

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2z415w2gpo, yesterday

The dramatic footage was almost impossible to miss. A torrent of water tearing through Gyirong Port, one of the main border crossings between Nepal and Tibet, sweeping away all in its path as hundreds of people fled for their lives.

The scenes, captured by CCTV cameras, quickly spread on social media and onto screens around the world.

Except here, in China.

Only a single still-frame shot has been broadcast so far by the country's state-run flagship news bulletin.

It has also been difficult to find the full video on China's heavily censored internet. Although various aspects of the disaster have been discussed online.

But what is even harder to find is any first-hand accounts of survivors describing the flash flooding that has claimed hundreds of lives, with just as many still unaccounted for since Wednesday.

Beijing has launched a massive rescue operation involving hundreds of emergency workers, which is continuing, and President Xi Jinping chaired an emergency meeting with officials to co-ordinate efforts.

But when you compare the country's internet content to what much of the world has been seeing online these past few days, China's firewall becomes more visible than ever.

Tibet, which Beijing annexed in the 1950s, had long resisted rule by the Chinese Communist Party.

China has quashed protests over the years, sometimes violently, and has been accused of grave rights violations in the Buddhist region. It has labelled the exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, a separatist.

That history means the very name Tibet draws China's censors. Beijing's sensitivities are especially apparent at times likes this.

There have been daily updates on the missing and the dead, and Beijing has also been posting updates on the rescue operations, as well as the dangers posed by a barrier lake that has been at risk of overflowing.

On Saturday, new footage from Chinese state media showed rescue teams wandering in a wasteland of mud and rock while calling out to anyone trapped.

But there is little detail beyond that. There are no accounts from survivors in Tibet, and almost no user-generated footage showing the deadly moments or their aftermath.

We are yet to hear from anxious families of those missing. Trying to contact people there is near-impossible during regular times.

As a journalist who has covered North Korea, it has often been easier for me to contact interviewees in Pyongyang than it is in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.

On Thursday night, as global headlines led on the devastation in a Himalayan valley, China's state broadcaster opened its main bulletin with the launch of Xi's new book, a selection of his "most important and fundamental works".

Foreign journalists cannot travel to Tibet without government permission. We have just a few hours to get as much information as we can on huge stories like this before videos are scrubbed and voices stifled.

Instead, we have to rely on state media, which has so far focused on incredibly dramatic rescue efforts.

Specialist search teams scaling mountains and cliff faces, or crossing raging rivers to try to get to the worst-affected areas. We don't yet know what happened afterwards, or who they were able to save.

This is not to say that Beijing is unconcerned. Rather, they are very concerned.

China's Premier Li Qiang was quickly despatched to the region, where he was seen inspecting debris removal - a rare visit by the country's second-most important leader so soon after a major disaster.

The reason for what the world might see as a muted response is to preserve the one thing Xi covets for his country: stability.

The Communist Party will fear that such a disaster could fuel discontent, either with the response or the lack of foresight to prevent it.

It may also fear the impact of a tragedy like this and its potential to be a rallying factor, especially in a community where faith has long played a central role.

Although the region has not seen protests in a long time, Tibetan groups abroad have expressed concern over increasing Chinese control, such as new education laws that they say aim to weaken the role of monasteries and the Buddhist faith.

Just hours after the disaster struck, the Communist Party machine tried to rally its grassroots to stem any signs of discontent of its handling of the landslide.

A notice came from the local party office urging members to step up and help in disaster relief efforts in their area and provide emotional guidance or psychological support to affected residents.

The key line instructs them to "make every effort to maintain social order and ensure stability and public confidence in the disaster areas". Those who perform well would be rewarded - and those who do badly "would be held accountable".

It is a warning that will not be taken lightly. Tibetans in the region can be detained or arrested for speaking to journalists or posting anything online that is seen as contrary to the government narrative, according to rights activists.

That is making it difficult for Tibetans outside the region to find out what has happened to their relatives.

The International Campaign for Tibet, while praising the work of first responders in the area, said Beijing had been removing videos and other first-hand information from social media. It called on Chinese authorities to "disclose complete and verifiable information about the damage and casualties".

To try to understand what life is like for Tibetans, the BBC travelled to a town that sits on the edge of the Himalayan plateau last year - just outside what China calls the Tibetan Autonomous region.

There, we spoke to monks at the Kirti monastery in Aba, or Ngaba in Tibetan, which was once at the heart of its resistance to Beijing. "We Tibetans are denied basic human rights," one monk told us.

They said they lived under constant surveillance and claimed the Chinese government oppressed and persecuted Tibetans. The conversations were brief because we could not be seen speaking to anyone for long.

Beijing denies it is violating Tibetans' rights, and points to the heavy investments it has made in the region to boost tourism and integrate it with the rest of the country.

Nevertheless, people in China will not know very much about what is happening in Tibet right now.

Satellite images reveal scale of flood devastation in Nepal villages

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd68vpjv21do, 2 days ago

New satellite imagery has revealed the scale of the devastation along Nepal's Trishuli River caused by Wednesday's deadly flash flood, triggered by a glacier collapse.

Before-and-after images show how sections of the valley, where a torrent of floodwater and debris surged through, destroyed villages, bridges and hydroelectric power stations.

Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands more are missing, Nepalese officials say.

Among the worst-hit locations reviewed by BBC Verify was a key Nepal-Tibet border crossing, which was engulfed by a rush of floodwater and captured on camera.

The satellite imagery from US-based intelligence firm Vantor, shows the site has been almost entirely washed away. Shocking CCTV footage showed the moment as the deluge of water swept over buildings as people tried to escape.

Damage and mud can be seen more than 2.5km (1.5 miles) upstream, reaching 100m (330 ft) above the area it first hit.

A few miles further south is the village of Timure, which has now largely disappeared.

The walls of the valley at this point are steep, reaching up to 50m above the water line. The image shows most of the houses perched on this slope are now gone or covered in mud.

A further 10km (eight miles) downstream, where the Trishuli River winds through Syapru Besi, satellite imagery now shows the village covered by mud, rock and other debris. Houses and other structures have disappeared, including bridges and a hydroelectric power station.

One of the larger villages to be struck by the full force of the flood was Trishuli, where some of the earliest verified footage of the disaster emerged from.

A satellite image of the town and surrounding agricultural land, which is about 45km (28 miles) downstream from the border, show an entire neighbourhood has been essentially washed away.

Verified videos of the town show a bridge collapsing as the river surges forward. At the very same moment from ground level, footage filmed from inside a bus shows people crying out in distress and trying to flee as they see the water rushing down the river.

Other dramatic videos show people sheltering inside a house, peering over the edge of a balcony as they watch a torrent of floodwater wash away almost everything around them, knocking large metal debris and a vehicle toward the building.

Somehow the house remains intact and survivors can be seen in a second verified video standing surrounded by mud once the floodwater had receded.

Imagery from satellite provider Planet Labs released today has also provided a clearer view of the disaster's origins at the collapsed glacier, the moment of which has been captured on a verified drone video.

The satellite image shows an enormous chunk of the glacier has fallen away, carving an enormous path of rock and debris where water rushed through the valley.

At the base of the landslide, trees and other vegetation have been stripped at a height of more than 300m above the riverbed.

This destructive path continues westwards along with the swelled river, before heading southwards.

Satellite images also show the formation of a barrier lake at the base of the landslide's path, which Chinese authorities have warned poses a major risk of further flooding and has hampered rescue efforts.

Dr Argha Banerjee, a glaciologist at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, told BBC Verify that it was not possible determine from the images how stable the barrier was or how likely the lake was to drain suddenly.

But he said there was no significant increase in its surface area between Wednesday and Thursday, despite water continuing to flow into the lake.

Dr Banerjee said there was a visible drainage channel, which suggests some water was already escaping downstream, adding that the its volume was "not alarmingly large" and appeared to have stabilised.

The extent of the damage on the Tibetan side of the border remains unclear. It is a strictly controlled region which China annexed in the 1950s, where foreign media access is heavily restricted. BBC Verify has so far been unable find verifiable footage from the area.

The satellite imagery - which only provides an initial glimpse into the damage of the flood - has been published by Vantor as part of its Open Data Program to help aid authorities establish where best to focus their efforts to locate the missing, rescue survivors and recover the dead.

Additional reporting Shruti Menon, Merlyn Thomas and Alex Murray. Graphics by Mesut Ersoz and Mike Hill.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

The heartbreak of reporting from a camp housing Nepal flood survivors

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1j4rzpyrgko, 3 days ago

I enter the camp to an absolutely heartbreaking scene.

Hundreds of people are queuing outside, desperately trying to see if they can find their loved ones.

This army camp in Nuwakot, one of the main districts in central Nepal affected by devastating flash floods and massive landslides, has been turned into a search-and-rescue centre.

Inside, a woman cradling an infant in her arms is crying hysterically. Her entire family, including her father, husband and mother, are all missing. She is traumatised, and in so much pain.

There are other people who have sustained injuries, and some who say they had miraculously survived.

One driver who was working in Rasuwa tells us he'd been thrown into the water when the floods hit. He still doesn't know how he managed to survive. Yet while thankful to be alive, he is also devastated - he's also lost more than 20 of his friends.

When I try speaking to him he is unable to focus, and not in a proper state of mind. There are tears in his eyes.

At one point while filming, a woman - perhaps in her 60s or 70s - is taken out of a helicopter and brought to the centre to be treated.

She suddenly collapses. I later learn she has died. It is tremendously difficult to describe what I witnessed.

Every hour at the camp there are dozens of helicopters coming and going, and many people are receiving treatment.

Whenever these helicopters come, people look at them with a ray of hope their loved ones will be inside.

Even as the helicopters land, blowing gusts of wind and mud down on everyone, people still don't look away - trying to catch a glimpse of who's on board.

After we leave the camp we try to get access to the internet so we can share what we've seen, but internet connectivity is extremely poor, so we drive about three hours back to our office in Kathmandu.

Disasters are something I have covered several times in Nepal, but this is one of the most harrowing I have ever seen.

But as a journalist you do your job: you receive information and report what you see.

This Indian pilgrim was about to enter Tibet for her dream tour - then her WhatsApp messages stopped

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70d41g40njo, 3 days ago

Early on Wednesday, Sudipto Bhattacharya received what would be the last messages from his wife.

She'd sent a picture of a departure stamp in her passport at 07:57 (02:27 GMT) - immigration at the Nepal border was done.

Six minutes later, at 08:03, she wrote: we are waiting to enter China. Then the messages stopped.

Subhrasree Chakraborty and the group she was travelling with had been waiting to cross into Tibet for the next stage of their pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, the sacred Himalayan home of Hindu god Shiva that Subhrasree had dreamed of visiting for years.

The 43-year-old is now among at least 290 Indians reported missing after deadly flash floods struck along Nepal's border with Tibet. Many of those unaccounted for were on the pilgrimage, which resumed last year after being disrupted by the pandemic and then by tensions between India and China. Thousands of Indians have been making their way to Mount Kailash for years.

Subhrasree was travelling without her family, as part of a group of about 30 people. A medical technologist working in critical care at a city hospital, she was used to emergencies. She knew CPR and intensive-care procedures and, according to her husband, was physically fit.

But none of that has brought her husband Sudipto Bhattacharya any closer to knowing what happened after that final message.

"After 08:03am, what happened? We don't know anything," he says.

Subhrasree had been looking forward to the journey for years.

The photographs she sent home from Kathmandu, taken just days before she went missing, capture something of that excitement.

In one, she stands in a blue tunic in the ornate courtyard of a temple, smiling gently at the camera. In others, she is dressed in red, posing by the ancient brick-and-carved-wood architecture of Kathmandu valley's historic Durbar Square.

She told her husband the countryside was beautiful.

"She was very excited," says Bhattacharya, a government officer. "This was her dream tour."

The journey had begun on Friday 21 August.

She took the Mithila Express from Kolkata and reached Raxaul on 22 August. From there she crossed into Birgunj and travelled by bus to Kathmandu, arriving that night.

She stayed in Kathmandu for three nights, sightseeing.

Then, on the morning of 25 August, the group left Kathmandu by bus for Syabrubesi, a small mountain settlement roughly 122km north of Kathmandu and a gateway to the trekking hub of Langtang region. The journey took almost 12 hours - and was not entirely a smooth one.

A landslide blocked their route for about four hours before the army cleared the road. But when Subhrasree spoke to her husband, she told him the skies were clear.

There was little to suggest what was coming.

"She kept saying the weather was good," he says. "She said it was rather warm, it was raining sometimes."

The next morning, 26 August, Subhrasree left her hotel shortly after 07:00.

Bhattacharya spoke to her on the phone, and the two continued messaging afterwards. Around an hour later, she told him the Nepal immigration formalities were complete and that the group was waiting to cross into Tibet.

After clearing Nepal immigration, pilgrims cross the border on foot to the Chinese immigration facility in Gyirong.

Bhattacharya believes his wife may have been inside, or close to, the Chinese immigration building when the disaster struck.

"I knew there would be connectivity issues on the Tibet side," he says. "So I waited for the next message."

At about 15:00, he saw reports of the floods in the media. He started calling pilgrims in her group. Nobody answered.

He tried the tour operator and then the two managers accompanying the group. Again, there was no answer.

The family has heard nothing from Subhrasree since.

"Have they been rescued? Was this group among those rescued in China?" Bhattacharya asks. "We want to know more."

He believes his wife and the others may already have crossed into Chinese territory before the floods struck. But he has received no confirmation of who made it across - or what happened to them afterwards.

"Please get me a list from the Chinese government," he says. "Missing, dead and rescued. We need an update."

Then comes the admission that captures the agony of those waiting at home: "What do I tell you? Sleepless nights, working on the phone."

For the family of 54-year-old Rina Banerjee, there is more uncertainty.

They do not even know which side of the border she was on when they lost contact.

Rina, an unmarried private tutor from Kolkata, was travelling alone with a tour operator as part of the same pilgrimage group.

Until then, her journey had appeared to be going smoothly. Her nephew, Dwaipayan Mukherjee, says the family had spoken to her over video calls while she was in Kathmandu.

"She was happy," he says. "She was doing a trip after a long time."

Rina was no stranger to mountains. She had travelled in the hills before and gone hiking with her family.

"She was quite fit," Mukherjee says. "We have gone hiking. We are used to going to the mountains."

She had told him about the landslide they encountered on the way the previous day. The group was stuck for about four hours, she had said.

The next morning, the tour operator sent a group photograph, which showed Rina outside the Nepal immigration centre.

Like Subhrasree, she had received her departure stamp, Mukherjee says. After that, silence.

"I don't know whether they crossed the border or not," Mukherjee says. "Whether they were on the Chinese side or the Nepal side, we are still wondering."

For Subhrasree, the two-week tour was to be her first pilgrimage, and a dream she had nurtured for years. Rina, too, had long wanted to make the journey and was no stranger to the mountains.

Both women shared what Bhattacharya calls a "wanderlust" - a love of travelling, discovering new places and, in their case, heading into the mountains.

Both had joined a group for the pilgrimage of a lifetime. Both appear to have cleared Nepal immigration, and both were believed to have crossed the border.

Their names now appear on the Nepal government's official list of 537 missing people. But that offers little clarity - their families still have no idea where they are or whether they are safe. The Kolkata-based tour operator says they have no information about the fate of the group yet.

For both families, the journey has ended with the same unanswered question: did the women make it across the border?

Rohingya refugees face fierce new wave of hostility in Malaysia

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1dl7yrge5do, 3 days ago

Not long ago, Malaysia's then-prime minister urged his country to protect Rohingya Muslims – a stateless minority that has fled violence and discrimination in Myanmar for decades.

"We must defend them, not just because they are of the same faith, but [because] they are humans, their lives have value," Najib Razak said in 2017.

Nine years on, a fierce new wave of hostility against the Rohingya is sweeping the nation.

So much so that "going to school has become a dangerous thing," says Irhan, a Rohingya refugee, who founded a school in northern Malaysia for children from his community aged six to 15. We have changed his name to protect his identity.

Because Rohingya children are barred from Malaysian public schools, they often attend unlicensed, community-run "learning centres", which are now especially vulnerable.

Irhan's school was raided last month, when eight uniformed police officers stormed inside, took photographs of the students and ordered some of them to go home.

"The students are just here to learn. Now their families are afraid," he says.

A school in Selangor in the west suspended classes for a month and reopened at the end of July with new instructions: students must not wear their uniforms to school and must go straight home after class, without lingering or hanging out in groups.

"We're keeping a low profile to protect our students from getting attacked," says Farooq, a Rohingya teacher.

Crackdowns are haphazard and often spurred by public sentiment. The uncertainty and fear have forced some schools to close in recent months. In some parts of the country, Rohingya have also been evicted from villages they'd been living in for years. Some local residents told Malaysian media that allowing them to remain could lead to "social problems".

After they were evicted from a fishing village near Penang, some120 refugees sought shelter outside the UN's refugee agency in the capital Kuala Lumpur – and were temporarily detained. More than half of them were children.

All of this has left a community that has long felt beleaguered looking over its shoulder again.

"In the early years, the Malaysians were our friends. They cared for our children. But it's changed," Irhan says.

"I would leave if I could, but where else can I go? We are not wanted anywhere."

Fleeing Myanmar

The UN refugee agency estimates that more than 126,000 Rohingya have resettled in Malaysia, making it the second-largest host country, after Bangladesh, for Rohingya refugees. But some rights groups believe the actual number is far higher.

Rohingya Muslims are denied citizenship in their home country of Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist state. Although Rohingya trace their roots going back centuries in what is now Rakhine state, successive Myanmar governments have claimed that they are illegal migrants.

Ethnic tensions with the local Buddhist population have flared repeatedly, displacing tens of thousands of Rohingya. They ended up in camps within Myanmar, or fled across the border.

But the biggest exodus began in August 2017, after a brutal military crackdown. The Myanmar army massacred thousands of them, raped Rohingya women and burned their villages.

It was what the UN called "textbook ethnic cleansing" and former US president Joe Biden's administration determined as a genocide. Myanmar is now facing a landmark genocide case at the International Court of Justice, which saw deposed leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi testify.

As Myanmar's leader at the time, she was sharply criticised for how her government responded to the killings, including by playing down what was happening or suggesting that the severity of the violence was exaggerated.

In 2017, more than a million Rohingya fled to Bangladesh. But overcrowded camps, violence and shrinking aid have prompted many to attempt perilous voyages across the Andaman Sea towards Malaysia. These journeys are on cramped, fragile fishing vessels, and thousands die en route.

As more and more Rohingya arrived on its shores, Malaysia's welcome has worn thin.

Although it has never formally recognised asylum seekers – which means refugees have no right to housing, employment, and education – many Rohingya still see Muslim-majority Malaysia as a place of safety and economic opportunity.

Or at least that has been the case for a long time, when Malaysian leaders urged their people and Muslim nations to protect the community.

Surviving in Malaysia

During the pandemic, the Rohingya were accused of spreading the virus and competing with locals for jobs. Petitions calling for their deportations flooded social media, and authorities turned away hundreds of Rohingya asylum seekers who had been drifting at sea for weeks.

The vitriol has returned with greater intensity this year, inflamed again by social media.

In May, posts emerged online accusing refugees of not properly disposing of animals sacrificed during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha and quickly went viral.

These snowballed into unfounded and hyperbolic claims that the community is demanding automatic citizenship, seeking political power, and trying to "take over" Malaysia.

An online petition urging authorities to "Remove Rohingya from Malaysia" garnered more than 420,000 signatures before it was taken down following criticism from rights groups.

Karim, a Rohingya activist, says locals' hospitality had "made [him] feel safe" when he first arrived in 2003.

"Life as a refugee is tough. It's disappointing to be stuck working in construction all these years. However, I found Malaysians to be very friendly and kind, which made me feel safe," says the 45-year-old, who now lives in Penang.

"Now, however, life has become increasingly difficult. I am often afraid to go outside. I've been asked several times while on my commute, 'Why are you making a mess of our city? Why don't you go back?'"

Irhan, who came to Malaysia in 2001 as a teenager among an earlier wave of asylum seekers, feels the same.

Both say most Rohingya want to go back to Myanmar eventually, but at this point they would be returning to a country locked in a bloody civil war.

Their home state of Rakhine has suffered catastrophic destruction amid intense fighting between the military regime and the Arakan Army. For the displaced Rohingya, going home could also mean being forcibly conscripted to fight for the embattled junta, or becoming targets of the Arakan Army.

The UN released a report by an independent fact-finding mission this week detailing how the the plight of minories has "plummeted to a new low" in Myanmar.

The Rohingya are "suffering misery and cruelty on multiple levels and across the country that is heartbreaking", the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said on Tuesday.

And Malaysia too has become less of a haven than they had hoped.

Some say they are being used as easy scapegoats for the rising cost of living, with the hostility concentrated on them because they form the largest group of asylum seekers.

"I'm not saying that all Rohingya are good. There are good and bad people in every community. So why should a few individuals' actions be used to typecast a whole community?" Farooq says.

"I escaped the genocide in Myanmar hoping to find safety. Instead, many Rohingya today continue to live with fear of simply being who we are," he adds.

During a campaign speech in July, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Myanmar had agreed to take back 5,000 Rohingya refugees from Malaysia, owing to "good relations" between the two countries.

Anwar added that he had warned the Rohingya not to disrupt the lives of Malaysians. "This is our country. Malaysia is our country. Let no one else interfere," he said.

It is perhaps a sign of how mainstream anti-Rohingya rhetoric has become.

Nurulhidayah Zahid, daughter of Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, for example, compared the community to "monkeys in the forest".

"Enough of using religious and humanitarian sentiments. Do good in moderation. Don't let the monkeys in the forest be fed, [while] the children at home die of hunger," she wrote in a post on Threads that includes a picture of Rohingya.

A former deputy police chief, Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, likened the influx of Rohingya as a "cancer" requiring urgent action.

The BBC has reached out to the Malaysian prime minister's office and foreign ministry for comment.

Some believe the hostility against the Rohingya will only intensify as Malaysia heads towards the general election, which must be held before February 2028.

"[Refugees and migrants] are once again being turned into convenient political scapegoats to divert attention from deeper domestic challenges," says Yap Lay Sheng, a researcher from the human rights group Fortify Rights.

"For years, the Malaysian government has sought to present the country internationally as a humane and compassionate Muslim nation. Its treatment of the Rohingya exposes the hollowness of that claim," says Yap, who is based in Malaysia.

Back in the industrial building that for several months served as his classroom, Irhan is concerned less about the shifting politics than about what comes next for his students.

"I don't know where to get help, or who can get us registered as a school," he says. "I hope the Malaysians can understand that the children just want an opportunity to learn."

'The flood took everything': Nepal survivors describe horror of loved ones being swept away

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd08z840p8lo, 3 days ago

Survivors of massive flash floods in Nepal have recounted how they saw their loved ones disappear into torrents of mud.

At least 469 people have died and several hundred others are missing after floods wiped out entire villages on the border of Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday, with a force so powerful seismologists initially identified it as an earthquake.

Rescuers trudged through thick mud and debris on Thursday as Nepalese authorities rushed to bring aid and relief supplies to the affected areas.

"My family members were swept away by the flood in front of my eyes," Kalpana Malla from Nepal's Nuwakot district told the BBC.

Malla said her father, mother, sister and sister's children were all claimed by the disaster.

"They could not escape the flood; there was no chance at all," she said. "This flood took everything, but my son and I climbed the rooftop of a house and survived but couldn't explain how."

Her son, Sugam Malla, said he saved his mother by pulling her hand.

He said he had given his phone to his sister so she could keep in touch, but the mobile was no longer reachable.

"I am worried she must be swept away."

Another woman, Goma Pandit, said she had lost her buffaloes and all her other cattle.

"My farmland is also swept away. Ten sacks of mustard seeds, tons of corn and rice paddy are all gone. Nothing is left."

At Kathmandu's TU Teaching Hospital, families of those missing in the floods wait anxiously for updates.

Holding up her phone, Ram Khumari Shrestha says: "This is my husband. He was off to Rasuwa as a part of his driving job. He was in contact with me until 8 pm yesterday.

"But I couldn't call him this morning. The phone was switched off," she told the BBC.

Mani Shrestha Bishwa was also camped out at the hospital on Wednesday night, hoping to hear from his younger brother, cousin, uncle and friend.

"I last contacted them at 8:30 in the morning," he said.

Trekking guide Sonam Dorjee missed the flood in his home village of Rasiwa Syafru by about an hour. He had left at 08:00 local time.

As he was driving to Kathmandu, Dorjee told the BBC he had heard the sound of floods gushing into their village.

"It [sounded] like an earthquake," he said. "My house has collapsed... I have seen a photo."

Dorjee said his sister, Dechen Tamang, was missing, along with her husband and several other family members.

He described the flood as "sudden and devastating".

"Many survivors are now left without homes and they need emergency rescue and evacuation, as well as food, temporary accommodation and medical support."

He is praying his sister is found alive. "There is a 10% chance, we hope," he said.

What will Sonia Gandhi's memoir reveal about India's most powerful dynasty?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdx81eveel5o, today

When Sonia Gandhi became president of India's main opposition Congress party in 1998, she was an unlikely and largely enigmatic political leader.

Italian-born and the widow of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, she had spent years avoiding the political spotlight before taking charge of a party that had dominated much of independent India's history.

In her early months, India Today magazine described Sonia as "quite an enigma to her partymen" - "inscrutable", shielded from the world by a security cordon and known for her "laconic one-liners in an alien accent".

Yet beneath the reticence, the magazine detected a politician already learning how to exercise power. She listened to competing arguments, gathered information and then made up her own mind. "Nobody is left out of the decision-making process and no voice is gagged. But it is her word that prevails," it reported.

Nearly three decades later, after a political journey that took her from reluctant outsider to the most powerful figure in Congress, India's oldest political party, Sonia Gandhi is offering her own account.

The 79-year-old's story is marked by extraordinary personal loss: she rushed her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi, to hospital after her bodyguards shot her, and brought her husband, Rajiv Gandhi, home after a suicide bomber killed him seven years later.

Her autobiography, Belonging: A Journey of Love, which will be published in November by Alfred A Knopf in the US and William Collins in the UK, is likely to be one of the most closely watched political books in India.

In a statement issued through Alfred A Knopf, Gandhi says she wants this memoir "to be a testament of my heart's journey through the tender joys and dark despair that have marked my life".

According to William Collins, the book opens in Cambridge in 1965, where 19-year-old Italian student Sonia Maino falls in love with Rajiv Gandhi, grandson of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.

In this "revelatory" account, the publishers say, the famously reticent Sonia looks back with "warmth and candour" on a life shaped by love, exile, political power and devastating loss - from her childhood in small-town Italy to her unexpected journey into the heart of Indian politics.

The memoir has already become the subject of a publishing dispute in India.

Reports that Penguin Random House India had sought changes to parts of the manuscript were followed by allegations from Congress leaders that the publisher had come under political pressure to alter passages critical of the government. Penguin has disputed that account, saying it "remained keen and willing to publish the book" while the "relevant discussions" were going on.

Yet readers will be looking for more than the story of how a young, foreign woman married into India's most powerful political family.

They will want answers to some of modern Indian politics' biggest unresolved questions: what drew her into politics, and what happened behind the scenes when the Congress returned to power in 2004 after eight years out of office?

The biggest mystery may be why Sonia, despite having the backing of her party and allies, declined the prime ministership and chose Manmohan Singh, the architect of India's economic liberalisation, instead.

Did she fear that her foreign origins would permanently undermine her government?

"I think that is really the biggest unanswered question. She could easily have become prime minister - she had the full backing of her party and allies, and the president's office had a letter ready inviting her to form the government," says journalist and author Neerja Chowdhury.

In his memoirs, former Congress leader and foreign minister Natwar Singh wrote that Sonia's son Rahul Gandhi was "vehemently" opposed to his mother becoming prime minister, fearing she would meet the fate of his grandmother and father.

Matters reached a "climax", Singh wrote, when Rahul said he was prepared to take "any possible step" to stop her. Will Sonia's memoir shed new light on that extraordinary decision - or offer a very different account of what really happened behind the scenes?

Whatever the reason, her decision transformed Indian politics. But that decision is only one part of a larger mystery: why did Sonia Gandhi enter politics in the first place?

She had spent years resisting a political career. After the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, she remained largely outside public life. But as the Congress declined through the 1990s, she joined the party in 1997 and became its president less than a year later.

At the time, she was widely dismissed by her rivals. In December 1998, India Today reported that, initially, leading opposition politicians called her little more than a "housewife" or an "Italian wonder". Yet, within months, she had begun transforming her party. One Congress veteran admitted: "I never thought that the lady could spring such a surprise."

The magazine was already detecting a formidable political operator. It described her as having an "iron fist under the velvet glove", and observed that she knew how to "cut down Himalayan egos to the height of foothills".

Then there are the tragedies that made her political career possible.

Sonia witnessed the transformation of her family after Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984. Seven years later, she lost Rajiv to a suicide bomber. The deaths changed the course of Indian politics - and her own life.

What will she say about those years? About Rajiv's political career, which she had strongly resisted? About the security fears surrounding her children? And about the moment she decided that the Gandhi family's political inheritance could not simply be abandoned?

There are also uncomfortable questions.

Will she discuss Bofors, the scandal that badly damaged Rajiv Gandhi's government and generated decades of controversy around the family's links to Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi? Will she revisit the allegations and explain what she knew?

And what about the furore over her Italian origins?

For years, Sonia was criticised as a foreigner who could not legitimately lead India. In Delhi's social circles, she was sometimes derided as "the Italian au pair". A person of foreign origin becoming prime minister, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushma Swaraj declared in 2004, "would be an insult to the nation"- she vowed to resign, tonsure her head, wear white and live as an ascetic if Sonia took the job.

"As early as in 1999, even a group of Congress leaders had raised questions about her foreign origins. Did she ever think of leaving the country?" says journalist and author Rasheed Kidwai.

Political observers also wonder whether the book could shed light on the paradoxes of the Congress-led government between 2004 and 2014.

Under Sonia's leadership, Congress won two successive national elections and backed landmark measures including the right to information law and the rural employment guarantee programme.

Yet its second term was overwhelmed by corruption allegations, policy paralysis and a growing sense that the party had become captive to its own leadership.

Sonia's critics called her the government's "remote control" - they wondered how much power she wielded over Singh. Her defenders saw her as the political force holding together a notoriously difficult coalition.

And then there is Rahul Gandhi.

Sonia ultimately handed the Congress leadership to her son in 2017. Many believe his failure to revive the party is central to the story of the Gandhi family's decline.

In her 1994 book called Rajiv, Sonia wrote that she had "fought like a tiger" to prevent Rajiv from entering politics. Yet she eventually passed that inheritance to Rahul.

Rahul's political journey has hardly been smooth: he was once dismissed as a reluctant politician and often lampooned by rivals as an absentee leader.

"How does Sonia see her son's very different political style and worldview? And how much does she endorse his politics? I hope the book answers these questions," says Kidwai.

Another question is why Sonia chose Rahul, rather than his more naturally charismatic sister Priyanka, to carry the family's political legacy - and why Priyanka, despite years of speculation about a political role, only formally entered electoral politics in 2019.

"Sonia's stock answer would be that it would be up to my children to decide whether to join politics," says Kidwai.

There is a larger question, too: what does Sonia Gandhi think of the India she helped shape?

She led Congress during a period when Indian politics moved from coalition governments and economic liberalisation towards the much more dominant politics of Narendra Modi's BJP and Hindu nationalism.

But perhaps the most revealing question is what Sonia's memoir will choose to say - and what it will leave unsaid. Neerja Chowdhury suspects the answer may lie in the book's title, Belonging.

"She has been conscious of being an inheritor of the legacy of the Nehru-Gandhi family - that legacy has to be kept alive," Chowdhury says. She expects the memoir to return to family, its history, but above all to Sonia's own sense of belonging to the dynasty and of assuming its political mantle as Congress president.

That legacy, of course, is now under sustained attack.

The ruling BJP has campaigned for a "Congress-mukt Bharat" (Congress-free India), while critics of the party increasingly frame its challenge as a fight against dynastic politics.

As the Congress has suffered repeated electoral setbacks and watched many of its leaders defect to rivals, the question has become not just whether the Gandhi family can revive the party, but whether it can hold it together.

It is a question that goes to the heart of what Sonia says she is trying to examine in her memoir.

"Much has been written about my family, but few narratives were able to reach into the truth of their motivations, their actions and even their very human failings. In many ways, this book is a homage to their humanness," Sonia was quoted as saying on the book.

Her memoir may therefore be less a political reckoning than a defence of belonging - an attempt to explain what the Nehru-Gandhi inheritance has meant to her, and why she believes it still matters.

'Healey eyes banks and oil tax' and 'X Factor comeback'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ydwl0lkvno, today

The Sunday Telegraph says John Healey is mulling a windfall tax on banks and oil companies in the Budget. Treasury officials are said to be looking at ways of plugging a £4.7bn black hole without raising direct taxes on individuals.

The paper suggests banks and oil companies are seen as "low-hanging fruit". BP is said to have more than doubled its profits between April and June because of higher oil prices driven by the Iran war. In its editorial, the paper warns against the windfall tax move, saying it will harm growth by denting investor confidence.

According to the Mail on Sunday, Russia is poised to target Britain with a cyber attack on a drone or missile factory. A key advisor to President Vladimir Putin, the former deputy foreign minister Andrei Fedorov, tells the paper the highest levels of the Russian government are considering such a strike. A drone factory owned by the British Ukrainian firm, Ukrspecsystems, is said to be a target. Its location, near RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, was made public in April.

The Sunday Times reports that Andy Burnham has given what it calls a lucrative pay rise to train drivers on the Avanti West Coast London to Manchester line. The deal with union leaders was said to have been made to avoid strikes on a flagship service, and one of the busiest lines in Europe. The paper suggests industrial action would have proved embarrassing for cabinet ministers travelling to the prime minister's new political hub, Number 10 North, in Manchester.

According to both the Sunday Telegraph and the Sunday People, new studies suggest statins can reduce the risk of dementia, as well as lowering cholesterol and the risk of heart attacks. The Telegraph reports that the largest study by Denmark's Copenhagen University Hospital found that the daily pills reduced the chances of dementia by up to 15%. The paper says the research means statins could benefit around six million of almost 10 million people aged 70 and over in the UK who are not currently taking them.

The Sunday Mirror reports that Peter Homa, the ex-boss of Nottingham NHS Trust, where a review found that 520 mothers or babies suffered potentially avoidable death or harm, is now CEO of a firm giving maternity training to the health service. Grieving families tell the paper they are "concerned" by the news. Homa was approached for comment.

The Sun on Sunday suggests the X Factor could return, seven years after it left our screens. ITV chiefs are said to be "in talks" about revamping the programme for a younger generation. The show's creator and former head judge Simon Cowell is said to be likely to return in some capacity.

And several papers carry pictures of Sir David Beckham and his wife Victoria watching their son Cruz perform at the Reading Festival with his band the Breakers. "Beckstage at Reading" says the Sunday Mirror. "Band it Like Beckham" is the Sunday Times caption.

'Like fighting a dinosaur': Sydney woman recalls how she punched shark during attack

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3v4px7yv6xo, today

A Sydney woman who survived a shark attack has described the moment she came face-to-face with a four-metre great white before repeatedly punching it.

Leah Stewart, 34, was dragged under the water at Coogee Beach in June as the shark bit into her thigh and arms, leaving her with extreme blood loss and injuries so severe that doctors had to amputate her left arm.

In an interview which aired on Sunday, the mother-of-one said she was determined to live for the sake of her baby daughter.

"In my head, I was like, ... 'You are not taking me away from my daughter', and I twisted myself around and I just started punching it over and over and over again - it was like fighting a dinosaur".

Moments earlier, Stewart had just finished her regular Saturday morning swim and was heading back to shore when she was alerted to danger.

"I heard a girl behind me… a shrill shriek. I turned and there was a huge, huge fin behind her. It was massive," she told Nine Network's 60 Minutes.

"I looked at the size of it and I realised that's not a dolphin."

Stewart turned around and realised the shark was "right there … and it just was getting closer and closer and closer."

The shark's face was "horrific" with "black little beady eyes" and it's "teeth and its mouth was massive".

"We were looking face-to-face," Stewart said, and at one point, the shark was just 30cm from her own.

Even in that moment, Stewart's thoughts remained calm.

"I'm right-handed, so I thought 'let's do a left hook'," she said.

"I just kind of throw my left arm and it just grabs onto my forearm and rips, rips away my skin, my muscle, everything... there's a big gap between my forearm and the hand."

The shark started to pull Stewart under the water, grabbing her leg.

"I had the thought, 'this is it, this is how I die' and then I just thought of [my daughter] August and I thought she's not going to have a mum, she's gonna grow up without a mum," she said, fighting back tears.

"I just knew I couldn't leave her... I know it sounds strange but I sort of willed myself back."

Fighting the shark felt "like punching a brick wall" but she kept going.

"I must have got a really good one in and so it let me go. It was the hardest thing in the world, but I fought my way out of there."

Stewart was pulled to the shore by other swimmers and rushed to hospital, where she was placed in an induced coma and underwent almost a dozen surgeries.

Despite her harrowing experience, Stewart said she doesn't want to be remembered as "a girl that got mauled on the beach".

"I'm the woman that punched the shark in the face," she said.

'We're not going to run from it': Sydney Marathon laughs off medal error

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn4n4l1yyvro, 8 days ago

The organisers of Sydney Marathon have laughed off a mistake which saw a German stadium etched on to medals for participants, saying "we're not going to run from it".

Questions arose after the event's official social media account unveiled the design of this year's medal earlier in the week, which had mistakenly etched Allianz Arena, based in the German city of Munich, instead of Sydney's Allianz Stadium.

A spokesperson for the Sydney Marathon told the BBC: "A little too much international flavour has found its way onto the back of the finishers medal, with an incorrect depiction of the stadium."

It was "an unfortunate error," they added.

Recognisable Sydney landmarks feature on the double-sided medal, including the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, which are part of the 42.2km (26.2 mile) course.

Users on social media noticed the shape of the stadium engraved on the medal appeared to be carved in the wrong likeness.

Munich's Allianz Arena is sculpted by thousands of diamond-shaped inflatable cushions, while Sydney's similarly named Allianz Stadium has a flatter facade smoothed with long bronze fins.

Sydney Marathon confirmed runners would receive the medal depicting the incorrect city's stadium, noting: "It's a beautiful medal, and now a little more unique."

"It's certainly given everyone something to talk about this weekend, mostly in good humour."

Germany's Allianz Arena also poked fun at the mistake, writing on Instagram: "Oh wow, we didn't have that on our bingo card!"

"Perhaps they tried to find something else they had in common: Allianz Arena -- Sydney Opera -- Unique Architecture -- Both are worth a visit!"

The reverse side of the Sydney Marathon medal shows a gold and indigo pattern designed by First Nations artist Ambrose Killian, widely commended for its ornate pattern.

He confirmed to the BBC that he was not involved in designing the other face of the medal engraved with the wrong stadium.

Some 40,000 runners will take part in the event on 30 August, following more than 120,000 ballot entries.

Organisers praised record participation and fundraising for this year's event.

Man completes 2,800 mile scoot across Australia

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clylqlkq5e5o, 8 days ago

A man has completed a challenge to cross the width of Australia on a non-electric kick scooter.

Bob Brown from Saltash, Cornwall started his journey in July and travelled about 2,800 miles (4506km) from Perth to Sydney, where he finished his trip on Monday.

He said he hoped to break two Guinness World Records - to become the fastest person to cross the country on a kick scooter, while also being the first to travel the route by three different methods, running, cycling, and scootering.

Brown said "after a lifetime packed with adventure, at 57-years-old I wanted another epic adventure before I got too old".

Brown's is no stranger to the country and hoped to raise £5,000 for three charities - MacMillan Cancer Support, St Luke's Hospice and Children's Hospice South West.

In 2001 be became the first Briton to run across the country covering 3,000 miles (4828.032km) in 60 days, before in 2003 he cycled the route becoming the first person to have both run and cycled across Australia.

"I wanted to raise awareness of the need for youngsters to get off their screens and devices and to seek out adventure", he said.

He said he got injured while completing the challenge.

"On day five my wing mirror got clipped by a passing vehicle and I skidded onto the hard shoulder" but was "relatively unscathed".

"Also on the last day, with just 20km to go, I had a serious fall when my handlebars broke going down a steep hill", he added.

Despite the complications, Brown completed the challenge in 31 days, four hours and 10 minutes.

He said he had submitted his documentation to Guinness but had to wait to see if the organisation would officially recognise his achievements.

Follow BBC Cornwall on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.

Sydney police investigate death of teen girl from suspected choking during sex

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdr7jpzxz00o, 4 days ago

Police in Sydney are investigating the death of a 16-year-old girl in a suspected case of choking during sex, according to local media reports.

On Sunday about 17:45 local time, emergency services were called to a home in Elanora Heights in Sydney's Northern Beaches where the girl was found unconscious.

Police confirmed she was treated at the scene before being airlifted to Royal North Shore Hospital in a critical condition but died on Tuesday night. It is understood she passed out after being choked during sex.

Experts say sexual strangulation has become more prevalent among young people in Australia despite the impacts including headaches, memory loss, brain damage and in rare cases, death.

Police have not disclosed how the girl died or what her injuries were but police sources have told several local news outlets - including the national broadcaster ABC and the Sydney Morning Herald - that she was believed to have been choked during sex.

Sexual consent advocate Chanel Contos said the girl's death was "likely preventable" and that pornography companies "have blood on their hands".

"Mainstream pornography routinely depicts violence against women - slapping, strangling, and other abuse - while showing women as enjoying or accepting it," she said.

"This is not the first tragedy of its kind and it won't be the last".

Contos, 28, founded the Teach Us Consent organisation in 2021 after she prompted a nationwide conversation about consent when hundreds of young people said they had been sexually assaulted during their school years.

She said there's no safe way to engage in choking during sex, despite recent research showing some young people believe the act is risky but safe.

"Even when young people believe they are consenting, they're often uninformed about its potential consequences, which are fatal at worst, and can cause permanent brain injury even when there are no visible signs of harm."

A 2024 report by the University of Melbourne and University of Queensland found that more than half (57%) of Australians aged between 18 and 35 had been strangled during sex at least once.

The survey of 4,700 young people also found that one third of those who had been choked during sex were between 19 and 21 year old when they first experienced it.

Songs created by AI banned from Australia's music charts

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20vl4vm2pno, 6 days ago

Songs that are largely or wholly created by AI have been banned from Australia's music charts.

From this week, all releases must be "substantially human made" to be eligible.

The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) said the new code would help "promote the human nature of artistry".

It follows a controversy around a cover of Madonna's Like A Prayer by Australian DJ Josh Fawaz which recently topped the ARIA dance singles chart and peaked at number 2 on the country's overall chart.

The song has become a staple of commercial radio station playlists and been streamed more than 48 million times on Spotify alone.

Fawaz later added generative AI credits to the song after a backlash.

ARIA said that Australian artists were competing for attention "in the most crowded market in history" and that it was "not interested in promoting or celebrating the success of AI-generated music that does not contain human artistry".

Under the new rules, AI assistance can still be used, but humans must have written the song, and have performed the lead vocal and primary instruments.

AI can also still be used for mastering songs and, for example, using drum machines and auto tune.

Earlier this year a song was banned from Sweden's music charts because it was created by AI.

And in July, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said AI guidelines would be rolled out in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia for use in their official charts.

The updated code, based on the IFPI directive, also excludes music that raises "stream or chart manipulation concerns".

ARIA chief executive Annabelle Herd said: "These changes reflect our intent to remain dynamic and promote the human nature of artistry in what is, to say the least, a rapidly developing space."

"Artists already use AI tools in their work, the charts can and should evolve to keep room for that, but music generated wholesale by services built on artists' recordings is a different matter."

She added: "A chart that rewards unlicensed AI output would undercut the very basis of the recorded music we exist to represent."

Artists will be required to declare AI use when they submit a song for chart consideration.

ARIA said that if it later emerged music was largely AI-generated it could retrospectively adjust chart positions, and if the piece topped the charts, it may request that awards given for reaching Number One were returned.

Artists and their representatives will be able to challenge their exclusion.

Among the artists supporting the move are Australian electronic act Peking Duk.

Last month, they shared an AI-assisted version of their 2014 hit High on Instagram, captioned: "When you re-record your own song with AI so Australian radio will play it."

Band member Adam Hyde told Channel Nine's Today show that AI-generated music was "removing the human experience from life".

In July this year, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised "the strongest possible protection" from AI for Australian creatives.

Albanese pledged that writers and musicians would be able to choose if and how their work was used in the training of AI, saying it would be "theft" if creatives lost that control and were not paid for its use.

The hotel booking mix-up that could free mushroom murderer

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9w09dj7qk5o, 8 days ago

Last July, hundreds descended on Australia's Gippsland region from around the country for the most exciting event on the annual table tennis calendar.

But as elite players vied for medals at the national championships, one of the biggest criminal cases in the nation's history - that of mushroom murderer Erin Patterson - was unfolding just a few kilometres away.

This tournament inadvertently became part of a perfect storm which the triple killer's lawyers are now arguing "fatally undermined" the fairness of her trial.

The jury which condemned Patterson to prison were supposed to be isolated - sheltered from the frenzy surrounding the case while they deliberated.

But accommodation shortages in the region, exacerbated by the table tennis competition, meant they shared a hotel with members of the prosecution, a key police witness, and journalists.

Now Patterson's legal team is trying to overturn her convictions on appeal.

"The only proper remedy is... the order for a re-trial," Patterson's barrister Richard Edney said.

Towns overwhelmed by frenzy

When Patterson served her estranged husband's relatives a poisonous mushroom-laced lunch in 2023, killing three and gravely injuring another, she thrust the sleepy Gippsland region into the global spotlight.

The community of Korumburra, where the victims were beloved figures, became shrouded in grief. Leongatha, where Patterson lived, was gripped by shock. And Morwell, host of the lengthy trial, was overwhelmed by journalists, lawyers and spectators - as were towns nearby.

You couldn't walk down the main street without spotting some of the courtroom's stars, or grab a coffee without overhearing chatter about the case.

It was this frenzy from which the jury of 12 needed protection, the trial judge decided.

Jurors are required to consider only the evidence presented to them in court, and must only talk about the case among themselves. In Australia, these rules are so strict that discussion with outsiders is forbidden even after a trial wraps up.

To reduce the risk of contamination and the temptation of gossip, Justice Christopher Beale decided the jury should be sequestered once deliberations began - a relatively rare move which meant they would stay in supervised accommodation with little to no contact with the outside world until they reached a decision.

But finding the jury, and the jury keepers watching them, somewhere to sleep became something of a logistical nightmare.

As the trial dragged on, stays became longer than anyone anticipated and accommodation became a constant scramble.

And the week the table tennis tournament came to town - which by a stroke of bad luck was the one in which the jury finally retired - turned the accommodation drought into a famine.

Early morning email revelations

At 08:28 on Monday 7 July, an email from the judge's chambers popped into the inboxes of the lawyers in the case.

It revealed that the lead detective who investigated the murders - a key trial witness - and two prosecution solicitors had been staying at the same hotel as the sequestered jury.

The jurors had exclusive use of a separate floor of the hotel, the email said, and had eaten their meals in a conference room, away from all other guests.

Common areas like the lobby were used by everyone, but the jury keeper who reported the issue said there had been no interaction between his charges and anyone from the prosecution case.

"I understand that there is a shortage of accommodation in the district, but it is obviously undesirable," Justice Beale wrote.

About two hours later, the prosecution responded, admitting they had been aware of the situation for days.

The detective "took steps to avoid common areas from the point that he became aware that [the jurors] were there", their email read.

Upon learning their team would cross over with the jury for a single night, the prosecution had done its best to find other hotels for staff. But they couldn't get alternative rooms for two solicitors, though the email stressed the pair also took steps to avoid any "incidental contact".

However, another missive from the judge's chambers quickly overshadowed the hotel mix-up that same afternoon: the jury had reached their verdicts.

They had found Patterson guilty on all counts.

'Most critical week of trial'

Patterson's lawyers are now arguing the hotel mix-up amounted to a "fundamental irregularity" which "fatally undermined" the integrity of the verdicts.

"We would describe... it as catastrophic," Patterson's appeal counsel, Edney, told Victoria's Court of Appeal this week.

"What occurred here was an inexplicable and perhaps still unexplained failure in the process."

The defence - which Edney pointed out had been kept in the dark several days longer than anyone else - didn't immediately move for a mistrial last July.

Instead, it twice asked the state's juries commissioner to investigate in the weeks following the verdicts. Both requests were rejected, the barrister said, and the reasons have not been made public.

A year on, there remains a "vacuum of evidence" around what occurred during "the most critical week" of the entire trial, Edney argued.

There is no CCTV from the hotel; no sworn statements from those who were sharing it with the jury - a group which also includes an unknown number of journalists; and nothing to say what happened except the two brief emails sent last July.

There was also at least one media report at the time - raised by Edney this week but rubbished by the prosecution lawyers as "unverified" and "seemingly inaccurate" - that the mix-up had led to "people hiding in doorways to avoid contact" and "skipping breakfast".

"My question is... so what?" Justice Peter Kidd bit back.

In any criminal trial, jurors see other parties all the time - in corridors, or even nearby cafes - but they're under the constant supervision of jury keepers who have sworn to ensure there's no improper communication, he said.

Edney conceded there was "no evidence" that the jurors had communicated with anyone else, but said innocent contact - even just seeing the detective or solicitors - could have resulted in "subconscious influence".

"This was a hotel with windows," Edney said several times - a likely thing for it to have, someone from the judge's bench countered.

Patterson's team cited two cases to support their argument: one in which jurors were discharged when one was offered a throat lozenge by a defendant's relative during a coughing fit, and another in which a retrial was ordered after jurors caught a taxi without being escorted by a jury keeper.

The prosecution's response was simple.

"The system worked as it was intended to work," Director of Public Prosecutions Brendan Kissane KC said.

The jury was constantly supervised, and when a potential problem was identified, steps were immediately taken to prevent it becoming an actual issue.

The jury keeper, the lead detective, and the prosecution all say there was no contact.

"The evidence in this case is that there was no interaction between any other person and the jury," he said.

Other cases the defence pointed to in which jury errors resulted in retrials all had evidence of actual contact, he noted.

"That's not the situation here."

Patterson has seven appeal grounds - the others relating to rulings on evidence and alleged unfairness by the prosecution - but this one, by the defence's own admission, is unprecedented.

Just as important as actual interference is the perception of interference, said Edney, quoting the trial judge's own speech as he selected jury members on the very first day of the trial.

"Justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done."

The trio of judges are now deliberating on Patterson's appeal, as well as an argument by the prosecution that her parole period should be scrapped.

They will announce their decisions at a later date.

Mushroom murderer Erin Patterson is appealing - here's what you need to know

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj9dx03jrgjo, 13 days ago

A year after her blockbuster trial, Australia's notorious mushroom murderer is facing court again, in a bid to overturn her conviction.

Erin Patterson was jailed for life last September for murdering three relatives and trying to kill another with a toxic mushroom meal she served at her home in Leongatha, Victoria, in 2023.

But the 51-year-old says she did not receive a fair trial, citing problems with evidence, the actions of the prosecution, and an unusual mishap with the jury while they deliberated on their verdicts.

At the same time that Erin Patterson's case is heard, prosecutors will also be appealing her sentence. The judge said Patterson could apply for parole after 33 years, but the prosecution says that's "manifestly inadequate" and the triple murderer should never be freed.

What did Erin Patterson do?

Patterson killed her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, after serving them individual portions of beef Wellington containing death cap mushrooms at her home in rural Victoria in 2023.

Heather's husband, Ian Wilkinson, a local pastor, survived the lunch after weeks in hospital and still has ongoing health issues related to the poisoning.

Patterson's estranged husband, Simon Patterson, was meant to attend the lunch but cancelled at the last minute, in part due to his belief that his wife had repeatedly tried to poison him over several years.

After the trial, it was revealed that he had become so violently ill after eating several of her meals in the past that he had been in a coma, a large part of his bowel had been surgically removed, and his family were told to say goodbye to him twice as he was not expected to survive his ailments.

Erin Patterson maintained throughout the trial that she never meant to kill her relatives - that it was all a terrible accident, and her lies and attempts to dispose of evidence in the aftermath of the lunch were because she was panicking she would be blamed for the deaths.

What is Patterson arguing?

Patterson won't be attending the appeal in person. She's chosen to appear via video link from Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, the maximum security prison on the outskirts of Melbourne where she's serving her sentence.

Last November, her legal team filed a three-page document outlining the arguments they plan to make in an effort to overturn her conviction.

There are seven grounds for this appeal, which will be heard by three judges.

Firstly, there are bits of evidence Patterson's lawyers say the jurors should never have seen: for example, mobile phone tracking data that indicated she'd travelled to places where death cap mushrooms were recently spotted.

Her lawyers also argue that evidence from "Facebook friends" should not have been allowed. That included online messages in which she ranted about her in-laws as well as her estranged husband Simon Patterson, at one point calling him a "deadbeat".

All that evidence, Patterson's team says, was not relevant and prejudicial, causing a substantial miscarriage of justice.

But her lawyers also argue that other pieces of evidence would have helped Patterson in court. Photos and images relating to her hobby as a long-time mushroom forager - and supporting their argument that the deaths were a tragic accident - had been wrongly excluded, the defence says.

Then there are their issues with the prosecution. Patterson's team say they were inconsistent about a motive, starting the trial by saying they wouldn't argue a particular motive, but ending it by implying there was one.

They also criticise the five days Patterson was cross-examined by barrister Nannette Rogers. At times it felt tense witnessing the two sparring in the courtroom, with Rogers accusing her of repeatedly lying. Patterson argues it was "unfair and oppressive".

But the most intriguing aspect of the appeal document submitted by Erin Patterson's lawyers relates to the jury deliberations.

Because there was so much hype around the case, there were steps taken throughout the trial to ensure the jury wasn't influenced by friends, family or the media. When they began deliberating, they had to stay in supervised accommodation, with little to no contact with the outside world, until they reached a decision.

But according to Patterson's lawyers, a "fundamental irregularity" occurred which "fatally undermined" the integrity of the verdicts.

It turns out that room shortages caused by the media frenzy in the regional towns around the courthouse meant the jury wound up sharing a hotel with members of the prosecution, a key police witness, and journalists.

The jury had a whole hotel floor to themselves, and the judge at the time said there was no evidence they had any interaction with anyone linked to the case.

Patterson's team didn't raise any concerns during the trial, but in their appeal filing said: "[This] requires the quashing of the convictions and an order for a re-trial so that justice cannot only be done but be seen to be done."

What is the prosecution saying?

The Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is appealing over the length of Patterson's sentence.

Justice Christopher Beale last year agreed that Patterson's crimes were the worst of their kind, but said his decision to allow parole after 33 years was influenced by the "harsh prison conditions" she faced.

He noted that she'd already spent 15 months in solitary confinement at the time of her sentencing. In solitary confinement, prisoners cannot mix and meals are delivered via a small opening in the cell door.

For her own safety, he added, there was a "substantial chance" that she would be held in an isolation wing "for years to come" because of the notoriety of her case.

What happens next?

The outcome of the appeal will not be known immediately after these hearings as the decision could take months.

If the three judges in the Court of Appeal choose to overturn her convictions, there are two options: a retrial or acquittal.

If the prosecution's appeal is successful, Erin Patterson could see her parole period being extended beyond 33 years. Or she may even be sentenced to life without parole.

Australian shark attack victim grateful for 'second chance at life'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c87n792dnlno, 7 days ago

An Australian woman bitten by a shark at a popular Sydney beach earlier this year says she has been given a "second chance at life" and will be making the most of it.

Leah Stewart, 34, was mauled by a shark during a morning swim at Coogee Beach in June, suffering multiple bites to her arms and legs, amid a spate of attacks in Australia.

The mother-of-one was placed in an induced coma and had several surgeries, including having one of her arms amputated.

In an online post on Monday, she thanked her supporters who have raised more than AU$550,000 (US$394,000; £289,000) for her, saying her recovery has been "incredibly difficult" but she is making "remarkable" progress.

"After what has been an incredibly difficult few months, I'm so happy that I've progressed enough to build some independence, and I can finally see some light after all of this," Stewart wrote, in her first comments since the attack.

"I want you to know that I feel like I've been given a second chance at life, and I'm not going to waste it."

Stewart said she had been "overwhelmed" by the support from family, friends and "even strangers", adding that the "you've inspired me to get better, not bitter".

An online fundraiser for her would now be closed, she wrote, with the money raised giving her the chance to recover at home as well as "options for further medical treatment down the road".

"I still have a long way to go, but my recovery has been remarkable, and a huge part of that is because of the absolute army of love, support, prayers and encouragement surrounding my family and I from all over the world."

In an interview with Nine Network's 60 Minutes, due to be aired this weekend, Stewart described seeing the shark's "horrific" face.

"I'll never forget its face - it was a monster," she says.

"It was holding onto my leg and I just thought of (my daughter) August, and I thought, 'she's not going to have a mum. She's gonna grow up without a mum'."

Fighting back tears, she goes on: "I couldn't handle that, I didn't want her to not have a mum. I just thought, I've got to fight it, do everything I can to be here."

There have been a spate of shark attacks in Australia this year, with four attacks over a two-day period in January, including one on a 12-year-old boy who later died from his injuries.

In May, a man was killed by a shark in Queensland while spearfishing and in Western Australia, a father-of-two died after he was attacked by a 4m (13ft) shark.

Sydney Marathon medal mistakenly depicts Munich stadium

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg92y1wzn8o, 9 days ago

One week out from the world-renowned Sydney Marathon, organisers face questions about whether designers etched the wrong city's stadium on the participation medal.

The medal appears to feature a stadium carved in the likeness of Allianz Arena in the German city of Munich, rather than Allianz Stadium in Sydney – which the 42.2km (26.2 mile) course runs past.

The BBC has reached out to Sydney Marathon for comment.

Some 40,000 runners will be taking part in the event on 30 August, after more than 120,000 ballot entries.

Speculation about a possible mix-up began after Sydney Marathon's official social media account unveiled its design for the 2026 medal, inviting users to "look closely and you'll find the story of the course in the details".

They continued: "A beautiful Sydney skyline brings the course to life, featuring the landmarks runners will experience along the way - starting with the Sydney Harbour Bridge and finishing at the world-famous Sydney Opera House."

Munich's Allianz Arena is sculpted by thousands of diamond-shaped inflatable cushions, while Sydney's similarly-named Allianz Stadium has a flatter façade smoothed with long bronze fins.

The other face of the double-sided medal features a gold and indigo pattern designed by First Nations artist Ambrose Killian. Forty-two half-round markings lining the circular edge "represent each kilometre of the course", organisers explained.

Killian told the BBC he was not responsible for the other artwork.

The blunder follows a similar incident at last year's Great North Run in Newcastle, where medals mistakenly featured the Sunderland and Wear River – which is not part of the event.

Sydney was announced as the seventh city added to the Abbott majors series in 2024, joining London, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, New York, and Tokyo. Cape Town is set to become the eighth city when it hosts its first marathon major next year.

British rapper Yung Filly to face retrial on rape charges in Australia

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd7l1g8922jo, 10 days ago

British rapper Yung Filly will face a retrial on three rape charges in Australia, after a jury cleared him of several sexual assault offences but could not reach a decision on others.

The YouTuber, whose real name is Andres Felipe Valencia Barrientos, was charged with repeatedly raping and assaulting a fan after performing at a nightclub in Perth in 2024.

He denied all 10 charges, and last month a jury found him not guilty on three counts of rape.

He was also acquitted of one assault charge and another of strangulation, but was found guilty of two counts of assault, for which he will be sentenced after his retrial.

Barrientos had been on tour in Australia when he was accused of sexually assaulting the woman, then 20 years old, in his hotel room after he performed in Hillarys, a coastal suburb of Perth.

The West Australian court heard that the 31-year-old social media star had consensual sex with the fan in his hotel room, before she alleged he turned violent and ignored her pleas to stop.

Barrientos will next appear in court on 27 August for an application to vary his bail. A retrial date has not been set.

He will not be sentenced for the two guilty charges until after the re-trial.

The prosecution has said the complainant was willing to give evidence again.

During the trial, Barrientos told the court that he had "fancied" the woman when they met at the concert venue.

He had been in the VIP area while she leaned over the barrier from the general area.

He said the "vibes were good" between him and the woman when they arrived at his hotel later.

During the trial's closing arguments, prosecutor Danielle Clarke said Barrientos was an "entitled" man with a "moderate degree of fame" who had violated the fan "in the most intrusive way possible".

His defence lawyer argued that the accuser's evidence was full of "inconsistencies, embellishments and outright lies".

Barrientos, who was born in Colombia and brought up in the UK, is known for his work with the YouTube collective Beta Squad.

He has appeared in the celebrity version of Bake Off on Channel 4 and presented BBC Three shows.

Australian hiker's body recovered as officials apologise for misreporting she was alive

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0rdk5kg4r4o, 10 days ago

The body of missing Australian hiker Lily Hooper has been recovered as officials investigate a "miscommunication" that briefly reported she had been found alive.

Within minutes of reports first emerging that she was alive on Thursday, police confirmed that Hooper had been found deceased in the bushland of the Southern Highlands in New South Wales (NSW).

State Premier Chris Minns and NSW police commissioner Mal Lanyon apologised to her family on Friday for the error.

Hooper, 18, an experienced hiker, was reported missing last week, triggering an eight-day search that involved approximately 1,000 people.

A police spokesperson confirmed to BBC News on Friday that her body had been airlifted from the Nattai National Park, south-west of Sydney.

"A post-mortem examination will be conducted in coming days to formally confirm ID and determine cause of death," the statement said.

Minns had told a state parliamentary hearing on Thursday that crews had found Hooper alive "with half a bottle of water" eight days after she had been reported missing. Within 30 minutes, he corrected himself saying "Lily's body has been found" and that she was deceased.

Media outlets in Australia widely reported the initial incorrect reports that Hooper was located alive before retracting their stories shortly after.

The miscommunication meant there was a brief window in which her parents believed she was alive.

Minns said on Friday that he planned to speak directly to Hooper's family to issue a personal apology.

"The government, myself – we're profoundly sorry," he said.

NSW State Emergency Services commissioner Mike Wassing said that codes were often assigned during major searches.

Such terms can avoid sensitive details being shared over radio broadcasts during a search, when friends, relatives and community volunteers are usually involved alongside emergency service personnel and police officers.

"The codes are usually associated with some aspect like that in terms of bottles of water," Wassing told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, although he did not confirm the cause of the error under investigation.

Lanyon said communications can be challenging during large searches in remote locations.

"Tragically, her condition was miscommunicated and for that I apologise," he said.

Police will review policy and processes to ensure protocols were "foolproof" into the future, Lanyon added.

Norway's new king remembers 'my dear father' in first speech

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgy79wmv4jo, yesterday

King Haakon VIII of Norway has paid warm tribute to his late father, Harald V, in his first speech to the nation since taking the throne.

"Thank you for being such a good dad," he said in an at-times emotional televised address, seated at a desk in Norway's royal palace, beside a picture of the late king, two lit candles and a bowl of white roses.

Harald, 89, who was seen as a moderniser and "people's king" during his 35-year reign, died in hospital on Friday morning after being treated for a rare blood condition.

"Now it is my turn," his 53-year-old son said, adding that a "major task" awaited him and that he wished to be "present and attentive" going forward.

Haakon stressed national unity in the speech, saying the royal family believed in a "society built on law and justice, where everyone is of equal value".

He said Harald had been a good father to himself and his sister, Princess Märtha Louise, as well as a "warm and funny grandfather" to his six grandchildren and a "loving and caring husband" to his widow, Queen Sonja.

The new king appeared to choke back tears as he noted that Saturday would have been their 58th wedding anniversary.

Harald brought the family together "with a natural authority", of which he might not have been aware himself, his son recalled.

He had "always stayed true" to his "values and commitments", the new king stressed.

"He constantly reminded us in the family that each of us must do things in our own way. Find our own style. Be ourselves," Haakon said.

He also remarked on the "powerful and moving experience" of seeing thousands of Norwegians gather outside the royal palace in the capital Oslo with "flowers, tributes and candles".

"We are in mourning, yet at the same time it brings comfort and strength that so many are grieving together with us," he said.

Norwegians have been laying flowers outside the royal palace in Oslo since news broke that Harald had died on Friday. A national period of mourning has been declared, with no date yet given for his funeral.

Among them was Norway's Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, who laid flowers outside the palace and signed a book of condolences after greeting the new king, said the country was "united in grief and gratitude".

Haakon will swear an oath of allegiance in parliament on Tuesday and will later participate in a consecration service with his wife, Queen Mette-Marit - a stripped-down version of a coronation, which Norway no longer holds.

He assumes his new role at a difficult time, as the royal family has faced health challenges and scandals this year.

Mette-Marit came under scrutiny when it was revealed that she had had a three-year friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, for which she publicly apologised.

She later received a lung transplant, after suffering from pulmonary fibrosis since 2018. Doctors will not declare her stable until next year, meaning her husband must balance his new official duties with her care.

Her son from a previous relationship, Marius Borg Høiby, was convicted in June of rape and other offences and sentenced to four years in prison. He is appealing.

Høiby is not a member of the royal family, but was raised with them since he was four years old, when Haakon married his mother.

Haakon's sister, Märtha Louise, has also courted controversy for remarrying an American self-styled shaman in 2024, their business activities ultimately leading her to step back from royal duties.

Without directly referencing these controversies, Haakon said during his speech: "Our family has experienced the importance of standing together in order to remain steadfast both within ourselves and for one another even during difficult times."

He said he, along with Mette-Marit and Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra, would "always strive to understand the life situations of different people".

He added: "No one who lives in this country knows what we will face together, but what we do know is that we will stand by one another through both good days and difficult ones."

Although Harald remained popular until his death, a poll for newspaper Aftenposten earlier this year suggested that support for the monarchy had dropped from 72% in 2024 to 54%.

However, Norwegian royal experts told the BBC that the new king, while facing questions about the turbulence surrounding his family, was respected, hard-working and, they believed, able to move forward despite the challenges.

Who is Norway's new King Haakon VIII?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp841114eg6o, 3 days ago

King Haakon VIII has inherited the Norwegian throne after the death of his father, Harald V. Many in Norway believe he has big shoes to fill.

King Harald was immensely popular with ordinary Norwegians, as shown by his consistent high polling and the outpouring of emotion in the lead-up to his death.

Haakon is the fourth king to head Norway's modern monarchy, since it was restored in 1905 after the country gained independence from Sweden.

Among his first duties as monarch, he led an extraordinary cabinet meeting where he announced his royal title and adopted his father's motto "Everything for Norway".

Many commentators believe he is well-placed to follow in his predecessors' footsteps.

As crown prince, Haakon worked closely with his father as he carried out his royal duties and in recent years was handed more responsibility, increasingly acting as regent while Harald was ill or absent.

"I am so lucky that Crown Prince Haakon is the one who will carry this forward," King Harald wrote of his son in his biography The King Tells.

Historian Trond Norén Isaksen tells the BBC that Haakon will be a different type of king to his father, but no less respected.

"King Harald... [was] very charismatic, he [had] a great sense of humour, which everyone appreciates, and Haakon is a bit more reserved, a bit more like his mother.

"But in recent years he has also become a bit more relaxed and opened up a bit and showed a bit more of his sense of humour... he has been pulling enormous weight for many years given his parents have become older and his wife has been ill."

Haakon is a great-great-great-grandson of Britain's Queen Victoria.

His daughter Ingrid Alexandra, 22, now becomes the crown princess and heir to the Norwegian throne.

Haakon was ahead of his older sister, Princess Märtha Louise, in the line of succession.

The constitution was changed in 1990 to give women the right to inherit the throne, so Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra is in line to be Norway's first female head of state since the 15th Century.

Haakon has become the king at a turbulent time for Norway's royal family.

The monarchy remains broadly popular among Norwegians and has been long praised for its modern outlook.

But in recent years it has been beset by scandal.

Only this year, Haakon's wife Mette-Marit, now Queen of Norway, has apologised for several years of ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and her son has been convicted of rape in a high-profile trial. Marius Borg Høiby, who was born from an earlier relationship, is appealing against the conviction.

Born in 1973, King Haakon is the youngest child of the late king and Queen Sonja.

By Haakon's own admission, he struggled at times to accept his royal status in his early years.

"Yes, I was a royal, but I did not want to talk about it... At school it made me anxious," he wrote in his 2023 autobiography, recalling his days in a state primary school in the 1980s.

He became crown prince in 1991 at the tender age of 17, following the death of his grandfather King Olav V.

Unusually for a royal, he was educated at local state schools before embarking upon a four-year-long naval career, graduating from the Norwegian Naval Academy in 1995.

He decided not to follow his father and grandfather to Oxford University, instead flying to California to enrol at the University of Berkeley, where he studied political science.

Soon after his return to Norway, Haakon met his now-wife Mette-Marit at a music festival in her home city of Kristiansand in 1999.

She was dubbed by the press as the Cinderella of Kristiansand - a reference to her humble beginnings.

"What we two found together was so strong that I could not let it go," the then-Crown Prince Haakon said of Mette-Marit ahead of their wedding in 2001.

But their relationship was not without controversy and there was a fierce public debate in Norway from the moment Haakon first announced they were dating.

Some commentators even warned at the time that their relationship could spell the end of the Norwegian monarchy, with comparisons being made to the infamous union between American divorcee Wallis Simpson and British King Edward VIII which led to his abdication in 1936.

Queen Mette-Marit was not the first commoner to marry into the Norwegian royal family - the late King Harald had already broken with tradition by marrying Queen Sonja three decades earlier.

She was, however, a single mother to a four-year-old child whose father had served time for a conviction of cocaine possession.

The royal couple's co-habitation in an Oslo flat had also drawn criticism from the conservative Lutheran Church of Norway - though polls from the time showed most ordinary Norwegians did not care about either.

What many Norwegians did question, though, was whether her former party lifestyle was one compatible with that of someone married to the future king.

In an emotional interview three days before their marriage, Mette-Marit publicly apologised for her "wild past" and condemned drug use after reports that drugs were taken at parties she attended in Oslo during the 1990s.

She did not say whether she had taken them herself.

It was seen as something of a turning point. She won the affection of ordinary Norwegians and for years has been seen as the embodiment of a modern monarchy capable of shaking up convention.

The couple have two children together, Ingrid and Prince Sverre Magnus.

In her new role as crown princess, she took up popular causes including support for people with HIV and promoting literacy.

Her diagnosis with pulmonary fibrosis in 2018 also led to widespread public sympathy.

Haakon has said Mette-Marit helped him come out of his shell and described her as an emotional counterweight to his analytical mind. "I am not very good socially," he wrote. "Mette is a natural talent. She can go into a room and get along with everyone."

But in recent times, Haakon's family has come under increasingly heavy public scrutiny and criticism.

Marius Borg Høiby's rape conviction hangs over the family. One of women was raped on Haakon's estate at Skaugum outside Oslo.

Høiby has always been treated as one of the family, although the royal house has repeatedly stressed he is not a royal.

Days before his trial began, documents were released revealing Mette-Marit's frequent contact with late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

She later apologised to King Harald and Queen Sonja for her three-year friendship with Epstein and admitted to "poor judgement", adding in a national TV interview that she wished she had never met him.

Several polls conducted earlier this year found nearly half of Norway's population felt the crown princess could not become queen, even though it was always bound to happen.

Two days after her son's trial came to an end, Mette-Marit received a lung transplant, eight years after her initial diagnosis.

Her doctors will not declare her stable until a year after the transplant, and the new king will face a difficult period of succession as he continues to support her.

Caroline Vagle, royal correspondent for Se og Hør magazine, says in regards to Epstein the most important thing the royal family can do is be "completely open about what actually happened, and not allow public speculation to take on a life of its own".

"But I also don't think we should overestimate the impact of one or two difficult cases," she says.

"What will ultimately matter is how the royal family handles them, and how Haakon and the next generation manage to build on the trust that Harald has earned over a lifetime."

Tove Taalesen, royal correspondent for Nettavisen, believes the scandals will be challenging but Haakon is "very much ready for the task".

"I'm sure that in the future he will be respected and loved, similar to King Haakon VII, King Olav V and also King Harald V."

Haakon's reign begins in the backdrop of these scandals, and how he navigates them might come to define his monarchy.

Violence breaks out in Ceuta as migrant crisis continues

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy9zj11gwzxo, 2 days ago

A month after tens of thousands of migrants entered the city of Ceuta, a Spanish exclave in North Africa, there have been outbreaks of violence as tensions mount between locals and foreign arrivals.

The Spanish government has been accused by opposition parties of struggling to manage the crisis effectively.

Ceuta's residents have complained of feeling unsafe on the streets, as well as expressing concerns about the burden being placed on public services.

At least 72,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into Ceuta on 30 and 31 July. Most swam around a border fence and at least 100 people died during the mass crossing, according to figures from Ceuta's mayor.

The vast majority of the migrants returned to Morocco within hours of their arrival, but several thousand remain in Ceuta, many of them children, and most are sleeping rough on beaches or streets.

Anti-migrant demonstrations earlier this month were largely peaceful, but in recent days they have become increasingly violent.

On Thursday, several dozen locals prevented Red Cross personnel from distributing food and water to the migrants. Afterwards, some set fire to migrant camps on Trampolín beach, the main site where they have been sleeping, and there were also clashes with the police.

Those incidents came hours after the arrest of 12 migrants who were accused of throwing stones at a military vehicle, breaking its windows and injuring the four men inside. That same morning there were reports of vigilante groups pursuing migrants through the streets.

Journalists and film crews have also reported being threatened.

"This is a city which has been under pressure, […] which has the right to normality," the mayor of the exclave, the conservative Juan Jesús Vivas, told Antena 3 television.

"The dignity of Spain is a stake right now in Ceuta," he said.

The socialist-led government of Pedro Sánchez has appealed for calm and accused Vivas's People's Party (PP) and the far-right Vox of stoking the tensions.

José María Figaredo, a member of Congress for Vox, is being investigated for a possible hate crime after saying, soon after the migrants' arrival, that they should be "hunted down, one by one".

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told a congressional committee: "We have heard during these weeks rhetoric and comments that contribute to the stigmatisation of immigrants and which feed social division at a moment when what we need is responsibility and statesmanship."

Javier Celaya, who represents Ceuta in Congress for the PP, accused the government of treating "the invaders as victims when the real victims are us, the people of Ceuta".

On Friday, all the parties in the Ceuta local assembly signed a declaration condemning violence.

Earlier this week, the government centralised management of the situation, overriding the local authority, after criticism that it had been slow to respond.

Defence Minister Margarita Robles also apologised to those in Ceuta who "may have felt, or who even still feel, abandoned or not sufficiently cared", as the government unveiled plans to overhaul the country's immigration laws.

Much of the recent ill-feeling in the city appears to be driven by government plans to move migrants into existing public buildings, such as sports centres, in order to be able to process their legal status in an orderly way and return those not eligible for asylum to Morocco.

Many local people, and Vivas, oppose this initiative, due to concerns that it will move the migrants closer to residential areas.

The government is also facing questions about who was behind the mass migrant crossing.

Politicians on the right and the far left have accused Morocco of involvement, pointing to its alleged use of the border with Spain in the past to exert political pressure.

Sánchez and his Socialist Party instead blame people traffickers, insisting that Rabat is a reliable partner which facilitated the immediate return of most of the arrivals.

Nonetheless, the crisis has placed the sovereignty of Ceuta, and its fellow autonomous city Melilla, under the spotlight.

Morocco has maintained a longstanding claim to the territories, which it has reiterated in recent weeks.

Spain's Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said he "roundly rejected" such comments by Morocco.

"I don't speak about, nor have I spoken about, nor are we going to speak about Spain's territorial integrity with Morocco or with anyone else," he told the congressional committee.

Greenland says findings on genocide allegation not final

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czxzv29p12lo, 2 days ago

Greenland's justice minister has said the government cannot conclude whether genocide was committed against the Inuit community after experts examined the use of forced contraception in the 1960s and 70s.

"We cannot say, on behalf of the government, whether there was genocide," Marianne Paviasen told reporters. "This is something we can continue to debate."

Two reports on the practice were released on Friday, a year after Denmark apologised for the treatment of Inuit women and girls in its autonomous territory.

Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said a "reconciliation commission" would be set up while Danish PM Mette Frederiksen promised the governments would work together.

Denmark has passed a compensation law to pay 300,000 Danish crowns (£34,404; $46,800) to each woman affected by the policy.

Records from the national archives show that, between 1966 and 1970, 4,500 Greenlandic women and girls, some as young as 13, had an intra-uterine device (IUD) implanted under a birth-control programme administered by Danish doctors.

In recent years, many women came forward to say they had been fitted with an IUD without their knowledge or consent.

Use of the birth control was so widespread that Greenland's population growth severely slowed.

Frederiksen issued an apology last August to Greenlandic women and their families affected by "systematic discrimination".

In 2024, a former prime minister of Greenland, Mute B Egede, described the practice as "genocide".

Under the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, one definition of genocide is "imposing measures intended to prevent births" within a "national, ethnical, racial or religious group".

The territory tasked a panel of four experts with establishing whether human rights had been violated and whether such violations met the definition of genocide.

However, the panel split, with two members resigning and producing a separate report.

The two experts who remained, Alaskan lawyer Dalee Sambo Dorough and University of Copenhagen law professor Miriam Cullen, found in their report that the rights of Inuit women in Greenland had been violated.

But they said that they could not conclude that genocide had taken place "on the basis of contraceptive practices alone".

They added that genocidal intent by Denmark remained a "possible inference" that a court might establish, based on evidence that fell outside the scope of their report, such as the removal of Inuit children to be raised by Danish families.

The rival report, produced by Jonas Christoffersen, former head of the Danish Institute for Human Rights, and Jensine Nedergaard, a psychologist who had worked in Greenland, accepted that women had been wronged but could not establish the extent of their mistreatment.

They found no evidence "any authority or health professional at any time had any intention of destroying the Greenlandic population".

Reacting on Friday, Greenland's justice minister said the two reports were so different that one "says there was no genocide at all" while the other "says there could have been".

One woman affected by the forced contraception policy, Henriette Berthelsen, told news agency AFP before the reports were presented that their conclusions had been skewed from the start because no Greenlandic Inuits had been appointed as experts.

"For me, this is not just about history or politics. It's my body, my life and my right to self-determination," she said.

"And once again, I see that it is others who will investigate and define what was done to me and to other Inuit women."

Another woman, Inger Platou, 70, told Reuters that she remembered waking up from what she had been told was a minor operation to discover an IUD had been inserted without her consent.

"It turns out we were treated like animals," she said. "Without consent, they just wanted to stop women from giving birth or having children. It was a very inhumane act."

A doctor, she added, later told her complications from the coil had left her unable to become pregnant. She went on to adopt two children from Colombia.

"We are very deferential to authority because we are colonial children," she said.

Reacting to the reports on Friday, Frederiksen said: "We will handle the political process together with the government of Greenland. The most important thing for me is that we find the right path together."

Greenland was a Danish colony until 1953 and did not gain home rule until 1979. Copenhagen continued to oversee its healthcare system until 1992.

The Inuit, or mixed Danish and Inuit, make up nearly 90% of the island's population of 56,000.

The birth-control campaign was designed to control the territory's population, which had ballooned since the 1950s, aided by modernisation and better healthcare. This growth, in addition to an increasing rate of teenage pregnancies, had alarmed the Danish authorities.

In 1970, the campaign was considered a "success" as fertility rates had fallen sharply, though the rate continued to fall for some time after that. In the eight years from the campaign's inception in 1966 until 1974 when it levelled off, Greenland's fertility rate plunged from seven children per woman to 2.3.

Convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal Mladić dies aged 84

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ywxpryj95o, 3 days ago

Convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladić has died in a UN prison at The Hague aged 84.

He was jailed for life in 2017 for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the wars in the former Yugoslavia in 1992-95.

After the Bosnian war, he went on the run for 16 years until he was finally tracked down in rural Serbia in 2011 and put on trial in the Dutch city.

The sentence for the man known as the "Butcher of Bosnia" was upheld on appeal by the UN court in 2021. He was being given palliative care in the hospital of the UN detention facility, where he died.

In a statement confirming the death on Thursday, the UN Court said Dutch authorities have begun an investigation.

It added that the court's top judge"has ordered a full inquiry into the circumstances" of Mladić's death.

In May, the court rejected a bid for his release from jail as he was nearing the end of his life.

The judge agreed his situation was "dire" but ruled that he was receiving "comprehensive and compassionate treatment" in prison.

Mladić's lawyers said at the time that he had already been bedbound or in a wheelchair for a long time and later had suffered a suspected stroke that left him almost unable to speak.

Mladić - who never recognised the UN court - had been held at The Hague detention facility since 2011.

He commanded Bosnian Serb forces in the 1990s against the Bosnian Croat and Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) armies.

During the war his troops committed what became known as "ethnic cleansing" in Bosnia-Herzegovina in a bid to expel the non-Serbian population by force. They besieged the main city of Sarajevo with the deaths of more than 10,000 people, and carried out the massacre of 8,000 men and boys at Srebrenica.

Hasan Hasanović , a Srebrenica survivor who lost his twin brother and father in the massacre, told the BBC World Service's Newshour programme that Mladić's death "does not bring closure because the people who were killed in Srebrenica cannot come back".

"His death is just a biological necessity, and it doesn't bring to an end the political project and military project that created that legacy of genocide. And we now live with the consequences of a divided country, genocide denial," said Hasanović, who now works at the Srebrenica memorial centre.

However, Bosnian Serb separatist leader Milorad Dodik told Reuters news agency that Mladić "was respected by Serbian people. As a commander he stood to defend Serbs."

In Serbia's capital Belgrade, some local residents also praised him.

"I genuinely believe he protected the Serbian people, because after all, that was his duty," a man called Milan was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Another man, Vasilije, said: "It's a massive shame, it really is. Personally, I think it's a total injustice that he was even thrown in The Hague."

Dutch health institute issues 'red alert' over Trump-shaped ecstasy pills

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8z9084d00o, yesterday

A Dutch drug addiction and mental health institute has issued a "red alert" to users about potentially lethal ecstasy pills which resemble US President Donald Trump.

The Utrecht-based Trimbos Institute said several of the pills had been handed in at testing centres in August and were found to contain a "very high" amount of the chemical PMMA.

"Do not use this pill under any circumstance," the institute said in its warning, cautioning that the drug could cause "overheating with potentially fatal consequences".

It issued images of the pills, which feature a depiction of Trump's face on one side and the words "Trump" and "NL" stamped on the other.

PMMA, or para-methoxymethamfetamine, is a substance similar to MDMA – the active ingredient in ecstasy pills.

"However, the effect occurs later, and the stimulating effect is often absent," the health institute advised. "This increases the risk of overdose."

Users are being warned they could experience symptoms such as nausea, an increased heart rate and convulsions hours after ingesting the pills.

Trimbos Institute spokesperson Anniek Groothuis told the Associated Press that it had no reported cases of death or serious illness among possible users.

While producing, selling and using ecstasy is illegal in the Netherlands, a 2024 Dutch government report said the substance was "still quite popular as a party drug".

The report added that, in 2022, a "record 550,000 people" had taken the drug at least once.

This is not the first time Donald Trump's facial features appear to have been used as inspiration for the shape of ecstasy pills.

In 2017, German police confiscated about 5,000 carrot-coloured ecstasy tablets in the shape of the US president's head – which they believed had been promoted on the internet under the slogan "Trump makes partying great again".

Norway's King Harald dies aged 89: A beloved monarch buffeted by family crises

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clykn5p5172o, 3 days ago

Norway's King Harald V has died at the age of 89, after he was taken to hospital last week for treatment for a rare blood condition.

The palace in Oslo said he passed away peacefully at 06:35 local time (04:35 GMT) on Friday at the national hospital in Oslo.

The royal flag on the roof of the palace has been lowered to half-mast and a period of national mourning has been declared leading up to the day of his funeral. Crowds of mourners have streamed to the royal palace to lay flowers and flags.

Harald was the nation's first king born there since the 14th Century. He has been succeeded by his son Haakon, 53, who will hold an extraordinary council of state with the government later on Friday.

King Charles III sent his "most heartfelt condolences" at the death of his "dear cousin" - who was a second cousin to Queen Elizabeth II - while King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden remembered "a good friend to me, my family and to Sweden", wishing his godson Haakon "success and good fortune".

After 35 years on the throne, Harald will be remembered as a popular and reforming figure who modernised the monarchy, broke with tradition by marrying a commoner and served as a unifying figure at Norway's most difficult moments.

Royal observers say he was down-to-earth, respected and beloved, describing him as a "grandfather" of the nation and the "People's king" - a title also used by his father King Olav V.

During his reign, the Norwegian monarchy became more egalitarian and transparent about the royal family's finances and health matters, Ole-Jørgen Schulsrud-Hansen, historian and TV2 royal correspondent, told the BBC.

Tove Taalesen, royal correspondent for Nettavisen, described the late king as "one of us", while Caroline Vagle, royal expert for Se og Hør magazine, said he had "always been very close to the people".

"He has never been afraid to show emotion, humour or vulnerability, and that has made him very human."

In the wake of the 2011 bomb and gun attacks on Oslo and the island of Utøya, Harald appealed to Norwegians to support each other and not "let fear take over".

More recently, Harald and his family faced health challenges and scandal, especially over his daughter-in-law Mette-Marit's association with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and her son Marius Borg Høiby's conviction for rape.

He is survived by his wife of almost 58 years, Queen Sonja, their daughter Princess Märtha Louise, their son, the new King Haakon, and six grandchildren.

Harald was born on 21 February 1937 on the Skaugum estate near Oslo. He was three when dictator Adolf Hitler ordered the Nazi German invasion of Norway early in World War Two.

Harald's mother fled with her children across the border to Sweden, and they travelled to the US on the invitation of President Franklin D Roosevelt.

Prince Harald returned with his family to Norway at the end of the war and completed his school and compulsory military service. He became crown prince in 1957, studying social science, history and economics at Balliol College in Oxford from 1960 to 1962.

He met Sonja Haraldsen, the daughter of a businessman, at a party, but the crown prince had to wait nine years before he was allowed to marry her. Eventually he told his father that if he could not marry Sonja, he would stay single, King Harald once told Norway's public broadcaster.

His father finally gave his consent and the couple wed in Oslo Cathedral on 29 August 1968.

Harald's choice paved the way for his own two children to marry commoners too, and for Vagle, that "helped bring an end to a very male-dominated royal family".

When his father became ill in 1990, the then-crown prince became regent. Harald then ascended to the throne when Olav died on 17 January 1991.

The new king came into his own around 2000, according to historian Trond Norén Isaksen, growing from a shy man into someone much more open and empathetic.

In July 2011, Harald faced his greatest challenge yet as king, when neo-Nazi Anders Breivik murdered eight people with a car bomb in Oslo before moving onto a youth camp on the island of Utøya, where he shot dead 69 others, most of them teenagers.

He gave a televised address the next day, and weeks later he delivered a speech, empathising with the victims and their families as a father, grandfather, husband and king. On the verge of tears, his voice quivered and broke.

"I can only imagine the depth of your pain. As king of this nation, I feel for each and every one of you," he said.

Looking back, historian Ole-Jørgen Schulsrud-Hansen said: "I think that moment has been burned into our minds of what a monarchy should be."

In 2016, the king made headlines again by giving a speech supporting diversity of religion, ethnicity and sexual orientation.

He said Norwegians were from "Afghanistan, Pakistan and Poland, from Sweden, Somalia and Syria", that they "believe in God, Allah, the Universe and nothing", and that they "are girls who love girls, boys who love boys, and girls and boys who love each other".

The king was also a keen athlete and environmentalist - one of the initiators of the Norwegian branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), who served as president of the Norwegian chapter for 20 years.

He was such an accomplished sailor, he represented Norway three times at the Olympics.

When Crown Prince Haakon married Mette-Marit in 2001, the king and queen welcomed her four-year-old son from a previous relationship. Høiby was treated as one of the family, but the royal house later stressed that he was never a royal.

The king's daughter Princess Märtha Louise initially married a Norwegian writer before controversially remarrying an American self-styled shaman in 2024. The couple's business activities eventually led to her halting her royal duties.

While some Norwegians may have felt Harald was too lenient with his family's controversial life decisions, Vagle believes he had "shown himself to be someone who puts talking things through ahead of issuing harsh instructions".

As the king's health declined, he permanently reduced his public engagements in April 2024.

More recently, he was treated with cortisone for a rare blood condition, haemolytic anaemia, which causes the number of red blood cells in the body to be reduced. He entered hospital on 17 August and his son became regent, assuming his activities.

This year alone the Norwegian royal family has faced compounded personal health challenges and scandals.

The rape trial of Høiby, convicted of multiple offences in June, hung over the royal family for many months. He has now appealed against a four-year jail term and appeared at Harald's bedside shortly before he died.

Days before the trial began, documents were released revealing his mother Mette-Marit's frequent contact with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

She later apologised to Harald and Sonja for her three-year friendship with Epstein and admitted to "poor judgement".

Two days after her son's trial came to an end, Mette-Marit received a lung transplant. She had been diagnosed with a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis eight years prior.

Her doctors will not declare her stable until a year after the transplant, and King Haakon will face a difficult period of succession as he continues to support her.

The crises surrounding the monarchy have had an effect on its popularity. One poll for newspaper Aftenposten found that support had dropped from 72% in 2024 to 54%.

Other polls suggested almost half of Norwegians believed Mette-Marit could no longer become queen, although Haakon is now highly likely to say she will.

However, Vagle said criticism was rarely directed at the late king personally, leaving her with the impression that "everyone has loved King Harald".

"When things go wrong in the royal family, people tend to blame anyone but the king," Isaksen remarked.

Haakon has faced questions about the turbulence surrounding his own household that will "follow him into his position as a king", according to Taalesen, however she believes he has shown leadership and dealt with recent events well.

The royal family's main strategy has been to separate itself from Høiby's trial, and Schulsrud-Hansen believes that has largely succeeded.

Although there may be further scrutiny over the Epstein files, the focus for Norwegians now will be on remembering a "greatly beloved king" and supporting his son.

Allan Little: I met dangerously fanatical Mladić early in Bosnian war

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgl744j0ww1o, 3 days ago

Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladić, dubbed the "Butcher of Bosnia" for his actions during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, has died in prison.

BBC special correspondent Allan Little was there throughout the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, and met Mladić in the early months of the Bosnian war.

At night, you could watch the fires of ethnic cleansing across the landscape. The flames provided the only light under the night sky and the black valley would glimmer with flecks of orange.

You could watch the men of our village move about silently in the shadows of their homes, each armed with some ancient weapon salvaged from wars long ago and, like the fears and the suspicions and the distrusts, handed down through the generations.

One morning I watched a procession of men and women emerge from a forest. They had been driven from their homes two days earlier and had fled with what they could carry.

Most were on foot. Some were crammed into the back of ancient farm vehicles drawn by donkeys. There were perhaps 40,000 of them. Their home town had fallen to a Serb advance that had come without warning.

Among them, one man seemed close to collapse. He stopped to speak to us.

The whole town had fled, he said. He had become separated from his wife in the long trek to safety and was now worried that she had not made it. His pale, almost translucently white skin was stretched across the bones of his face like parchment. His forehead was livid blue from a fall.

I asked him how old he was. He said he was 80. "May I ask" I said, "are you a Croat or a Muslim?"

The memory of it shames me even now as I hear, in my mind, his answer echo down the years.

"I am," he said, "a musician".

Our convenient ethnic shorthand reduced them to Serbs, Croats and Muslims. But they were also musicians and scientists and doctors and plumbers and farmers and mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters and very often children.

I met Mladić in that first hot summer of the war in Bosnia. We were at Lukavica barracks on the southern edge of Sarajevo. The barracks was awash with weapons and the menacing strut of the paramilitaries.

You could buy a Kalashnikov for $200, a hand grenade for just one dollar – the same price, I would soon learn, as the cost of a fresh egg in the besieged city.

I shook his hand and he held it fast and pulled me in close. He told me he had just come back from the Sarajevo city centre front line and I saw that he was pumped up by the exhilarating proximity of the fighting.

He held my hand for many minutes, fixed me with his eye and told me he was the great defender of brotherhood and unity in former Yugoslavia, and that he dreamed of a world in which there would be no guns and no war. He struck me then as fanatical, dangerously so.

In the years that lay ahead, forces under his command committed the worst war crimes on European soil since the Nazis. They bequeathed to the lexicon of war a grim new euphemism - ethnic cleansing. They committed mass murder, extermination, mass rape, forced expulsions. They burned village after village, all in the name of creating an ethnically pure Serbian territory in Croatia and Bosnia. Ultimately, at Srebrenica, they committed genocide.

Two days after I had met the old musician on that damp muddy roadside, I found myself drawn into the passions of the war in a personal and – at the time – devastating way.

My cameraman, Tihomir Tunukovic, a man I had known and worked alongside during the previous 18 months, was killed by a Serb gunner on a ridge above the road he was driving on. We had parted earlier that morning. He was 25 years old, a talented and ambitious young film maker from Zagreb.

We drove his body back along the rutted mountain pathways to the coastal city of Split. We broke our hearts at his funeral. The grief of it connected us to the sentiments of the war – the impulse to vengeance and counter vengeance – that were so much a feature of what we were witnessing.

General Mladić did not pull the trigger but his command created an atmosphere of wanton permissiveness which cost tens of thousands of lives.

Correction 28 August: An earlier version of this story stated that forces under Mladic's command burned villages in the name of creating an ethnically pure Serbian territory in Croatia and Serbia. This has been updated to say Croatia and Bosnia.

The monstrous crimes of Ratko Mladic, the 'Butcher of Bosnia'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2q05wzlx5xo, 3 days ago

Ratko Mladić, who has died at the age of 84, was the bull-necked "Butcher of Bosnia".

As Commander of the Bosnian Serb army, he oversaw a brutal campaign of "ethnic cleansing" as Yugoslavia splintered in the 1990s.

The phrase was a chilling euphemism for the massacre of tens of thousands of men, women and children - in pursuit of what he saw as a chance to fulfil the historic destiny of Greater Serbia.

It was a goal he pursued with single-minded determination and studied brutality - and it made him responsible for the bloodiest atrocities Europe has witnessed since Hitler's Third Reich.

His fanaticism made him a hero to his people. He told them their Muslim neighbours planned to "impale Serbs, burn them alive, crucify them and put out their eyes".

He led the long and bloody siege of Sarajevo; killing and maiming its citizens in a daily hail of shells and sniper-fire.

When his troops overran the UN-declared safe area of Srebrenica, he promised they were safe. Later, 8,000 men and boys were led to unmarked graves.

He and his political counterpart, Radovan Karadžić, ripped Bosnia apart - committing acts of genocide and vicious crimes against humanity.

The barrel-chested warlord displayed no remorse, giving relatives of his victims a cheery thumbs-up at his eventual trial in the Hague.

"Borders are drawn in blood," he is reported to have said. "And states marked out with graves."

Ratko Mladić was born on 12 March 1942 in a small mountain village near Sarajevo, then part of the German-controlled Independent State of Croatia - although he always claimed to be a year younger.

Two years later, his father was killed fighting for Tito's partisans against Nazi-backed Croat nationalists.

Mladić was brought up in the new, post-war construct of Yugoslavia. After a short apprenticeship as a tinsmith, he chose a military career.

He graduated from officer school in 1965. Proving himself an ambitious and capable soldier, he rose rapidly through the ranks, commanding army units in Macedonia and Kosovo.

Tito's death in 1980 was the beginning of the end for Yugoslavia - always an uneasy confederation of opposing factions, competing nationalisms and simmering hatred.

In June 1991, Croatia declared independence. Mladić was sent in with the Yugoslav army in an effort to re-impose control.

He gained a reputation for courage bordering on recklessness, ever-present in frontline trenches and personally leading expeditions to clear mines.

His men loved him for it, their devotion bordering on religious.

As the war spilled over into Bosnia, his force switched uniforms - pledging support for the breakaway Republika Srpska.

He saw the Muslim population as invaders - the result of an ancient occupation by Ottoman Turks.

Mladić vowed to right what he considered a historical injustice, drive out the intruders and then build the ethnically pure nation of his dreams.

So began the siege of Sarajevo - the Bosnian capital defended by a rag-tag multi-ethnic force of Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims).

With his troops dug in on surrounding hillsides, the blockade lasted 1,425 days. It was the longest city siege in the savage history of modern warfare.

On 22 July 1993, nearly 4,000 shells rained down on its terrified people.

By the end of the siege, 13,000 were dead from shell-fire or a sniper's bullet; almost every building in the city either damaged or destroyed.

In the villages around the capital, legions of men were killed or carted off to prison camps; thousands of women were mercilessly raped.

A communiqué from Gen Mladić's headquarters captured his attitude. "Shoot at slow intervals until I order you to stop," it said.

"Target Muslim neighbourhoods - not many Serbs live there. Shell them until they are on the edge of madness."

Revelling in the power of his army, he gave orders by radio, the messages deliberately left unscrambled so they would be picked up and broadcast worldwide.

"Burn their brains," he screamed as his soldiers took aim at one enclave, telling them to follow his orders "as if given by God."

At weekends, he would visit his family, his wife and two children kept safe in Belgrade.

They would play board games, the conversation deliberately avoiding politics. But his 23-year-old daughter, Ana, had fallen in love with a young doctor and human rights activist.

The doctor gave her an ultimatum: renounce your father or never see me again.

Torn between dreams of love and bonds of family, Ana took her father's favourite gun from its display case. Moments later, she pulled the trigger.

Mladić struggled to come to terms with her suicide, preferring wild conspiracy theories which blamed the tragedy on everyone but himself.

Finally, in 1995, Nato lost patience.

It launched fighter attacks and cruise missile strikes on Mladić's positions around Sarajevo, most of them with devastating effect.

The siege was broken but his murderous campaign to cleanse the country was far from over.

That summer, tens of thousands of Bosniak civilians were gathered in Srebrenica: a small mountain town in eastern Bosnia.

They were under the protection of the United Nations, which had declared it a "safe area".

Bosnian Serb troops bombarded them with heavy shells and rockets. Five days later, Mladić strutted into town surrounded by TV camera crews.

In the main square, he handed out sweets, patted children on the head and assured them all would be fine. They were not fooled.

The handful of Dutch peacekeepers did nothing as men were shot and women were raped.

There followed the single most heinous act on European soil since World War Two.

Mladić's troops rounded up every Bosniak male they could find, marched them to remote sites and murdered them on an industrial scale.

In just a few days, 8,000 men and boys were tied up, blindfolded and shot. Some of them were as young as twelve, others in their late seventies.

All of them were cruelly pushed into mass, unmarked graves.

It was genocide: a black moment in European history and the UN's darkest hour.

It was a crime that took a high degree of organisation; the people had been promised UN protection and all this had happened right under its nose.

Later, the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, wrote that responsibility lay "first and foremost with those who planned and carried out the massacre". However, the international community had "made serious errors of judgement, rooted in a philosophy of impartiality", he added.

Mladić was accused of war crimes.

America offered $5m for information leading to his capture. A year later, Bosnian President Biljana Plavsic buckled to international pressure and dismissed him.

But it would be 14 years before he stood trial at the Hague.

He returned to Belgrade, enjoying the support and protection of President Slobodan Milošević.

Mladić lived openly; deer-hunting with friends, eating in swanky restaurants and even attending football matches.

He remained a hero to swathes of his countrymen, who saw in him the Serbian martial spirit and an echo of the past glories of their nation.

They were determined not to give him to an International Court. The president even established a military force dedicated to Mladić's personal protection.

The net began to tighten when, in October 2000, Slobodan Milošević was himself arrested and later delivered to the Hague.

International politics was beginning to bite, Serbia's entry to the European Union held up by its protection of the fugitives.

That night, Mladić fled; no longer guaranteed the sanctuary of his state.

He spent the next decade moving from safe-house to safe-house, first protected by a loyal team of bodyguards and, when they dwindled away, by his family.

In July 2008, his former political ally, Radovan Karadžić - now a long-bearded faith-healer - was arrested on a bus in Belgrade.

The new Serbian regime delivered him to the International Court, with which it had formalised co-operation. General Mladić was next.

Three years later, he was found.

The police tailed his children to a remote, squalid farmhouse where they stood alone in the courtyard for no apparent reason.

Too nervous to meet them, Mladić was watching through a window. When the security forces went in, they found a dishevelled 69-year-old man who had suffered several strokes.

The trial itself took four years.

The court sat for more than 500 days, heard from nearly 600 witnesses, and examined nearly 10,000 bits of evidence.

Due process was followed, although few doubted what the verdict would be.

Ratko Mladić was shown giving orders to his troops immediately before the Srebrenica massacre and convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the "customs of war".

He entered the courtroom with a smile and a thumbs-up to the cameras but exploded with anger at the verdicts.

Screaming that it was "all lies", he was forcibly removed. His sentence meant he would die in prison.

Among the many victims and their relatives present at his trial was Fikret Alic, a prisoner famously filmed in a skeletal state in a Bosnian Serb concentration camp in 1992.

"Justice has been done," he said. "The war criminal has been convicted". Others simply dissolved in tears.

But the widespread joy at the verdicts was far from universal.

Some Bosniaks were disappointed he had not been convicted of crimes outside Sarajevo and Srebrenica. And many fellow Serbs reacted with rage.

One leading politician in Republika Srpska condemned the trial as a plot to demonise his people, and called for them to "forever erase every mention" of the court proceedings from school history books.

In 2024, the court turned down his application to serve the rest of his sentence in Serbia. Having suffered heart attacks and strokes, Mladić claimed that his health would be better protected in his home country.

His lawyers continued to reapply unsuccessfully for his release, on the grounds that he had only months to live.

Both Serbia and Russia have supported his legal appeals. In Bosnia, by contrast, an opposition politician was sentenced to three years in prison for "glorifying" Karadžić and Mladić in January 2026.

For many of his people, the "Butcher of Bosnia" was just a simple soldier and the protector of their way of life. But he will be remembered by Bosniaks and most of the international community as a murderous thug who disgraced the European stage.

In Bosnia, Muslims and Serbs live side-by-side in uneasy cohabitation. The violent nationalist war waged by Mladić and Radovan Karadžić in the 1990s may be over, but tension still exists.

Two charged after €2.3 million worth of drugs seized in Dublin

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn9wgwv4rx7o, today

Two men have been charged following a Gardaí (Irish police) operation on Friday.

A man in his 50s and a man in his 60s were arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking after Gardaí uncovered 18kg (40lb) of suspected cocaine with an estimated street value of €1.8m (£1.5m) in Dublin.

An additional 4kg (9lb) of suspected cocaine with an estimated street value of €400,000 (£343,000) was seized from a vehicle located at the scene.

In follow-up searches of properties in Dublin, Gardaí found an additional 5,000 MDMA tablets, worth an estimated €50,000 (£43,000), and 4kg (9lb) of cannabis, worth an estimated €56,000 (£48,000).

In total, the estimated street value of the seizures is over €2.3m (£1.9m).

The men charged are due to appear before Dublin District Court on Monday.

Gardaí (Irish police) have said investigations are ongoing.

Former Ecuadorian president imprisoned for corruption

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgym9rz07zo, yesterday

A former president of Ecuador has been sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of taking bribes.

Lenín Moreno insisted he had not taken money from a Chinese firm which secured a contract to build a hydroelectric plant in the Latin American nation.

The 73-year-old will serve his sentence under house arrest due to his age and disability, and has already indicated his intention to appeal against the verdict after a court in the capital, Quito, found him and 19 others guilty of corruption.

Moreno, who was president between 2017 and 2021, is the third former Ecuadorian leader to be sentenced for corruption.

Prosecutors alleged that that Sinohydro, which is owned by the Chinese state, paid a total of $76.1m (£56.2m) through shell companies to people involved in the deal to secure the construction of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric dam.

Among those handed prison sentences were Moreno's wife, daughter and brother, as well as former plant managers, Sinohydro representatives and a Chinese ambassador to Ecuador.

While Moreno himself was alleged to have received very little from the scheme, prosecutors said family members received tens of thousands of dollars.

Those convicted of bribery will have to repay three times what they were given, while Moreno was barred from public office.

He denied involvement in the alleged bribery scheme and instead blamed another former president, Rafael Correa, under whom he served as vice-president and who was sentenced to eight years in prison in a separate bribery case in 2020.

Moreno argued that Correa had signed off on the Coca Codo Sinclair project, and that he had launched an investigation into issues with the construction when he had assumed the presidency.

The Ecuadorian government launched legal proceedings against Sinohydro in 2021 due to cracks appearing in the dam and other technical failures. It reached a $400m settlement with the firm's owner earlier this year.

The BBC has approached Sinohydro and the Chinese embassy in Ecuador for comment.

Colombia's new president approves extradition of rebel leaders to US

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgy45zv8e2o, 3 days ago

Colombia's new right-wing president, Abelardo de la Espriella, has approved the extradition of five rebel armed group members who are wanted in the US on drug-related charges.

The move is a step towards ending a plan by his left-wing predecessor Gustavo Petro who tried to end the violence that has plagued Colombia for decades by bringing rebel and criminal groups to the negotiating table.

"Since the first day it was clear: peace cannot be a refuge for criminals nor a mechanism of impunity," de la Espriella wrote on X.

Speaking later he said Petro's peace plan had opened doors to criminals without securing their cooperation.

Critics of Petro's plan say his attempts to negotiate with a number of armed groups failed as members of the illegal organisations repeatedly broke ceasefires and walked away from the talks.

The five men facing extradition are members of dissident factions of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), a left-wing rebel group that signed a peace deal with the government in 2016, and the Gulf Clan, thought to be Colombia's main drug trafficking cartel.

They are all wanted in the US on charges including drug trafficking, narco-terrorism and illegal weapons possession, among others. Only two of them are being held by Colombian authorities; three others remain at large.

The extraditions were approved by Petro in 2025, but they remained suspended because the men took part in the former president's peace efforts.

De la Espriella, who was sworn in earlier this month, has promised US President Donald Trump to escalate a war against drug trafficking in Latin America. Trump's administration has made targeting traffickers in the region a priority.

Colombia is the world's largest producer of cocaine and has long been one of Washington's closest allies in Latin America, but relations came under strain under Petro.

He openly challenged Washington's approach to combating drug trafficking and condemned the US military's deadly strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats.

Panama Canal to cut number of ships passing through due to El Niño

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyl0jkxxryo, 10 days ago

Panama Canal's operator is to cut the number of vessels passing through the key waterway due to low rainfall caused by El Niño.

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) told shipping firms on Thursday that 32 vessels a day will be able to pass through it from 15 September, compared to 36 currently.

El Niño, a pattern of periodical sea surface warming, affects weather systems globally. This year is expected to be particularly strong, with its effects made more intense by climate change.

The shipping industry is already dealing with severe disruptions due to the Iran war causing a large reduction in the number of vessels passing through the crucial Strait of Hormuz.

The ACP said the measures were being put in place to preserve service reliability and safeguard water resources for human consumption.

It added that despite the arrival of the rainy season in Central America and some water-saving measures already being put in place in the canal, additional action was needed "to support the long-term sustainability of transit operations".

The new measures will be phased in from 3 September.

The Panama Canal greatly reduces the time and distance ships have to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

About 14,000 ships per year use the artificial waterway - which operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

As well as being a crucial route for global trade, it is also a key source of income for Panama, bringing in about $3bn (£2.2bn) a year.

In 2023, the ACP cut the number of vessels using the waterway during the last El Niño period after Panama was hit with its driest October since records began in 1950.

Since then, the authority has introduced measures to cut the amount of water it uses.

Many forecasts suggest that this year's El Niño, which is a naturally occurring pattern, could be one of the strongest ever recorded, with disruptions to weather, food supplies and economies.

Ecuador intelligence chief and five Americans killed in Kenya helicopter crash

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clylkv4z59vo, 11 days ago

Ecuador's intelligence chief and his wife have been killed in a helicopter that crashed at Mount Ololokwe in central Kenya.

Michele Sensi-Contugi, 44, and his wife, fashion designer Stephany Hollihan, 42, were among the group of seven people - six tourists and the pilot - killed in Samburu county at approximately 09:13 (06:13 GMT) on Wednesday.

Five of victims were Americans, a US State Department spokesperson said. The Reuters news agency reports that Hollihan also held US citizenship.

The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) said the helicopter was on a scenic flight from a wildlife conservancy in Loisaba to Ewaso Nyiro, a river that flows along several national reserves.

Samburu county is a popular tourist destination with many private wildlife conservancies and is renowned for its stunning landscape.

Images from the scene show smoke at the wooded crash site on Mount Ololokwe, as members of the Kenya Red Cross approach the still-burning wreckage.

Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa named Sensi-Contugo director of the country's Centre of Strategic Intelligence (CIES) in January 2024.

The office of the president and Ecuador's National Assembly expressed their condolences over his death and that of Hollihan.

The Italian-Ecuadorean businessman had had close links to Noboa even before he was chosen to lead the intelligence service and was considered a close ally of the president.

Shortly before being named head of the CIES, he had served for four months as a minister in his cabinet.

Noboa has declared three days of national mourning starting on Thursday.

Newspapers in Ecuador have also run obituaries of Hollihan. The Guayaquil-based designer founded Sensi Studio, a brand praised for incorporating traditional Ecuadorean elements and materials in its designs.

Lady Lori Helicopters, which operated the Eurocopter EC130 B4 aircraft, said it was "deeply saddened" by the accident.

"Our deepest sympathies are with the guests, crew, their families and loved ones, and all those affected by this tragic accident," a statement read.

According to a memo seen by the BBC's US partner CBS News one of the Americans killed in the crash was NBCUniversal journalist José Alberto Suárez.

In the memo, NBCUniversal called Suárez "a deeply respected leader and beloved friend and colleague.

"José was an exceptional colleague and mentor to many," the memo read.

Miami restaurateur Roger Duarte was among the Americans killed in the crash, according to local and US media.

Commenting on his death on X, US Rep Carlos Antonio Gimenez wrote: "Our prayers are with their loved ones during this incredibly difficult time. May their memories be a blessing."

The other victims have not yet been identified.

Helicopter crashes are not uncommon in Kenya.

In February, a helicopter crash in the Rift Valley county of Nandi killed six people, including a member of parliament.

In 2024, the military chief, Gen Francis Omondi Ogolla, died after an army helicopter that was carrying 11 people crashed in the west of the country, with only two survivors.

In June 2021 at least 10 soldiers were killed when their helicopter crashed while landing near the capital, Nairobi.

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

US sanctions more Cuban companies and officials

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgq5x9l7054o, 10 days ago

The US has imposed a new round of sanctions on Cuban officials and companies, Secretary of State Marco Rubio says.

Nine state-owned mining, metal and building firms, the Ministry of Construction and officials connected to a Cuban-based international institute have been named in the latest tranche of economic sanctions.

Rubio accused various figures of "ferrying a new brigade of international sympathisers to Havana to network with regime officials" to coincide with the late former leader Fidel Castro's 100th birthday.

Cuba has denounced all sanctions imposed by the Trump administration, which are part of a wider pressure campaign against the Caribbean island's leadership.

Rubio said in a statement that the figures targeted by the sanctions form "part of the regime's raison d'être of exporting Marxism, racial resentment and Communist violence across the world".

He continued: "Today's designations make clear that the Trump administration will not tolerate the Cuban regime's efforts to fund its repression or continue its decades-long campaign of subversive anti-American activities."

The leadership of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) was targeted in the latest round of US sanctions.

Founded in 1960 by Castro, the ICAP has traditionally been used by the Cuban government to foster ties with like-minded organisations around the world by hosting visiting groups of activists who also promote pro-Cuban government campaigns in their own countries.

Rubio, however, accuses the group of "misleading and corrupting American citizens with lies, spy tradecraft and malfeasance".

Among those to be targeted is the group's president, Fernando Gonzalez Llort, a member of a spy ring called the Cuban Five, who were part of a prisoner exchange during the Obama-era thaw in relations with Havana.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez condemned Rubio's announcement, writing on X that he was trying to "punish" Cuban companies and further "harm" the economy.

Rodríguez added it would prevent the government "from guaranteeing basic services to the population, which are already in a critical situation as a result of the blockade".

Senior Cuban figures across the energy, financial and defence sectors are already subject to US sanctions.

US sanctions and an effective oil blockade have exacerbated already existing shortages of fuel, medicines and food in Cuba.

With the island's ageing electricity infrastructure heavily reliant on fuel imports, hospitals have resorted to using emergency generators, while citizens have been subject to frequent blackouts, triggering rare protests.

The Trump administration has also targeted Cuba's tourism sector, a key source of income for Cuba's beleaguered government, driving down visitor numbers.

Peru earthquake damages buildings and causes power cuts

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0km6n3ng7ko, 10 days ago

At least three people have been injured and buildings have been damaged after an earthquake struck Peru, local officials have said.

The earthquake, which occurred near the small settlement of Aniso in the southern Ayacucho region on Thursday, had a magnitude of 6.7, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.

Peru's defence minister Rafael Belaunde said 22 homes and six schools were damaged, local media report.

Earthquakes are common in Peru, which sits along the meeting point of the Nazca and South American tectonic plates, and Thursday's was the latest strong seismic event to hit South America in recent months, following deadly quakes in Colombia and Venezuela.

Belaunde, who has been involved in co-ordinating the emergency response, said three people had been hurt but did not suffer serious injuries, according to Peruvian newspaper El Comercio.

The earthquake struck at around 13:00 local time (18:00 GMT) at a depth of 62 miles (100km), around 19 miles (31km) north-west of Aniso, in a relatively remote part of the Andes mountain range, data from the USGS showed.

Damage was reported at 10 healthcare facilities in the Ayacucho region and two were damaged in the neighbouring Cusco region, but services remained operational, Peru's National Institute of Civil Defence said.

Around 9,000 properties also lost power, it said, and nine educational facilities were damaged.

Tremors were reportedly felt across large parts of the country, including in the capital, Lima, around 300 miles (482km) away.

The Geophysical Institute of Peru recorded the earthquake as having a magnitude of 7.2.

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck Colombia on 10 August, prompting a state of emergency to be declared. The death toll currently stands at more than 300 people, according to local authorities.

Venezuela was hit by twin earthquakes on 24 June, with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5 recorded just 39 seconds apart. More than 6,000 people are known to have died, according to local officials.

Landslide at unlicensed Colombian gold mine kills 13

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czxel9lz3vqo, 10 days ago

At least 13 workers have been killed and another seven injured in a landslide at an unlicensed mine in southern Colombia, local officials say.

Witnesses described hearing what they said sounded like an explosion at the open-air artisanal gold mine on Wednesday afternoon, moments before the workers below were trapped. But a local official said the deadly landslide had been caused by the mining work.

Emergency workers were able to retrieve the bodies with the help of diggers.

Deadly accidents are not uncommon in Colombia, especially at unlicensed mines where locals dig for precious metals without any official oversight.

Witnesses said that four of the 13 dead were members of the same indigenous family.

Residents of the area said some 50 people, most of them members of the Quillacinga indigenous group, regularly worked in the mine near Policarpa, in southern Nariño province.

Between 200,000 and 400,000 people are estimated to engage in artisanal mining in Colombia, with many families relying on the income from selling the precious metals and stones they find to make ends meet.

Head-on collision between bus and lorry in Brazil kills more than 20

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpvwgk1n2k8o, 12 days ago

At least 23 people, among them two children, have been killed and another five injured in a head-on collision between a minibus and a lorry in southern Brazil, highway police say.

The crash happened early on Wednesday local time on the BR-373 highway in the southern state of Paraná.

Local media reported that the minibus belonged to the health authorities of the nearby city of Imbituva and was transporting patients and their relatives to health appointments in Ponta Grossa, some 60km (36 miles) away.

Authorities have opened an investigation to determine what may have caused the two vehicles to crash into each other.

Among those killed is the driver of the lorry, police said.

The highway was closed for almost seven hours while forensic experts and members of Brazil's federal highway police examined the site of the crash, which is located at kilometre 209.

Deadly road traffic accidents are not uncommon in Brazil.

According to a study published by the World Bank, more than 34,000 people died in such accidents in 2023, most of them were motorcyclists.

Research suggests excessive speed, inebriated drivers and the use of mobile phones while driving is often the cause.

In February, 15 people died on board a bus carrying pilgrims to a festival in the north-eastern state of Ceará.

Brazil's President Lula hails oil discovery near Amazon river

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gd7xd8e8lo, 13 days ago

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has hailed the discovery of oil near the mouth of the Amazon river.

Speaking after the find was announced by Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras, he said it could be "a passport to the country's future".

His decision to allow exploratory drilling in the area known as the Brazilian Equatorial Margin was heavily criticised by environmentalists, who raised concerns that any potential oil spills could devastate its ecosystem.

Lula, who is running for another four-year term in elections scheduled for October, stressed that he was still committed to eventually phasing out fossil fuels to curb climate change.

The oil discovery was made in the sea about 175km (110 miles) off the Amazon coast but the size of the field is not yet clear.

It is also still unknown whether extracting the oil, which is located at a depth of 2,886m (9,469ft), would be commercially viable.

Conservationists have warned that the area where the exploratory drilling is taking place is very biodiverse.

They fear that any accidents could threaten not just the nearby reefs but that currents could carry spilled oil to coastal wetlands teeming with wildlife.

Lula has in the past rejected criticism by conservationists as "meddling" and on Monday he again said that he would not accept any foreign interference.

"This means national sovereignty. Any country which has oil of this quality won't allow anyone to butt in," he said.

Petrobras started the exploratory deep-water drilling operation in the area in October 2025.

The company's chief executive Magda Chambriard said that the discovery confirmed that Petrobras's "optimism" of finding oil in the Brazilian Equatorial Margin had been warranted.

She added that the company was committed to "ensuring the country's energy security".

President Lula has argued that oil revenues are needed to help fund Brazil's transition to non-fossil fuels.

Speaking on Monday, he insisted: "I'm not denying my commitment to the fight for a day when we no longer need fossil fuels, because Brazil will continue to be the king of biofuel innovation and will remain a major player in renewable energy."

Environmentalists were aghast when Lula announced he had given Petrobras the green light to start the exploratory drilling just weeks before the COP30 climate conference hosted by Brazil last November.

In his remarks on Monday, the president made a reference to the anger at the time, singling out opposition in Europe in particular.

"Many people didn't want me to announce that Petrobras had won the licence because they said that the Europeans would be annoyed," he said.

"I took the decision to announce that people wanted to do exploratory drilling there before COP because the interests of our country and our company were at stake."

The prospect of oil discovery off the coast has already given a boost to the nearest town.

In Oiapoque, in Amapá state, the hope of jobs and opportunities has led to an influx of people, according to the local housing authorities.

With less than two months to go before the presidential election, Lula will be trying to attract voters hoping for economic development in this remote part of Brazil without alienating those concerned about the potential impacts on the environment.

Israel's seizure of Unrwa training college in East Jerusalem condemned

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yl89yrldpo, 5 days ago

Israeli security forces have seized and closed a training college run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), the last of its facilities that was still operating in occupied East Jerusalem.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has condemned the incursion of the Qalandia Training Centre, the latest move to threaten Unrwa after Israel passed laws against it.

His spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said that under international law, all UN premises "are inviolable and immune from any form of interference."

Israel's far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, joined the large raid on Tuesday and released a video of himself in the chair of the director of the Unrwa institute.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had given the directive for the evacuation of the Unrwa compound, accusing the agency of involvement in the deadly Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which it strongly denies.

The Qalandia Training Centre, which was set up in 1952, trained some 340 Palestinians a year in valuable vocational skills including carpentry, car mechanics and plumbing.

Although the site is in East Jerusalem, its location between Qalandia and Kfar Aqab is behind Israel's separation barrier, which made it accessible to young people from refugee camps across the West Bank.

Staff have been expelled from the college. The Israeli authorities say equipment is being removed from the site, and they intend to turn part of it into a school.

In a statement, Unrwa said it "unequivocally condemns this unauthorised and deeply concerning incursion into the Qalandia Training Centre".

"The entry of armed security forces into a United Nations facility, without the authorisation or consent of the United Nations, is unacceptable."

Israeli legislation, which came into force last year, banned Unrwa from carrying out missions or operating within what Israel deemed to be its territory. This includes East Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East War and later annexed in a move that is not recognised by most countries.

All Israeli state authorities were also banned from having contact with Unrwa.

Closure orders were issued last year for six Unrwa schools in East Jerusalem, ending in-person teaching for some 800 Palestinian children.

Following the raid on Qalandia Training College, the UN's spokesman said: "The secretary general is greatly alarmed at this development, as it will deprive young people of the vocational education they were receiving."

Israel's security minister made a point of publicising the action, taking a TV crew from pro-government Channel 14 with him for the raid.

"Thank God, on my shift there is no Unrwa, there is no management, they will not be here," Ben-Gvir said in his video at the college.

Moves against Unrwa are broadly popular in Israel and the prime minister put out a statement highlighting his responsibility.

"In accordance with my instructions and in furtherance of the law we passed, the evacuation of the Unrwa compound in Kafr Aqab, Jerusalem, began today," Netanyahu said.

"The State of Israel will not allow an organisation whose employees were involved in terrorism and the October 7 massacre to operate on its territory and will use all means necessary to act against it," he added.

Israeli intelligence claimed that at least 19 Unrwa employees took part in the 7 October cross-border attack on southern Israel, which killed some 1,200 people and led to the abduction of 251 hostages. A UN investigation found that in nine cases the evidence indicated possible involvement, so their contracts were terminated. It found insufficient or no evidence to support claims in the other cases.

Israel further alleged that 10 per cent of Unrwa's Gaza employees had active links to Palestinian armed groups and that Unrwa facilities were used for Hamas military purposes. Unrwa says it has never been given information or evidence from the Israeli authorities about the former allegation and that it has systematically condemned any violations of UN premises which violate their neutrality.

The Palestinian Authority's ministry of foreign affairs called on the international community to "take immediate and effective measures" to protect the college and "ensure the return of its personnel and prevent Israel from turning this assault into a permanent fait accompli".

Unrwa was first set up to support Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their land in fighting before and after the state of Israel was created in 1948.

Many Palestinians see Israeli attacks on the agency as an attempt to dispense with the issue of Palestinian refugees and their "right to return" to their historic homes and property, which is a core issue in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Far-right Israeli lawmaker damages Palestinian memorial with sledgehammer

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0lrw8325pzo, 5 days ago

A far-right member of the Israeli parliament has badly damaged a Palestinian memorial with a sledgehammer in the occupied West Bank while under military escort.

The incident has drawn strong criticism from Palestinians and across the political spectrum in Israel.

Video footage showed Zvi Sukkot, a member of the far-right Religious Zionism party, and several others striking the stone memorial in the Palestinian village of Madama.

In the video, Sukkot - who has a history of provocative anti-Palestinian acts - says: "This is something we cannot leave standing here, because any place that glorifies terrorism, we must remove it."

Rami Nasar, the head of the village council in Madama, said that the monument was erected in 2008 to remember Palestinians killed in the battle of Karameh - a day-long military confrontation between Israeli forces and those of both the PLO and Jordan in 1968.

It also memorialises Palestinians killed in the first and second intifada.

Nasar said it was intended to honour those who had been killed in conflict with Israel, whatever their political affiliation.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its soldiers had been present during the incident. The Israeli military said it had approved a tour of monuments in the area for Sukkot and was providing security.

But the IDF said he and the others involved had acted deceptively and without authorisation.

It said soldiers eventually stopped Sukkot and escorted his group out of Madama after reporting the incident to their commanders.

In a number of previous incidents involving settler violence, soldiers have been filmed standing by without intervening.

The incident has further raised the temperature in the West Bank, where increasing attacks by settlers on Palestinians in recent months have drawn international condemnation.

Madama itself has been the target of several attacks by settlers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has issued a statement criticising Sukkot's actions. It read: "Taking the law into one's own hands, especially when it involves public figures, is a reprehensible practice that prevents the IDF from focusing on its missions of combating terrorism and incitement to violence."

Netanyahu's main rival in the upcoming general election, Gadi Eisenkot, said that Sukkot's behaviour was "a disgrace for anyone who claims to represent the public and be a leader".

Eisenkot also criticised Netanyahu for "allowing anarchists like Zvi Sukkot and his ilk to do whatever they please, endangering security in the settlements and harming Israel's standing in the world".

But finance minister Bezalel Smotrich - who heads the Religious Zionism party to which Sukkot belongs - directed his fiercest criticism at what he called the "frantic rush of the left-wing opposition to condemn Sukkot rather than terrorism itself".

On Monday, the most senior Israeli military officer in the West Bank, Major General Avi Bluth, was reported by Israeli media to have told Netanyahu in a closed-door meeting that the mounting violence by settlers could ignite a major escalation.

Former British-Israeli Hamas hostage married in Tel Aviv

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg0regvn77o, 3 days ago

Former British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari has married partner Danielle Amit in a ceremony held in Tel Aviv.

The couple, who met after Damari's release in 2025, have been engaged since January 2026.

Their wedding on Thursday was attended by several of Damari's fellow former hostages, including Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher, Liri Albag, Danielle Gilboa, Omer Shem Tov, Keith and Aviva Siegal, and Gali and Ziv Berma.

Damari, 30, was held in Hamas captivity for more that 15 months after she was kidnapped from her home in southern Israel on 7 October 2023.

She was shot in the leg and hand in the attack, losing two of her fingers.

In a statement announcing their marriage, the wedding was described as "a joyful new chapter for Emily".

The two brides celebrated with an intimate dinner for family and friends, before exchanging vows beneath the chuppah (traditional Jewish wedding canopy) in bespoke looks by Israeli fashion designer Oria Azran.

Damari's mother Mandy spoke about the 471 days her daughter was held in captivity, and told the couple that their nuptials "means more to me than just a wedding".

"During those endless days and nights, there were moments when the thought of standing here tonight, seeing my daughter alive, safe, happy, and standing beside the person she loves, would have been impossible to imagine," she said.

She went on: "Tonight, I don't want to look back at the 471 days. I want to look forward to all the days ahead".

Damari was taken hostage on 7 October 2023, abducted from a safe room in her home alongside twins Gali and Ziv Berman.

She was one of three hostages released some 15 months later as part of a temporary ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

Approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage by Hamas in the 7 October attack.

In response, Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 73,430 people have been killed, according to the territory's health ministry.

Board of Peace's Gaza envoy criticises Israeli strikes and Hamas actions

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cew92l07kwzo, 3 days ago

A senior official on US President Donald Trump's Board of Peace has criticised Israel's continuing air strikes on Gaza, as well as the actions of the Palestinian armed group Hamas.

Nickolay Mladenov warned that a collapse of last October's ceasefire would be "a point of no return" for the region.

He was speaking to the UN Security Council after Israel rejected the 15-point roadmap for Hamas's disarmament, which was announced by the Board of Peace last month.

Hamas has agreed to give up its weapons in exchange for a phased Israeli troop withdrawal. But Israel has insisted that the group must fully disarm before any pullout.

At least 1,303 Palestinians, including 300 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since the US-brokered ceasefire began, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.

The Israeli military says four of its soldiers have been killed in Palestinian attacks in Gaza over the same period.

The Board of Peace's high representative for Gaza told the Security Council on Wednesday that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed at their last meeting on a mechanism through which his government's remaining questions would be settled and that committees had been established for that purpose.

Mladenov said that process had not stalled but warned that risks remained, including the continued killing of Palestinian civilians in Israeli strikes.

"A ceasefire in fact under which civilians are still buried is not yet one that the people of Gaza can really feel. Every use of force that does not answer an immediate threat, and every incident that the deconfliction mechanism was not asked to resolve, costs this process something very hard to buy back," he added.

Mladenov acknowledged that Hamas too had yet to meet fully its commitment to cease all military activities.

"Every weapon carried, every tunnel still worked and every convoy still obstructed sets the process back and hands an argument to those who want to resume war," he said.

He repeated that under the new roadmap, Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza "follows verified decommissioning" of Hamas weapons handed over to the Palestinian technocratic committee that will govern Gaza under the Board of Peace's supervision.

"It is sequenced and reciprocal," he said.

That is a key difference from comments made by President Trump's envoy, Jared Kushner, after meeting Israel's prime minister two weeks ago.

He said Israeli withdrawal would be discussed only once the demilitarisation of Gaza was "done" - appearing to change the plan in line with Israel's demands.

Israel's representative told the Security Council meeting that it was committed to last October's US-brokered plan for ending the Gaza war, but she insisted it could not succeed while Hamas still had weapons, tunnels and other military infrastructure.

"Disarmament must come first," she stated.

The Palestinian representative said Israel was killing Palestinian civilians with impunity in Gaza and called on the international community to protect them without delay.

Mladenov warned that if the ceasefire was allowed to collapse, "there will be no roadmap to return to, there will be no administration to deploy, and there will be nothing left of the ground to rebuild".

"That would not be a setback. It would be a point of no return for everyone."

The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 73,430 people have been killed, according to the territory's health ministry.

Man who attacked nun on CCTV in Jerusalem acquitted on grounds of mental health

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpwl54kddeko, 4 days ago

An Israeli court has acquitted a Jewish man who attacked a nun in Jerusalem, in an incident caught on CCTV which drew widespread condemnation.

Jerusalem Magistrates Court said Yona Schreiber was experiencing a psychotic episode when he pushed over and kicked the French nun in the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem in April. It ruled that he was not criminally responsible for his actions and ordered him to be sent to a psychiatric hospital for up to six years.

Video of the attack caused outrage, and deepened concerns after a rise in harassment of Christian clergy and pilgrims by Jewish extremists in the Old City.

The victim, who hit her head on a stone block, suffered a bruised face and leg.

Schreiber, 36, had been charged with assault motivated by hostility towards a religious group.

According to the district psychiatrist's report, Schreiber "was in a psychotic state at the time of the act and is not substantively fit to stand trial".

The prosecution accepted the psychiatrist's opinion and asked for Schreiber to be acquitted and committed to hospital.

Judge Ofir Tishler said that although Schrieber had attacked the nun, he was ordering his acquittal due to his mental health.

At the time of the attack, the French Consulate in Jerusalem said it strongly condemned Schreiber's "aggression".

The director of the French Biblical and Archaeological School, where the nun is a researcher, called the assault an "act of sectarian violence".

Israel's foreign ministry denounced the attack, calling it a "shameful act [which] stands in direct contradiction to the values of respect, coexistence, and religious freedom upon which Israel is founded and to which it remains deeply committed."

"Israel remains firmly committed to safeguarding freedom of religion and freedom of worship for all faiths, and to ensuring that Jerusalem remains a city where every community can live, pray, and practice its faith in safety and dignity," the ministry said on X.

While the violence of the attack on the nun is unusual, in the past few years in Jerusalem's Old City there have been regular cases of religious Jews spitting and acting aggressively towards those wearing Christian religious dress or symbols.

Church properties have been vandalised and there have also been bitter disputes caused by settler takeovers. Church leaders accuse Israel of trying to change the status quo – long-standing agreements on ownership and responsibilities - at their holy places.

A 2025 report by the Rossing Center, a Jerusalem-based organisation which aims to foster better inter-faith relations in the Holy Land, describes a "recent surge in overt animosity towards Christianity", putting this down to "a continued deepening of polarisation and ultra-nationalist political trends".

Trump says all mines cleared from Strait of Hormuz

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyzw836d05o, 5 days ago

US President Donald Trump has said that the US Navy has removed or detonated all mines in the Strait of Hormuz - the vital waterway which Iran has largely closed since the beginning of the war in the Middle East.

"Iran has been notified that any ship or boat placing new mines will be immediately and systematically destroyed," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

There is no comment from Iran.

Closure of the strait has caused wild fluctuations in the price of oil on world markets. Trump has often said the US has control of the area - but Iran has fired against vessels it says have sought to cross without its permission.

Some 20% of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas used to transit the Strait of Hormuz before the war, which began on 28 February with US and Israeli air strikes against Iran.

In addition to closing the strait, Iran retaliated against Israel and against US bases in the region as well as US Arab allies in the Gulf.

A ceasefire aimed at facilitating talks to end the war has collapsed and there has been intermittent exchange of fire between the US and Iran.

However, this week the US announced a raft of economic sanctions against Iran.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that any nation financially partnering with Iran would be isolated.

Iran and the US signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in June - a 14-point document which set a 60-day deadline to reach a deal on the Strait of Hormuz, before substantial negotiations on resolving the nuclear issue - allegations that Iran is building a nuclear weapon, which Tehran has consistently denied.

However, that deadline has now expired and talks have collapsed leading to the new US sanctions that Trump believes will lead to the collapse of the Iranian regime.

Iran has been under sanctions for most of the time since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979 and Economy Minister Ali Madanizadeh said Tehran was "fully prepared" for the wider sanctions, which he added would lead to "another defeat" for the US.

Its economy, however, has suffered as a result of the war - and a blockade of Iranian ports that the US has been maintaining for weeks not to allow trade to continue.

On Tuesday, China - the biggest buyer of Iranian oil - said it was firmly opposed to what it called the US's "illegal unilateral sanctions" and would take "all necessary measures" to safeguard its rights.

The US announcement comes ahead of planned talks between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping next month.

Washington is likely to be wary of potential retaliation from Beijing, which processes the majority of the world's rare earths and other critical minerals, crucial in the manufacture of many high-tech products.

Beijing has already tightened export controls on rare earths as part of previous trade negotiations with the US.

Iran, for its part, has indicated that it wants to establish full control of the Strait of Hormuz - a view that is opposed by the US and most other countries which believe that the passage constitutes international waters and transit should remain unimpeded as it was before the war.

Until recently - and on the basis of the MoU - Iran had been involved in negotiations with Oman, a US ally, to agree a mechanism for administering the strait. However, those talks have so far not produced an agreement and, last week, Trump even threatened to bomb its ally "if it gets in the way" of his administration's own talks with Iran over the issue.

Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said on Tuesday that he hoped his country and Iran would soon announce the establishment of a temporary shipping corridor in the strait after meeting his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Tehran.

He said in a statement he also hoped for "practical arrangements" to restore safe navigation, adding: "Future management of the strait and a permanent solution will follow in due course."

Araghchi confirmed the meeting in a statement, saying "regional solutions" were discussed in talks with representatives from Pakistan and Oman.

He added that discussions covered the future management of the strait, as well as the framework for a new corridor and a joint mine-clearing operation.

Speaking to state television news after the meeting Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabad said the entry route to the Gulf would be "through Iranian waters and the exit route through Omani territorial waters, and ships will pass through Iranian waters on both routes".

The minister added that the south corridor of the waterway, which has been recommended to shipping firms by the US and is situated close to the coast of Oman, would be "closed" under the framework, and the meeting "does not mean that the Strait will be opened from tomorrow".

He said "no military vessels will be allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and only commercial vessels will be allowed to pass through it".

Gharibabad called the route "temporary", adding Iran and Oman will negotiate a new permanent route within a timeframe of 60 days to replace the previous maritime traffic plan.

"If Iran's requests are not granted, the Strait will be closed," he said.

Additional reporting by Ghoncheh Habibiazad from BBC Persian

Trump hopes sanctions will topple Iran's regime - its leaders are betting otherwise

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr50n9gnljgo, 6 days ago

The US says it has launched an "economic onslaught against Iran's financial connections around the globe". Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said sanctions included digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping. Any nation financially partnering with Iran would be isolated.

However, Bessent's announcement of what he termed an "economic D-Day" may have sounded more dramatic in Washington than in Tehran.

Shortly after the announcement, Iran's Economy Minister Ali Madanizadeh called it "the same old talk" and said Iran was ready for "every scenario". He said Tehran had expected the measures and had plans to deal with them.

His reaction points to the main question Iranian leaders are likely to be asking: What can the US do now that it has not already tried?

Bessent has threatened wider secondary sanctions against countries, banks and companies that continue doing business with Iran. But the basic policy is not new. Iran has faced US sanctions for years, including penalties against foreign companies trading with it.

What matters to Tehran is whether Washington can enforce sanctions more widely than before.

The US blockade has already made a difference. It has reduced Iran's ability to export as much oil by sea as it did before and made it harder to import goods and equipment. Iran has long land borders with seven countries and years of experience using them to bypass sanctions. But land routes cannot easily replace trade by sea, especially oil exports.

The pressure could therefore become much more serious if Washington manages to close channels that survived previous sanctions, particularly those involving China and Iran's neighbours. That is a big ask. China's foreign ministry said on Tuesday that it firmly opposed the sanctions, calling them illegal.

If the sanctions fail, Bessent's announcement could strengthen those inside Iran who oppose a deal with the US.

They could argue that Washington has returned to economic pressure because its other choices are limited. A new military campaign carries risks, while years of sanctions have failed to force Iran to accept US demands.

Washington has also left little room for diplomacy.

Although Pakistan and other mediators are still trying to revive talks, the US has not ruled out further strikes. The renewed threats could weaken Iranian officials who favour a deal.

It was already in deep trouble before the war, with high inflation and a rapidly weakening currency, and has deteriorated further since the fighting began with US and Israeli air strikes on 28 February.

The weakening of the Iranian currency, the rial, is felt sharply and widely. Imports cost more, businesses struggle to plan, and people's savings lose value. Restrictions on oil exports also reduce the government's access to foreign currency.

Negin - not her real name - is a 34-year-old woman who says her monthly income is now about $100 (£73). She told the BBC: "I don't go to the cinema, theatre, or concerts. I don't buy gifts for anyone. I don't attend birthday parties. I can only buy meat with the government subsidy voucher; otherwise, I wouldn't be able to afford it."

Mona, a housewife with two kids, says her husband has been out of work since the beginning of the war. She adds: "We feel scared, especially after the sanctions that began yesterday. Ever since the war, my spouse has not gone back to work. He used to work on ships."

She adds: "We're trying to manage our expenses as best we can, but we've definitely had to cut back on all of our extra spending and small luxuries."

Iran may believe time is working against US President Donald Trump. Further disruption in the Strait of Hormuz could push oil and petrol prices higher, add to US inflation and become a political problem before the US midterm elections in November.

That gives Tehran an obvious date to watch, but relying on American elections is a gamble.

Iran's economy could be much weaker by then.

And beyond the midterms lies another problem. With Trump not seeking re-election in 2028, his outgoing administration may feel it has more freedom to continue the confrontation with Iran and accept the costs.

Iran is, therefore, watching two clocks.

One is political and runs in Washington. The other is economic and runs inside Iran. Every month of lower oil exports, disrupted trade and pressure on the rial makes waiting for a deal to end the war more expensive.

That leaves Iranian leaders with a difficult choice. Making concessions now could look like surrendering under pressure and strengthen hardliners who say Washington will only demand more.

Waiting could improve Iran's position if Trump's strategy runs into political or economic problems. But Tehran could also find itself negotiating later with a weaker economy.

Much now depends on what happens outside Iran.

If Chinese banks, regional trading partners and companies start pulling back because they believe Washington will punish them, Bessent's campaign may change Tehran's calculation.

If they do not, the opposite could happen. Those Iranians arguing against compromise will say Washington has played another supposedly decisive card without changing the balance and that Iran should continue to wait or resist.

China hits out at 'illegal' new US sanctions on Iran and trading partners

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyl8965j5go, 6 days ago

China has vowed to protect its interests after the US announced plans to widen economic sanctions against Iran and its trading partners, which include Beijing.

Foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said China was firmly opposed to what it called "illegal unilateral sanctions" and would take "all necessary measures" to safeguard its rights.

This came after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the new measures on Monday, warning any nation financially partnering with Iran would be isolated.

China is the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, although the trade has declined under the US blockade of Iran's ports.

Lin said: "Cooperation between China and Iran has always been conducted within the framework of international law and should not be interfered with or disrupted."

Bessent described the plans for sanctions as "the single greatest financial offensive ever" against Iran, warning banks and businesses would share in Iran's isolation if they refused to cut ties with the country.

He declined to focus on specific nations, but said US President Donald Trump would be phoning world leaders "with specific requests to cease their interactions with the regime".

However, responding to a question about Chinese banks, Bessent said he wanted to make clear "no one was above the reach of US sanctions".

The announcement comes ahead of planned talks between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping next month.

Beijing has already tightened export controls on rare earths as part of previous trade negotiations with the US.

China's response followed Iranian Economy Minister Ali Madanizadeh saying Tehran was "fully prepared" for the wider sanctions, which he said would lead to "another defeat" for the US.

"The government is and was ready and has a two-year plan to manage these events," he told state television.

"We also have our own tools and know how to play the game," he said, adding Tehran had been "waiting for these plans for a long time".

The US has dubbed its latest sanctions "Operation Economic Outcast" and described them as an "economic D-Day" against Iran.

It comes almost six months after the start of the Iran war.

The conflict has since led to hikes in oil prices worldwide, with Tehran effectively blocking exports through the Strait of Hormuz - a waterway vital to the global economy. The US has also slowed traffic via its own naval blockade.

Recent attempts to end the conflict via diplomacy have failed, and a 60-day ceasefire formally expired last week with no sign of a settlement.

With the announcement of new sanctions, the US treasury secretary claimed America was "no longer managing the Iranian threat, we are ending it".

UK Chancellor John Healey said the British government supported "US work to secure a diplomatic solution and welcome efforts to increase pressure".

Iran is already under heavy sanctions from the US, but Bessent said these go further.

He said the Treasury had mapped financial channels, facilitators and networks used by Iran to evade sanctions to trade oil, imposing sanctions on almost 60 entities, individuals and vessels.

But analysts had cast doubt on the latest measures even before China's response.

David Oxley, chief climate and commodities economist at Capital Economics, told the BBC the direct impact on Iran's energy revenues would be "somewhat of a damp squib".

"We suspect that the new package will have only a limited direct impact on Iranian energy flows in the short term," he added.

This is partly due to the fact roughly 90% of Iran's oil goes to China, he said, "which has not recognised US sanctions in the past and is unlikely to be cowed this time either".

Ali Vaez, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at the International Crisis Group, said: "Generally, the Chinese are against unilateral sanctions. They would comply with multilateral or international sanctions, but unilateral sanctions just imposed by the US - they have always seen that as illegitimate."

And although Iran's neighbours like Pakistan, Turkey and Iraq want to maintain good relationships with the US, they "can't really afford to cut off ties with Iran", Vaez told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

He said putting economic pressure on Tehran "doesn't work" because the Iranian regime is willing to "absorb any pain" and pass it onto the people.

Other trade partners that could be affected by the US announcement include India and Russia, who have not yet responded.

How Israel is expanding settlements in drive to reshape West Bank

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2lq5g4dedpo, 9 days ago

It was during a ceremony at a settlement in the occupied West Bank last September that Israel's prime minister made his intentions clear. "We are going to fulfill our promise that there will be no Palestinian state," said Benjamin Netanyahu. "This place belongs to us."

He was signing an agreement to push ahead with the expansion of a settlement in an area known as E1, just to the east of Jerusalem.

In recent days, the opening up of tenders for the construction of some 1,200 settlement homes on the strategically important land has brought widespread condemnation.

All settlements are illegal under international law and, under global pressure, Israel held off for decades on plans to build in the area.

After the recent announcement, the UN secretary general said they posed an "existential threat" to a future Palestinian state, while a joint statement by the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Canada said the plans were "unacceptable" and would "drive a wedge through the West Bank", a sentiment echoed by the European Union.

That was welcomed by Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, who called for the signatories to take "concrete measures to halt the implementation of the E1 plan".

Along with Gaza and the Golan Heights, the West Bank was captured during the 1967 war against a coalition of Arab states. Israel has controlled it ever since.

As occupied land, international law prohibits Israel from settling it. Despite that, the number of Israelis living there has grown over the years. Israel has built about 160 settlements housing 700,000 Jews since 1967.

There has been a notable increase in the speed of settlement construction since 2022, however, when Netanyahu returned to power at the head of a right-wing, pro-settler coalition, further escalating after the start of the Gaza war, triggered by Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.

One example of this is Tzofim, a settlement in the north west of the territory, where BBC Verify analysis of satellite imagery shows the construction of around 185 new buildings since 2022.

The same can be seen around Kochav Hashahar, where the existing settlement has been expanded in multiple directions, with construction of roads, houses and a new settler outpost on surrounding land.

Hundreds of outposts - illegal under Israeli and international law - have been established since the 1990s. Dozens of them have been retrospectively legalised by the government.

Maybe the most contentious is the aforementioned E1 settlement. To understand why, you need to look at maps of its proposed location.

The development would in effect divide the West Bank in two and isolate East Jerusalem from the rest of the territory. Opponents of the project have warned that it would effectively block the establishment of a Palestinian state because it would cut off the north of the West Bank from the south, and prevent the development in the centre of a contiguous Palestinian urban area connecting Ramallah, East Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement watchdog that has challenged the plans in court, said: "The government is trying to sign contracts with contractors before the (upcoming October) elections so that it will be much harder for the next government to cancel the construction."

It is not just settlements that have been expanding. Over the last few years, much of the responsibility for the administration of the West Bank has shifted from military control to a civilian authority headed by Bezalel Smotrich, the country's far right finance minister.

This has led to a huge increase in the numbers of roads that cross the West Bank, connecting settlements but bisecting Palestinian towns and villages, something he said "ensures that the settlements will not remain on paper - but will be established on the ground".

In May of this year, the Israeli government announced more than a billion shekels ($360m; £246m) of funding for new road construction in the West Bank, with the intention of "strengthening of their grip on the territory", according to an official press release.

There has also been an escalation of settler violence against Palestinians. Recently, two Palestinian homes were besieged by settlers, with their water and power cut, leading US Ambassador Mike Huckabee, usually a prominent supporter of settlements, to denounce the attack as a "criminal and terrorist act".

All taken together, it has led to fears from Palestinians in the West Bank and supporters of Palestinian statehood that the "facts on the ground" will render it unviable.

According to some senior Israeli ministers, that is the strategy. Speaking in 2024, Smotrich said the construction of E1 would help "establish sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (a name for the occupied West Bank used by Israel), first on the ground and then through legislation… My life's mission is to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state".

The recent news that the tender has been put out for construction of E1, comes just a couple of months ahead of deeply consequential and tightly contested elections in Israel.

Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition partners will hope that moves like this appeal to their base and increase their chances of victory. If that is not possible, they may believe that settlement expansion has established new "facts on the ground", ones which cannot be undone.

Additional reporting by Barbara Metzler, BBC Verify. Graphics by Tom Shiel and Mesut Ersoz.

Families' agonising search for answers as thousands still missing in Gaza

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce34r0er75go, 12 days ago

Ahmed al Madhoun looked like a man who, despite the hardship, loved life. A cheeky, chunky little fellow with an exuberant smile.

From her partially destroyed home in Gaza City, his mother Majdiya shows us videos of him on her phone.

In one, Ahmed is cuddling a kitten. He sticks out his tongue and squeals with glee. In another, he belly flops into a swimming pool, before emerging from the water grinning from ear to ear.

"Everyone was his friend," Majdiya tells the BBC. "He was loved wherever he went, and he always had a smile on his face."

But Ahmed, who has Down's syndrome, is missing. The 21-year-old disappeared in May 2025 after popping to the local shop.

At the time, the war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel was raging.

That day there were Israeli strikes in the area, and Majdiya fears her son is dead. But she doesn't know for certain.

"My God, I am not at peace," she says. "I have not lost hope but whether they find him alive or dead, buried under the rubble, only then will I be at peace."

Pain like Majdiya's is felt by mothers all over Gaza.

More than 73,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its military campaign, including about 1,200 since a ceasefire was announced last October, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry - figures considered reliable by the UN.

Israeli media reported in January that a senior Israeli security source said the military accepts the figures are accurate.

But the true number of dead Palestinians could be significantly higher. The health ministry's death toll doesn't count bodies buried under the rubble, meaning many of the missing are not part of the count.

The Red Cross says it has received more than 5,000 requests to trace missing people who could be buried amid the destruction. The Civil Defence agency in Gaza believes the number of missing people is over 8,000.

Bodies are being discovered on a daily basis.

Earlier this month, a mass funeral took place in Gaza City for more than a hundred people killed in an Israeli attack in 2023. Their remains were only recently recovered and identified, allowing them to be laid to rest.

The Red Cross says recovering bodies is difficult given the scale of the destruction and a lack of bulldozers.

In many cases, identifying the remains is also challenging when people have been dead for so long and with a lack of DNA testing, due to Israeli restrictions on what can enter Gaza.

Ahmed al Madhoun's family knows he may well have been killed - but they also fear he may have been detained by Israeli security forces.

Over almost three years of war, Israeli forces have detained approximately 7,000 Palestinians from Gaza, more than 5,000 of whom were later released without ever being charged, according to the Israel-based Public Committee Against Torture.

As of this month, around 1,300 detainees from Gaza were being held in Israeli jails without charge or trial, according to the Israeli human rights group HaMoked. The group says these figures do not include Gaza detainees held directly by the Israeli military.

Palestinian families have frequently not been notified by Israel of the arrest or whereabouts of their relatives, according to HaMoked and other rights groups - forcing many to rely on NGOs and lawyers to help track them down.

In response to BBC questions about their reported failure to contact the relatives of those they have detained, the IDF and Israel Prison Service (IPS) referred us to the security service Shin Bet, who we have also approached for comment.

Israeli authorities have previously said prolonged detentions were due to wartime security grounds and rejected claims that detentions are arbitrary.

Aida al Drimli from the Sabra district of Gaza City, shows us a picture of her son, Mahmoud, a fresh-faced young man draped in a Palestinian scarf.

"He was a calm well-mannered young man," Aida says. "He loved everyone and everyone loved him."

Mahmoud disappeared in 2024. His family feared he had been killed in an Israeli attack.

"His father would go to the hospitals and look at the bodies," Aida tells us. "But I couldn't face it. I was completely devastated."

But then this summer a photo emerged on social media showing two Israeli soldiers posing with a Palestinian detainee, blindfolded and bound.

Aida is certain it's Mahmoud.

"From his features, from his forehead, his mouth, his nose, the way he sits, the way he closes his mouth, his hands, his legs from below. He has the exact same features as my son," she says.

But with only a single photograph she knows she can't be sure.

"When my husband sat down and showed me the photo, I was relieved," she says. "But at the same time, I was very upset and my heart was broken when I saw my son looking like that. It was humiliating."

Both the al Drimli and the al Madoun family say neither they nor their sons have any affiliation with Hamas or any of the militant groups in Gaza.

The BBC asked the IPS about both men. They said they had no record of holding either of them.

We put the same question to the Israeli military which also runs detention centres and prisons, but it did not give a response.

Israel does not allow international journalists, including the BBC, independent access to Gaza.

The Al Drimli family has asked the Red Cross to try to find out if Mahmoud has been detained. But Israel does not allow the Red Cross access to its prison records.

Tal Steiner, the executive director of HaMoked and an Israeli lawyer who works to locate Palestinians who may have been detained by Israel, told the BBC "Oct 7th changed everything".

"The ban on the International Red Cross [visiting prisons] and the fact that the ICRC itself holds no lists of people held by Israel means we have to trace them individually one by one, per request by their families. It's a big strain on the ability to find those people, today."

She also says for the families, it's the not knowing that is the hardest.

"It's an open wound. It doesn't heal. They have no rest not even knowing if their relative is dead or alive," she tells us.

And she says over the last three years Israel has made it much more difficult to trace possible Palestinian detainees.

"To those not knowing where their family members are, that really adds insult to injury. It's a very difficult mental situation that can be carried for months and years."

UK raises case of British activist detained by settlers in West Bank with Israel

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3d7xgge7vgo, today

The UK Foreign Office says it has raised the detention of a British national in the occupied West Bank with Israeli authorities.

Finn Joughin, a 22-year-old student activist, was arrested in Umm Al-Kheir on Saturday after he was forcibly detained by Israeli settlers who had advanced on the Palestinian village.

There has been a surge in attacks by settlers on Palestinians and their property in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, which was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.

All settlements are illegal under international law. Outposts are also illegal under Israeli law, although they are often supported by state services and funding.

The confrontation on Saturday took place in a town near Hebron that has been recently surrounded by settlers.

According to other activists who witnessed what happened, Palestinian children were playing football when children from settler families started intervening. They then ran to a house and started to dismantle a fence.

Footage posted online by both settlers and activists and seen by the BBC appears to show Joughin standing by the fence and trying to protect it using his body as a child pushes against him.

Settlers removed Joughin forcefully and took the London-based student to an outpost.

Israeli police said a foreign national was detained by security personnel of a settler community who suspected him of an indecent act against a minor.

In a later statement on Sunday, they said: "The suspect was transferred to the police for questioning, which included, among other things, taking statements that raised suspicion of an assault against a minor.

"Following his questioning, the suspect was taken into custody, and the investigation into the incident remains ongoing."

However, Joughin's family told the BBC he was due to be deported from Israel on Monday.

Activists who were with Joughin at the time deny there was any inappropriate behaviour.

"In every single instance, it was the settler kids who approached Finn," fellow activist Matthew, who declined to give his surname, told the BBC.

The Foreign Office confirmed to the BBC that it was aware of the incident.

"Officials from the British embassy [in] Tel Aviv have raised the case with the Israeli authorities and are seeking further information," a spokesperson said.

Violence over the weekend across several areas of the occupied West Bank even prompted condemnation from Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who accused settlers of harming Israel's standing in the world. President Isaac Herzog called it the "crossing of a red line".

In addition to the incident at Umm Al-Kheir, dozens of settlers attacked the West Bank village of Qusra on Saturday before the military was called to remove them. Foreign journalists were also injured by masked settlers in an attack in the West Bank town of Jalud.

"The half-million Israelis living peacefully … are most disgusted by a small group of thugs," said US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee who welcomed the Israeli leaders' condemnation.

Israeli attacks kill five in Gaza, including two children, medics say

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce8x1rdgp3lo, 5 days ago

Israeli air strikes and gunfire in the Gaza Strip on Monday killed at least five Palestinians, including two children, according to health officials.

Medics and relatives said a 10-year-old girl was shot dead while inside her family's tent in the southern city of Khan Younis.

A four-year-old boy was meanwhile killed in an air strike in Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

The Israeli military said it was not aware of the incident in Khan Younis, but that it had issued an evacuation order in Bureij before carrying out a strike on what it described as a Hamas weapons storage facility.

At least 1,296 Palestinians, including 300 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect last October, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

The Israeli military says four of its soldiers have been killed in Palestinian attacks in Gaza over the same period.

Amal Abu Khater, 10, was hit by a bullet in her back while eating in her tent in the central al-Sattar al-Gharbi area of Khan Younis on Monday, according to her family. They rushed the girl to hospital but medics told them on arrival that she had died of her wounds.

"She was eating sweets," her grandmother, Samira Abu Labda, told Reuters news agency. "Why did she have to die like this? What wrong did this child do?"

In Bureij, Gaza's Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said its first responders recovered the body of four-year-old Hassan al-Qatrawi from beneath the rubble of his family's home following an air strike on a neighbouring building. His mother and sister were pulled out alive.

Pictures of the aftermath showed people clambering over a large crater and searching nearby piles of concrete and metal.

The Israeli military said it had ordered residents to evacuate the area before the strike, and that the target was one of five Hamas weapons storage facilities and a launch site that were bombed in central and northern Gaza on Monday.

It alleged that the facilities had been "established inside mosques and alongside humanitarian infrastructure" in violation of international law.

One of the mosques that was struck was in the town of Deir al-Balah, just south of Bureij.

Aerial video footage released by the military appeared to show a large explosion destroying two structures adjoining the main prayer hall.

At the scene on Tuesday, resident Mohammed Abu Amra rejected the claim that the mosque had been used to store weapons.

"They are bombing the book of our Lord," he said while holding up a damaged Quran.

The UN's humanitarian office also said that three UN warehouses in Deir al-Balah were damaged in an air strike on Monday, one of them significantly.

In the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City, to the north, residents said a water desalination plant was bombed at a time when they were suffering from water shortages.

The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas weapons storage facilities near the plant.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem condemned the attack, calling it a "further attempt to deprive [Gaza's population] of all means of survival".

At least three other people were killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza on Monday.

Among them were two brothers, Mohammed and Ibrahim Abu Asad, whose tent in Deir al-Balah was bombed overnight, according to Palestinian media.

The Israeli military said Mohammed was an operative in Hamas's elite Nukhba force who had taken part in the 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel, when about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

Israel responded to the attack by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 73,430 people have been killed, according to the territory's health ministry.

Why Pride is facing a backlash - from inside and outside the LGBT community

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj63jyl09jxo, 5 days ago

Matt left Crewe as soon as he could, aged 18, feeling that he wasn't accepted as a young gay man. The only LGBT scene to mention was a tiny, makeshift bar behind a curtain in the back of an out-of-town pub.

He left in 2015, but this June found himself returning home, for Crewe Pride.

For Matt, it was a significant homecoming. "It really took me back to when I was a kid growing up here, trying to navigate my identity. It felt so important to be there and see how a town that wasn't particularly welcoming… has changed and flourished."

For many, these small, community Pride events feel a world away from the huge celebrations in the UK's largest cities.

But Matt's happy weekend in Crewe masks a growing culture war over Pride. Over the last few years, a number of councils have withdrawn their support for Pride festivals, while some big brands - perhaps nervous about being seen as too "woke" - have become hesitant to associate themselves with them. On top of all that, there's a long-running complaint from some LGBT campaigners that Pride has become overly commercialised; while the argument over trans issues has also made matters more fraught.

It's leading some to ask: what future do Pride events have?

The roots of Pride

Pride started as a protest, with Britain's first official Pride march in London in 1972. Homosexuality was illegal in the UK until 1967, and LGBT people lost jobs and housing because of their sexuality, while police forces frequently targeted the community with raids and surveillance that made everyday life precarious.

In Manchester, Pride started small in 1985. A bring‑and‑buy sale on Canal Street was organised to raise money to spruce up the rather drab-looking hospital ward treating those with HIV and Aids at the height of the epidemic.

Little did those early attendees realise how big Manchester Pride would become: a four-day, city centre extravaganza over the August bank holiday weekend, with colourful floats, loud music, and every inch of pavement filled with enthusiastic spectators dressed to the nines, streaked with rainbow face paint.

By 2019, the event had outgrown the city's famous Gay Village. That year's headline act, American superstar Ariana Grande, performed in a purpose-built stage in another part of Manchester - for a premium ticket price. It prompted criticism, and the organisers of Manchester Pride would later come under fire for ending funding for various charities (including an HIV charity, and a scheme that distributed free condoms).

The company behind Manchester Pride went into voluntary liquidation last year, owing more than £1m to suppliers and performers, including Nelly Furtado. Since its collapse, local businesses and charities have created a not-for-profit group - Manchester Village Pride - with the aim of organising a much cheaper festival more rooted in the community.

Carl Austin-Behan, who is helping to organise this year's scaled-back event, says he's been "frustrated for a number of years" by the direction of Manchester Pride. "When things were being taken out of the village, that was the first sign that things were going in the wrong direction… It should be about the community. We certainly don't need to be spending the amount of money that was spent on Manchester Pride."

And Manchester's problems aren't isolated. London Pride has faced criticism for feeling overly corporate and overcrowded; Brighton has struggled with the financial burden of staging large‑scale concerts and policing. Against that backdrop, smaller events like Crewe seem to be the direction many Prides are going in 2026.

A corporate 'nervousness'

But the political winds have also changed - with seemingly less corporate enthusiasm for diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Phil Douglas, organiser of Newcastle Pride, says: "There is a general nervousness from organisations and companies to be front and centre in their support. We see some wanting to still support us but not wanting their logo attached… they don't want the backlash which is right there ready in the online community. It's quite a complex time to navigate support for Prides as a whole."

A few years ago, you couldn't go on social media in June - known as "Pride month" - without seeing what felt like every corporate logo incorporating the Pride flag. Critics called it "rainbow‑washing", arguing that the displays of solidarity were more about marketing than meaningful action.

But now, according to Guardian analysis, the corporate presence has been waning. Last year, mentions of Pride on social media by the UK's 10 biggest listed or headquartered companies had fallen by 92% compared with 2023 - a drop that suggests brands are pulling back from overt LGBT messaging.

"There has been a general rowing back of corporate support for LGBT causes globally," says Paul Martin, chief executive of the LGBT Foundation charity. "We've seen that with politics changing in some countries and diversity and inclusion being seen as too woke… We don't get support from some quarters like we used to.

"And that has played out with Pride festivals as well. Corporate funding has been pulled back and that has caused a real challenge for Pride organisers to balance the books."

A survey by the pollster Ipsos found that the share of British adults who want companies and brands to promote LGBT rights dipped from 52% in 2021 to 44% this year.

Flags stop flying

In Liverpool, Merseyside Police did not take part in the city's Pride parade last year after legal advice warned that uniformed participation by a public body could breach rules on political impartiality.

This summer, firefighters and police again stayed away: Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service said it was taking a "pragmatic approach" following a High Court ruling that found officers in the north‑east should not have been allowed to join a Pride event. West Midlands Ambulance Service also withdrew from Birmingham Pride on similar legal advice.

Back in May's local elections in England, Reform UK won power on 14 councils, adding to the 10 they already controlled. Last month, the party's leader, Nigel Farage, said he is "fine" with Pride events going ahead but did not want local authorities to promote them.

A few weeks after taking power in Durham last year, the town's new Reform administration removed a rainbow flag from the council headquarters. Councillors also withdrew their funding contribution of £2,500 for Durham Pride. In the Merseyside town of St Helens, meanwhile, the Reform council leader instructed officials to cease engagement with all aspects of Pride; the council also removed displays celebrating the festival from libraries.

Explaining the cuts to funding, Reform's Darren Grimes, deputy leader of Durham Council, says: "I feel that we've moved away from that laudable aim of gay equality. We achieved same-sex marriage and that was the final frontier."

Durham Pride organiser Mel Metcalf says taking the flag down made LGBT people in the community "feel unwelcome". The festival did still take place; organisers said it was their "biggest" year ever, after raising around £25,000 from individual donors and trade unions.

As well as Reform's approach, the new Conservative council leader in Enfield, north London, has said they will only fly certain flags outside Enfield Civic Centre - and the rainbow flag is not one of them.

The trans dividing line

Debate around trans rights is also fuelling the Pride culture war. Some gay and lesbian people who describe themselves as "gender critical" - and whose beliefs mean they're sceptical of some of the aims of the trans rights movement - say they feel sidelined by Pride; while some trans people say they no longer feel safe attending.

A lesbian woman who describes herself as gender critical, and did not want to be named, told me she no longer attends Pride because she thinks it has become dominated by a focus on trans issues.

Grimes, one of Reform's highest-profile gay members, argues that Pride has moved away from its focus on gay equality and become bound up with the wider gender identity debate: "You've slain the dragon in the pursuit of equality and now all you are left with is a few rambling sheep." He says that "public subsidy" for LGBT issues has become a "cash cow" that fuels "narratives of victimhood".

For some, the focus on trans rights is a reason to step back from Pride; for others, it underscores why events like Sparkle matter.

Sparkle is the UK's biggest transgender celebration. It takes place in late June in Manchester's Gay Village, a few months before the Pride weekend. This year's event had live music and comedy. Lauren, a transgender volunteer at the event, told me: "We've got a lot of stigma and hatred against us… You've got people trying to push us back into the dark and it does make it harder to live our lives."

Another transgender woman I spoke to, who was staying in a hotel in Manchester's Gay Village, said she wanted to be in the city for the event, but was wary of leaving the hotel because she felt unsafe.

Security has also become a central consideration, especially after the events of last month in Berlin, when 21-year-old Abdul Ballout drove a car into a crowd at the city's Pride festival, killing one woman and injuring 29 others. Guy Mathias, from the Security Commonwealth - a trade group for security firms - says he thinks many Pride organisers will review their plans following the Berlin attack.

"Smaller events generally would cost less individually, but they still need many of the same safety measures in place," he adds.

Others think that Pride festivals can create headaches for local residents. Andy Winter, a columnist for the Brighton Argus, attended Pride marches in the 1980s in his role as a Brighton councillor. He recalled in one piece how he was vilified by the press at the time for supporting a pro-LGBT council motion. But last year, he wrote that Brighton's Pride weekend comes with "alcohol and drug-fuelled excesses".

He wrote: "Even though I am not gay, Pride impacts on me. One of the parks I use is 'closed' for ten days... to allow largely straight performers to entertain those able to pay the large entry fee." He added: "The streets are littered with plastics and broken glass. I pity neighbours of the park and surrounding streets who see their driveways and gardens used as toilets."

The future of Pride

I've been to dozens of Pride events over the years. Manchester has always been a must. When I was a teenager in Ulverston, Cumbria - a place where I was pretty certain I was the only gay in the village - Manchester always seemed like the bright lights, a land where you could be free and your true self.

This year I'll return again, excited to catch up with my friends and intrigued to see what the new community-focused Pride is all about.

But I suspect there'll be a slightly different mood in the air this year; an awareness that in some parts of the country, Pride has become controversial.

Younger LGBT people still say Pride matters. A 2024 YouGov survey of more than 500 LGBT Britons, aged 16 to 24, found that 90% say it is "very" or "fairly" important that Pride month still exists.

As a young man, I eventually left Ulverston to live in Manchester. But this summer I took a trip back to my old hometown for their Pride festival, a tradition still in its infancy.

The once-familiar cobbled streets looked so different to how I remembered them, lined with cheering locals clapping and filming on phones as a procession bedecked in rainbow flags swept past, led by a brass band playing upbeat gay anthems. It felt a world away from Manchester's famous pop stars and stages covered in corporate logos.

Matt had a similar reflection on returning to Crewe. "What really resonated with me and blew my mind was the fact that it was so family-centred. These small towns put on events that are for the community first and foremost."

As I looked around Ulverston, the national debates that have shaped Pride in recent years felt distant. I was distracted by the small things: people laughing, the spread of ages in attendance. It was the community my teenage self never would have imagined he'd see.

Top image credit: Getty Images.

The grieving family who say the coroners' courts aren't working

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgydn9k4p2o, 6 days ago

Sarah thought she knew what she was getting into when she attended a coroner's court in May 2024 to discuss the death of her second cousin.

Her day job as a murder detective meant she was used to courts, to judges, to legal argument. What she wasn't prepared for was a coroner's court. "I felt like I was on trial," she recalls of her first hearing, in Woking, Surrey. "I remember just feeling completely railroaded… It [was] far more hostile than I had ever expected."

Her cousin, Daniel Lindsay, died in 2023, aged 41. He had lived at a home in Surrey that specialises in caring for people with learning disabilities. Daniel also had Down's syndrome and type 1 diabetes.

As his death was unexpected, his case was referred to the coroner for an inquest.

What followed was one of the most stressful experiences of Sarah's life. She discovered new details about how her cousin lived, and his cause of death. The family initially thought Daniel died from a heart attack - but over the course of the inquest, they learnt that was wrong. She had expected the process to be emotional; what she didn't predict was just how complex and frustrating it would be, at times leaving her tearful and furious.

Coroners examine deaths that are not straightforward, like unexpected or violent deaths, or those that take place in state custody. Every year, thousands of British families rely on these courts for crucial answers. For many, an inquest provides the key interaction with the arms of the state at a time of trauma.

But many observers, from MPs to legal experts, say the whole system is in peril. There are large backlogs in cases, as well as difficulties in carrying out post-mortems. As people live longer, caseloads are becoming more complex - but at the same time, resources are ever more limited, with little funding from government, regardless of party, say critics.

I've sat in various inquests over the last decade. In some, I couldn't hear the coroner through the noise of a busy train line, or because of poor acoustics in a vast room; in others, rooms became so hot that regular breaks were required.

"We're beyond crisis now," says Dr Georgia Richards, an epidemiologist at King's College London who studies the prevention of future deaths. "The government really doesn't realise the impact of the broken system."

Post-mortem delays

In photos of Daniel Lindsay, two things stand out: his big smile and black hair. His family say he only had three passions in life - Chelsea, TV wrestling, and trainers. Visitors who turned up at his care home in new trainers would have to take them off so Daniel could walk around with them.

Sarah and her sister, Laura Lindsay, were Daniel's next of kin and have spent the years since his death navigating the coronial system. "Every time that we end up in court it feels as though we've got another fight," says Laura.

Coroners' courts - which operate in England, Wales and Northern Ireland - set out to answer four main questions. Three of those questions – who died, where, and when - are usually quickly answered. It's the fourth, the cause of death, that's overwhelmingly the coroner's focus.

Last year, almost 148,000 deaths were reported to coroners in England and Wales, almost a quarter of which resulted in an inquest.

After Daniel's death, the first thing the coroner did was order a post-mortem. In that regard the family was fortunate – they only had to wait a fortnight to get the results. Other coronial areas aren't so quick. Despite coroners ordering post-mortems for 51% of deaths reported to them, a dearth of pathologists willing to work for coroners is leading to huge backlogs of up to a year. There aren't enough pathologists being trained, and the basic fee of £96.80 for carrying out a post-mortem for a coroner hasn't increased in well over a decade.

Some pathologists say they get paid less than minimum wage because of the hours the work takes. "It's not just the examination. It might be reading files of hospital notes or talking to clinicians," says Dr Kathryn Griffin, an NHS pathologist in Leeds. "That's all supposed to be incorporated in the fee."

Due to the lack of pathologists, some coroners are turning to CT scanning. Popular with Jewish and Muslim families as they are non-invasive, the high-powered X-ray beams create a 3D image of the body, uncovering bone fractures or internal bleeding, for instance. "Post-mortem CT scanning [is] very good for trauma-related deaths, like a car crash," says Griffin. "It is less good for some of the reasons why people might die at home, like a clot in the lungs."

A CT scan will identify the cause of death in "about 70% of cases. [But] then you'll be left with very complex deaths and who's going to do those if you don't have well-trained autopsy pathologists?"

The government said it recognised the shortage of pathologists, but there was "no quick fix".

The merits of a post-mortem were starkly revealed in Daniel Lindsay's case. His family believed his sudden death was due to a heart attack. A phone call from the coroner's office changed all that: they were told Daniel had undiagnosed advanced oesophageal cancer, and that the main cause of death was an obstruction in his throat from some food. "So he had effectively choked," said Sarah, who didn't want to use her last name.

Acrimonious hearings

Of the 36,000 inquests held in England and Wales each year, only a small minority of families have legal representation; the restrictions on legal aid mean most families have to represent themselves. Institutions where people often die, such as NHS trusts or prisons, have ready access to state-funded legal teams, while many private companies choose to pay for lawyers. The new Hillsborough law should, however, make it easier for families to get legal support.

At the first court hearing, called a pre-inquest review, Sarah discovered that she was facing a legal team representing Ballater House, Daniel's care home. Feeling "railroaded" and "powerless", she left in tears and concluded the family would need their own lawyers if their questions about the care Daniel received were to be fully answered.

Daniel's family did secure legal representation through the law firm Leigh Day, after speaking to a charity. By the time his inquest opened in November 2025, they were one of several legal teams in the courtroom.

Inquests are officially meant to be inquisitorial - their aim is to find facts in a calm, sober way. But increasingly, as society becomes more litigious, they are adversarial; more like a courtroom TV drama. Despite being explicitly prevented from blaming any party for a death, hearings can often descend into a blame game, with barristers trying to save or sully an organisation's reputation. In part that's driven by lawyers realising they can use an inquest as a stepping stone to civil legal action; and by legal teams trying to ensure an organisation doesn't suffer reputational damage.

Alexia Durran, the chief coroner for England and Wales, told the BBC that coroners are seeing "increasingly complex cases" that are creating a "greater volume of work" and "greater stress" on staff.

The coroner, she says, "is not [there] to apportion blame, and so the coroner's inquest is a relatively limited one. It's not a surrogate public inquiry that is designed to answer every question."

She wants coroners to step in robustly if proceedings get too acrimonious. "The coroner should be ensuring that the family's understanding of the death is not being overtaken by advocates representing public authorities, [such as] hospitals, prisons [with] a desire to absolve themselves of responsibility, because ultimately that's not what it's about," she says.

After the revelation about Daniel's choking incident, his inquest then had to be abandoned on the second day. A former carer at the care home told the court that she had become worried about his "excessive vomiting" and had emailed her bosses about her concerns. The coroner was unaware of the email and felt further investigations would be needed.

In evidence to MPs in 2024, the former chief coroner for England and Wales, Thomas Teague KC, said the service "with very few exceptions, is chronically under-resourced and underfunded. There comes a point at which underfunding imperils the rule of law."

In a follow-up letter, MPs supported his sentiment and urged the government to invest; their pleas were turned down due to a lack of money.

'Coroners are humans'

One change that would not require any investment is the attitude that some coroners appear to show towards bereaved families. While I've seen some coroners check on the family daily, others have barely acknowledged them after the first day.

Daniel's family repeatedly described their coroner as being blunt and brusque, failing to put Daniel at the heart of the process. Laura said her cousin "got completely lost" in the process. The coroner who presided over the inquest, Caroline Topping, told us she was unable to comment.

Durran, the chief coroner, urges families to raise a hand or write a note if they have concerns. "Coroners are humans, they respond to human concerns."

The second inquest into Daniel's death started in June, and a month later the coroner delivered her conclusion. While finding that his care home had made some errors, she concluded that their actions had not contributed to his death. On the balance of probabilities, she ruled that Daniel had died of a choking incident caused by his undiagnosed oesophageal cancer.

Sarah and Laura were shell-shocked, and felt the conclusion had downplayed the failings in Daniel's care.

In a statement to the BBC, the care home said they respected the coroner's conclusion and extended "sincere condolences to Daniel's family", adding: "As aspects of the coronial process remain ongoing, it would not be appropriate for us to comment further at this stage."

Learning from deaths

Following the conclusion, the coroner said she was considering issuing a Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) report. Such reports are written when a coroner thinks they have heard evidence that could prevent other deaths. Around 6,500 reports have been issued since the system was introduced in 2013 - but while coroners issue them, they have no power to monitor whether their recommendations are adopted.

Dr Georgia Richards, the epidemiologist, thinks those reports are too often ignored. She created and initially self-funded a "Preventable Deaths Tracker" - a system that aims to collate the reports to stop similar deaths. "The information is there, it's just not being used," says Richards. She wants coroners here to learn from her native Australia, where learning from every inquest is examined.

The Ministry of Justice says the government is considering how to strengthen the PFD system to improve oversight.

Coroners have been around so long that they're mentioned in the Magna Carta. Each day they make decisions that can help or hinder a family to understand how their relative died.

As Sarah says: "The coroner does this every day. We only do this once."

Remembering that lesson will surely help bereaved families through a process that many find bewildering at best; incomprehensible at worst.

Top image credit: the Lindsay family.

Young adults are taking prescription drugs instead of alcohol - and it's dividing experts

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1d1lpl9vrxo, 13 days ago

To enjoy a night out with friends, Matt once had to drink until he felt sick.

If he didn't, the 22-year-old from the north of England would spend the night silent, terrified of saying the wrong thing. The warehouse worker says it felt like there was "just no way into" the conversations everyone else seemed to be enjoying.

Then, two years ago, he swapped pints for prescription drugs he discovered through social media.

As he gets ready to go out on a Friday, Matt, whose name has been changed, now takes a medicine he purchases illegally online that usually treats epilepsy and nerve pain; alongside a beta blocker designed to slow a racing heart and relax trembling muscles (physical symptoms of anxiety).

He says it gives him the effects of alcohol without the hangover.

"The amount of alcohol you have to drink to replicate the effects of these is really unhealthy and it doesn't feel good," he says. Matt says the drugs he takes leave him feeling "euphoric," quietens his anxious thoughts and makes socialising easy, he says.

But experts say taking the drugs without medical supervision at high doses can be dangerous and, in some cases, life-threatening. Long-term use of the drugs can also result in dependency; users find they rely on it for any social situation. They also report increased anxiety, insomnia, and suicidal thoughts when they try to come off the drug.

For Matt, who says he has already tried therapy to treat his social anxiety, what began as a way to get through nights out now extends to dates and family gatherings. Without the drugs, Matt says, there are many social situations he "would not even bother to attempt".

Matt denies that he has become dependent on the drugs.

Around the world, evidence shows that young people are turning to medications and experimental substances as alternatives to alcohol. Some of them come in pill form - like pregabalin and propranolol, the ones Matt takes. And some are injected - like peptides, a type of protein that's becoming increasingly popular online.

It's part of an effort to quell social anxiety, which seems to affect Generation Z particularly sharply: more than a quarter (28%) of people in their early 20s in England report high levels of anxiety, according to a study published last year by University College London, which found that serious mental illnesses are far more common among members of Generation Z than they were among millennials at the same age.

The trend is alarming scientists - and prompting them to ask why some young adults feel they can only socialise with chemical help.

The 'sober generation'

A search for "healthier" alternatives to drinking has helped create a new market for substances touted on social media as social drugs without the hangover.

They are seen as the "cleaner, safer alternative," says Liam Knowles, an addiction researcher at Teesside University. "[Users] don't feel as bad the next day and it's a medication - so people think it's safer."

Exactly how many young people are using prescription drugs and unregulated peptides to socialise is difficult to know, with many obtaining them without a prescription. Knowles thinks there is "probably a substantial amount of people that are getting addicted".

Hashtags relating to the medications bring up thousands of videos on social media platforms, with users encouraged to create their own cocktail of medications, known online as "stacking".

The growing interest in these substances comes as young adults are increasingly moving away from alcohol, earning Gen Z the nickname of the 'sober generation'. The same influencers touting the benefits of these "stacks" also recommend steering clear of alcohol.

A survey last year by the charity Drinkaware found that 26% of 18 to 24-year-olds in the UK did not drink alcohol, compared with 7% in 2012.

Meanwhile, Prof Emily Jones, a psychologist at King's College London believes the Covid pandemic may have contributed to rising social anxiety, particularly among young people.

"Lockdown effectively taught everybody to be afraid of social interaction," she says.

For young people looking to experiment, pregabalin has become a particular focus.

A study published in the journal Nature Communications estimated that global consumption of the drug more than quadrupled between 2008 and 2018.

Meanwhile, there has also been a sharp increase in deaths involving pregabalin. Office for National Statistics data show pregabalin was mentioned on 2,360 death certificates for drug-related poisonings in England and Wales between 2020 and 2024, compared with 768 between 2015 and 2019.

One of those deaths was Alex Cottam, a 27-year-old software engineer from Eccles described by his mother, Michelle, as "lovely, clever, and popular". He was prescribed pregabalin to treat his anxiety, but his mother says he "became addicted" and started boosting his supply by buying the drug from illicit websites. "I can't help thinking every day that pregabalin killed my son", she told the BBC in 2024.

In England pregabalin was reclassified as a Class C controlled drug in 2019; those who buy it without a prescription face a two-year prison sentence (though in practice, very few people are jailed). It remains widely prescribed for epilepsy, nerve pain and anxiety. The UK government's independent drugs advisers have also launched a review examining misuse.

In Jordan, Ukraine and India, researchers have also noted an uptick in pregabalin abuse.

In China, the government tightened controls of the drug earlier this year by banning most online sales, and setting limits on how much of the drug can be manufactured in each province.

Social media stacking

Matt first heard about the drugs he takes when he was 20 through Braden Peters, better known as 'Clavicular', a controversial influencer who has spoken openly on livestreams about taking the medicines as part of a "stack" to reduce his social anxiety.

And the medications have entered mainstream conversation. Actresses Rachel Sennott and Kristen Bell are among the celebrities who have spoken publicly about taking beta blockers, along with the influencer Khloé Kardashian.

Pregabalin, especially in higher than prescribed doses, can make users relaxed and happy - a similar feeling to being drunk.

For Mei, a 20-year-old university student in China, whose name has been changed, these were the effects she was after.

She says the drugs ease her physical symptoms of anxiety, and can make her feel "euphoric". She began taking them for parties. "It was like I could be the most interesting person in the room," she says.

And social media does not appear to be merely introducing young people to these substances - it can also help them get hold of them. Our research has found influencers selling some of these medications on websites linked through their social media.

Mei says she bought the medicine through a Chinese social media platform. "There are thousands of posts selling it," she says.

'Not a free lunch'

The medicines can also be significantly cheaper than alcohol.

Matt says he spends as little as 18p on the medicines for one night out - a saving he describes as a "nice bonus".

Knowles, the addiction researcher, says many of the young people he has encountered using these drugs recreationally in the UK are extremely focused on health. "People don't want the calories," he says. "They think, 'my doctor wouldn't prescribe them if they were bad for you,'" Knowles says.

That logic resonates with Matt, a keen gym-goer who believes these medications have a "much lower impact" on his body than drinking, especially his liver and heart. "People in this community believe that pregabalin is healthier than alcohol," he says.

Alcohol has been linked to at least seven types of cancer, and the World Health Organization warned a few years ago that any amount of alcohol consumption poses danger.

Prof David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacologist at Imperial College London who has long campaigned for looser drug laws, argues that the drugs Matt takes may be less harmful than heavy drinking, even if they carry risks of their own.

"Propranolol and pregabalin are undoubtedly safer than alcohol, but not perfectly safe," he says.

But he says the picture changes when pregabalin is used in large doses for intoxication (as Matt says he is doing). "If they're using it as a sort of intoxicant to get drunk, then they are at risk of dependence," he says. "It's not a free lunch in that sense."

Propranolol also carries risks. While it is generally considered safe when taken as prescribed, inappropriate or high-dose use can cause dizziness, fainting and a dangerously slow heart rate.

The risks may be greater when medicines come from unregulated sources. "There's always a danger of getting medicines that aren't made to medical standards," Nutt says.

Addiction dangers

Jones, the psychologist from King's College, argues that comparing the physical harms of these drugs with alcohol risks missing a more fundamental question: what happens when people begin to believe they can only socialise with chemical help?

"Alcohol in large quantities is dangerous, but it is also dangerous to take medication too routinely without being under the supervision of a doctor," she says.

She is particularly concerned that using medicine to avoid anxious feelings can reinforce the belief that ordinary social situations are scary. What begins as a pill before a party can gradually spread to dates, work meetings, and everyday life, she says. "You lose your faith in your own capacity to deal with things effectively."

What started for Mei as a "going out stack" before nights out soon spread to exams, speeches and debates. Eventually, she says, she was taking the drugs every day. "Now I can't leave the house without it."

Sofia, a customer-service worker from Ukraine, followed a similar path: she initially took pregabalin before parties and social events, but soon began using it at work. "It helped me," she says. "I work with people. It made it easy to communicate and solve problems."

When she was unable to access the drug for two weeks, she says she experienced depressive episodes and suicidal thoughts. "I didn't understand what happened to me. I was anxious, I couldn't eat, I couldn't see friends."

Knowles says that younger users often don't recognise their own drug dependence if they are broadly functioning well (keeping a job or maintaining a relationship). Instead they associate addiction only with people whose lives have visibly fallen apart.

Black market drugs

As China, India and other countries move to clamp down on these drugs, some argue that restricting access further could create different dangers.

Mykyta Lapin, an epidemiologist and head of the Ukrainian harm-reduction organisation Mind Games, says banning substances does not necessarily stop people taking them.

"Banning certain substances simply leads to people turning to the black market and buying drugs of dubious quality," he says, risking overdoses.

Knowles says illicit pregabalin carries an extra risk because users may not know exactly what they are taking.

"If you buy an alcoholic drink from a shop [in the UK] and it says the amount of units it contains and its percentage, then that's what it is." He said the same certainty does not always apply to pregabalin bought online. "That's an added risk that doesn't come with a bottle of spirit."

Matt, despite taking the drugs primarily as a social lubricant, remains convinced that he is also making the healthier choice.

"When I look at the improvement in my quality of life compared with what I see as a very minimal impact on my health, it's such a clear trade-off," he says.

"For me, it's an exchange that's worth it."

Matt's illegal habit remains heavily discouraged by most doctors. But still, with millions of young adults looking for a seemingly easy cure for anxiety, the numbers of people using these alcohol alternatives is likely to rise.

If you have been affected by addiction, help and support is available at BBC Action Line. If you live in Northern Ireland, you can also call the 24-hour helpline Lifeline, on 0808 808 8000.

Top image credit: Getty Images.

How a new era of heatwaves could shake up the school calendar

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp872m0grgyo, 8 days ago

Over the past two weeks, the sound of children has returned to Scotland's school playgrounds. Their summer breaks began in late June or early July and ended in mid-August.

It's an academic year replicated in other European countries too.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, however, children will not return until early September. Their holidays are a similar length to Scotland's but England and Wales schools did not break up until late July, something that meant pupils were in school during the peak of the early summer heat.

Or at least they were meant to be in school. While it was 30C or more outside, inside many classrooms it felt far hotter. With no air conditioning and limited ventilation, the heat became stifling and more than 1,000 schools across the UK either closed or sent pupils home early before the hottest part of the afternoon. Conditions were particularly challenging for GCSE and A‑level students sitting exams during extreme heat.

Baroness Brown, chair of the UK's Climate Change Adaptation committee, has warned that "we know high temperatures can significantly impair concentration and performance" of children in schools.

Back in February 2026, Ofsted's chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver said the timing of the school holidays should be reconsidered: "It's pretty hot usually in May, June and July, just at the point you're asking children to sit down and take an exam… so I think there is a need to have a good old look at it [the school year]."

The recent hot weather has seen some parents join his call. Andrea Bigger, a parent in London, is "absolutely aware of the dangers" of extreme heat in classrooms. She says her daughter has previously suffered from heat exhaustion and was hospitalised after overheating at her primary school. She is "really concerned that the UK is not ready or prepared for this".

And this summer was not a one off. BBC analysis of temperature data shows a clear shift. In the 1960s, the first 30C day was occurring on average on 13 July. In the 2020s that figure has been 19 June.

So, is it going to be increasingly difficult for schools to operate in the summer months? And is moving the school summer holidays the solution to ensuring pupils are able to be taught for as much of the year as possible?

Longer summer season

This summer is likely to become the hottest on record, according to the Met Office. Multiple temperature records have been broken with five widespread heatwaves and four consecutive months where the temperature has exceeded 35C. This has never happened before.

June saw one of the UK's most intense heatwaves, with up to seven consecutive days where temperatures were well above the official heatwave thresholds of 25-28C - just as the exam period was in full swing. Temperature records were broken too: 38C was recorded in Lingwood, Norfolk on 26 June, the hottest June day ever measured in the UK.

The Met Office issued a red extreme heat warning at the end of June, while the UK Health Security Agency has issued multiple amber warnings over the last few months. The heat then continued into July, with heatwave conditions felt widely for most of the month.

Schools struggled to cope, with some closed declaring "heat days" as temperatures in classrooms became too high for children to concentrate. These kinds of disruptions, or heat days, could become more likely as human-induced climate change brings hotter summers and more frequent heatwaves.

Summer heat is arriving earlier. Will Lang, chief meteorologist at the Met Office, says the "de facto 'hot season' in the UK is lengthening, with increasing prevalence of hot weather - including heatwaves – in May and September in addition to the standard meteorological summer of June, July and August".

It's one sign of a warming climate reshaping the pattern and timing of UK summers.

Poorer performance in hotter schools

According to a study conducted by the Met Office and University College London, students could lose an estimated 8.2 days of learning a year on average due to extreme heat, if average global average temperatures rise to more than 2C above pre-industiral levels - as many scientists believe will happen on current trajectories.

In the meantime, teachers are left to deal with the consequences.

Steve Chalke, founder of Oasis Academy, which runs more than 50 schools across England, says the heatwaves were a "real inhibitor" to teaching. One of the most difficult challenges came when the Met Office issued the red extreme heat warning at the end of June, suggesting potential "danger to life".

He says headteachers were forced into difficult decisions. "What do you do as a headteacher? How can they run a school safely if the national weather service is warning to travel only if essential and make every effort to stay cool. What if a student or member of staff collapses due to the heat and you're accountable for why you opened the school and didn't take your duty of care seriously?"

And with Met Office predictions of more extreme weather, higher summer temperatures, and more frequent, prolonged heatwaves, these types of questions are likely to only become more prevalent.

Rebecca Martin is concerned about her son taking GCSE exams in a few years' time in potentially increasingly hot weather. She thinks there needs to be "some serious considerations to the school year to reflect the changing climate or better investment in schools to give them air conditioning".

And there is growing evidence to support her worries. The recent Well-Adapted UK report from the Climate Change Committee suggested that taking an exam on a 32C day leads to around a 10% lower likelihood of passing, compared to sitting the same exam at 22C.

Baroness Brown told the BBC that "as heatwaves become more frequent and intense, it is unacceptable that children are expected to sit high-stakes exams in halls that were not designed for these conditions".

Many of us are familiar with a "snow day" in the winter, when snow can make it very difficult for staff and students to get into school. While there is no legal minimum temperature, the National Education Union says classrooms should be kept above 18C. Heat days are a newer concept - and there are no specified maximum temperatures for a classroom.

A 2024 study published in the journal Climate Risk Management suggested that any temperature above 24C can compromise learning. It also found a decline in student performance ranging from 2% to 12% for each degree increase in classroom temperature.

Setting a temperature benchmark of 26C as the upper "comfortable limit" in a classroom, the authors of the study went on to suggest that the average school currently reaches this limit 59 days of the year in England. That would increase to 71 days with 2C of warming.

In "at-risk" schools where there is no suitable ventilation or where newer buildings have lower ceilings, there would be 75 days where the "comfortable 26C classroom temperature would be breached".

In hotter European countries such as France and Spain, local authorities have extreme heat guidelines that trigger timetable changes or school closures when conditions become too hot. It's a model some argue the UK may need to consider as the UK summer continues to change.

The impact of shifting holidays

While extreme heat or heatwaves can still occur in May and June - or indeed in late August or early September, by which time it's proposed pupils would have returned to class - breaking up for summer at the end of June could reduce the amount of disruption schools face from the hottest conditions heading into the peak of summer.

And while this August has also been hot and dry, some parents argue that an earlier break would be better aligned with the UK's typically warmer and drier mid-summer weather. Rebecca Martin says she'd like to be able to "make the most of the more guaranteed summer-like weather in July" planning to spend more time outdoors in a UK staycation rather than going abroad to parts of Europe where the "heat is getting even more extreme and unpleasant".

Europe is the fastest-warming continent, with temperatures rising at around twice the global average. Like the UK, European heatwaves are becoming hotter, more frequent and longer.

Staycations in the UK could become even more popular. According to 2024 research by Mintel, more than half of UK holidaymakers say they are likely to choose to holiday at home rather than abroad for climate-related reasons. Meanwhile, some 28% say higher UK temperatures are encouraging them to take domestic holidays.

What remains to be seen is how any changes to the school summer holiday could affect the price tag. Aligning the holiday period more closely with Scotland and other countries means there could be more demand in late June and July, potentially pushing the traditional price peak earlier in the year.

Other changing holiday habits - such as avoiding the peak of the summer heat and extreme temperatures in southern Europe - will also play a role.

In a recent national survey by InsureandGo, more than seven in 10 UK holidaymakers thought some European countries like Spain, Greece or Turkey would be too hot to visit in the summer months by the end of the decade.

As travel journalist Simon Calder has said: "A significant shift in holiday habits could push up the cost of a domestic holiday.

"If more people decide to stay in the UK, and others come to Britain because it is more climatically appealing, the rise in demand would trigger price increases. But there are always locations where you can get reasonable deals."

Long-term plans are required

In England, term dates are determined by school employers - for maintained state schools, that's their local authority. Other schools, including academies, free schools, foundation schools and voluntary-aided schools, can set their own term dates.

However, any changes to the school holiday or academic year would likely require national‑level discussion and leadership, rather than decisions made by individual schools.

Steve Chalke of Oasis Academy suggested there needs to be a national plan with clear guidance for schools facing increasingly hot conditions in our warming climate.

"We're all accustomed to 'snow days' but we now need to properly think and prepare for 'heat days' too," he says. And "without doubt we need to rethink the school year".

For some parents, though, the answer isn't about changing the school holidays but making the school buildings more climate-resilient for the future.

Gemma Beake, a parent of two boys at a school in Bristol, suggests that if schools can be made cooler and have investment with air conditioning, they will be "safer places than a lot of homes and flats where we have the same problem of overheating".

British summers will always be variable, and no two years will be exactly alike. But the direction of travel is becoming clearer. Hot weather is arriving earlier, lasting longer and increasingly testing our school buildings that were designed and built in a past climate.

While headteachers can implement changes to uniform - as many did this year - so that PE kit could be worn instead of traditional uniform, for many it's the buildings that need adapting to the changing climate of today and especially the future.

But either upgrading infrastructure to climate resiliant schools or modifying the academic year would need institutional change with the possibility of a lot of investment. And both would take many years to implement.

For parents, teachers and school leaders however, changes are needed as soon as possible. As Steve Chalke puts it: "We need the government to come up with a short-term plan for the next few years."

This may simply mean better guidance during "heat days" and on when it is appropriate to shut schools, as with "snow days". Or just being more flexible - allowing schools to open earlier and finish earlier in the day to avoid a peak in temperatures.

A split in the spectrum? The ongoing battle to define autism

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdew81wd2y8o, 9 days ago

If someone asked you to think of an autistic person, who would come to mind?

The world's richest man, Elon Musk?

Maybe Greta Thunberg, who says being different can be a superpower.

Or Robbie Williams, who has recently revealed he's found out that he has "a bit of autism".

What about someone like 34-year old James Fitzpatrick? He doesn't talk, has a learning disability and needs constant care.

A diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) means someone has certain core characteristics including differences in how they communicate and behave. It's an umbrella term that includes people with very different experiences.

In recent years there has been an explosion in the number of people with an autism diagnosis on their GP record. In England, it has gone from just over 700,000 three years ago to around 1.1 million today.

The National Autistic Society (NAS) says "evidence suggests there is a significant underdiagnosis of autism, particularly among women and older people".

But what if some people with a diagnosis aren't actually autistic? What if they've really been misdiagnosed?

These questions largely come from 85-year-old Professor Dame Uta Frith - one of the key figures in autism research since the 1960s.

They go to the heart of a debate that is central to the identity of many autistic people.

Dame Uta says this is about misdiagnosis - people wrongly being told they are autistic.

She is reluctant to say how many people she thinks have wrongly told they have autism: "In my worst moments, I think it's a great number, but in my best moments, I think it is a small number."

Dame Uta is worried that autistic people who need a lot of support are not getting the help they need.

Some autism researchers and charities say her views are "dangerous", "misinformation" and pit "autistic people against each other". Many autistic people are angry too, saying this calls their identity and rights into question.

The increase in diagnoses of neurodivergent conditions such as autism and ADHD, along with a steep rise in people reporting poor mental health, has prompted a government-commissioned independent review that is due to be published shortly.

But whatever its findings, it is unlikely to be the final word on a question that affects so many people: what actually is autism? And does it matter if such a broad spectrum of people are defined as having it?

Shifting meanings

The definition of autism has shifted and evolved since it was coined in 1911. Then, it was described as a symptom of schizophrenia - excessive fantasies and hallucinations.

By 1943, autism was used to describe children with "fascinating peculiarities" who weren't interested in the world around them.

In the 1960s, it was estimated that 0.04% of children were autistic and most had intellectual disabilities.

By the early 1980s, researchers embraced the idea of an autism spectrum, arguing that autistic people could have average - or very high - intelligence.

This new category of autism was known as Asperger's Syndrome after a little-known paper dating back to Austria in the 1940s, but the term is no longer used.

In 2013, ASD became the official diagnosis for all autistic people. But some autism experts think this is too broad.

Dame Uta ignited this debate by arguing that the autistic spectrum has come to its collapse because people included in it have such different needs.

Questioning the spectrum

A quick search through social media tells you that the 85-year-old is "a pioneer", "brilliant" and the "grand dame of autism research".

But also, a "traitor", an "out-of-touch grifter" who is "past her sell-by date".

During one of our conversations, she receives an email - hate mail. It tells her she will have blood on her hands and contains expletives.

She says: "Some people would say it would be better for me to stop. But I want to get at the truth."

But, even so, she hesitated for years before speaking out, partly because she "really, really" doesn't want to hurt people.

She talks about being driven by "almost a duty" to represent autistic people with intellectual disabilities. She thinks they are being ignored "both in research and in general awareness".

About a third of autistic people have intellectual disabilities. But they are underrepresented in research - a 2019 study found that they make up about 6% of research participants.

Dame Uta says: "These cases are in great need of support. They have been completely overshadowed."

She would include this group on a "pruned" autism spectrum along with people who have what used to be known as Asperger's and autistic people who are diagnosed during childhood.

She thinks the rise in autism diagnoses is driven by a "late-diagnosed group, mainly females".

The NHS says it can be difficult to recognise autism in women, but Dame Uta says: "I am sceptical of late diagnosis. That's where I think the diagnostic process has become very superficial."

She believes many of this group actually have other conditions including anxiety, depression or OCD.

She questions: "Are they best served by this label autism? I would like them to get better service than they're getting."

She also thinks researchers might need to create "a label that doesn't exist yet" for some people who've been told they're autistic.

She points to research from the University of Cambridge which found that people diagnosed with autism in early childhood often have a different genetic profile to people diagnosed when they are older. Researchers found that people diagnosed when they are older (from late childhood onwards) show an underlying genetic profile that has more in common with ADHD and depression than it does with early diagnosed autism.

But the lead researcher, Dr Varun Warrier, says this shows "autism broadening out genetically" rather than misdiagnosis.

Dame Uta thinks a small number don't have any mental health conditions at all - but are "identity seekers" who have been influenced by bad information on social media.

She hasn't got a number for how many people she thinks have been misdiagnosed, but believes researchers could figure it out.

She knows this will upset and possibly scare people. She stresses: "If someone has been misdiagnosed, I don't want them to suffer for it.

"It would be a terrible thing to take away a diagnosis retrospectively. It's the future I'm concerned with, making diagnostic process more precise - targeting very different individual needs rather than a label."

Culture wars

Dame Uta first expressed her views in an interview with the Times Educational Supplement in March. The NAS reacted to it in strong terms.

It wrote a blog post about "false narratives and outdated ideas", "misinformation" and "false claims".

Dame Uta says it's "just wrong" to dismiss her like this.

The NAS says anyone with an autism diagnosis will have been assessed against strict criteria and "have lifelong differences in communication, behaviours and focused interests compared to non-autistic people".

Dr Sue Smith, the NAS's head of clinical services, says: "We've got a group of people with a genuine need. We're having this weird debate about what they should be called."

She says this isn't just an academic row but has real implications for autistic people: "Historically a lot of people who weren't properly identified as autistic were given other really unhelpful labels", such as borderline personality disorder or bipolar.

She worries that re-labelling some autistic people could lead to them losing support.

Dr Monique Botha, an associate professor of psychology at Durham University, criticised Dame Uta's opinion using swear words.

Botha is autistic and stands by her reaction: "A lot of people were understandably upset and angry… I still am.

"Researchers have a duty to be a bit more blunt and upfront about how damaging these kinds of things can be."

Botha feels that Dame Uta's ideas add to a narrative that "there's some magical easy autism where you're just quirky, where everything in your life will eventually work out, and you're just using this as a crutch so that you can feel special, and it trivialises the reality of a whole bunch of people".

Botha says autistic people are united by key features: sensory sensitivity, a need for predictability, intense interests and struggles with communication.

"That doesn't mean that we will have the same lives or the same outcomes."

James Fitzpatrick was diagnosed in the 1990s, and doesn't speak. His father, Dr Michael Fitzpatrick, is a retired GP.

Michael says he's been shocked by the response to Dame Uta's stance: "Intolerant, strident, abusive discourse that's very redolent of the culture wars."

He feels some autistic people don't understand the reality for his family.

Michael says that James, now 34, has "never developed the capacity to engage with the world. That's the source of profound sadness to his family and a loss to himself."

"He would injure himself, bang his head on the floor, bite himself. If you tried to stop him, he would also bite you or scratch you or headbutt you. And as he got bigger, that became more of a problem."

James has calmed down with age but still can "attack you randomly for no apparent reason".

Michael can't see how the same diagnosis can hold true for James and for someone who lives independently - two "extremely different types of people".

Different challenges

Dr Rachel Moseley, an academic from Bournemouth University, was working in autism research when she was diagnosed in her late 20s.

She agrees that people like James are "incredibly neglected".

But she says: "There's room for all of us, we can still advocate for people with learning disabilities without saying that this group isn't valid."

She thinks ideas about dividing up the autistic spectrum lack nuance, especially around mental health.

"Every so often something will totally knock my feet out from under me," Moseley adds, saying she will self-harm and have suicidal thoughts.

"Everyone's challenges are different. But you can't make the assumption that the person with high support needs is always having a harder time. They will in some regards, but not in all."

To make her point, she cites studies that have found that while autistic people overall are more likely to take their own lives, these rates are highest in autistic people without learning disabilities.

Michael Fitzpatrick is unconvinced by this argument: "I seriously, seriously doubt whether the people with autism and no levels of learning disability have a similar level of pathology and life-threatening problems as the people with profound autism."

Lived experience

It's striking that both sides in this row accuse the other of lacking scientific rigour. One major flashpoint is around the study of masking.

This is when someone hides autistic behaviours to try to fit in with society. There's been an explosion of academic interest in this area.

Recently, a review found almost 400 research papers talking about masking, mostly focusing on autistic women who were diagnosed as adults and don't have any intellectual disabilities.

Dame Uta shudders when I mention the idea: "Agh! Such a vague notion." She dismisses some research papers on it as "absolutely poor quality".

Moseley says the exact opposite: "There is really high-quality work on masking, and it's startling and upsetting to see such work be denigrated."

She sees masking research as part of a "refreshing change" as autistic academics "bring lived experience into research".

But Dame Uta questions if autistic researchers can be neutral or if they have a conflict of interest.

She's something of an outlier with this view.

Professor Sir Simon Baron-Cohen is director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge. When he started out, Dame Uta was his mentor. He disagrees with her on this.

He says: "Someone who's got a degree in molecular biology has one kind of expertise, but someone who's got lived experience has got another kind."

Overall though, Sir Simon says: "I'm not taking sides. I think the answer is to get both sides round the table. A lot of what seem to be irreconcilable differences are actually reconcilable."

He does think the term autism is too broad and can lead to "lumping together people who are so different".

His suggestion is to add sub groups. Type one could be autism with a learning disability. Type two could be autism with language needs. Other types could include conditions that can co-occur with autism, such as ADHD, depression and epilepsy.

He says: "Imagine, we could have dozens or hundreds of subtypes. Why put a limit on it? The more we have, the more precise we can be about what people need."

Once again, there is no consensus.

Dame Uta thinks subtypes could provide "a clean division between those who have these very severe needs and those who don't. But it can't go on endlessly."

The NAS is worried that breaking autism into smaller groups could lead to discrimination or the removal of support from people who need it. It says subtypes have "no clinical value, diagnostic relevance or practical application".

Sir Simon's answer is to "bring in autistic people so we can choose labels that they're comfortable with".

Moving goalposts

Kayleigh was diagnosed with autism in her thirties. She finds that people hold pre-conceived ideas about what autism is.

She explains: "Some will assume you can't spell your own name. Or you love trains. Or you're extremely clever. Or you're hyper focused on a boring hobby."

Since diagnosis she's been given various labels - Asperger's, high-functioning and AuDHD [Autistic with ADHD].

She says: "The goalposts keep moving. As an autistic person, I don't even know what I should be called."

For her, this row is a huge distraction from the real issues.

She's spent her life thinking she was "weird, sub-normal or really, really bad". She's angry that society didn't recognise that she was struggling.

Since diagnosis, she says she's had "zero" support from professionals. She says emotionally she feels she can only really go out if her family are with her. She's not been to her local town centre in years.

She wants more help, more understanding. She doesn't care what her condition is called.

She says: "You could call it 'silly brain disease'. I still know what I'm going through."

Additional reporting by Kris Bramwell

Lead image: Getty

Correction 22 August: This article originally said autism was described in 1911 as a symptom of childhood schizophrenia. The article has been corrected to say that it was described as a symptom of schizophrenia generally.

Listen to The Autism Curve on BBC Sounds for more about the increase in autism diagnoses

The dangers of politicians being 'too online' - or not online enough

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn5nvkdwy74o, 11 days ago

In early 2015, flower crowns started appearing on Ed Miliband's head. Petals and hearts were photoshopped on to the then-Labour leader by the "Milifandom", a movement of young, mostly female, voters sharing romanticised images on Twitter to protest against Miliband's "distorted media portrayal".

It was the brainchild of Abby Tomlinson, a 17-year-old sixth-form student, who came to the defence of the man she called "Milibae". The hashtag #Milifandom trended. Then Labour lost the 2015 election.

This prompted David Cameron, whose Conservatives increased their number of seats, to boast: "Britain and Twitter are not the same thing." Tomlinson later told me that having her hopes of Milibae in No10 dashed had made her a "political pessimist", after realising winning over voters online "doesn't happen in a day, a week or even months, it's going to take years".

More than a decade on and she is again using social media to big up a Labour leader, but this time in the heart of government. She sits in the press office in No 12 Downing Street as head of content for Andy Burnham. The government has spent the last few weeks recruiting producers, videographers and strategists, working out of both Whitehall and No 10 North in Manchester.

In his first month as PM, Burnham posted more than 50 times on Instagram, ranging from meetings with world leaders, campaigners, farmers and influencers, to meme-based content like ranking pub snacks with Chancellor John Healey as part of an announcement on business rates. Strategists believe Instagram and TikTok can play to Burnham's communication strengths and sense of humour.

They're all at it, of course. Videos of Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch tearing into the budget or mocking ex-PM Sir Keir Starmer have gone viral. Reform UK's Nigel Farage has by far the biggest online audience of any UK party leader, with 7.6 million followers across Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok and YouTube.

In Scotland, the SNP have long mobilised their online army to campaign for independence, building a following larger than that of the Lib Dems, which campaigns across Britain, whose leader Ed Davey has achieved some success with campaign stunts going viral.

Restore Britain, founded by former Reform MP Rupert Lowe, enjoys its highest level of support among users of X. The platform is owned by Elon Musk who has publicly endorsed the party, expanding its reach.

Plaid Cymru, newly installed in government in Wales, is still experimenting with its approach, using First Minister Rhun Ap Iorweth in "fun" memes while also posting more serious interview excerpts. The Greens' Zack Polanski has made much of running his own accounts, though as he has found in recent weeks, this comes with risks too.

So how much is enough? In a world where reputations can be made (or broken) with one comment or collaboration, getting the balance right is tricky – being accessible, authentic and approachable, without being cringe. And does it make any difference to elections?

Bring on the hashtag coffee

Cameron's successor, Theresa May, was similarly doubtful about the merits of social media. When she took office she rebuffed aides who suggested she start tweeting: "People don't say 'pass me the hashtag newspaper, or I'd like a hashtag coffee'." Announcements were to be made formally. When cabinet ministers were appointed in May's first reshuffle, it was heralded in press statements beneath the UK government coat of arms.

By contrast, this summer, presenting my 5 Live show from Downing Street during Burnham's first reshuffle, I could predict the appearance of another new minister because the two-person social media team from No 10 would move into position to capture the new arrivals on their cameras.

Of course, prime ministers (and wannabes) have long adapted to new technology. Winston Churchill harnessed the power of radio, but thought television a vulgar diversion. In the 1960s, Labour's Harold Wilson modelled his TV campaigning on JFK in America. In the 1990s, and 2000s leaders like Tony Blair were just as likely to be found on the chatshow sofa as on the Today programme.

Now, podcasts give long-form - and less combative - opportunities to connect with voters, while social media gives a quick hit of direct democratic dopamine.

Peter Hyman, a former adviser to both Tony Blair and Keir Starmer when in Downing Street, said the success of Burnham's early digital output was about "quantity as well as quality".

"You have to narrate the story of what you are doing three or four or five times a day so that you are out there regularly," Hyman said. "Keir Starmer wasn't out there enough and therefore it wasn't landing."

There is a causality dilemma here. Is Burnham more popular in the polls because he is racking up the likes on social media, or is he doing better online because people like him?

Not everyone is convinced. Cody Dahler, a comedian who posts sweary political explainers to his two million followers, warns voters will become cynical if they sense politicians are just using social media simply "as a comms tool". Burnham, Dahler told me on Newsnight, comes across like a "cool substitute teacher".

And after Burnham released a video discussing what a bread roll is called in different parts of the country – barm, cob or bap - to promote his plans for devolution, broadcaster Piers Morgan asked him to "stop wasting your time and ours with these cringe videos".

And therein lies the difficulty of striking a balance. Bea Timpson, a former press secretary to Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak who says she prefers "trad media" like broadcast and print, added: "I have to accept that it's now non-negotiable to be online a bit, but you definitely can be too much."

The arms race for audiences

TV and online websites remain the most used sources for news, but more and more of us say we also get news from social media, according to media watchdog Ofcom. While this is highest among 16-24 year olds at 78%, a majority of adults in every age group use social media to access news, apart from the over-65s. Even among over 75s, 22% find out what is happening in the world from social media. For politicians, this is no longer just about reaching young people – this is all voters.

Some platforms are more important than others. Even after Elon Musk's conversion of Twitter into X, you will still see MPs, spin doctors and journalists in the Westminster village scrolling through the platform, but digital strategists say "real voters" are found on other platforms. The main parties have far more followers on Facebook (four million combined), which is much more widely used overall, than X (where they have a combined 3.2 million).

Politicians have always looked abroad for policy and campaigning ideas, and social media is no different.

Those on the right seek to emulate the impact Donald Trump has on TruthSocial, while left-wing politicians look to the success of Zohran Mamdani becoming mayor of New York.

Some have even imported social media experts from overseas. In 2019 Boris Johnson hired New Zealand duo Ben Guerin and Sean Topham to run the digital campaign for the general election. They imported into UK politics the concept of "shitposting", releasing deliberately bad images in order to generate a reaction. This included posting a tweet featuring the slogan "Get Brexit Done" in Comic Sans, a font loathed by graphic designers.

There was a method in the madness. "People are more likely to engage with something if they feel like it's been written by a human, not by a committee of design experts," Guerin told me. "It's pretty easy to go viral for doing something weird and wacky, but that doesn't always advance the objectives of your campaign."

This seems to be borne out by some recent hits. Burnham's TikTok post rating pub snacks attracted a million views. Yet a less gimmicky video, straightforwardly listing the five things he said he had done in his first week as PM, got five million.

Spoiling the magic?

There is an inherent tension in political social media. Authenticity is key. Yet who really expects the prime minister to be shooting and uploading his own content?

Back in 2013 I wrote a story about how Cameron's Twitter account had favourited a tweet mocking William Hague from an account handle that made a crude joke about former Tory MP Norman Tebbit being injured in the Brighton bombing.

The prime minister's director of communications called me to complain about my "slapdash and crappy" reporting. My crime? Including a sentence which allowed for the possibility that someone other than Cameron had clicked on the like button by mistake. This would, apparently, spoil the magic for those that thought the prime minister was running his own account for his 500,000 followers.

We now know that Zack Polanski does indeed have his own log-ins. The leader of the Green Party in England and Wales faced criticism in May for sharing a post condemning police actions in the Golders Green attack, for which he apologised. Then in July he accepted an Instagram collaboration which included a man wearing a T-shirt featuring a cartoon guillotine and the song lyrics "we're only making plans for Nigel". Reform UK said it amounted to incitement of violence against Farage. "I'm accepting my responsibility in that I shouldn't have accepted that collaboration," Polanski said, but refused to apologise.

Reform UK's Gawain Towler, a long-time media adviser to Nigel Farage, says: " My big takeaway is: don't be a berk on social media, which I think was Zack Polanski's big takeaway too."

Dov Forman, who helped Tory-turned-Reform MP Robert Jenrick grow his following from 20,000 to more than half a million with viral clips including confronting fare dodgers on the London Underground, says it is "risky" for a leader to run their own social media. But sometimes it can be a risk worth taking.

Badenoch has taken to directing her own videos, telling aides what she wants to post. She has attracted backing on X from American rappers Nicki Minaj and Azealia Banks. Those are the sort of authentic third-party endorsements politicians crave.

Up the ladder

On the day he became prime minister, a video was released of Burnham being interviewed on the Career Ladder, a series run by Ukrainian TikToker Max Klymenko who interviews guests about their career, while standing on a ladder. "If they personally haven't seen the channel it's sometimes quite difficult to make sense for them," Klymenko says. Burnham had seen the show, and did use the ladder.

Which leads us to the big question: Does any of this actually work? Emma Connolly, an academic who has researched this at the Digital Speech Lab at UCL, isn't sure. "We don't necessarily have really strong evidence or convincing evidence that it could really persuade or transform the opinion of opponent voters or even those that are undecided," she says.

And this in turn raises the question of how long the Burnham digital honeymoon might last. Can a prime minister TikTok his way through a war, terror attack or controversial court case? Announcing a new giveaway may go viral, but what about the details of the cuts to pay for it?

The truth is none of this is new, as Hyman explains: "The politicians who get this wrong think that social media is now the only place to be, and a substitute for doing the hard work and the heavy lifting of actually getting the right policy, getting the right narrative, and telling that story properly," he says. "Politics is about winning arguments."

After all, politicians have always wanted to be liked. It's just these days they can see it instantly if you hit that heart button on your feed.

Listen to Matt Chorley live from Westminster, weekdays from 14:00 on BBC Radio 5 Live.

Does Reform's plan to cut £50bn in welfare spending add up?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crl76jkxel3o, 13 days ago

Reform UK has set out plans it says will save more than £50bn a year from the welfare bill by 2030 if it gets into government.

The party believes it can deliver much of this by stopping foreign nationals from getting most benefits and also reforming disability payments while protecting the most "severely disabled".

BBC Verify has been breaking down what Reform says it wants to do - and how realistic it is.

Reform plans 25% cut in welfare spending

The UK government will spend £353bn on welfare benefits this year - just under half of that goes on the state pension, which Reform has said it will not cut.

That leaves £207bn - so cutting £50bn a year like Reform proposes would represent roughly 25% of total remaining welfare spending, which would be extremely ambitious.

One of the benefits Reform is looking at is Personal Independence Payments (PIP) - a working age payment that helps individuals deal with the extra costs of having a physical or mental health condition or disability.

The number of people claiming it has risen from around 2.4 million before the pandemic to four million this year in England and Wales.

Reform says around £21bn of its planned £50bn savings would come from changes to health and disability benefits including PIP.

While saying those with the most severe disabilities would be protected - Reform said around 2.89 million people in receipt of PIP will be "reassessed over time" which would lead to current payments being "modified or withdrawn" and replaced with its proposed "Disability Needs Assessment".

Analysts warn that these savings are by no means guaranteed. The Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank says there is "relatively little detail" about what Reform's plan entails.

Foreign nationals and benefits

Another big element of Reform's planned cuts comes from taking away benefits from foreign nationals. It claims around £20bn could be saved from its £50bn target if they were banned from getting benefits including Universal Credit (UC).

More than a million UC claimants were born overseas including around 700,000 EU citizens who arrived in the UK before Brexit and have the right to live and work in the country.

It's important to bear in mind that around half of EU citizens claiming UC are in employment.

The government doesn't provide figures for the number of foreign nationals claiming other benefits.

But taking away these benefit rights would not be a simple thing to do because it risks putting the UK on a collision course with the EU.

Around 4.5 million EU citizens have long-term settlement rights in the UK which means they are eligible to claim benefits.

An estimated one million UK citizens living in the EU have similar rights. Stripping EU citizens of their rights could lead to member states retaliating against the UK.

Reform says it would renegotiate the post-Brexit deal that underpins these rights but that would mean re-opening a process that was supposed to have been settled in 2020.

Another wrinkle in Reform's plan is that its planned savings could disappear if a large number of EU nationals apply to become UK citizens and were able to keep their entitlement to benefits.

Where else could savings come from?

Reform has said it is considering using a less generous measure of inflation to calculate how much benefits will go up each year to save £4.8bn a year. It also says it wants to spend extra money on tackling benefit fraud which it predicts will save as much as £2.8bn a year. However, other governments have tried to tackle fraud in the past with varying degrees of success.

The party has also pledged that people who are long-term welfare claimants and fit to work would be forced to do 20 hours of work a week in the community on council-run schemes.

It's not clear how this saves significant amounts of money on welfare given it will cost councils money to run the programmes.

Reform is by no means alone among the political parties in proposing welfare reform.

A recent review of the PIP system by Labour minister Sir Stephen Timms concluded it was "not fit for purpose". The government is expected to outline its own reforms later this year.

But analysts stress that achieving significant savings from the welfare bill is easier said than done.

Overhauling welfare can be a tricky political sell

It's also worth bearing in mind the number of PIP claimants in the constituencies of several prominent Reform MPs - such as Boston and Skegness and Ashfield - is higher than the national average.

And in some cases the number of PIP claimants is higher than the size of the MPs' majorities. The same is true of some of Reform's main target seats.

This appears to be a political risk the party is willing to take.

Additional reporting by Anthony Reuben and Tamara Kovacevic

Graphics by Jess Carr and Phil Leake