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US President Donald Trump is facing a growing backlash over plans to import diesel from Russia as the Iran war continues to impact global energy prices.

Trump on Friday announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to release 300,000 tonnes of diesel immediately "to the American and global marketplace" followed by several other shipments.

That is despite signing legislation to authorise fresh US sanctions and tariffs on nations that import Russian oil and gas just weeks ago.

The move has been criticised by some Republican and Democratic lawmakers, who believe the deal violates US laws.

As well as the initial release of 300,000 tonnes of diesel, Trump said Russia would then supply 500,000 tonnes in November and one million more after that.

This would be followed by a further three million tonnes, which would be delivered "within a short period" dependent on the condition of its refineries, which have been attacked by Ukraine during the ongoing war between the two countries.

"Lower prices for Americans, especially our Great Farmers, Ranchers, and Truckers, is my Greatest Priority," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak confirmed these numbers to Tass, the country's state-owned news agency, saying the export volume could reach three million tonnes per month in future.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the deal a gift to Putin that amounts to "an investment in a war that must be ended".

It is understood the US Treasury is suspending sanctions on Russian diesel exports until 7 April as part of the deal, but other assets like those in American banks are still frozen.

A group of seven senators - four Republicans and three Democrats – on Sunday said the deal violated US laws, urging Trump to "reverse course".

"The United States should not provide Putin with a financial lifeline while Russia continues to kill Ukrainian civilians," the lawmakers said.

They added that Congress had "explicitly banned Russian energy imports in 2022 to prevent American dollars from financing Putin's brutal war against Ukraine".

The statement was signed by Republicans Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Thom Tillis and John Curtis, as well as Democrats Jeanne Shaheen, Richard Blumenthal and Ron Wyden.

Not everyone is opposed to the deal. Republican Thomas Massie, who has sparred with Trump a number of issues, said the US should lift sanctions on all petroleum products.

Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News the agreement would work through existing legal channels the US has to help bring prices down and that anyone in Congress who said it would not was wrong.

Global fuel prices have soared since the US-Israel war with Iran began at the end of February, with the fighting severely disrupting supplies of crude oil - a key ingredient in petrol and diesel.

The rising prices have become a key issue for Americans ahead of next month's midterms elections, which will determine if Trump's Republican Party maintains control of Congress.

Polls show a majority of Americans disapprove of his handling of the economy and the war in Iran and he has been searching for ways to ease his party's political pain.

The toll the war is taking has been acutely felt by US agricultural states, which rely heavily on diesel to operate farming machinery and to transport their products to market.

The average diesel price in the US is currently $6.28 (£4.74) a gallon, according to the AAA, down from the record high of $6.53 recorded at the end of September.

Analysts have questioned whether Russia is capable of providing that quantity of diesel and the extent to which doing so will ease prices for American consumers.

The US uses approximately 3.6 million barrels of diesel a day, so even if Russia delivers its promised 300,000 tons this month, which amounts to approximately half of the US daily consumption.

It is not only at home that Trump is facing opposition to his diesel deal with Russia. A number of international leaders have criticised it, including Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and UK Defence Secretary Wes Streeting, who said the US and other allies of Ukraine should focus on ramping up pressure on Russia to end the war.

Meanwhile, Trump announced in Sunday that Russia and Ukraine had reached an "energy ceasefire" but did not give more details. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed this but there was no response from Moscow.

Saudi minister vows 'serious response' to Houthi attacks on airports

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjly0zqq27e4o, today

Saudi Arabia's energy minister has vowed a "serious" response to the deadly attacks on the kingdom's airports and oil and gas facilities by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi movement.

"The events of recent weeks are serious. Our response must be equally serious," Prince Abdul Aziz bin Salman told the WPC Energy Congress in Riyadh.

On Sunday, a Pakistani man was killed in an attack on a terminal at the capital's King Khalid International Airport, Saudi authorities said. It came a day after a Houthi missile hit another terminal, killing 13 people and forcing its closure.

The Houthis said they launched the attacks in retaliation for "brutal Saudi aggression" against areas they control in western Yemen.

The Houthi-run health ministry said a child was killed and six other people were injured in a Saudi air strike on a home in the capital, Sanaa, on Sunday.

A Saudi-led coalition has been providing air support for Yemeni pro-government forces battling the Houthis on Yemen's Red Sea coast and other areas.

Yemen has been devastated by a civil war that began in 2014, when the Houthis ousted the government from Sanaa. The conflict escalated in 2015, after the Saudi-led coalition intervened in an attempt to restore the government's rule.

A four-year-old informal ceasefire began to unravel in July, when the Houthis announced a "maritime embargo" against Saudi Arabia and began missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea.

The Houthis said they were retaliating for what they say is a Saudi blockade of ports and airports in their territory, as well as an air strike on Sanaa airport that they blamed on the kingdom. The Yemeni government claimed it was behind that strike, saying it was trying to prevent an unauthorised Iranian plane from landing.

Last month, the Houthis launched a surprise offensive along Yemen's south-western Red Sea coast and ousted pro-government forces from areas overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait, at the southern end of the Red Sea.

They said they posed no threat to international shipping passing through the waterway but that they would continue to target vessels from Saudi Arabia.

However, the seizure of the strait contributed to a surge in global oil prices because Saudi Arabia had been relying on the Red Sea for oil exports after the US and Israel's war with Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf.

Last week, the Yemeni government announced the start of a new offensive aimed at retaking all territory held by the Houthis.

Pro-government forces said they were quickly able to retake areas around Bab al-Mandab with the help of intense Saudi air strikes, but the Houthis denied losing any territory.

PM believes Brexit vote was legitimate despite Russia claims, No 10 says

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq5ynr4kn3nmo, today

Andy Burnham believes the 2016 Brexit referendum result was "legitimate", Downing Street has said, after the prime minister claimed there was Russian interference in the vote.

It is "inconceivable" that Russia did not try to use the referendum to its advantage, a No 10 spokesman said, but the PM believed it did not succeed in influencing the result.

Burnham told The Rest is Politics podcast, that upon arriving in Downing Street, he had asked if there had been Russian interference in the vote, adding: "I've had the clear answer that, yes, there was."

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called the prime minister a "liar" while the Conservatives said he had been "at best... carelessly vague".

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey backed Burnham, posting on social media: "This statement needed to be said by a prime minister. After the Conservatives suppressed the truth for years, this took courage."

In his podcast interview, Burnham said there was "certainly misinformation, disinformation that is emanating from Russia into German politics".

He added: "I think we've been too much on the back foot on that actually and we haven't informed people sufficiently about the extent to which people are seeking to disrupt the political process from overseas."

The prime minister did not go into further detail about the nature or extent of Russian activities during the 2016 referendum.

Speaking to broadcasters on Monday morning, Foreign Minister Stephen Doughty would not provide specific details about interference in the vote but said Russia had been "attempting to interfere in a series of democratic events".

Later on Monday, after being pressed several times on whether the PM believes the Brexit result was legitimate, the No 10 spokesman said: "Yes we believe the referendum result was legitimate."

He added: "The PM absolutely accepts the referendum result."

The prime minister's initial comments on Russia prompted an angry reaction from some Brexit supporters.

Farage, who was a prominent Brexit campaigner, said: "The prime minister is a liar, yes, a liar."

"There was no Russian interference - the Russian hoax has run all the way through this," he added.

"This is out-of-touch, out-of-date Andy Burnham with all sorts of bizarre ideas."

Conservative shadow minister Katie Lam said the prime minister "risks sowing doubt about the result of a professionally-run, independently-monitored democratic vote".

In a letter to Communities Secretary Angela Rayner, Lam also suggested Burnham could purposely be seeking to cast doubt on the legitimacy in order to justify his efforts to build a closer relationship with the EU.

In 2020, a parliamentary report did not reach a firm conclusion on whether Russia had tried to intervene in UK elections and referendums, but criticised the government for failing to fully assess and counter the threat from Russian 'troll' accounts on social media.

Report chair Stewart Hosie accused the government of having "actively avoided" looking for evidence of interference.

Asked in 2017, if he had seen evidence of Russia successfully meddling in UK elections, then-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said: "Nyet [Russian for no], not a sausage."

Earlier this year, the government published an independent review on foreign influence in UK politics which said there were attempts to "sow distrust and exacerbate divisions in UK society with the ultimate aim of undermining confidence in our democracy".

Report author Philip Rycroft said it was difficult to establish the impact of these efforts and that the public "can be credited with sufficient common sense to see of the more egregious attempts to suborn their opinions".

However, he added that while there was no "immediate crisis" in British democracy "there is no guarantee that this will persist".

Documents falsified to evade tax on Abramovich's wealth

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c64g1l5389kvo, today

The world's biggest accountancy firm helped in falsifying documents to hide Roman Abramovich's wealth and evade tax, BBC Panorama has found.

Accounts signed off by Deloitte in Cyprus meant assets such as superyachts, mansions and private jets worth $672m (£508m) vanished from Abramovich's company accounts.

Deloitte also appears to have advised on a scheme to evade a huge tax bill on the oligarch's wealth through the falsification of documents.

Barrister Andrew Mitchell KC, an expert in financial services law, said Panorama's evidence showed the scheme was "straightforward" tax evasion and "it couldn't be more blatant".

Roman Abramovich's lawyers said he denies that he evaded tax or concealed his fortune. They said Panorama provided no evidence he knew about, authorised or directed the falsification of any document and said it was legitimate to rely on advice from professionals.

Deloitte Cyprus said it "acts in compliance with applicable laws".

The findings are being revealed following a joint investigation between BBC Panorama and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

For nearly two decades, Roman Abramovich was the most famous Russian oligarch in the UK, welcomed in London where he bought Chelsea Football Club in 2003 and bankrolled the club's most successful period. But after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he was sanctioned by the UK government as an associate of President Vladimir Putin and forced to sell the club.

Abramovich has been reported to be living in Turkey, a safe haven for him because it did not apply sanctions. In the Channel Island of Jersey, £5.4bn of his assets remain frozen and a criminal investigation has been going on for four years.

The oligarch's lawyers told the BBC he denies the allegations in the Jersey investigation and says it was "undertaken for political purposes".

Our investigation has uncovered new evidence about the way Abramovich's business empire has been run. It also raises serious questions about the integrity of some of his professional advisers.

The evidence is contained in a leak that includes thousands of documents about the oligarch's finances and the operations of a network of offshore companies administered from Cyprus - which used to be a tax haven popular with Russians - between 1995 and 2022.

The BBC and media partners including the Guardian, Paper Trail Media, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and the Cyprus Investigative Reporting Network - as well as the Bureau of Investigative Journalism - have been reporting on the leaked files since 2023 as part of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' Cyprus Confidential investigation.

In 2022, Panorama also reported on how Abramovich had made his fortune from a corrupt deal to buy a Russian state-owned oil company in the 1990s, selling it back to the government a decade later for billions in profit. He has previously said allegations of corruption in the deal are false.

The profits from Abramovich's oil deals in Russia were funnelled into a web of offshore companies. They were administered from Cyprus by a corporate services firm called MeritServus, in Limassol, the island's second-largest city.

Until 2005, Deloitte - now the biggest of the "big four" firms which dominate the accounting industry - owned MeritServus. After they split, the two companies worked closely together with Abramovich's associates to manage his global fortune.

The leaked documents from MeritServus reveal some of their practices.

Our first example of backdated paperwork comes in 2006, after a new law in Cyprus meant that company accounts had to be made public. The new transparency law threatened to expose the secrets of Abramovich's vast wealth.

Deloitte Cyprus had prepared draft accounts for 2003 - but had not yet finalised them - for his Cypriot company Amiscan Investments. The accounts detailed $672m of luxury property.

A mansion in West Sussex, a luxury flat in London and an estate in the south of France were all included - plus helicopters, private jets and a small fleet of boats the oligarch owned at the time, including the $147.5m Pelorus.

To keep them secret, Abramovich's associates and Meritservus decided to rewrite history. They drew up a plan to circumvent the transparency law by transferring the assets to Amiscan's parent company in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), where they could be kept hidden. And they backdated the change by three years to make it look like the asset transfer had happened in 2003.

Deloitte Cyprus reviewed the backdated documents and said they were "adequate" to allow them to remove the assets from Amiscan's accounts.

When the 2003 accounts were signed off by Deloitte in 2006, the homes, planes and yachts disappeared at the stroke of a pen. Only $75,000 of assets remained.

Deloitte signed off the accounts even though the leaked documents show it knew they were completely misleading.

Lord Sikka, professor of accounting at the University of Sheffield, said it was a "violation of a statutory duty" and "pretty scandalous" to misrepresent transaction dates and not to publish true and fair accounts.

Panorama also found evidence that backdated documents had been used in a tax evasion scheme.

This involved another one of Abramovich's Cypriot companies, Kravin Investments, which had almost $2bn in the bank in 2003.

It had been earning large amounts in interest, so Roman Abramovich's company should have been paying tax on that interest to the Cypriot authorities.

But his advisers had another idea to rewrite history.

An email from MeritServus in August 2005 to Abramovich's Russian associates said a plan had been devised after a meeting with Deloitte. "If you agree, it will be necessary to change the financial statements and the accounting records accordingly for 2003 and 2004," the email read.

MeritServus informed the oligarch's Russian associates, that Kravin's "Provisional Tax Assessments for 2005" would be filed showing the company earning no income from the money.

A month later, an associate in Russia emailed in response, "I agree".

MeritServus then created a series of backdated documents which falsely purported to show that Kravin was only holding and investing the funds on behalf of its parent company in the BVI.

This made it look like Kravin did not actually own the money, so it would not be liable for tax in Cyprus.

Deloitte wrote in a September 2005 email that "certain changes will have to be made to the accounts (bank account balances, interest income, profit and loss account)" because of the backdated changes to Kravin's assets.

So Deloitte was apparently advising on the falsification of financial records. The evidence suggests it allowed Abramovich's company to evade millions in tax.

Andrew Mitchell KC told us the scheme was "straightforward" tax evasion. "If it happened in England and it was in the millions, His Majesty's Revenue and Customs would be thinking about a prosecution," he said.

Cypriot MP Christos Christofides said that if tax had been evaded, then "we have to see how we can get our money back and how, if some people are guilty, they have to pay the price according to our law."

In addition to the documents which Deloitte helped to backdate, Abramovich's advisers at MeritServus falsified a third set of records. This involved the oligarch's huge business fortune - more than $10bn - held by a company called Electus Investments in Cyprus.

MeritServus backdated documents to make it look like Electus did not own the fortune.

It used another Abramovich company with exactly the same name of Electus Investments, but this time based in the more secretive BVI, where accounts did not have to be made public.

Emails show that in 2006, MeritServus acknowledged that the fortune was owned by Electus Cyprus. But again it proposed to rewrite the past, this time "to transfer the beneficial ownership to Electus Investments in the BVI" and make it look as though the change had happened three years earlier.

MeritServus signed and backdated documents which falsely purported to show the BVI company had owned the $10bn fortune since 20 November 2003. So when the accounts of the Cypriot company with the same name were made public, it appeared to have assets worth just $145,000.

Roman Abramovich's billions had been made to disappear.

Andrew Mitchell KC told Panorama: "What you take away from it is there are professionals who are prepared to bend and break the rules of their profession and therefore the law. And it looks that they will stop literally at nothing in terms of creating documents."

Vladimir Milov, Russia's deputy minister of energy as Abramovich built his empire and now a critic of the Russian government, said: "For each Russian oligarch or Middle Eastern or African corrupt oligarch, there's an army of Western financial and legal services and PR services providers, who is easily taking money for whitewashing their reputation and making them look normal."

Denying any wrongdoing by the oligarch, Roman Abramovich's lawyers said that he was "not involved in the day-to-day operation of those companies" and that where arrangements were proposed by professional advisers, "reliance on that advice was entirely proper and legitimate".

Deloitte Cyprus said it could not comment on the specific allegations because the documents were more than 20 years old and no longer accessible.

MeritServus closed following the Cyprus Confidential leak.

American ranchers wrestle with soaring costs - and their loyalty to Trump

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6d7q5z17gp5o, today

Nebraska rancher Yvette Mannon was already having a rough year.

In April, a wildfire destroyed 1,600 grazing acres and 13 miles (21 km) of fence along the ranch she bought in 2002. The ranch is nestled in a corner of Nebraska that's home to rolling green hills under sweeping Midwestern skies, the landscape dotted with grain silos and feedlots alongside fields and fields of bovines.

Mannon's 300 cattle survived the blaze - but the fencing needed to be replaced, and the herd still needed to be fed.

With steel prices at their highest levels in years, heavily affected by tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump, that meant spending $4.89 a foot - for a total exceeding $300,000.

On top of that, because so much good grazing land had been destroyed, Mannon also needed a tractor out every day delivering hay to her cattle - at a time when diesel prices, spiking due to the Iran War, were up more than 40% from the previous year.

Then in August, the Trump administration announced it would import 300,000 metric tons of duty-free foreign beef in a bid to lower consumer prices. The news hit right before the September-November window when most US calves are weaned and sold.

The cattle market tanked immediately.

'It felt like a betrayal'

"So we're 'Buy American', 'Let's Make America Great'," said Mannon, 63, who voted for Trump. "But for you guys over here, sorry."

"It just felt like a betrayal," she said.

Many farmers and ranchers across the US say they are being hit from all sides. Recent years have been difficult, with drought affecting crops and already historically low cattle herds. But they say government policies have added to the strain.

That has left some in Nebraska, which overwhelmingly backed President Trump during the last election, reassessing their political allegiances.

Dan Osborn, an independent candidate running against Trump-backed Republican Pete Ricketts, is performing surprisingly well in the polls ahead of November's Senate race.

Republicans seem keenly aware of the discord and frustration among farmers. Both Trump and Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen have in recent weeks announced relief policies aimed at lowering fuel costs for farmers and ranchers, who say they have been struggling for months.

The Iran War has sent diesel and fertiliser prices skyrocketing - both daily necessities for agricultural operations. Tariffs have affected machinery costs and repairs, as well as steel and lumber prices.

And decisions by the Trump administration - whether it be importing foreign beef or opening up the southern border to Mexican cattle - have sent already-volatile markets into overdrive.

Many producers are losing hundreds of dollars per head of cattle.

"All of this hit cattle markets, as a whole, negatively," said James Mitchell, an assistant professor and agricultural economist at the University of Arkansas.

Cattle markets run in 10-12 year cycles, he said, with some good years and some bad. The industry recently enjoyed a particularly lucrative period, where low supply and high demand drove up prices. But now, the market is clearly on a downswing.

Jake Wolfinger, 45, has been weathering the downturn at his feedlot near Lexington, Nebraska. He and his wife are both Ohio natives hailing from multi-generational farming families. They moved to Nebraska - which enjoys lush land and the most groundwater in the nation - to strike out on their own.

The Wolfingers bought a dilapidated feedlot in 2010, which they have turned into a sophisticated operation with 5,500 cattle. Neighbours point to them as an example of what hard work can still do in a tough industry.

But Wolfinger did not factor the Iran War, tariffs or foreign beef imports into his planning.

"Things were just chumming along pretty good," he said, selling cattle for $240 per hundredweight - but that's dropped to $225. That may not seem like much, but it means a loss of potentially hundreds of dollars a head.

Wolfinger is also contending with sky-high diesel costs, with some equipment going through 400-gallon tanks a day.

"It really makes a guy think," he said.

A Trump supporter, Wolfinger said he voted for the president because "we needed his spirit in this country". He also expressed frustration with what he called "woke DEI" policies on the left.

But he is unhappy with the way the president has intervened in the beef market.

"People need to stay the hell out of farmers' business, because it's harvest time," Wolfinger said.

'People need to stay the hell out of farmers' business'

Forty miles northwest, near Callaway, Nebraska, 54-year-old Duane Kimball stands in his shed surrounded by machinery - and a huge Trump banner along one wall.

"The daily upcharge… is kind of painful," he said.

"I know a lot of people have had to go back to their banks and increase their lines of credit."

Kimball believed the Iran War would have ended long ago.

But he does not blame Trump for all of his economic challenges. "To pin that on this administration, I don't think is a fair assessment," he said.

He pointed to cumbersome regulations as well as the rising cost of machinery and fertiliser - trends that began before Trump returned to the White House.

Mannon, who returned to her native Nebraska and bought the ranch after a career in banking, believes the agricultural industry will show its feelings at the midterms.

But like many around here, she prefers not to engage in too much political debate.

That is not a problem for her friend and nearby rancher Jim Jenkins. A former independent senatorial candidate, Jenkins is fiercely proud of Nebraska agriculture and his own ranch, which is on land his family homesteaded more than 150 years ago.

Jenkins has been so incensed by the policies he feels are harming Nebraska's agricultural industry that he wrote an opinion article over the summer in an Omaha paper.

He has felt the squeeze personally too, citing high diesel, fertiliser, lumber and steel costs - everything from barbed wire to fence posts.

That has been compounded by "uncertainty" over what may happen next, he said, and what the next Trump announcement might mean for the industry.

"Those are the things that keep you up at night," the 69-year-old told BBC News.

An outspoken Trump critic who didn't vote for the president during any of his White House bids, Jenkins knows he is an outlier among his conservative neighbours. When Trump was first elected, Jenkins said he hoped he would turn out "to be a practical business guy".

Now, he said, "I think he's been anything but practical".

But for many Trump-supporting farmers and ranchers, the president's decisions - even when they hit them economically - deserve the benefit of the doubt.

"We've all known this about Trump. He just kind of could be a little 'shoot, fire, aim,'" Wolfinger said. "I wish you could, you know, put the gun back and holster it and then think about it."

But, he said, "I think he's, for the most part, trying to run this country in the right direction".

Don Cantrell, whose grandfather started farming family land that now stretches to 12,000 acres, said he is still getting hit on diesel and admits the president "does some stupid things" and "says some stupid things".

But Cantrell believes Trump has been the "best president overall". His establishment of DOGE - the Department of Government Efficiency - for example, was exactly what he felt the country needed.

"Let's cut government waste," he said. "There's so much waste."

Trump also maintains stances on social issues - like abortion and praising Christianity - that align with many Nebraskan voters' personal convictions.

"I think, in general, if you're conservative in this country, you're going to vote conservative," Wolfinger said.

Don Batie, 67, agrees: "There's a lot of other issues besides agriculture."

Still, the economic realities are hard to ignore, he said.

Batie retired from farming last year for a combination of personal and economic reasons. The corn and soybean farmer watched as prices fell from $7 a bushel for corn in early 2022 to just $4.29 three years later.

But costs have not gone down, he said, with tariffs and inflation contributing to his bottom line. As a result, he has had to abandon his longtime dream of passing on the 400-acre farm he owns to his daughter.

"It just wasn't going to work now," he said, sitting at the dining room table in the home he grew up in.

He only came to that realisation within the past year after crunching the numbers.

"I knew things hadn't been good," he said. "But when I started working on the numbers… I was like, 'This is going to be bad.'"

Batie voted for Trump in 2016 and again in the primary - but not in 2024, because he was disappointed with his policies. He said he had heard similar dissatisfaction throughout the state.

"They're still strong Republicans," he said of those people."But they're not a Trump supporter anymore."

All over Nebraska, however, the industry soldiers on.

On a rainy Thursday in Broken Bow, buyers clad in cowboy hats, plaid shirts and denim gathered for the regular indoor cattle auction.

Calves still need to be bought and sold, and ranch operations - many multi-generational - don not pause for politics.

Across the train tracks, past feed and hardware stores, Yvette Mannon summed up Nebraskans' resilience and fortitude.

"People in agriculture are eternal optimists," she said "Otherwise we wouldn't get in it."

Tom Cruise film Digger could lose $245m at box office

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cke8re5v1pgmo, today

Tom Cruise's latest film Digger is expected to lose around $245m (£185m), Hollywood analysts have said, after the film's continuing poor performance in cinemas.

Ticket sales for the satirical black comedy, which stars Cruise as oil magnate Digger Rockwell, dropped by around 60% in the movie's second weekend.

It brings Digger's total box office takings to around $35m (£26m) globally so far. The film is estimated to have cost its studio Warner Bros around $280m (£211m) to make and market.

But Cruise said last week that he "never thought of movies when I'm making them [in terms of] opening weekend," adding he was instead focused on making films that "hopefully will translate, last and evolve".

The film's takings relative to its budget mean it could become one of the biggest film flops in Hollywood history.

Digger's performance is in sharp contrast to the success of IP-driven hits starring Cruise in recent years, such as new instalments of the Top Gun and Mission: Impossible franchises.

Digger is directed by Alejandro G Iñárritu, best known for films such as Birdman, Babel and The Revenant.

Hollywood trade publication Variety said Digger was expected to end its box office run with around $50m (£38m) worldwide.

The film would need around $350m (£264m) to break even, due to its budget, marketing costs, the portion of ticket sales that go to theatres and the likely spend on an awards season campaign.

However, a Warner Bros spokesman pushed back slightly on the figure, telling Variety the film's break even point was $300m (£227m).

Digger was the last standalone release for the studio before its recent takeover by Paramount.

Meanwhile, the new sequel to the Oscar-winning hit The Social Network also struggled at the box office on its opening weekend.

The Social Reckoning took $5.5m in the US, significantly lower than the $22m its predecessor took on its opening weekend in 2010, not adjusted for inflation.

Globally, Aaron Sorkin's latest film, starring Mikey Madison, Jeremy Strong and Jeremy Allen White, took around $9m (£6.8m).

The film tells the true story of a Facebook engineer, Frances Haugan, who leaked internal documents to a reporter after becoming concerned about some of the company's practices.

The Social Reckoning was beaten in the US box office chart by horror movie Other Mommy, psychological thriller Verity, video game adaptation Resident Evil and Brad Pitt's wilderness thriller Heart of the Beast.

US Homeland Security chief defends plan to livestream execution

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq0k0gl81yr2o, today

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chief has defended a plan to livestream the execution of convicted killer Nidal Hasan, rejecting claims that it could fuel radicalisation or make him a martyr.

"I don't see an elevated risk," Markwayne Mullin said on Sunday. "I think people need to understand that if you attack America, we will come after you, and we will make sure that the punishment fits the crime."

Hasan, a former US Army Major, is due to be executed by firing squad in December for shooting dead 13 soldiers at the Fort Hood military base in Texas.

The Trump administration has said it plans to livestream his death, prompting shock and concern from both Republicans and Democrats.

President Donald Trump has said he signed off on the execution, but while he approves of the livestream plan, a final decision is yet to be made.

It would be the first public execution in the US in almost a century.

The plan, which was announced by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth last week, has been heavily criticised by politicians, academics and experts.

Alaskan Republican Senator, Lisa Murkowski, called the decision "gruesome" and said livestreaming an execution was something she would expect "from terrorists and dictators, but not here in America".

"It would give this individual, who deserves no further notoriety, the martyrdom he seeks," she wrote on X, adding that "how we carry out justice matters just as much as the justice itself."

Virginia Democrat Mark Warner said that allowing the public to tune into the execution could heighten the national security risk.

"Beyond the profound moral concerns, a public execution could hand terrorist organizations a propaganda victory, fuel radicalization, and put American service members, diplomats, and citizens overseas at greater risk," he wrote.

But speaking to CBS news programme Face the Nation on Sunday, the DHS secretary rejected these concerns, and insisted the risks had been considered.

"[Hasan] killed 13 individuals on Fort Hood. I have no sympathy for him, and I give absolutely zero thought to the way that this man dies," Mullin told presenter Margaret Brennan.

Nidal Hasan, a former US Army major and psychiatrist from Virginia, admitted to fatally shooting 13 unarmed troops at a crowded medical building at the Fort Hood military base. A further 32 others were injured in the attack.

In court, Hasan apologised for "any mistakes" and said he believed he was protecting Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan from the US military. Hasan was shot during the attack and now uses a wheelchair.

His execution would be the first by the US military since 1961, and the military's first execution by firing squad since World War Two.

Russell Brand arrives at court for start of rape trial

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmqxn0lw25r3o, today

Russell Brand has arrived at court for the start of his rape and sexual assault trial.

The 51-year-old comedian and actor is facing several charges of rape and sexual assault against six women, which are alleged to have occurred between 1999 and 2009.

The trial at Southwark Crown Court, which could last up to 10 weeks, is expected to begin with the process of jury selection on Monday morning.

Brand pleaded not guilty to the charges during pre-trial hearings.

The comedian and actor arrived at court wearing a navy suit and sunglasses, accompanied by his wife Laura.

There was a large media presence at the court for the start of the trial, which is expected to last up to 10 weeks.

He has been charged with three counts of rape, three charges of sexual assault and one allegation of indecent assault.

He rose to fame as a stand-up comedian and became a household name as host of TV shows such as Big Brother's Big Mouth, and with his own radio programmes on stations including BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music.

Brand went on to establish a Hollywood career, starring in films including Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him To The Greek. In recent years, he has turned to podcasting.

Indian opposition leaders to march to top court to demand election chief resign

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwr5y2lgr4gdo, today

India's opposition parties are set to march to the Supreme Court in Delhi to demand the resignation of the election chief over alleged voter fraud.

This will be the latest in a series of demonstrations in Delhi, with thousands of security forces deployed and roads barricaded in the capital.

Attempts to hold a protest by the Cockroach Janata Party pressure group over the weekend led to thousands of demonstrators being detained.

Opposition parties allege that under Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, India's voter rolls are being manipulated to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Both the Election Commission and the BJP have rejected the charge.

The opposition lawmakers want to submit a memorandum to Chief Justice Surya Kant, but he has told reporters he declined the meeting citing "certain reasons".

He did not provide the reasons, but media reports citing the letter have said that he pointed out that some of the issues the opposition wanted to raise with him were also pending before the court. The BBC has not seen the letter.

"Every Indian citizen has the right to approach the court, and we will hear their concerns and grant whatever is due under the law," he told reporters.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, meanwhile, has called "all opposition parties, civil society groups [and] all those who believe in democracy" to join Monday's march.

Authorities in Delhi have announced heavy restrictions on traffic and on entry and exit at some key metro stations. There is also heavy security deployment in central Delhi and along the route of the march.

Over the past week, top opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, have been briefly detained several times while leading protests in central Delhi.

On Sunday, the CJP - which is not a registered political party - said it would continue protesting until Kumar stepped down.

The CJP, which successfully led a protest over the summer that culminated in India's federal education minister's resignation, had called for a march on Saturday to Jantar Mantar - the best-known protest site in Delhi where the last set of sit-in demonstrations had also happened.

But authorities in Delhi imposed overarching restrictions that made it almost impossible for protesters to travel and reach Jantar Mantar - trains were cancelled, dozens of metro stations were shut down and tens of thousands of police and paramilitary personnel were on the roads to detain protesters.

The CJP leaders - founder Abhijeet Dipke and co-convenors Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka - were dramatically detained from a plane as they landed in Delhi to join the protest.

They were only released a day later - while Dipke has returned home to attend his grandmother's funeral, Das and Ranka held a press conference where they said the protests would continue. Both leaders, however, did not join the protests on Sunday but have said they will seek a new protest date from the police.

Over the weekend, the police detained and released thousands of people, including several journalists. Some videos and photos from the protest show police dragging people, including women, by force and pushing them into buses.

The BBC also captured visuals of a policeman slapping a detained protester inside a bus. The Delhi Police did not respond to questions about the use of violence against protesters.

In a statement, Reporters Without Borders condemned the detention of at least 16 Indian journalists.

"Covering events of public interest is not a crime. It is their job. The police's actions against the press are unacceptable," it said.

Congress leader Gandhi said that young Indians who had come to peacefully protest with "love in their hearts, not hatred or anger" had been beaten up.

BJP President Nitin Nabin accused opposition parties and the CJP of trying to destabilise India "at the behest of foreign forces" without elaborating on who the forces were.

Pupil arrested after two teachers shot at French school

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2keg7910gvo, today

A student has been arrested after a principal and teacher were shot at a school on Monday morning, French media report.

The 14-year-old was reportedly detained after the incident at Lakanal middle school in Aubagne, southern France.

The teachers are said to have been treated for injuries which are not life-threatening.

Broadcaster BFMTV and Le Parisien reported that the incident was not thought to be related to ongoing protests over school conditions, citing sources familiar with the investigation.

Education Minister Edouard Geffray wrote on social media: "Two staff members from the National Education system, a principal and a teacher, were victims this morning of gunshot wounds at Lakanal middle school in Aubagne.

"A student is said to be the perpetrator."

He is due to visit the scene near Marseille with Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez on Monday afternoon.

Citroen revives the 2CV for an electric age

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c620r33plgppo, today

French carmaker Citroen has brought back its 2CV brand in a bid to boost sales of electric cars in a difficult market.

The new model, unveiled at the Paris Motor Show, is a small city runabout with retro styling which harks back to one of the company's most famous designs.

As a "concept car" intended to show Citroen's direction of travel, it is not yet ready to go on sale but the plan is to have a version in showrooms by 2028.

As they face mounting competition from Chinese manufacturers, Citroen and other European brands are exploiting their heritage as a means of selling modern motors.

Farmers’ favourite

Citroen chief executive Xavier Chardon described the new car as "a modern, ingenious and refreshing response to the mobility challenges of tomorrow".

The original Citroen 2CV was launched in 1948, as Europe was recovering from the ravages of World War Two. It was designed as a cheap, robust way for French farmers and country folk to get around.

The car had high wheel arches and soft suspension, letting it travel across a ploughed field or rough roads - as legend would have it, without breaking a tray of duck eggs.

Its high roof let drivers wear a hat at the wheel. It was easy to drive and simple to repair.

The car was so popular, it remained in production for more than 40 years. Over time, it went from being a utilitarian tool for the countryside to a cult classic, and a favourite of hippies and counter-culturalists.

Now, Citroen wants to draw on that heritage to sell an electric, small city car that is expected to sell for less than £15,000.

The look of the new 2CV may well evolve as Citroen develops its design. But as it stands, it shares plenty of styling features with its famous predecessor.

The high, flared wheel arches, the tall, curved roof and the eye-like headlights are all reminders of the original "deux chevaux" or "two horses".

By using memories of an old car to sell a new one, Citroen is following a well-travelled road.

VW notoriously brought back the Beetle in the late 1990s, with limited success.

BMW's Minis have always carried styling designed to hark back to the very British original. Fiat has been selling a retro-styled Fiat 500 for the past two decades.

Retro-nostalgia

But the retro-nostalgia trend has accelerated recently, as carmakers have looked for ways to sell electric cars to sceptical consumers.

Citroen's French rival, Renault, has led the charge. It started with the Renault 5 E-Tech, which visually echoed the distinctive boxy styling of the original Renault 5, once an ever-present sight on French streets. It has since revived the Renault 4 and Twingo brands as well.

VW has the distinctive ID-Buzz minivan, a throwback to the classic T2 Transporter, while Ford is working on a new EV which is widely expected to be called the Fiesta.

Rachel Burgess, senior editor of Autocar magazine, thinks it is a strategy that makes perfect sense.

"It's a brilliant differentiator from all-new car brands", she says. "An older audience might remember the originals and feel warmly towards them, and a younger audience might find an appeal in the retro aspect."

Finding new ways to make cars appealing has become more important than ever, at a time when European manufacturers are facing growing competition from Chinese brands.

"Many in the industry believe the big automotive players in Europe…face a very serious existential threat from aggressive Chinese manufacturers," says David Leggett, automotive editor at Global Data.

In this hostile business environment, heritage and nostalgia could prove to be powerful weapons for more established brands, thinks automotive researcher and author Dr Paul Nieuwenhuis.

"In a world where a wave of credible decent quality Chinese EVs are hitting Europe, linking European designs back to their history while using the latest powertrain technology is something the Chinese cannot do," he says.

"The Chinese can establish new design trends, but there is limited history there."

But Leggett thinks Citroen will need more than a heady whiff of nostalgia to turn its new car into a best-seller.

"A reimagined Citroën 2CV should give a big nod to its ancestor - especially on price and design simplicity as well as visual cues," he says.

"But it also needs to be a credible modern electric car in terms of functionality and features, with widespread appeal."

Childhood cancer symptoms can be easily missed - here's what to look out for

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwm237z77dgyo, today

Although rare, cancer is the leading cause of death from disease among children under 15 in the UK - yet just under a third of parents say they feel confident recognising the symptoms.

About 1,900 children aged 0-14 are diagnosed with cancer each year, according to Cancer Research UK.

Thirteen-year-old Amelia Carroll, who is now in remission, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) last year.

Her mum Gemma recalls the initial symptoms being easy to overlook.

There was the tiredness, she says, and being out of breath after mild exercise but both were put down to being unfit and just post-school fatigue.

It was only when Amelia started presenting with bruises Gemma knew something wasn't right - within 10 days Amelia got her leukaemia diagnosis.

What are the symptoms to look out for?

Prof Bob Phillips, a paediatric oncologist, says it's key for parents to look out for clusters of symptoms that may be persisting, getting worse or bigger.

Consider contacting a doctor over the following:

* Extreme tiredness

* Looking really pale

* Bruises that you can't explain

* Lumps and bumps that are getting bigger or not going away and growing over time

Cancer in children develops much more quickly than in adults - effectively due to them growing.

Experts like Phillips at CCLG, the Children and Young People's Cancer Association, are urging people to follow a national campaign aiming to raise awareness and improve diagnosis times.

It includes a rule-of-three for professionals: If a child has had three persistent symptoms, or has visited their doctor three times, or has had three weeks of unexplained symptoms consider making a referral.

Although, it's important to note survival rates have risen significantly since the 1970s, with eight out of 10 children surviving beyond five to 10 years or more after diagnosis.

For Amelia, her cancer journey began with a single red bruise that came out of nowhere, says Gemma.

Three days later, she had bruises down both of her shins on both legs, which were sore and raised.

"We'd gone to the opticians for a routine appointment and they noticed that she'd got some burst blood vessels but they weren't sure why," she adds.

Within 10 days, doctors had confirmed what type of leukaemia Amelia had and she was admitted to hospital to begin treatment.

"On the day that they confirmed what she had, I sat her down and she said to me 'have I got cancer?' and I said yes you have. She asked me if she was going to die."

"I said no, they're doing everything they can, they've got a plan in place and the treatment is going to do everything it can to beat the cancer."

Amelia is currently in remission, undergoing regular bone marrow and blood tests every three months, and has returned to school.

Phillips says survival rates for childhood cancer in the UK are over 80% but that even quicker diagnosis would lead to less intensive treatments.

'Raising awareness is his legacy'

Around the UK, about half the children diagnosed with cancer get their diagnosis within two weeks, he says.

"It's pretty quick but we want the other half to not have the wait of 16, 18, 20, 25 weeks from those first symptoms to get a diagnosis."

Cancer Research UK data shows that there are more than 400,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed every year in the UK, with only 54% being told within the 28-day NHS target window, according to the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

An additional 2,300 teenagers and young adults (aged 15–24) are diagnosed each year.

Lynsey Swinscoe is mum to Jake, who died of soft tissue cancer aged 13. Jake was diagnosed with stage three, fusion positive alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma in July 2023.

Before his diagnosis, Jake's initial symptoms of a stuffy nose and watery eyes were put down to hayfever, and falling asleep after school was thought to be just end-of-term tiredness.

"It was only when he started to get a swelling across the bridge of his nose that we thought right, we need to take him to the GP," Lynsey says.

"But at that point we didn't really think the fatigue and hayfever symptoms were related."

A mass was found in Jake's nose and nasal cavity and he was diagnosed with soft tissue sarcoma. He completed nine rounds of chemotherapy and proton beam radiation.

After suffering seizures and feeling very unwell from the chemotherapy, Jake opted out of continuing treatment.

He passed away peacefully at home on 26 April 2024, just two weeks before his 14th birthday.

"I think the main thing with Jake is he was not scared to die. We had lots of conversations about dying and what it might feel like to die and the only thing that he was sort of scared about was, 'are all the people going to remember me? Is everyone just going to forget who I am?'

"That's why I'm doing this, to make sure that people know who Jake is, to make sure people know how incredible he was. And so with that comes the raising awareness, which I think, that's his legacy."

'It's the most terrifying thing that can happen to you': Robert Pattinson on new film Primetime

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmn5d92423vyo, today

Robert Pattinson is having quite the year.

The British actor has already starred opposite Zendaya in The Drama, and played a key role in summer blockbuster The Odyssey.

But his new film, Primetime, takes him in a completely new direction - as he portrays the real-life host of American TV show, To Catch a Predator.

The show, which aired from 2004 to 2007, involved hunting alleged child abusers.

For Pattinson, who became a father almost three years ago, the film's plot is particularly concerning.

"It's both the most terrifying thing that can happen to you, whether you're a parent, or even if you're not," he told BBC News at the film's screening at London Film Festival.

"It's the most unimaginable sin possible," he added.

The new A24 crime thriller depicts the show's host, NBC journalist Chris Hansen, carrying out sting operations on would-be predators.

The show was a ratings hit.

But it also led to questions over where to draw the line between investigative journalism, police activity and reality television.

Speaking on Sunday night, Pattinson reflected on the show's complicated legacy.

"The show was this kind of microcosm of saying, 'oh, we can do something about [child abuse], and we can do something about it really, really, really quickly," he said.

"And in some ways, that's correct, but it also makes for incredibly powerful TV, and that's when it gets into slightly dicey territory."

When asked whether he thinks attitudes towards entertainment have now changed, Pattinson paused.

"I think on mainstream TV, but then it's just been replaced," he replied, pointing out that similar content has since appeared on social media.

"That's why I was interested in the show, because I could see the beginning of a new wave of 'predator catching' in pretty much the same format that it was in the early 2000s," he said. "And I was just interested as to why that was happening."

"And it got bigger and bigger and bigger, and now it's one of the most massive things on social media."

Hansen himself has been critical of the film, calling it "bizarre" and "detached from reality" in a video posted on X.

Addressing his criticisms, director Lance Oppenheim said: "I agree, that was by design.

"I always thought of this movie as more of a fever dream than something that was representational portrait."

Oppenheim added there was something "ancient" about the desire to watch people getting publicly punished.

"It's happened for thousands of years," he added. "I wanted to make something that interrogated that."

Oppenheim, who is also currently co-directing with Nathan Fielder a highly anticipated documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, said separately of that project: "I want everyone to see it. It's a really special movie."

From Twilight to the Oscars?

Pattinson, 40, became something of a pin-up after playing vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight series, alongside American actress Kristen Stewart.

Before that, he stole young hearts as Hufflepuff hunk Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

He has since starred in major films including Christopher Nolan's Tenet, as well as a range of eccentric, indie films.

This year, he has been on a roll, with Dune: Part Three still to come.

He’s also got the next Batman film in the pipeline, although production on that has reportedly paused. When asked when they'll be back to work, Pattinson didn’t give much away ("We don't know yet, but yeah, working on it.")

Primetime has also led to speculation that this could be the year that Pattinson gets his first ever Oscars nomination. Is that likely, I wonder?

"I am eternally grateful that I got these jobs," he responds.

"But then [to have] been able to even do them, this is one of the best years of my life."

Mourners killed by Kenya police at ex-PM's national farewell not part of violence, BBC finds

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c962y4ld1d7do, today

Three mourners killed when Kenyan police opened fire at a national farewell for former Prime Minister Raila Odinga were not involved in a clash that sparked gunfire, a BBC Africa Eye investigation has found.

During an event held last October for people to pay their respects to Odinga, three people were shot dead after mourners attempted to gain access to the VIP section of Nairobi's Kasarani Stadium by force.

BBC analysis from inside the stadium shows the victims were each between at least 60m (197 ft) and 160m from the scuffles.

Kenya's Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen told the BBC that the police action had been "restrained" after the crowd starting throwing stones.

In footage analysed by the BBC, it is clear that objects, including plastic chairs, are thrown, but we have no evidence that they included stones.

The BBC went through more than 1,500 images and videos to establish the location of those killed in the stadium on 16 October 2025, and also spoke to some of their relatives.

Forensic analysis by the BBC suggests an elite police unit responsible for protecting the president may have fired the fatal shots.

Kenya's longest serving opposition leader and former prime minister died the previous day while receiving medical treatment in India. He was one of the country's most influential political figures.

A year on, Kenya's police watchdog, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), is still investigating the deaths and police response and no-one has been held to account.

The interior minister defended the police by saying they had been under "so much pressure" after working for many hours non-stop and had been deployed to a new venue at the last minute.

"The investigations are being done by an independent police oversight authority, we believe that their findings will help us take appropriate legal action," Murkomen said.

Responding to questions about the conduct of police he said: "I don't think… somebody [was] sitting there and saying: 'Shoot now'. It is the judgment of the police officer at the spur of the moment."

Yvonne Akinyi, who husband was among those killed told the BBC: "The people who we look at to protect us, these are the people that cause us this pain. These are the people that make us to become young widows in this country, young orphans in this county," she said.

Odinga's death at 80 prompted an outpouring of grief across Kenya. Thousands gathered at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport as his body was flown home.

The body had originally been due to lie in state at parliament, but the scale of the crowds and fears of a security breach forced a last-minute change of venue to Kasarani Stadium. Officials say they had little time to secure the 48,000-capacity venue, and thousands spilled onto the pitch and into the stands unchecked.

After several hours of waiting to see the coffin in 30C heat with no public address system for official updates, a small section of the crowd began throwing objects, including plastic chairs, at officers guarding the VIP pavilion. Police fired live rounds as mourners pushed toward the pavilion. Footage from elsewhere in the stadium shows the crowd remained largely peaceful.

In total, three people were killed.

One of them was Evans Kiche, a 40 year-old-chef and father to seven children. BBC analysis shows he was around 60m from the confrontation when he was killed by a gunshot wound to the head.

The two other mourners killed, Vincent Ogutu and Jidah Burka, were at least 160m away, in the opposite stands, far removed from the pavilion.

Autopsy reports confirm that Ogutu died from a gunshot wound to the chest and 42 year-old Burka was fatally shot in the head.

Piecing together a timeline of events, BBC Africa Eye identified at least eight police officers operating together, wearing tactical clothing and military camouflage. These officers carry assault rifles, with no visible insignia and faces covered.

Their uniforms and movements are consistent with a layer of security assigned to President William Ruto and other VIPs before and after the shooting. At least three officers of this unit appear to fire their weapons.

The BBC identified three of them as part of an elite police unit responsible for presidential protection.

The BBC cannot establish which bullets killed each victim, and cannot rule out other officers firing inside the stadium.

Kenya's National Police Service told the BBC: "There are huge lessons picked from the day's events," which had "formed a fundamental learning curve for a better, more professional application in the future." The IPOA did not respond to a request for comment.

Ogutu, a 36-year-old father of three, hadn't planned to go to Kasarani, his wife told the BBC. He was in central Nairobi on the morning of 16 October with friends when they saw the crowds heading to the stadium and decided to join.

Within hours, he was dead.

His widow Yvonne Akinyi described how the killing upended their family, saying their children were now orphans.

As she prepares to mark a year since her husband's death, Akinyi is no closer to understanding why he died while paying his respects at an event organised by the government.

"I will just try to be that strong woman. Very strong. But deep inside there is a hole," she said.

"It is very painful because sometimes you just sit down and ask yourself. At Kasarani there were so many people, so many of them. Why him."

More from BBC Africa Eye:

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

Sacha Baron Cohen to star in Quentin Tarantino's West End play

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqj9k23rynnpo, today

Borat actor Sacha Baron Cohen will star in a new play in London's West End from Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino.

The Popinjay Cavalier, set in 1830s Europe, was announced earlier this year and is the first play to be written for stage by the US filmmaker, who is also set to direct.

Baron Cohen said he was "beyond delighted" to be working with Tarantino, saying: "When the best director in the world calls, you don't ask questions."

The director, best known for violent film classics Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, has said he is "keen with anticipation to give the West End a great night out".

The play is set to premiere in March next year, with tickets available from Monday.

The production was announced in March this year as a "rambunctious comedy of deception and disguise inspired by the grand swashbuckling epics of stage and screen".

Baron Cohen, 54, is known for his self-created comic characters including infamous spoof wannabe gangster Ali G, Kazakh reporter Borat Sagdiyev, and Austrian fashionista Brüno Gehard.

He has won two Baftas and three Golden Globes, as well as being nominated for three Oscars and six Emmys.

The full cast for The Popinjay Cavalier is planned to be announced at a later date.

The play will be co-produced by Sony Pictures Entertainment, which distributed Tarantino's most recent film Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, and Sonia Friedman Productions, which has overseen hits like Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Paddington the Musical.

The director has repeatedly spoken about planning to retire from movies after making 10 films.

He has made nine so far - he counts Kill Bill Volumes One and Two together - and has won two Oscars, for writing Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained.

Tarantino revealed his plan to stage a play last summer, telling the Church of Tarantino podcast it was "all written".

"It is absolutely the next thing I'm going to do. We'll start the ball rolling on it in January. It's probably going to take up a year and a half to two years of my life, if it's a success and I've got to do the tour version of it and all that," he said.

"I'm preparing for it to be a success. If it's a flop, I'll be done very quickly."

The Popinjay Cavalier will premiere at the Phoenix Theatre on 18 March 2027, with tickets starting from £25.

The 63-year-old director lives in Tel Aviv with his Israeli wife, Daniella Pick, and their two children. He told the podcast last year that he would "more than likely move to England and bring my family with me" while working on the play.

Tarantino is also known for his forthright personality and made headlines at the end of last year for launching a stinging criticism of actor Paul Dano, as well as in March this year for a spat with Pulp Fiction actress Rosanna Arquette after she criticised the use of the N-word in the 1994 film.

Australian detained in Iraq for years on his way home

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6jrwy92v5wvo, today

Australian engineer Robert Pether has left Iraq five years after he was arrested and, according to the UN, arbitrarily detained.

The 51-year-old was jailed on fraud charges in 2021 alongside a colleague amid a contract dispute between the consulting firm he worked for and the Central Bank of Iraq.

The UN has said Pether's detention was illegal, and an international court has ruled his employer is not responsible for the business disagreement.

On Monday the Australian government confirmed Pether was on his way to being reunited with his family - who feared he would die in prison - at their home in Ireland.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the outcome followed "many years of persistent advocacy" by Australia and the Irish authorities.

"I spoke to Mr Pether shortly before his departure from Baghdad and am pleased he is now free to move forward with his life," she said.

"I'm hugely relieved," his wife Desree Pether told the BBC in a statement.

"It's been an absolute nightmare, especially these last few months. So many obstacles and plot twists right up to the last minute."

"We weren't going to say anything until he was safe at the end of his journey," she said, adding he was still in transit.

Pether was conditionally released from prison in Iraq last year, but barred from leaving the country, with Canberra at the time saying he continued to face the prospect of more legal proceedings.

Pether worked in the Middle East for almost a decade before taking on a huge rebuild of the Central Bank of Iraq's Baghdad headquarters in 2015.

He was arrested alongside his CME Consulting colleague, Egyptian Khalid Radwan, after the bank accused the men of stealing money from the project.

After being held without charge for almost six months, and then subjected to a speedy trial, the two were each given a five-year jail sentence and a joint fine of $12m (A$18.4m, £8.8m).

However, a 2022 report from the UN determined that the case contravened international law, and that Pether and Khalid had been subjected to "abusive and coercive" interrogations.

Iraq's government has previously denied allegations of ill treatment.

In 2023, the International Chamber of Commerce's (ICC) Court of Arbitration ruled that Iraq's central bank was at fault in the dispute with CME, and ordered it to pay $13m to the company.

Rejecting closer EU ties would be dereliction of duty, PM to say

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6lyk8e3lxz0o, today

The prime minister is expected to tell the Commons later it would be a "dereliction of duty" to turn down a closer relationship with the European Union - if one can be negotiated with Brussels.

In a statement to MPs on Monday, Andy Burnham will argue it is time to "face up to the reality that Brexit has done more harm than good" and "the status quo is not good enough for Britain."

He first pledged to explore closer ties with the bloc at a UK-EU summit later this year at the Labour Party conference last month.

Addressing the Commons, Burnham is expected to say that a new deal with the EU could help tackle illegal immigration and boost economic growth.

He will claim that if he could secure that then "the vast majority of the public would expect us to take it".

Last month, Burnham told the BBC it was "possible" a future Labour election manifesto could promise a new in-out referendum on the EU.

A summit between the UK and the EU was due to take place in the summer but was postponed after Sir Keir Starmer announced his resignation. It has been rescheduled for next month.

The prime minister hopes to secure tweaks to the current arrangements between London and Brussels and also begin a wider conversation about the long term relationship between the UK and its nearest neighbours.

A No 10 source said: "Andy understands why some politicians don't want to face up to the reality that Brexit has not delivered what they once promised.

"But it is time for a different conversation about what our long-term relationship should be. Sticking with the status quo and not working relentlessly to secure a good deal that boosts growth would be a major dereliction of duty."

In his speech at Labour's conference, he said "immigration control" had been "weakened by Brexit" because the UK "lost collaboration with our European partners. And we are still having to work hard to bring it back".

Speaking at her party conference last week, the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said it was "a terrible idea" to "reopen the Brexit debate."

"Can you imagine having to go through that again? So much time lost, arguing with ourselves with the EU. Going round in circles, businesses not knowing whether they should invest. He wants to do it all again."

The Commons sits on Monday for the first time since 15 September, having been in recess during some of the party conferences.

Reform pledges to suspend asylum system for up to five years and deport claimants

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwnv0zmjld51o, today

Reform UK has announced plans to close down the UK's asylum system for a full parliamentary term if it were elected.

The party said all new asylum applications would be rejected and existing applications voided, with all claimants marked for deportation. It said no grants of humanitarian protection or refugee status would be made, while legal refugee routes and resettlement schemes would end.

Reform said it would also scrap the asylum tribunal system and would deport 90,000 people currently with appeal cases, with home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf saying it would ensure Britain has a "functioning border".

Labour called the proposals a "clear sign of desperation and weakness".

Reform said its existing plans to make migrants who have entered the UK illegally, overstayed a visa or originated from a safe country ineligible for asylum would effectively prevent any current asylum claimant "from ever having their case heard".

The party said it would therefore "suspend the asylum system entirely for a full parliamentary term".

A parliamentary term usually lasts five years unless an early UK general election is called.

Under further proposals, Reform said it would pull the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), repeal the Human Rights Act 1998 and disapply the 1951 Refugee Convention to prevent legal challenges to its plans.

And the party said it would ban British visas for countries such as Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan and Sudan if they refuse to allow deportation flights to land in their country.

For countries without a significant legal foreign national presence in the UK, the party said it would look at tariffs on goods and services for non-compliance.

Party leader Nigel Farage said the UK is "facing a national security emergency", adding the country "cannot accept more asylum seekers while we still have no idea how many people are in the country illegally and the threat they pose."

He and Yusuf will formally announce the plans in a speech on Monday.

"We've got to prioritise the British people," Yusuf said, pointing to Britons "dying totally avoidably waiting for emergency care" and young people "being forced to stay at home with their parents well into their 30s and 40s because they can't afford to rent homes".

He added: "We will not be returning people into harm, but we have to be honest about the fact that fraud is rampant."

He claimed the millions of unauthorised immigrants deported under former US President Barack Obama's administration showed there was "precedent" for the party's plans.

Home Office staff who currently oversee asylum claims would be "reprioritised to reviewing and overturning previous refugee grants", Reform added.

It also said it would create a specialised agency focusing on the detention and deportation of those in the UK illegally, with 24,000 to 28,000 detention spaces needed to be stood up.

Under Reform's previous pledge in April for an immediate review of all asylum claims from the last five years should the party win the next general election, about 400,000 people would be liable for deportation.

The party previously announced it would bar anyone arriving on a small boat, and suggested this could mean 600,000 deportations over five years.

In response to the party's latest announcement, Bridget Phillipson said Farage is "casting around for more and more extreme policies" as he deals with questions about finances and rival party Restore Britain.

The Labour chair said her party is showing "we can control immigration and get numbers down with serious action, not by abandoning the asylum system altogether", adding the "right approach" is "not giving up or caving to the most extreme voices, but ensuring that the rules we have are properly enforced".

In March, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said any asylum seeker given refugee status will now only be offered temporary protection, reviewed every 30 months.

In September, she also reopened a scheme to resettle refugees in the UK, saying she hoped that offering "safe and legal" routes would deter small boat crossings.

Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the proposals "largely copy" his party's policies, arguing: "Only the Conservatives have a serious and credible plan to fix our borders."

The Tories previously said they would task officials with removing 750,000 illegal immigrants within five years, under Trump-style deportation plans.

Lib Dems home affairs spokesperson Max Wilkinson said the "UK can only restore order, control and fairness by joining the EU migration and asylum pact", which increases the number of irregular migrants returned to their home countries and spreads responsibility for asylum seekers across the EU.

Ray Quinn says baby boy was 'born sleeping'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwp8gyp51rqro, today

Singer and actor Ray Quinn has spoken of the "heartbreaking" loss of his baby son, Rio, who was stillborn.

The former Brookside actor said his son Rio was "born sleeping" on 20 August at Liverpool Women's University Hospital.

Quinn said his son was a "beautiful boy" as he paid tribute on his Instagram page.

He said: "No words will ever be enough, just a lot of indescribable feelings."

Quinn married dance teacher Emily Fletcher in October 2023.

His statement on social media continued: "The last few weeks have been a lot but our saving grace has been each other."

The X-Factor star thanked staff at Liverpool Women's Hospital for their care. He said it had been "the most heartbreaking week of our lives" but that medical staff had helped make "special memories with our boy to keep forever".

'Our whole world stopped'

The couple have also talked about the loss on their YouTube channel The Quinns.

In the episode Emily said: "Pregnancy and having children is a very special thing, but it does have risks and things can happen that you least expect. That's happened to us."

The 34-year-old described how, when a nurse broke the news that there was no heartbeat during a scan at six months, their "whole world stopped".

"All our hopes and taking our little baby back to our renovated house just crashed before us", she added.

The couple said they were sharing their story in the hope "it helps those out there who find themselves in a similar situation to us."

Baby Loss Awareness Week takes place from 9 to 15 October.

* If you have been affected by any of the issues in this story, you can visit the BBC Action Line for information and support

Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram, and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.

Teen 'detached from reality' to cope with return of aggressive cancer

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqzeze69dd8yo, today

A teenage boy with lymphoma says he coped with the return of his cancer by detaching himself from his illness, following advice from father who also faced the disease.

Ethan Griffiths, 14, was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma - a type of fast-growing non-Hodgkin lymphoma (nHL) - in January, undergoing chemotherapy and being declared cancer-free in May, before having an "aggressive" relapse.

The sport and gaming-mad teen, who underwent a new treatment being trialled in Bristol, came home to Maesteg cancer-free again in September.

"Through it all I tried to stay as positive as I could," said Ethan, adding it was his dad Lloyd, also a cancer survivor, who was often "losing his head".

News of the young rugby player's relapse came just two weeks after getting home from the hospital.

"It was much more heartbreaking because I was getting back into everything," he said.

"I went to school for half a day, and I was going to the gym quite regularly and getting back into fitness.

"Then obviously to hear that news was really horrendous."

His family faced "immeasurable stress" as Ethan joined a clinical trial at Bristol Royal Hospital Children for patients with B-cell nHL who had not responded to treatment or had relapsed.

The UK-wide trial involving two new drugs offered just a 50% chance of success.

"I would just switch off and he'd be losing his head next to me," Ethan said, nodding to his dad.

His strategy for staying calm was simple: "Stick my earphones in, listen to music and try to fall asleep."

Lloyd admitted his son probably gets his "stoic side" from mum Rusanne.

But the 56-year-old project manager said his own experience with a different type of lymphoma may have also helped.

He said: "One thing I said to Ethan from the start, probably when we first found out he'd relapsed, was: 'You're a passenger on this journey. You're not in control, you can't affect the outcome. So you have to kind of keep trying to detach yourself'."

Lloyd said Ethan "seemed to detach himself entirely from this whole nine months in a way".

"It's been quite inspiring really, how well he's managed to do that."

Ethan said in some ways undergoing treatment a second time was easier because he knew what to expect.

But mentally he said it was harder.

"Obviously you are thinking to yourself 'When is this all going to end?'"

His latest treatment involved intensive chemotherapy followed by a transplant using stem cells collected earlier in the process.

It meant spending several weeks in hospital in protective isolation.

"I found it alright to be honest," Ethan said.

"It was just very boring because we were in isolation."

Now home, Ethan is trying to get back to normal life.

He said he still becomes "really tired just walking" and knows it will take time to get back to rugby.

His immediate priority is to "build things up slowly with fitness" and catch up on schoolwork, initially through online lessons before gradually returning to the classroom.

"When my health is back up, start going in for half days maybe and slowly build everything back up," Ethan said.

Ukraine strikes Yandex data centre in third attack on Russian tech giant

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw0k0g57mk3zo, today

Yandex has been forced to pause its operations at a data centre near Moscow after the facility was damaged in a Ukrainian drone strike - the third attack on the Russian tech giant's sites this week.

The company - dubbed "Russia's Google" - said no one was injured at the centre in Vladimir, east of the capital, but some of its services were unavailable to users.

Earlier this week, Yandex said it was struggling to maintain its services after two of its five data centres were hit in Ukrainian strikes.

Both Russia and Ukraine have stepped up attacks on infrastructure in recent months as the war between them continues in its fifth year following Russia's full-scale invasion.

Kyiv said it was targeting places that provide revenue streams for Moscow's war machine, and that the attacks could force Russia to divert its resources to repair the damage at Yandex.

Sunday's attack came hours after US President Donald Trump warned that Ukraine should "damn well stop" attacking Russia's oil refineries so Moscow could release more diesel to the global market - a deal that has drawn criticism from Europe and sparked a diplomatic row with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Yandex confirmed on Telegram that its data centre in Vladimir had been damaged and that operations had been "completely suspended", although it said it was working to restore connectivity.

The other strikes against Yandex facilities were on Thursday in Sasovo and Friday in Kaluga, south-west of Moscow, causing problems for some of its services, such as its AI chatbot and smart home devices.

The tech company - which also runs a food-ordering and taxi app used by tens of millions of people - said at the time that its data centres were critical for the normal operation of its services, and that it was "very difficult to predict" when they would be back online.

Meanwhile, Russian strikes on Ukraine have continued through the weekend.

The State Emergency Service of Ukraine said six people were injured in Russian attacks overnight on four districts in its south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region.

On Saturday, at least 20 people including four children were killed in Russian attacks on Zaporizhzhia, local officials confirmed.

Russia has previously also struck Ukrainian data centres, causing internet outages and prompting some firms to move their servers abroad.

Iran war threatens Healey's Budget plans, think tank warns

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm78pwdp3n5qo, today

The price spike caused by the US-Israel war in Iran poses a major challenge for Chancellor John Healey as he puts together his first Budget, an influential think tank has warned.

Higher-than-expected inflation could eat into what the government hoped to spend on public services, meaning Healey will have to choose between spending cuts, tax rises, or a mixture of both, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said.

It urged the government to ensure its spending plans are credible, as opposed to proposing unrealistic future cuts to make the Budget add up.

The Treasury declined to comment on "rumour and speculation".

However, speaking ahead of the annual International Monetary Fund meeting this week, Healey said: "The consequences of conflict in the Middle East and Europe are hitting countries worldwide, leading to higher prices at the pumps and more expensive mortgages at home.

"But Britain and our allies can face up to these challenges together."

He said his Budget "will build on this approach with fiscal discipline helping to deliver economic resilience" and give people "breathing space".

However, the government is under growing pressure to show financial markets that it has a tight grip on finances as the cost of borrowing rises.

The IFS cautioned Healey about making any spending announcements in the 28 October Budget speech he has no intention of honouring.

"A 'steady-as-she-goes' Budget is not an option available to the chancellor," said IFS director Helen Miller said.

"Choosing to stay the course with the inherited tax and spending plans would mean allowing inflation to blow departments' spending plans off course.

"Simply pencilling in implicit cuts that he has no intention of delivering would make the Budget a work of fiction," she added.

The US-Israel war against Iran and Russia's invasion of Ukraine have together helped drive up energy prices around the world.

These higher costs have been passed to customers via higher prices on shelves and at the pumps.

The wars have also contributed to a rise in the cost of UK government debt interest payments, adding to the pressure on Healey.

Although higher inflation will boost tax revenues, it will also eat into the value of departments' cash budgets, the IFS said.

'Breathing space'

Like other analysts, the IFS thinks recent turbulence on bond markets and higher inflation will add around £10bn to forecasts for the government's borrowing costs in 2029-30.

However, it still expects the government to meet its self-imposed fiscal rules - that it will only borrow for investment projects by the financial year 2029-30 and also be reducing debt as a percentage of GDP - not least as inflation pushes up tax revenues.

But it expects those rules to be met by a smaller buffer - known as "headroom" - of around £20bn. That is less than the £24bn buffer predicted at the time of the Spring Statement by the official forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

Recent indications have been that the markets would be comfortable with that degree of reduced headroom. The IFS also expects any "breathing space" help for households to be temporary and limited in scale.

However, the IFS warns that in such a volatile environment, its forecasts are exceptionally uncertain. And the official forecast from the OBR - which the chancellor relies on when making his plans - may come to a very different conclusion.

The IFS reckons that to maintain departments' budgets in the face of higher inflation, the government may need to find an extra £25bn in 2029-30.

That is before consider considering the ambition to raise defence spending. Raising such an amount would point to significant tax rises.

The chancellor does not have to address spending totals in this Budget, and may choose to leave such decisions until future events - for example, next year's Spring Statement or Spending Review - by which time the outlook for the economy could look very different.

But the IFS warned that the spending plans inherited from the previous chancellor, Rachel Reeves, would mean some departments' budgets would not keep pace with inflation in a few years time.

It said not addressing this would cast doubt on the credibility of the government's plans.

However, previous chancellors have relied on a similar strategy of pencilling in unrealistic future spending plans to ensure that they meet the fiscal rules on the day - only to change the plans further down the line.

AI is less regulated than milk, says Microsoft president

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6rmy7zmvx3lo, today

Milk and washing machines are currently more regulated than AI, the president of Microsoft has said.

Brad Smith said there needed to be global safety rules in place, including a legal obligation to tell a "victim" if their system is breached by a rogue AI agent as well as deciding when outside evaluators should sign off on an AI product before it is released.

His comments put him at odds with President Donald Trump, who said the sector should regulate itself so US firms don't lose out to Chinese rivals.

But Smith said: "Right now, your washing machine is subject to more safety rules than AI. Every carton of milk that you see in the grocery store is subject to safety rules and inspection."

Demands for laws and rules to control AI have grown after experts in the sector said they believed the technology its a threat to humanity.

The bosses of the US-based AI giants such as Anthropic, OpenAI and Google DeepMind have all backed the idea of an AI development slowdown, but Trump has pushed against this.

Speaking to the BBC's Big Boss Interview, Smith called AI both a "tool and a weapon" that urgently needed to be regulated.

"Let's get started today," he said.

He said firms need "emergency brakes" – often known in the industry as 'kill switches' – to pause or slowdown AI if it got out of control in some way.

He also said there should be a legal requirement for firms to write "incident reports" and tell victims if the technology goes rogue. He also suggested that independent government evaluators should vet new AI technology.

"We know how to do this for other products," Smith said. "We should build on that knowledge and think about how to apply it to AI."

Smith said the UK was best placed to drive forward these global rules for AI because of its AI Security Institute, launched during former prime minister Rishi Sunak's government as the AI Safety Institute.

"In the world of technology, in the tech sector, most people that I know would say, if you ask them, name the country that is the leader in having this technical capability, they would say, it's very simple. It's the United Kingdom. They are the best."

'The moment has arrived'

Smith's views are very different to those of his president, who believes the US should be going full-steam ahead on AI.

Trump has repeatedly said that "whoever wins AI, wins".

However, Smith does not believe the US government would be as opposed to UK-led AI regulations as Trump's comments make it seem, suggesting the US would be more accepting of the UK making standards than the EU.

"In Washington DC, people don't look at the UK and they don't look at London the way they look at Brussels – that's a strength," he said.

"When you look at AI agents that have escaped human control, when you look at models that are so powerful that they're putting the world's cybersecurity at risk. I would say: The moment has arrived.

"Let's speak calmly, maybe even softly, but firmly, and start to bring people together. I hope that's the role we can play as a company. I hope that's the role the UK can play as a country."

At the end of last month, Trump hosted the leaders of US tech giants OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, SpaceX, Meta, and Google at the White House where the executives signed a "morally binding" document.

The companies agreed to work with "independent auditors" to assess whether their AI systems are working as intended and make sure they do not "hack or access technical systems in unintended ways".

Smith said he applauds the statement and Microsoft is "happy to sign it".

"It's a good step, it's a necessary step... But I don't think it's sufficient any longer."

He added that the challenge for any "self-regulatory regime" is that "the good companies will do what you want".

"It's the companies that are not as responsible that you need to worry about."

Debt advice that may leave you owing even more money

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c84g1xz1l9ddo, today

An increasing number of people are missing credit card repayments as finances are stretched by rising bills.

Lenders have told the Bank of England they expect the number of unpaid credit card debts to keep going up this autumn.

This could lead to more demand for advice on how to deal with debts – but, if you are struggling and need help, there are some traps to avoid.

And it is worth remembering that impartial advice is available free of charge from debt charities. So here's what to think about.

How to find help

If you find yourself with money troubles, it can be tempting to seize any opportunity to get things back on track.

Social media and internet search pages are full of supposed quick-fix debt solutions. Cold calls and WhatsApp messages also promise debt help.

But they may well come with upfront fees, unrealistic claims about writing off debt, and pressure to make a quick decision.

Suggestions on the best way to find help include:

* Anyone unhappy with the service from an authorised firm can complain and, if you are still not happy, go to the independent Financial Ombudsman Service.

Alison Walters, director of consumer finance at the FCA, said: "Anyone struggling with debt deserves advice that puts their interests first.

"Free, impartial debt advice is available to everyone, and no one should be pressured or misled into paying for a debt solution that may not be right for them."

The warning signs of being misled

The FCA says that some unregulated firms collect people's details, through cold calling or online adverts, sometimes impersonating debt advice charities or debt collectors, and pass this information on to firms offering debt solutions that you pay for.

A quick search online will throw up lots of businesses offering ways to clear your debt, not all of which are trustworthy, according to charities.

Warning signs of unscrupulous firms include pressure tactics, such as repeated contact, often in messages and on the phone, pushing people to agree to a debt solution, the FCA says.

Some people have been encouraged to change financial details on lenders' paperwork, or are "coached" in ways to respond.

Sometimes people are steered towards a fee-charging debt solution, such as Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) or some debt management plans, without alternative options being properly explained or offered first.

And, do you know who you are talking to? Ask them who they work for, and check if their details match the firm's official details.

"Before making any decisions around how to deal with your debts, it's always worth getting full, free and impartial debt advice first, exploring all options to clear your debt in the safest and most sustainable way," said Vikki Brownridge, chief executive at debt charity StepChange.

How oil-rich Alberta's economy might fare if it broke away from Canada

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy745jznvxpo, 5 days ago

For Alberta independence supporter Keith Wilson, the western Canadian province is in a league of its own.

With its wealth of rich oil and gas reserves, a significant agricultural sector and a young and skilled workforce, its economy is one to be reckoned with, says Wilson.

The province will hold a referendum on 19 October, giving residents two options: vote to stay in Canada, or vote to move ahead with a formal binding referendum on independence at a later date.

The vote, despite not being a cut and dry "stay or leave", still stands to be among the most consequential in recent Canadian history, and a significant test of national unity.

One key issue has become central to the debate: Would Alberta be richer if it were to become an independent country?

The answer for Wilson is yes.

"Alberta's economy is unique. is fundamentally different than the rest of Canada's - we have the people, the institutions, the infrastructure to excel," he says.

Alberta separatists have long argued that the province has been short-changed by being part of Canada, and that more of the oil and gas wealth would be kept within its borders instead of being shared with Ottawa, delivering it tens of billions in savings.

But many disagree with their accounting.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who opposes independence, predicts a more sober outcome. She says the province could risk paying C$400bn ($283bn; £213bn) in transition costs alone, while bleeding billions more in lost investments and trade due to the political upheaval.

A report commissioned by her government released earlier this month calculated the costs of separation as between C$50bn and C$170bn over five years - and a highly unpredictable outlook over the long term.

The report cautions that the to-do list for a newly independent Alberta would be long and costly.

It would have to set up agencies to manage taxes and national security, develop its own constitution, legal and court systems, and pension plans, and negotiate the division of federal assets like national parks and military bases.

Lennie Kaplan, a former finance official in Alberta, says the province would be expected to take on a share of Canada's national debt, among many other fiscal challenges and responsibilities.

A report on Alberta independence by the CanadaWest Foundation, a non-profit Alberta-based think tank, estimates that the province could be stuck with additional debt ranging from C$258bn to C$333bn.

With a projected hit to Alberta's GDP and the additional costs, the report estimates separation could hit Albertans' bottom line and reduce their disposable income by 5.8% on average.

"Why do we have to create all this uncertainty that might impact and impair the province's fiscal position going forward? Why wouldn't we just work within Canada to address these issues?" Kaplan asks.

Opinion polling indicates that around 20% to 25% of Albertans plan to vote in favour of moving ahead with a binding separation referendum, with higher support among younger, rural and conservative voters.

Behind the separatist push is the belief that Alberta is misunderstood and overlooked by decision-makers in Ottawa. For decades, that sentiment fuelled a sense of "western alienation" in the prairie province.

Once a fringe movement, a number of factors pushed it to the forefront of Alberta politics.

There was anger over environmental and political pushback that killed proposed pipelines from landlocked Alberta to coastal waters.

A decade of Liberal government in Ottawa has also caused frustration in reliably conservative Alberta. And, in addition, there is also leftover distrust of the federal government over what some Albertans saw as excessive lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Over the past year, separatist organisers held townhalls across the province to gauge interest from the public. They then launched a citizen-led petition to separate earlier this year, which got more than 300,000 signatures.

Smith, the premier, decided earlier this year she would authorise a vote.

Alberta is home to Canada's oil and gas sector, with oil reserves estimated to be the fourth-largest in the world. Crude oil is by far Canada's most profitable commodity, accounting for C$142bn in export value in 2025 alone.

Most of it is sold to refineries in the US.

The province has the highest GDP per capita in the country, and it contributes billions a year to the federal tax pool because of its strong economy.

It has not received any "equalisation" payments - money that so-called "have not", or less wealthy, provinces receive from the federal government - since 1965.

Calculations by Tegan Hill and Nathaniel Li, economists at the Fraser Institute think tank, show that Alberta's total net contribution to Ottawa since 2007 has been C$322bn, or an average of around $17bn per year.

"That's nearly four times that of British Columbia, more than four times Ontario," Hill tells the BBC. "The other seven provinces were net recipients, meaning Ottawa spent or transferred more money to those provinces than it collected."

Hill explains that the amount Alberta contributes to the rest of Canada is one of the main frustrations cited by those in favour of separation.

The sentiment, she says, is that: "We're paying to support these other provinces, and if we just went our own way, we could keep all that wealth for ourselves."

This belief is at the heart of the economic projections from the Alberta Prosperity Project, one of the main groups organising in favour of independence.

In its fiscal plan, released last year, they estimate Alberta will save up to C$47bn annually if it stops paying federal taxes.

The plan acknowledges that Alberta's costs would be higher if it were independent because it would have to pay for things like national defence and international diplomacy, estimating those costs to be up to C$31.6bn annually.

This would be in addition to paying for things Alberta as a province already covers, like healthcare and education, which cost around C$75bn.

After all its essentials and new expenses are paid for, the Alberta Prosperity Project estimates a surplus of C$24bn to C$46bn per year.

With all this extra money, proponents of separation argue Alberta could lower taxes on individuals by more than C$10,000 a year, build out its infrastructure or invest the surplus into the province's wealth fund.

But a number of economists argue their projections lack clarity and likely overestimate the windfall.

Hill of the Fraser Institute says one of the biggest drivers for economic decline is prolonged uncertainty, especially if the referendum doesn't put the issue to bed or if it ends up in a lengthy divorce from Canada.

"If someone doesn't know if Alberta is going to be a part of Canada or if it's going to go on its own way in the next couple years, in what world are they going to be putting their money in the province?" she asks.

Prime Minister Mark Carney often points to Brexit - the vote to separate Britain from the European Union - as a cautionary tale for Alberta.

The UK economy has taken a 6% hit from the effects of Brexit, according to one report published earlier this year. If Alberta's economy suffered a similar fate post-independence, its economy could shrink by C$62bn annually, according to one projection by Calgary-based economist Trevor Tombe.

This would also result in its workforce shrinking by 175,000, he estimated.

Wilson dismisses that comparison, arguing the "fundamental dynamics are completely different".

He says some of the projections by the stay side are all "doom and gloom", joking that the only possible negative they failed to include is "a large asteroid hitting Canada".

"We're a resource economy. We have leverage. We have products the world wants. That's why investment comes here, despite the constraints imposed by Ottawa," he says.

Why are more roofs not made of solar tiles?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdr7n610rmzo, 4 days ago

Some people in the US "still hate the look of solar", Kate Collardson acknowledges.

She would know. Collardson handles operations for the Solar Service of Colorado, a solar maintenance and inspection company. She's also held just about every other job in the industry, from installer to instructor.

For those that hate the look of solar panels, an alternative is a solar roof, where the tiles (or shingles) house solar cells, but look much the same as regular tiles.

This is especially important for historic buildings, where heritage rules limit changes to their appearance.

For many people, the first time they'd heard of this product category was in August, when Tesla's website stopped offering solar roofs. This followed disappointing sales and a lawsuit over sudden price hikes.

Other companies have also pulled out, but Tesla's decision in particular sent shockwaves through the solar roof industry.

Some see it as a death knell for solar tiles; others, as an opportunity.

For instance, the small Swiss company Freesuns is considering expanding to the US.

Deborah Learoyd, Freesuns' CEO and managing director, estimates that the company's sales have grown 20–30% since it was established in 2019.

In general, solar roof components continue to be manufactured in smaller batches. This limits the economies of scale and standardisation, though flexible manufacturing could help somewhat.

Learoyd says that while the unit costs for Freesuns' products are slowly decreasing, "a lot of the cost is actually the fact that every roof is a little bit different. And so it has to be engineered a little bit differently, installed a little bit differently".

Solar roofs typically require collaboration among roofers, solar installers and electricians. And building regulations tend to be more complex than for solar panels.

The additional time and paperwork can take a toll on a roofing business, Collardson explains. "You try to put a roofer into the equation and they're going, 'This is taking forever. I'm losing money. I could have sold 10 roofing jobs in the time that it takes me to sell this one'."

Collardson has to charge more for repair of solar shingles, compared to a standard photovoltaic (PV) setup.

She explains, "With traditional solar, we generally have electronics on the panel and a map that shows us exactly how much each panel is producing." So when something goes wrong, it's easy to spot where.

"With solar shingles, we don't really have the benefit of that mapping; there's no room underneath the shingle for the electronics." Thermal cameras can identify the trouble spots, however.

But then there's the matter of accessing them. "You can remove the one in the middle of the array, but you have to walk on the others, and you really shouldn't walk on them because you're going to create micro-fractures and that's going to cause issues down the road."

Before repair costs are factored in, a solar roof might cost twice as much as a system of solar panels mounted on a roof.

Solar roofs are also less efficient - one reason is that the tiles are just smaller.

Another factor is the energy lost as heat. Since the tiles sit close to the roof, there's less airflow than with standard solar panels mounted on a roof. Heat impairs solar performance.

Coloured tiles are even less efficient, comments Ben Graves, co-founder of UK solar company Sunsave. "The reason why all solar cells are black, and increasingly the whole panel is now black, is because black is the best absorbing colour."

Overall, much more space would need to be devoted to solar roof tiles to produce the same amount of energy.

Sunsave does not offer solar roofs. "Most people in the UK just don't have enough money to pay for it," Graves believes.

While appearance was a bigger factor five years ago, now "the vast majority of consumers are most interested in how much they can save".

But supporters of solar roofs argue that they should not be pitted against standard solar modules on roofs.

"Let's not compare PV roof tiles to a standard PV system, but look at PV roof tiles as generating additional electricity from our roofs instead of just having the roof sit there," urges Martin Heinrich who leads a research group at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Germany.

While standard solar panels have gone from strength to strength, solar roofs have not advanced to the same extent.

One advancement that could especially help solar roofs is matrix shingling technology.

This is a different way of connecting solar cells. The solar cells are cut into narrow strips, layered like overlapping shingles, and connected to each other using electrically conductive adhesive, rather than metal wires.

This means that the electrical current can flow around shaded areas, unlike with standard modules. "If you get like a bird pooping on a part of the cell, the current can go around it," Learoyd explains.

In addition to increasing energy output, this improves the appearance as the silver wires aren't visible.

Another advantage, Heinrich says, is that "since we cut the cells into smaller areas, we can fill out special sizes more easily. You don't have to adhere to the regular pattern size."

Freesuns is an early adopter of matrix shingling technology in building-integrated PV. "We see it as a big opportunity for the future in terms of how we would make our tiles," Learoyd says.

What would also help the company is better software for automated design. This would speed up the design process, since each roofing job is unique.

Learoyd believes this would lower costs and give "the whole construction industry much more confidence in using the product".

Ten years after her own solar roof was installed, and despite the sector's setbacks, Learoyd remains optimistic.

She believes that for people with the means, it will eventually become standard to install a new roof with some sort of embedded solar. "It's just a no-brainer."

What is the Budget and what could be in it?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6x2zrjl7kjno, today

Chancellor John Healey will set out Labour's tax and spending plans when he delivers his first Budget on 28 October.

He has refused to rule out tax increases after acknowledging government borrowing costs are at "historic highs".

But the government's room for manoeuvre on tax is limited.

Before the 2024 general election, Labour promised not to increase three big revenue earners for the government: income tax, National Insurance and VAT.

What is the Budget?

In his statement, delivered to MPs in the House of Commons, Healey will set out how the government plans to raise or lower taxes.

Alongside the Budget, the Treasury will publish details about the measures and their costs.

The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which monitors government spending, will also publish an assessment of the health of the UK economy and a forecast of what it thinks will happen in the future.

What might be in the Budget?

The run-up to the Budget typically generates speculation about what might be in it, which the government is trying to keep to a minimum this year.

Healey and Prime Minister Andy Burnham face a difficult balancing act, trying to offer more support to households and meet commitments on defence spending, while also sticking to Labour's manifesto commitments on tax and the government's self-imposed fiscal rules.

The previous chancellor, Rachel Reeves, set out two main rules, which the new leadership has vowed to follow. These are:

* Not to borrow to fund day-to-day public spending by the end of this parliament

* To get government debt falling as a share of national income by the end of this parliament

In March, the OBR calculated that the first rule would be met with a gap - or headroom - of £23.6bn. However, this headroom is expected to have shrunk.

Analysts are divided on how much it may have fallen by. KPMG believe it could have fallen to £12bn, mainly due to the rise in government borrowing costs this year.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) also forecasts that debt interest will significantly reduce headroom. But it also suggests higher inflation could push up tax revenues as pay rises drag people into higher tax thresholds.

It estimates the buffer could still shrink but to a comparatively less severe £20bn.

One option that has been floated is that Healey could decide to accept a smaller buffer, reducing the need to increase taxes in the Budget.

Your First Home scheme

Further details on the "Your First Home" scheme, aimed at helping first-time buyers in England to purchase a property, are expected to be announced in the Budget.

The scheme will allow people to buy a new-build home with a deposit of 2.5%. It would provide them with a loan worth 20% of their property's value to help pay for the purchase.

Capital Gains Tax

There has been speculation that Capital Gains Tax - which is imposed on the profit people make when they sell an asset that has increased in value - could be changed, through either higher rates or by removing or amending exemptions.

Mansion Tax

The High Value Council Tax Surcharge - dubbed the Mansion Tax - was announced in last year's Budget and will apply to properties in England valued above £2m from April 2028.

There had been speculation that the government was considering extending it to properties worth more than £1.5m. However, reports now suggest Healey has ruled this out.

Taxes on banks

Banks have been reporting bumper profits, leading to calls from unions to increase taxes on the sector. But banks have pushed back, suggesting heavier levies would undermine the government's aim to boost growth and make the UK less competitive.

Fuel duty

Fuel duty was frozen under the Conservatives in March 2022 and Sir Keir Starmer's government continued the freeze, deciding in May to push back a planned 3p increase in September until the end of this year.

Healey told the BBC in late September that the "place" and "time" for dealing with rising petrol and diesel costs was the Budget, but would not give details on whether the freeze would be extended again.

Energy bills

Household energy bills are set to see their biggest rise in four years in January, with a typical annual bill forecast to jump by £276.

There has been speculation that Healey is planning energy bill help for households on certain benefits.

How is the economy doing?

In the first three months of the year, the UK's economy grew by 0.6%, while in the April-to-June quarter it grew by 0.5%.

The most recent data showed the economy grew by 0.4% in July, which was much stronger than expected.

Analysts say the UK economy is proving resilient in the face of energy price shocks caused by the US-Israel war with Iran.

The conflict has led to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for oil and gas trade. This caused a sharp jump in oil prices, which has fed through to higher energy and fuel prices.

Economists expect UK growth to slow in the months ahead as those costs continue to weigh on households and businesses.

Prices for goods and services are still rising faster than wanted. Inflation hit 3.1% in the year to August, the highest rate in five months and above the Bank of England's 2% target, driven by higher petrol and diesel prices.

The Bank of England held interest rates at 3.75% for the sixth time in a row in September, but said they were likely to rise if high energy prices persist.

What time is the Budget and what happens afterwards?

The Budget speech usually starts at about 12:30 UK time - after Prime Minister's Questions - and lasts about an hour.

It will be broadcast live on the BBC iPlayer and on the BBC News website.

The Leader of the Opposition, Conservative MP Kemi Badenoch, will respond to the speech in the House of Commons.

MPs debate the measures for four days, before voting on them.

If approved by MPs, tax changes can come into effect immediately.

However, the government must pass a finance bill to make them permanent.

Roofing scammers con homeowners out of thousands of pounds

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6x29kydnzv0o, today

Scammers pretending to be legitimate workmen are charging homeowners thousands of pounds for roofing work that is not completed, done badly or not necessary, according to Citizens Advice.

The consumer advice charity says one in 10 of all the scams it recorded over the past year were related to roofing, making it the most common type of scam brought to them.

It can leave victims like Crystal, from the Midlands, thousands of pounds out of pocket.

The 68-year-old was frightened and found it hard to sleep after a rogue builder left her roof with dislodged bricks and blocked gutters.

She said she felt pressured into agreeing to having her roof re-done and paid a total of £5,500, only for the original contractor to send his son instead, who left work in the eaves incomplete.

"We had heavy rain a couple of weeks after he did the job, and it ended up like a waterfall coming down the wall," she said.

Her neighbour's house was also damaged.

"They took the lead off my neighbour's side of the chimney, which caused bricks to fall into his attic and the rain to go into his house," she told the BBC.

The experience still haunts her: "I can't sleep. I don't eat properly".

In the year to August the Citizens Advice Consumer Service received 9,000 complaints about roofing work, including problems with construction, repairs and weatherproofing.

Of those 2,205, or about one in four complaints, were suspected scams, up from 2,098 the year before.

Dame Clare Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice, urged consumers to carry out thorough checks on traders before agreeing to hire them.

"Scammers exploit the fact that roofs are out of sight and reach, knowing most people can't easily inspect the work themselves," she said.

Victims also reported aggressive and intimidating behaviour, with three quarters of fraudsters using "doorstep" sales tactics.

Citizens Advice cited the case of Charlotte, 65, who lives alone in north eastern England.

Tradesmen she found online initially offered to fix her leaking gutter for £250. The two men then said there was further work that needed to be done, that would cost £2,500.

"An hour later they said it was sorted, but they'd found another problem," she said.

It was dark and Charlotte felt afraid. "They knew I was alone, I didn't feel like I could deal with anything that might happen after, so I paid £3,500," she said.

But the next day she could see no sign of any work having been done, she said.

To avoid falling victim to roofing scams, Citizens Advice suggests:

* Be alert: Always ask for references and for everything to be in writing. Be wary of unsolicited doorknockers and callers

* Gather evidence: If a trader causes problems, be sure to take photos and gather the necessary paperwork and receipts

* Know your rights: Traders must give you the information about your right to cancel in writing. If the job is not done with "reasonable care and skill," the Consumer Rights Act 2015 also entitles you to ask for the problem to be fixed or a refund

Lord Bichard, chair of National Trading Standards, said rogue traders were "criminals deliberately preying on people in their own homes".

He described roofing fraud as "particularly cruel", and said Trading Standards would pursue fraudsters through legal routes.

"Victims can lose life savings in a matter of hours and be left with damaged homes, financial hardship and a profound sense of vulnerability long after the criminals have gone," he said.

Trump announces deal for Russian diesel as Zelensky calls it a gift to Putin

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm1dwgr666wno, yesterday

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned Donald Trump's announcement of a deal to import Russian diesel into the US.

Zelensky called it a gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin that amounts to "an investment in a war that must be ended, not prolonged", a position quickly backed by Ukraine's European allies.

Trump said Putin had agreed to release 300,000 tonnes of diesel immediately "to the American and global marketplace" followed by 500,000 tonnes in November and a further one million after that.

It is understood that the US Treasury is suspending sanctions on Russian diesel exports until 7 April as part of the deal, but other assets like those in American banks are still frozen.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that a further three million tonnes of Russian diesel would be delivered "within a short period", dependent on the condition of its refineries, which have been attacked by Ukraine.

Putin later said that Russia, which introduced a ban on diesel exports earlier this year, was willing to supply both the US and global markets with oil and petroleum products, but his statement did not specify amounts.

Zelensky said Russia would repay the diesel with "further terror".

"We count on America's fair support for our defence of life, for our defence of people in Ukraine – and on the United States having a correspondingly strong conversation with Russia. A strong one, not a weak one," he wrote.

He later pointed to deadly overnight strikes on Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv as Russia expressing "its thanks" for the agreement.

Analysts have questioned whether Russia is capable of providing that quantity of diesel and the extent to which doing so will ease prices for American consumers.

Tim Armitage, an investment strategist at Quilter Cheviot, said the numbers mentioned by Trump were "relatively small".

He said the first tranche equated to approximately 2.25 million barrels, and daily US consumption was around 3.8 million barrels, "so it won't make a material difference to pump prices in the US".

"Granted, there are then two more releases to come, but it does appear to be a slightly desperate move by President Trump to try to lower inflation ahead of the midterms," he said.

Paul Johnson, former director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies think tank and provost of The Queen's College, Oxford, said: "What would make a difference, of course, is sorting out what's happening with Iran.

"Let's be clear, President Trump has created this problem himself," he told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

"This is a problem not created because of Ukraine and Russia in terms of diesel prices at the moment, this is created by the war in the Middle East."

The BBC has asked the White House what Russia will get from the US in return for the commitment.

The agreement with Russia also opens Trump up to criticism from European allies and pro-Ukraine politicians in the US that the American president is now helping to fund Moscow's war machine.

The EU's foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said suspending sanctions "provides Moscow with more revenues to wage war", adding: "This is not the time to ease pressure on Russia, and Europe won't."

She said European foreign ministers intended to approve the biggest set of sanctions on Russia since the start of its full-scale invasion on Monday.

Meanwhile, a UK government spokesperson said its position "could not be clearer" and that it would continue working with international partners to support Ukraine and bring about sustained peace.

"We will also maintain pressure on Russia through the toughest sanctions regime ever imposed by the UK, increasing the cost of Putin's aggression and supporting efforts to secure a just and lasting peace."

Friday's announcement is the latest effort from Trump to lower fuel prices in the US ahead of the midterm elections, after months spent grappling with the political consequences of the Iran war.

That conflict, which began in February, has sent the cost of petrol and in particular diesel skyrocketing, which has soured his standing with the American public who have been stung by the higher pump prices and knock-on effects that led to across-the-board inflation.

The average diesel price in the US is currently $6.28 (£4.74) a gallon, according to the AAA, down from the record high of $6.53 recorded at the end of September.

Shortly after Trump's announcement, the US Treasury formally issued a temporary licence allowing Russian diesel into the market.

Putin said he had spoken to Trump about the global energy situation on Friday, adding: "The Russian side confirmed its willingness to supply oil and petroleum products to the US market and global markets at large."

An envoy for Putin, Kirill Dmitriev, welcomed the deal on social media, saying: "Russia-US co-operation on diesel and energy will benefit the world."

Russia has this year experienced two waves of severe fuel shortages across the country as a result of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil refineries. Its diesel production has fallen by nearly 30%, according to International Energy Agency estimates.

Trump has expressed his displeasure over those attacks, blaming them for rising fuel prices.

But Zelensky defended the strikes on Friday, saying they were in response to "Russia's years-long campaign of terror against Ukraine's energy sector".

"Ukraine will not set Russian oil refineries on fire if Russia does not destroy our energy infrastructure," he said.

Trump's Truth Social posts often provide incomplete information, and the details of exactly how Russia will supply this fuel to the global market is unclear.

But the announced deal represents a remarkable about-face, as the US Congress recently enacted legislation - signed by the president - to authorise new American sanctions and tariffs on nations that import Russian oil and gas.

What impact the deal with Russia will have on fuel prices also remains unclear. The global benchmark for crude oil, Brent, remains above $103 a barrel. Before the war with Iran, Brent crude was trading at about $73 a barrel.

With the looming US elections - which will determine whether Republicans maintain control of Congress - Trump has been searching for ways to ease his Republican party's political pain.

Earlier this week, he said he was "thinking about" suspending the federal tax on gasoline and also announced that he would allow so-called red dye diesel to be used on US highways without facing federal tax.

Trump has also successfully pressured G7 nations into releasing 100 million barrels of oil and diesel from stockpiles to help ease supply concerns and previously supported calls for a ban on diesel exports from the US.

Boots has a new owner: Three ways it could affect you

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c63djxry8124o, 3 days ago

If you have been looking to buy a health or beauty product, the chances are you will have shopped at a Boots somewhere in the UK.

The pharmacy and retailer is a stalwart of Britain's high streets, where it has served generations of customers for decades.

But now it is set to enter its 178th year under new ownership after an £7bn deal was agreed this week - here's three ways it could affect your shopping experience.

Revamped shops

Upgrading its portfolio of 1,800 stores is high on the list of Boots' new owners, Wittington Investments. This is the holding company of the Westons - a wealthy and retail-steeped Canadian family who used to own Selfridges and currently own several large retailers across the Atlantic.

The UK branch of the family also controls the owner of Primark, Associated British Foods (ABF).

What Boots stores might look like in the future has not been disclosed.

Business has been good for Boots in recent years, and new-look beauty areas in some of its bigger shops have given shoppers more of a department store experience, according to Sofie Willmott, an associate director and analyst at GlobalData Retail.

Since the opening of its first beauty-only store in 2023 in the Battersea Power Station development, it says it has redesigned over 180 beauty halls, while also opening its first fragrance concept store and an Opticians dedicated to luxury eyewear.

"They should invest in the rest of the chain because they've got such a big store portfolio that I think some of the smaller stores have really lacked investment over time, and I think that is something that they need to kind of catch up with," Willmott says.

A more "consistent" look would also be an improvement, Willmott adds. "At the moment there is a bit of a disconnect."

Jackie Naghten, a retail industry veteran who has worked for the likes of Top Shop, Marks & Spencer and Debenhams, thinks Boots' stores need to be made "more functional" by not having their health hubs "squeezed in the corner".

But Yasmin Trimble, 22, who buys beauty products from Boots, likes how easy the stores are to navigate.

"You can get everything you need...it is not confusing. It has got a cleaner aesthetic to it as well."

Advantage card an 'asset to double down on'

Boots was an early adopter of the loyalty cards commonly offered today by companies offering points and discounts to customers who sign up.

Its Advantage card, launched in 1997, is unlikely to go away and remains popular.

Naghten doesn't think they would get rid of it. "It's the best-value store card in terms of bang for your buck."

The card offers shoppers three points for every pound they spend. Each point is worth 1p.

Katie Burrows, 23, is a fan of building up the points to get money off.

She mainly shops at Boots for skincare, first aid and medicine, but thinks prices for its sanitary products are "ridiculously expensive" - something her friend Yasmin agrees with.

Lewis Harrison believes the loyalty card is also good value, but finds it "frustrating how the rewards points only cover a full transaction".

"I wish you could use your points for a partial transaction like you can in Holland and Barrett," the 25-year-old says. "It would be good to use the points towards more expensive transactions."

Natalie Berg, retail expert and founder of consultancy NBK Retail, suggests the Advantage card gives Boots "a unique understanding of their customers" and is an asset the new owners "will want to double down on".

"As AI and social media change how people discover and buy products, that direct relationship with customers will only become more important."

Expanding healthcare services

The new owners have already signalled they plan to expand Boots' healthcare service, a booming industry at the moment.

The retailer started out as an apothecary, so health is in its roots. Today, it offers a wide range of health and wellbeing services as well as prescriptions and vaccinations through its in-store pharmacies.

It also announced earlier this summer it was expanding services for weight loss drugs, which have surged in popularity.

Naghten points out that the Weston family's purchase of Boots comes at a time when pharmacies are increasingly going to prescribe more medications and health services, in a bid to ease pressure on GP surgeries and hospitals.

"They didn't buy this thing for no reason. They have got the blueprint," she says.

While health will remain a core part of its business, Boots has other strengths, Naghten adds, in its No7 make-up and skincare products.

"When you have all these people coming in for health and wellbeing services, they will also be picking up a lipstick," she says.

Willmott suggests Boots has an "edge" over its rivals on the health side, given its reputation as an expert.

But the company is facing tough competition, which Boots acknowledged affected revenues in its latest financial results.

Shoppers, particularly younger ones, are increasingly seeking products online through influencer ads rather than heading to brick-and-mortar shops.

There are also other big players, such as Superdrug. And M&S this week announced a new partnership with Sephora, saying it would replace a hundred of its own beauty departments with the brand next year.

For 18-year-old Schekina Bourne, Boots is not a "go-to shop" for her. "Even though I can go to Boots even in my area....Superdrug is like closest to me. So, I'll prefer the convenience," she says.

Additional reporting by Ben Sturt and Anuk Weerawardana

Trump wants to reduce the cost of fuel as the midterms loom - will it work?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cv2d6x749lwro, 3 days ago

Prices for gasoline and diesel have more than doubled since the US-Israel conflict with Iran began in February, affecting transport businesses, farmers and anyone who drives a vehicle in America.

Ahead of the critical midterm elections, there have been growing calls for more to be done to reduce the price of fuel, and US President Donald Trump has made several comments and announcements aimed at getting costs down.

With just a few weeks to go before Americans head to the polls, Trump on Friday announced a deal with President Vladimir Putin for Russian diesel to be released immediately to the US and global markets.

He said this included the immediate supply of over 300,000 tonnes, 500,000 tonnes in November and a further million tonnes "immediately thereafter".

He said this would mean diesel prices in the US and across the world "will be COMING DOWN, IN RECORD NUMBERS, AND FAST!".

"Lower prices for Americans, especially our Great Farmers, Ranchers, and Truckers, is my Greatest Priority."

He added that a further 3m tonnes of Russian diesel would be delivered "within a short period" after, dependent on the condition of its refineries.

Why does Trump want to reduce gas and diesel prices?

Trump's announcement of a waiver on the use of red dye diesel at a campaign stop this week underscored the importance of gas prices in a midterm election dominated by affordability issues.

The election comes as there is widespread public concern over the rising costs of fuel, food and other goods. Voters have tied the issue to Trump and his party, weighing down Republicans running in November.

Polls show a majority of Americans disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy and the war in Iran, which has contributed to high diesel and gas prices in the US.

Global oil supplies have been restricted since the conflict in the Middle East effectively halted the usual flow of oil and refined products through the Strait of Hormuz for months.

While the flow of crude oil is nearly back to pre-war levels the price remains above $100 a barrel, and sustained high oil prices have had a knock-on effect for diesel and gasoline.

David Ruisard, pricing manager for commodities intelligence firm Argus says the ongoing Russian war with Ukraine has also impacted oil supplies, contributing to higher fuel prices.

"Our estimates are that your price increase from about $3 a gallon up to $6 a gallon [for diesel] is 60% connected to the Strait of Hormuz, 40% connected to the Russia-Ukraine conflict," he says.

Those higher energy prices are responsible for most of the uptick in inflation this year, Oxford Economics chief US economist Michael Pearce says, which is pushing up interest rates.

"The combined impact of higher rates and higher energy prices is squeezing household budgets and adding to firms' costs," he says.

While prices remain high, Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for fuel price tracking website GasBuddy said there have been modest declines recently for both gasoline and diesel.

"A lot of that is likely due to some of the manoeuvres that we've seen the Trump administration employ over the last couple of weeks," he said.

What has Trump done so far?

Friday's diesel announcement is the latest in a series of policies and ideas announced by Trump.

The president announced this week that he would allow so-called red dye diesel - fuel which is used off-road and does not face federal taxes - to be used on US highways without facing federal levies.

Ruisard said the only difference in the diesel used by truck drivers and everyday consumers and the tax-free red dye diesel is the dye itself.

"The problem with that red dye is, it's extremely hard to clean it out of your tank," he explained.

The problem that creates is what happens to trucking companies that use the dyed diesel once the temporary tax relief ends, he said.

"The fines are pretty high for having that in your fuel tank because its considered tax evasion."

The other issue with expanding the use of red dye diesel, according to Ruisard, is that people and businesses - including rail operators - usually set aside a particular amount of the product.

"If suddenly people go out and they start consuming that diesel, that depletes their available supply as well," he said.

But another move from Trump has been more successful, according to analysts.

Last week, the G7 countries announced they would release 100 million barrels of oil and diesel from stockpiles to ease supply concerns, following pressure from Trump to do so.

De Haan says the announcement itself – regardless of how much has been released so far – "has worked to push prices down to some degree".

Economist Pearce agreed but warned the release is only a temporary solution.

"As long as energy exports from the Gulf remain disrupted, stocks will need to be drained further to supply the market," he said. "And the need to refill those stocks will mean energy prices remain elevated for a period, even when disruption in the Middle East clears."

What else has the president suggested?

Earlier this week, Trump said he was "thinking about" suspending federal tax on gasoline.

De Haan said the president has also been imploring states to cut state taxes on gasoline and several have done so, including Ohio and Georgia.

State taxes form a "moderate portion" of what consumers pay at the pump, and those reductions have helped reduce prices and national averages, he said.

However, suspending or reducing the federal levy on gasoline would require the cooperation of Congress.

"That may be difficult to obtain ahead of the midterm elections," said De Haan.

It is also a costly measure.

De Haan estimated that in Indiana, which cut its tax on gasoline in May, it has cost the state government $1bn (£760m) in lost revenue.

Trump has also previously supported calls for a ban on diesel exports from the US.

While that would provide partial relief in the Gulf and Midwest, according to Pearce, he adds it would be of "little benefit" to the Northeast and West Coast.

"The policy risks backfiring because it would result in stockpiling of diesel, and as that storage runs out, refineries would need to cut back on production," he said.

"That would raise prices of other energy products, including gasoline."

Does Trump have any other levers to pull?

De Haan believes the president has "basically pulled all of the small levers that a president can pull, and we're still seeing prices very elevated".

"The only way out of this to reduce gas prices in a meaningful way is solve one or both of the geopolitical tensions that are causing high prices," he said.

That means reaching a deal with Iran and helping facilitate an agreement between Ukraine and Russia - which, Pearce said, are issues that cannot be directly controlled by the White House.

Even if those conflicts are resolved, Ruisard said that due to damage to facilities in the Middle East caused by military strikes it would still take production four to six months to return to normal.

"The message to consumers and industry is that regardless of what happens and whether the president is able to successfully negotiate that kind of a deal," he said.

"High prices are here to stay for a little while at least."

Additional reporting from Daniel Bush

Ex-Deutsche Bank trader jailed for rigging rates has conviction overturned

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqgkvj10k6lno, 3 days ago

Another former banker sentenced in one of the biggest scandals of the financial crisis has had his conviction overturned following a long-running legal battle.

The Court of Appeal has quashed the conviction of Christian Bittar, a former Deutsche Bank trader who went to prison in 2018 for "manipulating" the benchmark interest rate, Euribor.

It comes after the same UK court overturned five convictions of ex-Barclays bankers in the rate rigging trials earlier this week.

Bittar, who watched proceedings via video link from Switzerland because he was not granted a visa to attend court, told the BBC: "I have waited a very, very long time for this day."

The financial crisis began in 2008, sending huge economic shockwaves across the world and triggering recessions in many countries.

There was a public backlash against bankers, held by many to be responsible for the crisis, while the financial sector was protected by taxpayer-funded bailouts.

The Libor scandal erupted in 2012, when it was discovered that at the outbreak of the financial crisis, banks had been misrepresenting their positions during the process of setting the lending rate, helping to boost profits and mask difficulties.

Some 19 City traders were convicted in the US and UK between 2015 and 2019 across nine criminal trials held in London and New York.

Eighteen of these have now been acquitted.

Only one former trader in the world now remains convicted: former Barclays trader Peter Johnson, who was also one of the original whistleblowers in the interest rate rigging scandal. He pleaded guilty on advice that he had little chance at winning at trial. The court confirmed that he too has now applied to appeal against his conviction.

The news has already prompted lawyers and senior politicians to press for the Bank of England and the Treasury to release all their records about their own roles in interest rate 'rigging' during the financial crisis, amid concerns raised of a cover-up of the role of central banks and governments.

'Finally our injustice has been recognised'

Speaking after his conviction was quashed, Bittar said: "Finally the injustice of what I and others suffered has been recognised.

"I am so grateful for those who stood by me through this ordeal and those who worked so tirelessly to correct it."

His wife, Caroline, who lives in the UK, said their family had lost 15 "valuable years", with their children "growing up with this injustice".

She added they were looking forward to "enjoying life with our family and friends without this shadow hanging over us".

On Wednesday, Jay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew, Alex Pabon, Colin Bermingham and Philippe Moryoussef saw their convictions for 'manipulating' the interest rate benchmarks Libor and Euribor quashed after a 10-year struggle for justice.

They launched fresh appeals against their jail sentences following a Supreme Court ruling last year that acquitted Tom Hayes, the first to be jailed for 'rigging' interest rates in 2015, and Carlo Palombo, jailed in 2019.

Tom Hayes, who was initially sentenced to 14 years, reduced on appeal to 11, is now seeking damages from his former employer UBS.

The traders were among 37 City traders and brokers prosecuted for "manipulating" the interest rate benchmarks Libor and Euribor, which track the cost of borrowing cash between the banks and have been used to set the interest rates on millions of mortgages and commercial loans.

The BBC has uncovered evidence of a much larger, state-led 'rigging' of interest rates, under pressure from central banks and governments across the world. Evidence implicating Downing Street and the Bank of England was suppressed throughout the criminal trials.

Former Conservative cabinet minister David Davis told the BBC the innocent traders had been the victims of a series of miscarriages of justice.

He said the people exonerated this week and before were "the victims of a scapegoating exercise which arose as a result of the government's own misbehaviour in lowballing [falsely understating] Libor interest rates themselves, in order to try and rescue the economy after their own self-induced crash in the late 2000s".

In 2015, during the first trial for interest rate 'rigging', of former UBS trader Hayes, Mr Justice Jeremy Cooke decided as a matter of law that any attempt to influence the rates could not be lawful, and that any rate influenced by commercial interest must automatically be false. Judges in the subsequent eight trials followed suit.

However, in July 2025, the Supreme Court decided that all the judges had erred, misdirecting juries that it was wrong as a matter of law. Instead, whether the requests were right or wrong was properly a matter of fact for the jury to decide, not the judge.

All convictions in the United States were overturned in 2022 after an appeal court ruled that there was insufficient evidence that the traders' requests had broken any rules or laws.

I've been with my boyfriend for two years and don't know his salary

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8wyz69r0nnpo, 3 days ago

You know their favourite restaurant, what happened with their ex and their most embarrassing childhood story. But do you know how much your partner earns?

Money remains one of dating's trickier conversations. Bring it up too early and it can sound like you're sizing up their bank balance. But leave it too long and you could be planning a future with someone without knowing much about their finances at all.

We spoke to 20-somethings in New York City to see if there was a sweet spot for when to talk salaries.

Willa Morton, 25, says she doesn't think couples necessarily need to reveal their salaries at all.

"It's just a number and you can gauge how much someone makes based on the way they live and how much they spend," she says.

Willa, who works in tech sales, has talked to her boyfriend about not earning very much herself but hasn't asked him for a figure in return.

He's a company founder and, though his income varies, she knows that he earns more than she does.

"He's more free-spending whereas I'm always saying, 'That's too expensive, that costs too much, we don't need to spend that.'"

Their dates typically cost around $200 (£150) and he usually pays, while she picks up smaller bills such as coffees.

"It's an unspoken rule that he will pick up the bigger bills."

For many, there's a fairly clear dividing line as to when you talk about salary, spending habits and debt and that's when you become an official couple.

Alexa Ludato, 25, who works in insurance, says she'd only have the conversation when she was official with someone.

Before then, she would "like to have an idea of what their job is, but not how much they make".

Her friend, Vik Sunderaj, 22, agrees. "You should only discuss it once you get into a serious relationship."

He thinks a salary question on the first few dates is "a little crazy".

"If they asked, I would be honest, but I wouldn't bring it up," he says. And if his date really wanted to know his salary, "it probably means they wouldn't be the right person for me".

'Asking my salary is a red flag'

Others feel even more strongly about being asked too soon. Twenty-six-year-old Bridget Shurdut, who works in sales, says she would find it "incredibly odd" if someone asked about her salary within the first few dates.

"I don't think I'd continue to see that person. I'd answer the question, but it would be a red flag for me."

For her, someone's current salary isn't necessarily particularly useful information anyway as she says she's much more interested in "whether someone is ambitious and driven than what they earn monetarily".

Dating and relationship coach Kate Mansfield, says money conversations "should start much earlier than many people think".

"In the first few dates you should talk about how each of you approaches spending, saving, generosity, lifestyle and financial independence as these things shape compatibility."

Becoming official doesn't necessarily mean swapping payslips though.

Insurance worker Emily Moretta, 26, has been with her boyfriend for two years and says they still haven't explicitly told each other their salaries and "he doesn't know how much I make".

She assumes he probably has a rough idea, but says neither has ever felt the need to ask.

"Maybe down the line we would, when it gets more serious," she says, adding that they would have to be at the stage of moving in together before talking about it.

Nvidia-backed data centre firm scraps IPO as AI valuation concerns deepen

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ck9dzpw4ll8po, 3 days ago

Artificial intelligence (AI) data centre company Firmus has scrapped its plans for what would have been one of Australia's biggest-ever stock market listings.

The Nvidia-backed firm said it had made the decision due to "recent market volatility and prevailing market conditions" and that going public would not be in the company or shareholders' best interests.

Firmus had initially announced plans for a stock market debut that valued the company at more than $30bn (£22.65bn).

One investment firm told the BBC that it had decided not to take part in the initial public offering (IPO) over concerns about its valuation.

"Firmus will now pursue capital from the private markets and consider alternative public and private market options. We will provide additional information to shareholders as those options progress," the company said.

Firmus builds and operates liquid-cooled data centres, or what it calls "AI factories", for clients including OpenAI and Meta.

It has operations in Australia, Singapore and other parts of the Asia-Pacific region.

The company's backers include Nvidia and major investment firms Blackstone and Jane Street.

Blackstone declined to comment when contacted by the BBC.

Nvidia and Jane Street have also been contacted for comment.

The decision by Firmus to scrap its stock market listing comes as investors and industry analysts have raised concerns about the hundreds of billions of dollars being poured into AI as the prospects for long-term returns remain unclear.

UniSuper, one of Australia's biggest pension funds, was among the institutional investors that decided not take part in the IPO.

"We think that Firmus indeed has a compelling story. It just doesn't have a compelling valuation," UniSuper's chief investment officer John Pearce said in an update to investors.

He also said UniSuper was concerned that Firmus would have to go further into debt to fund its growth plans.

"It's disappointing. The [Australian Securities Exchange] needs new stories and this could have been one if it was correctly priced," Pearce told the BBC.

This kind of listing is a test of how willing companies are to keep "ploughing money" into AI, said Phillip Wool, chief research officer from Rayliant Investment Research.

Investors in Firmus would be buying into a company that is still in its early stages and is likely to need to borrow large sums of money, Wool said.

"It's more like a bet on a dream", he added.

Australia has become an attractive destination for data centre investment, thanks to the country's abundant clean energy, natural gas supplies and land availability.

OpenAI boss Sam Altman said earlier this year that Australia could become a world leader in the data centre industry if it wanted to.

There are currently over 160 data centres in the country and plans for more.

That is despite resistance from some Australians who have raised concerns about their environmental impact and the noise they create.

In September, Altman said OpenAI did not aim to list on the stock market this year, citing concerns over the technology's safety that make it "an ill-advised moment" to go public.

The ChatGPT-maker, along with rival Anthropic, have been eyeing blockbuster stock market debuts that would value the firms at more than $1tn each.

AI-related stocks, Nvidia and Oracle, fell in US trading on Thursday after reports that OpenAI's revenues were lower than previously thought.

'Add me on WhatsApp' scam calls to be investigated

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqd09g4l2k9yo, 4 days ago

The UK's data watchdog is investigating a spike in complaints about "robo calls" - where a recorded voice asks you to add them on WhatsApp - that are suspected to lead to a recruitment scam.

The Information Commission's Office (ICO) had more than 3,600 complaints about automated calls in September - a five-year high and nearly three times the number it had in July.

But it suspects millions of people are getting these calls and told BBC Radio 4's You and Yours it was "deeply concerned" by the sharp rise.

The ICO advises people to ignore calls from numbers they don't recognise, and to block and report any suspicious calls to the watchdog.

The automated calls typically come from what appears to be a UK mobile number.

Some of the recorded messages mention an offer of part-time work.

Simon Fell, from the Communications Crime Strategy Group, a telecoms industry body set up to tackle fraud, said he couldn't be sure exactly what form the scam would take as he hadn't followed up on the messages.

"Mostly likely it would be a recruitment scam," he said.

"They would either put you through to a fake job listing, which might involve some form of money muling. It could look like a completely legitimate job, or something ad hoc, but they might pass criminal funds through your account which can lead to terrible consequences.

"It could also be a simple phishing exercise - criminals send out these messages, and what they really want to know is who's picking up, who's active - that information can be resold on the dark web.

"The possibilities are endless. At the end of the day this is a criminal that has reached out to you and they're trying to defraud you in some way shape or form."

'Tip of the iceberg'

Andy Curry, the ICO's head of criminal investigations, told the BBC he believed the calls were coming from abroad.

"We are trying to find who is behind this, why they're doing it and the impact it's having on members of the public," he said.

The number of complaints received by the ICO would only be a small proportion of the totals affected, he said.

"We think there are probably millions of people who are receiving these messages, which appear to us to be largely indiscriminate.

"I've had them, my colleague who's leading the investigation has had them. It's likely to be tip of the iceberg."

Fell said that mobile companies were "working on a range of fronts" to tackle the influx of automated calls.

This includes sending intelligence reports to the regulator Ofcom, working with law enforcement, and liaising with Meta, which owns WhatsApp, because if someone does follow up on the request to add the number to the encrypted platform, "any dialogue that happens between you and the criminal then can't be investigated any further".

A WhatsApp spokesman said there were features in place to protect its users from scam calls, including silencing calls from unknown numbers. He also said WhatsApp banned millions of accounts each year for "malicious behaviours", such as bulk account registration or automated messaging.

Spoofed numbers

While these calls typically appear to be from a UK mobile number, Fell said these numbers will be imitated, or spoofed, by the criminals behind the scam.

Last November, the UK government promised that call spoofing would be eliminated within a year.

A Home Office spokesman said the government was taking "robust action" to tackle scams.

"We remain committed to delivering the Telecommunications Charter, alongside industry, by November," he added.

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What can I do to protect myself after 'Asos hacked' message?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ck1l3g8097rzo, 4 days ago

If a strange-looking message from Asos popped up on your phone on Tuesday, you may be worrying what it could mean and whether you need to do anything.

The online retailer has emailed customers apologising for the "unauthorised push notification" containing an external link, adding that they should disregard the message and not click on it.

Here's what has happened, and what those who may have been affected are being advised to do.

What message did people receive?

On Tuesday morning, Asos users across the UK were sent pop-up messages from its app that appear to have been sent by hackers trying to extort the company.

"Dear ASOS DPO and IT, we have fully compromised the Snowflake instance. Engage with us, or we will leak it," the message read.

Later that day, Asos said it took immediate action to restrict the apparent hackers' access, was investigating and working with advisers and relevant authorities on "next steps".

Data storage company Snowflake told the BBC its investigations had "found no compromise" of its platform.

On Wednesday the cyber criminals, calling themselves Xuanyewen, got in contact with the BBC and claimed they used a platform which is built natively on top of Snowflake - called Simon AI - to gain access to the data.

Simon AI has been contacted for comment.

What does this mean for my data?

On Thursday Asos told its customers that hackers are in possession of detailed profiles of potentially millions of the online store's users.

It issued the update after BBC News told the retailer it had been contacted by cyber criminals who said this week's breach went beyond the "basic contact details" Asos previously said might have been accessed.

Names, addresses, phone numbers, emails and customer numbers are now in the hands of cyber criminals.

Search terms used by customers - like "reclaimed vintage", "glamorous wide fit" and "Asos petite" - are also visible in the data.

In its email to customers, Asos confirmed data profiles were taken but said no bank details or passwords were accessed.

Asos said it is still investigating the data breach and it would "contact customers directly where we believe additional information, support or action may be required".

What can I do to protect myself?

For now, the advice is:

* Don't click the link: The hack notification included a link to a Telegram account - Asos and cyber security experts say not to click on it

* Change passwords: It's worth updating your password, including across other sites that use the same one as your Asos account. The advice for a strong password is to mix numbers, symbols and upper and lower case characters, and avoid using the same password across multiple accounts

* Turn on two-step verification for important apps like banking and email: The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) calls this "one of the most effective ways to protect your online accounts from cyber criminals". You can usually turn it on by going into the security settings in your account

* Monitor transactions: Keep an eye on your online transactions for anything unusual

Paul Arnold, Chief Executive of the Information Commission's Office (ICO) said if customers do change their passwords, they must ensure they log in to their account "directly through the official website or app" and update it in the usual way.

Be alert going forward

According to Charlotte Wilson, head of enterprise at global cyber-security firm Check Point, "the biggest immediate risk may be what happens next".

She said criminals know people will be searching for information online and expects there to be "attempts to exploit that confusion".

Her advice to Asos customers is not to be "scared and frightened". But she said they should be "extremely suspicious" of emails, texts or messages claiming their account has been compromised, offering a refund or asking them to click a link to reset their password.

People should hang up the phone if they receive any calls from someone they think might be posing as Asos or another organisation, said Which? spokesperson Kat Cereda.

The consumer rights expert said they should contact the organisation themselves afterwards through separate means.

Dr Richard Horne, CEO of the NCSC, agreed that customers should "stay vigilant to suspicious messages that may seek to take advantage of news of the breach".

The NCSC website says these could include "official-sounding messages about 'resetting passwords', 'receiving compensation', 'scanning devices' or 'missed deliveries'".

Unanswered questions

Several questions remain unanswered.

It isn't yet clear who exactly is behind the message, although we know the group calls itself Xuanyewen.

And we don't know how many people received the notification or how many may be impacted.

Anastasia Tikhonova, Global Head of Threat Research at the cybersecurity firm Group-IB said the group behind the message was "a newly surfaced name".

"Its Telegram channel was created on the day the message went out," she said.

"That tells us when it became visible, not when anyone got in or who is behind it."

Asos said its website and app were operating "as normal, and customers can continue to shop with confidence on ASOS as normal" as of Tuesday night.

It said protecting customers "is our priority", and it will provide a further update "as soon as we have confirmed more information".

People should visit Asos's official website directly for updates.

Chrysler Building to get its crown restored after being sold

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8g47z3r4dzvo, 4 days ago

The Chrysler Building, one of the most distinctive high-rises in Manhattan's skyline, will undergo a major renovation as part of a multi-million-dollar sale deal.

The skyscraper, opened in New York nearly 100 years ago, will see its Art Deco crown polished and restored during a refurbishment that will also involve the restoration of the building's 77-storey façade.

Developer Tishman Speyer has taken over the lease from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, a private college.

Tishman Speyer and its partners will invest $235m (£178m) in the project, as part of which it will upgrade the 61st floor, which is home to huge eagle gargoyles and will also feature an "upscale" lounge.

The developer is planning to use most of the building, which is close to Grand Central railway station, for office space. It is following what it calls a "prebuild approach" that will allow firms to move into their new premises quickly.

Tishman Speyer explained that the area "has one of the lowest office availability rates in Manhattan", adding: "Construction of new office supply in the neighbourhood has been virtually nonexistent for decades."

The renovation will include internal work, such as upgrades to the building's mechanical, elevator, electrical and air handling systems.

At 1,046ft (319m), the Chrysler Building was once the world's tallest building - before being usurped less than a year later by the nearby Empire State Building.

Financed by Walter Chrysler, the motor magnate, the skyscraper's construction began in 1928 and was completed two years later.

Architect William Van Alen modelled the eagle gargoyles on hood ornaments found on the 1929 Chrysler car.

The Cooper Union college, whose alumni include inventor Thomas Edison, has owned the land on which the Chrysler Building stands since 1902.

The land was bequeathed to it by the children of Peter Cooper, a manufacturer and industrialist who founded the college in 1859.

As part of the deal, Tishman Speyer will make ground lease payments to the Cooper Union which the college wants to use to finance "a bold plan to restore full-tuition scholarships for all undergraduates".

Cooper Union's president Steven McLaughlin, said: "The significance of this agreement is ultimately about what it makes possible for generations of Cooper Union students."

We spent thousands on a Tui river cruise but ended up on coach trips

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq62j2lzlnm8o, 4 days ago

Passengers who paid thousands of pounds for European river cruises with Tui have described their anger after their itineraries changed to involve hours spent on coach trips instead.

Several have told the BBC they believe they should get some money back, but have been offered no refund.

Tui apologised and blamed low water levels on the Danube, adding that customers continued their holidays on amended itineraries under its standard booking conditions.

It follows previous complaints about conditions on board two of Tui's river vessels.

Those who contacted the BBC include Richard Pearson from Lincolnshire, whose week-long holiday began on 21 September.

Upon arrival in Budapest, he says passengers were told their vessel, Isla, was in Vienna and could not get to them, so they were being put up in a hotel instead, which he describes as "average".

The next day involved a four-hour coach journey to reach the ship.

The vessel then sailed overnight - meaning no chance to take in the scenery - to Krems. It then stayed there for a few days, with passengers bussed on day trips to locations between 45 minutes and two hours away. The return sailing to Vienna was also in the dark.

The one time there was a "scenic sail" during the day, it was a round trip back to Krems which started early in the morning.

'A floating hotel with coach transfers'

Richard says the food and the staff on board Isla were excellent, but overall the experience was not what he expected when he booked the trip - especially the schedule.

He worked out that "we spent 14 to 15 hours of that holiday on a coach trip, plus time wasted waiting for coaches".

Richard says the reason people were given for the changes of plan was "circumstances beyond [Tui's] control because of the low water levels".

"[But] the main thing for us was it wasn't relaxing. It wasn't a river cruise, it was a little bit of sailing, a floating hotel with coach transfers."

If they had been offered a refund, Richard and his partner would have not gone.

He is now contacting Tui to complain and request some of their £3,300 back.

'We feel as though we've been had'

Sue Crosby and her husband booked on Isla, with the holiday starting on 14 September - her 70th birthday.

She had a similar experience and told the BBC: "We feel as though we've been had."

A revised itinerary was sent a few days before departure, making clear there would be multiple coach trips on offer due to low water levels on the Danube.

The couple didn't want to do this and, having spent £3,700 on the cruise, asked for a refund. But after being told no refund was possible, they travelled "reluctantly".

Even during the trip, the schedule changed further.

It wasn't the river levels themselves that frustrated Sue. "It's how they handled it, and the fact they're still advertising the holidays now."

She also describes the food and the people on the ship as great. However, her complaint is "about the drastic change of itinerary... and the fact we weren't able to get a full refund".

Sue says there were only two half days of sailing where people could actually experience a river cruise.

"We didn't want to go on a tour on coaches every day."

'It's the way they handled it'

David Mallon and a group of five others were due to travel on 21 September. But they decided the new itinerary presented to them a few days before departure was so different from what they had booked that they didn't want to go.

"What they were planning to give us was not a cruise but a glorified coach trip," says David.

One reason for not wanting to accept the new plan was that a member of the group was meant to be avoiding long periods of sitting down - such as coach journeys - for health reasons.

With no offer of a refund, the group booked a last-minute holiday to Kos instead and decided to try and claim money back on their return.

"We don't blame Tui for the water levels, but it's the way they've handled the consequences of that," David says.

He has now submitted a complaint to Tui and says he will take his quest for a refund to the small claims court if necessary.

The BBC contacted Tui River Cruises about passengers' unhappiness with the extensive itinerary changes and the fact they were not offered any refund.

In a statement, a spokesperson said: "Extreme heat across Europe this summer caused low water levels on the Danube, affecting river cruise operators across the region. We review every sailing individually with our nautical partners.

"Customers on the Tui Isla departures on 14 and 21 September were sent revised itineraries before travelling. Where the ship couldn't sail sections of the river, we arranged coach transfers, hotel stays and adjusted travel arrangements to minimise transfer times so customers could still visit destinations, including Budapest, Vienna and Bratislava.

"We reviewed the revised arrangements carefully and customers continued their holiday on the amended itinerary under our standard booking conditions. While customers were still able to visit the key destinations on their itinerary, we're sorry some did not get the river cruise experience they had anticipated."

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'Come all the way' back to EU, French finance minister tells UK

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqdjvg3xww2go, 4 days ago

French finance minister Roland Lescure has invited Britain to "come all the way" back to the EU, after Prime Minister Andy Burnham signalled a second Brexit referendum was "possible" in a future Labour election manifesto.

Lescure said being in the bloc comes with some difficulties, but it enables members to better address the challenges facing the world.

Last week, Burnham said the UK needed to "consider the options", ranging from staying as is, rejoining the customs union or single market, or going "all the way".

Asked about the PM's comments, Lescure told the BBC: "British people decided, and that's obviously their 100% right, and if they're willing to come back, they will have to decide."

He added: "But what I can tell them is: come back, anytime."

Burnham recently warned that planned EU rules to help European manufacturers would damage the UK.

The prime minister expressed concerns about how British industry and supply chains could be affected by the planned Made In Europe scheme.

The proposals aim to protect EU industry from Chinese competitors by giving companies inside the bloc priority for public contracts and subsidies. The EU's car industry has called for the UK to be included to prevent disruption to its own supply chains.

Asked about the possibility of Britain being kept out of the scheme, Lescure said: "Come back, and you'll be at the table, and we discuss all these things together."

'Our duty is to listen to young people'

The finance minister's interview with the BBC also touched on French domestic matters, including the student protests that have swept the country, with more than 500 schools fully or partially shut as of Wednesday.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been taking to the streets to call for better conditions in schools.

Lescure said it was a "tough world" for young people, saying he understood why they were anxious and that "our duty as leaders is to listen to them".

"It's hard to tell young people we're not going to have the money for you because we're spending a lot on health and pensions," he acknowledged.

"We're getting people more healthy. People live longer. But we cannot just say 'this is fine' and then we don't have money left for the kids, so we need to rebalance that."

In France's upcoming budget he said he will cut back on health spending and ask retired people to accept a below-inflation rise to their pension next year.

While he said "not all" French schools were crumbling, he promised further investment in education, adding: "If we need to do more, we'll have to see."

Public deficit is 'alarming'

Other challenges France is currently facing include its budget deficit, and markets pushing up borrowing costs.

Lescure acknowledged that France's annual public borrowing of over 5% of its gross domestic product (GDP) was "alarming", and said "that's why we need to act now" to avoid being forced to act later.

Asked about the possibility of an intervention from the eurozone's central bank, Lescure said his job was to make sure France did not have to "go there".

With significant rises in French borrowing costs, especially the premium paid over its eurozone partner, Germany, Lescure acknowledged it was "more expensive" to borrow but said there was "no issue" with issuing its debt.

He said that his budget "will pass" a fractious French parliament and there were "lots of different ways" to ensure that.

AI chip boom pushes Samsung profits to record $80bn

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c687z8127302o, 4 days ago

Samsung Electronics says it expects a nine-fold surge in its quarterly profits compared with a year earlier, driven by surging demand for memory chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centres.

The tech giant estimates that its operating profit for the three months to the end of September will jump to 107.4tn won (£61bn; $80bn), its fourth quarter in a row of record earnings.

Samsung is one of the world's largest memory chip makers alongside local rival SK Hynix and Micron in the US, which produce chips crucial for AI firms like Nvidia.

Samsung, which makes the Galaxy Fold and S26 smartphones, is also expected to get a boost from its latest folding devices that were launched in August.

The firm's full third-quarter earnings will be published at the end of October.

Some of South Korea's biggest companies release previews of their earnings to advise investors ahead of more detailed reports.

These forecasts are treated with much more credibility than estimates by external analysts as they are backed by internal company data.

There has been huge global demand for computer chips that power AI development, helping to lift the earnings and shares of manufacturers linked to the technology.

The surge in demand in recent years has resulted in a shortage of semiconductors globally, pushing up sales for firms like Samsung, with its stock market valuation crossing $1tn (£757bn) earlier this year.

Investment in the industry has surged, with US tech giants including Google, Amazon and Meta pledging to pour more than $650bn into AI projects this year.

In June, South Korea unveiled plans for at least $880bn in projects led by Samsung and SK Hynix to build out the country's chip manufacturing capabilities in the coming years.

Rival Asian firms in Japan, China and Taiwan are also investing heavily in chip plants as demand for AI soars.

A chip shortage driven by surging demand has led firms including Samsung to raise prices, making products such as smartphones and computers more expensive.

Asahi and Kirin among Japan beer giants raided over alleged price-fixing cartel

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm5yn3592xk9o, 5 days ago

Japanese officials have raided the country's biggest beer makers over allegations they worked together to raise the price of their beverages.

Asahi, Sapporo, Kirin and Suntory Spirits confirmed to the BBC that their premises had been searched by the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC), adding that they would fully cooperate with the regulator.

The four firms dominate Japan's beer market, with their drinks a common sight in supermarkets and convenience stores across the country.

Asahi, Kirin and Sapporo all saw their share price fall after news of the investigation broke on Wednesday. Suntory's beer business is not publicly-listed.

"I do not deny that an investigation is being conducted today, but I'd like to refrain from commenting on the details as a preliminary review is underway," JFTC Secretary General Iwanari Hiroo said, according to local media.

The BBC has contacted the JFTC for comment.

According to the Japan Times, the investigation centres on the companies raising their prices in April last year and in October 2022.

All four companies announced increases, citing the rising cost of raw materials as well as other factors such as energy and transportation.

Kirin Holdings said its subsidiary, Kirin Brewery Company, was searched "on suspicion of a violation of the Antimonopoly Act".

It said it takes the matter "very seriously", adding it would "fully cooperate with the Japan Fair Trade Commission's investigation and any requests for cooperation".

Kirin Holdings said: "At present, the impact of this matter on the company's financial results has not been determined. The company will promptly disclose any material developments as they arise."

A spokesperson for Suntory confirmed "an on-site inspection" had taken place "in connection with a potential violation of Japan's Antimonopoly Act relating to domestic alcohol trade practices".

The company said: "We sincerely apologise for any concern or inconvenience this situation may cause to our customers, business partners, and other stakeholders. We will cooperate fully with the JFTC's investigation."

Asahi said it was "subject to investigation by the Japan Fair Trade Commission" and that it will fully cooperate with the regulator.

It follows an investigation by the regulator in June over alleged cartel activity by some of Japan's biggest ice cream makers, including Meiji and Pocky maker Ezaki Glico.

The wildlife winners set to appear on your banknotes revealed

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwe8ld517ry3o, 5 days ago

Banknotes are getting a nature makeover - and the Bank of England has revealed the four creatures that will feature on our money.

The Atlantic puffin, barn owl, buff-tailed bumblebee and European hedgehog will appear on the redesigned notes in years to come - although no decision has been made about which animal will be shown on which banknote.

The owl, bumblebee and hedgehog topped a public vote in their specific categories, and the puffin was included to celebrate marine life, the coastline and bring variety to the notes, the Bank said.

Wildlife is replacing notable figures from history, such as Sir Winston Churchill, on our cash in a decision that angered a number of leading politicians.

'Four distinct and inspiring animals'

"We have chosen four distinct and inspiring animals that not only showcase the great variety of wildlife we have in the UK but will also enhance the security of our banknotes," said Victoria Cleland, the Bank's chief cashier.

A panel of wildlife experts drew up a shortlist of 18 mammals, birds, amphibians insects and fish which were put forward to public nominations. Respondents were invited to select up to six.

More than 2.5 million votes were cast by 478,531 people, ranging from wildlife enthusiasts to primary school classes.

The buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) was a clear winner, receiving 360,399 votes, nearly 90,000 more than the barn owl (Tyto alba).

The European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) was most popular in the mammals category.

The red fox, in the mammals category, and the common kingfisher, among the birds, received more nominations than the Atlantic puffin. The puffin (Fratercula arctica) was still selected because it was the most popular marine animal.

The Bank said its inclusion added variety to the series, made the denominations easier to distinguish, and gave an opportunity to celebrate the British coastline.

The puffin and bees also feature on coins, as part of the Royal Mint's redesigned 20p and £1 coins respectively.

Each of the quartet of creatures will feature as the central image of a £5, £10, £20 or £50 note, which will also feature other elements from nature as part of their designs, potentially including other shortlisted animals. The monarch will still feature on the other side of the notes.

Rhys Phillips, the Bank's incoming chief cashier who will be responsible for the roll-out of the new series of notes, said the process of designing, testing and printing banknotes could take years.

He said the Bank needed to make sure they were high-quality, resilient and accessible. As the designs were only in the very early stages, they would be unveiled closer to their launch.

"We'll now work to design, test and produce the banknotes, combining the imagery we've announced today with cutting-edge security features and materials science," he said.

Wildlife already appears on banknotes in the UK, with mackerel, otters, red squirrels and osprey featuring on notes issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Yet it will be the first time since 1970 that the reverse side of Bank of England notes will no longer feature notable figures from history.

On notes circulating currently, in ascending order of value, are former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, author Jane Austen, artist JMW Turner and mathematician and wartime codebreaker Alan Turing.

The proposed removal of wartime leader Churchill angered Reform leader Nigel Farage, and Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch describing the move as "a silly thing to do".

The Bank said the move was primarily to stop counterfeiting so all images needed to be replaced on banknotes over time.

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'Stop throwing shade' - the woman trying to stop firms leaving the UK

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmgqwydpd4xwo, 5 days ago

The UK needs to do more to back its own companies at a time when a growing number are choosing to list their shares in the US rather than at home, the boss of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) has told the BBC.

Dame Julia Hoggett said the government needed to make it "more attractive" to invest in the UK stock market, otherwise big firms would continue to look overseas for their next stage of growth.

Over the last few years, scores of big firms have left the London market, are considering a move or have been bought by private foreign investors.

The fear is this weakens the UK economy by reducing tax revenues and depressing business valuations.

'Take the handbrake off'

"If we want Britain to back Britain, which is what I hear the chancellor and the prime minister saying, then let's make sure that we're creating structural incentives to do so," Dame Julia told the BBC's Big Boss Interview podcast.

"We need to take the handbrake off."

The LSE's main market is made up of around 930 companies with a total market value of about £4.9 trillion.

Almost 40% are international businesses, hailing from over 80 countries.

But in the last few years, many firms have delisted or moved away from the LSE, including takeaway chain Just Eat, which joined the Amsterdam stock exchange, travel giant Tui which opted for Frankfurt, and Paddy Power-owner Flutter which now trades in New York.

'Stop throwing shade'

Meanwhile, the number of companies newly listing their shares in London has dwindled.

Last year, there were 23 initial public offerings (IPOs) on the London market, with £2.1bn raised. In the US, which has much larger capital markets, there were 354 with $44bn (£33bn) raised.

It has coincided in a big rise of UK investment money flowing into US stocks in search of better returns.

"We talk as a nation about wanting growth in every postcode, but at the moment, a lot of us are funding growth in every zip code," Dame Julia said.

There was "no shortage of great companies and no shortage of capital", she added.

But negative sentiment about the UK market - which was often exaggerated - had contributed to companies leaving in the past, she said.

"We need to stop throwing shade at ourselves as a nation... it's a national habit."

However, she said British people needed more "incentives" to invest in UK stocks.

She wants the government to scrap the 0.5% tax Britons pay when they purchase UK shares, pointing out there is no tax when they buy foreign stocks.

She also supports the idea of tax credits for Britons investing domestically. The UK had such a scheme until 2016.

Business lobbying group the Confederation of British Industry has called for urgent action to halt the exodus of firms from the London Stock Exchange.

It said that lighter regulation, better marketing and incentives for investors were needed to stem the outflow.

The government declined to say if stock market reform would be part of its Budget this month.

"As has always been the case, decisions on tax are a matter for the chancellor to set out at fiscal events, rather than routinely commenting on rumour, speculation or proposals," a spokesman said.

Boots sold in £7bn deal to Canadian billionaire family

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwly0jyk2vl5o, 5 days ago

Boots, the High Street pharmacy and retail chain, has been sold in an $8.9bn (£6.7bn) deal to Canada's billionaire Weston family.

Wittington Investments, the holding company, confirmed it had agreed to buy the 177-year-old retailer on Wednesday from US private equity firm Sycamore Partners and the Pessina family.

Boots started as a simple apothecary in Nottingham but has evolved to become a stalwart of the High Street, expanding its business to sell a vast range of health and beauty products, meal deals and travel accessories.

The chain has performed well in recent years despite challenges from rivals and changing shopping habits.

Its stores have seen lower footfall as people switched to working from home rather than visiting town and city centre offices every weekday.

It has closed hundreds of branches across the UK in recent years, leaving it with about 1,800 stores and 51,000 employees, but remains a familiar British brand.

In its most recent annual results, Boots generated £7.5bn in sales - a 3.2% increase on 2024.

Retail expert Catherine Shuttleworth, chief executive of savvy marketing, said shoppers were unlikely to see much change to stores in the coming months, but added what they can "expect over time is an improved shopping experience as the new owners invest in the business".

She said health and beauty was a "massive area for growth", and fresh investment from its new ownership would help.

The last two decades has seen several changes of ownership.

Sycamore only owned the retailer for 18 months, and Shuttleworth said the chopping and changing of owners had been "an unhelpful distraction".

The company was established by John Boot, who opened the first herbalist store in Nottingham, offering an affordable alternative to traditional medicines in 1849.

It has since expanded over the decades into selling various products, but health products have remained a key part of its business.

As well as vaccines, it offers eye and hearing tests, providing much needed health care support in everyday moments as well as at times of national crisis like the coronavirus pandemic.

It launched its loyalty scheme in 1997, the Advantage Card, which became hugely popular and a move repeated by various retailers since.

Galen Weston, the chairman of Wittington, will become chairman of Boots.

He signalled the new owners had fresh plans for the chain, including shop upgrades and an expansion of healthcare services.

"We see a meaningful opportunity to make a great business even better through stable long-term ownership, further capital investment, and the renewed operating focus required to serve customers with excellence for generations to come," he said.

The Weston family will be buying Boots' retail operations in the UK and Ireland, Boots Opticians, No7 Beauty Company and its Thailand and franchised businesses. It is set be completed in early 2027.

The Weston family owns the Canadian grocery chain Loblaws, pharmacy business Shoppers Drug Mart, and previously owned the London department store Selfridges from 2003 to 2021, before selling it for $4bn.

The separate UK branch of the Weston family is the majority owner of Associated British Foods, the parent firm of Primark.

The Westons were ranked fifth on this year's Sunday Times Rich List with a combined fortune of almost £19bn.

Wittington will have operational control over Boots, it has secured ownership in partnership with Fairfax Financial Holdings, a Toronto-based holding company.

Sycamore Partners, in partnership with Stefano Pessina and his family, will retain ownership of The Boots Group's Farmacias Benavides in Mexico and Alliance Healthcare Deutschland in Germany.

Ex-bankers jailed for rigging rates have convictions quashed

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm4g175e8163o, 5 days ago

Five former Barclays traders sentenced in one of the biggest scandals of the financial crisis have had their convictions overturned following a long-running legal battle.

Jay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew, Philippe Moryoussef, Alex Pabon, Colin Bermingham were convicted following trials for manipulating the interest rates used for loans between banks.

But their convictions were quashed on Wednesday by the Court of Appeal. The ruling came after two other former City traders had their convictions overturned last year, which paved the way for others to appeal.

The traders were cast by prosecutors as a symbol of banker greed amid public backlash and anger during the 2008 financial crisis.

Merchant, Mathew, Pabon and Bermingham have all served various jail terms. Moryoussef was sentenced in his absence in 2018, never returned to the UK to serve time after France refused to extradite him.

The prosecutions were over the manipulation of two key interest rate mechanisms: Libor and Euribor, which at the time were used to set borrowing costs on a range of loans such as mortgages and car finance deals.

Mathew said the "strain" of what he had gone through had been a burden on him for the last 10 years.

"Having this conviction quashed is not simply about correcting the record, it's about finally having validation that this is an injustice that never should have happened," the 45-year-old said.

"I now have two children and this means a great deal to have the record corrected for their sake as well."

Merchant, 55, added that he looked forward to moving on with his life, but said part of that would be "ensuring that those responsible for what happened are held fully accountable".

Lord Justice Edis said full reasons behind the overturned convictions would be given later on Wednesday.

The financial crisis began in 2008, sending huge economic shockwaves across the world and triggering recessions in many countries.

There was a public backlash against bankers, held by many to be responsible for the crisis, while the financial sector was protected by taxpayer-funded bailouts.

Some 19 City traders were convicted in the US and UK between 2015 and 2019 across nine criminal trials held in London and New York.

Each of the former Barclays traders in Wednesday's successful appeal had originally been convicted of a single count of conspiracy to defraud as result of alleged attempts to influence financial benchmark rates.

Two other bankers have already had their names cleared.

Tom Hayes, a former trader at Swiss bank UBS, was the first banker jailed. He won a 10-year legal battle last year to have his conviction overturned at the Supreme Court in July 2025.

His victory alongside that of fellow trader Carlo Palombo, who was jailed in 2019, paved the way for others to challenge their convictions.

Hayes and Palombo argued they were wrongly prosecuted for what were normal commercial practices in order to appease public anger towards the banks over the financial crisis.

Pabon, 48, who had his name cleared on Wednesday, hailed Hayes for his refusal to "let it go". He had "pushed this through" for the rest of them, he said.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which brought the original case against the traders, has not opposed the appeals.

Barclays bank has been contacted for comment.

The latest ruling means just two traders still have convictions over interest rate rigging - former Deutsche Bank trader Christian Bittar and former Barclays trader Peter Johnson.

Bittar was jailed in 2018 after pleading guilty and served two years in prison. He will challenge his conviction on 9 October.

Johnson was the original whistleblower calling attention to the Libor scandal but pleaded guilty on advice that he had little chance of winning at trial. He also hopes to appeal.

Royal Mail plans to cut 2,500 jobs

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwvgdld13e3eo, 5 days ago

Royal Mail has announced plans to cut 2,500 head office and other supporting roles by the end of 2027 as it battles competition and falling demand for letter deliveries.

The cuts at the postal service will represent about 2% of the 131,000-strong workforce.

However, frontline postal workers - posties and drivers - are not part of the proposed restructuring.

Royal Mail said the workforce reduction, designed to improve efficiency, would be achieved through voluntary redundancies and people choosing to leave the company.

It said the cuts would make it more efficient.

"These proposed changes remove duplication and allow us to invest further in the service we deliver for our customers," said chief executive Alistair Cochrane.

He added that the job cuts "will not be easy, but they are an important part of building a stronger, simpler and future-ready Royal Mail for our customers and colleagues".

Royal Mail said it was in formal consultation with its unions, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Unite CMA, over the plans.

The CWU said despite reassurances that there would be no compulsory redundancies, the announcement was "further evidence of a company that is demoralising staff and failing to deliver for customers and the wider community".

"We urge the government to confront the reality of a collapsing Royal Mail and intervene to save this national institution," deputy general secretary Martin Walsh told the BBC.

Unite said Royal Mail, regulator Ofcom, and the government had "failed to address the serious problems facing Royal Mail, especially high competition from gig economy postal services".

The union said the cuts would not improve Royal Mail's quality of service.

Royal Mail has been struggling to meet its delivery targets for first and second class post, and has been fined by the regulator for missing targets in recent years.

Just over 75% of first class letters were delivered on time in the year to the end of March, far off its target of 93%.

Fewer people are sending letters, and the company has repeatedly said that its Universal Service Obligation (USO) – a legal requirement to deliver letters six days a week to every address in the UK – is outdated and needs reform.

Royal Mail, which is a separate from the Post Office, has faced years of criticism from politicians and the public over slow letter deliveries.

In March, postal workers across the UK told the BBC they were being asked to move or hide mail from senior bosses to make it look like delivery targets were being met.

This year, more than 100 MPs have written to regulator Ofcom and the business secretary asking for something to be done about the poor service their constituents say they are receiving.

The firm has said it is investing £500m over the next five years as part of its improvement plan.

Royal Mail is owned by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky's EP Group, after his takeover was approved by shareholders at the end of April last year.

Kretinsky has previously said he will not walk away from the requirement to deliver letters throughout the UK six days a week, as long as he is running the service.

Jaguar unveils new electric car after 'woke' ridicule

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6je50ydld31o, 5 days ago

Jaguar has revealed its new electric car two years after its controversial rebranding sparked a backlash with the firm accused of going "woke".

The unveiling of the all-electric Type 01 is a gamble for parent company JLR, which has invested billions reinventing Jaguar and is facing mixed reactions over the new car's design and the brand's all-electric strategy.

The car itself is an imposing four-door "Grand Tourer", with a long bonnet that deliberately harks back to Jaguar's emblematic 1960s E-Type.

But it comes at a hefty price tag with a minimum cost of £130,000 in the UK and $130,500 in the US.

The new model's electric motors are potent, producing about 1000 horsepower and allowing it to accelerate from 0-62mph in 3.2 seconds. JLR says it has a range, at "sustained highway speed", of up to 320 miles.

The company describes it as the "most technically advanced, powerful and aerodynamic Jaguar ever engineered".

However, the unveiling of the Type 01 on Tuesday was met with mixed reactions on social media.

"Looks like a Cybertruck and a Bentley Continental had an illegitimate child," Facebook user Ken Katch said, referring to the Tesla pick-up, known for its divisive design.

Craig Kinnersley, who runs a luxury car consultancy, wrote on LinkedIn that the new design was an "unmitigated catastrophe" that looked like a hearse and lacked any "memorable Jaguar flourish".

But car journalist Steve Fowler said the Type 01 looked "incredible" and made him "proud to be British".

"Not everyone will like it - that's fine. Not everyone has to!" he wrote on X.

Alistair Weaver from vehicle sales platform Edmunds said Jaguar deserved some credit for the Type 01's looks, despite it being "polarising".

"If Jaguar designed a car that looked like anything else, it would have had no hope," Weaver told the BBC.

But the firm faces an uphill battle in the US, where EVs are becoming less popular, he added.

'Woke' furore

This launch was always bound to attract attention, after the company caused waves with the initial unveiling of its new direction.

In 2024 Jaguar released a surreal advert, showing models in a range of bizarre and brightly coloured outfits. There was a new Jaguar logo - but no cars in the ad at all.

Two weeks later, Jaguar's denim-clad design chief Gerry McGovern took to a Miami stage to show off a pair of radical concept cars, in Miami Pink and London Blue colour schemes.

Concept cars are mock-ups built to demonstrate an idea, rather than to work when on the road.

Acknowledging that they might prove controversial he quipped: "Jaguar has no desire to be loved by everybody".

The event, heralding Jaguar's future as a luxury all-electric marque, triggered a furious backlash in the press and on social media.

Critics claimed JLR was betraying its heritage in favour of going "woke". Even the colour chosen for the launch was derided as "Barbie pink", as culture wars erupted around it.

The reception appeared to catch JLR by surprise. The reinvention of Jaguar as a luxury electric brand was part of a wide-ranging strategy set out by the company in early 2023, in which it pledged to invest £15bn in new models and technologies.

At the time, Jaguar itself was struggling. The badge, which was once an intrinsic part of Swinging Sixties British cool, had lost its lustre. Where in the past it had supplied E-Types to Brigitte Bardot and Steve McQueen, it now struggled to sell upmarket saloons and SUVs to middle-ranking corporate executives, who generally preferred Audis and BMWs.

"Jaguar's core demographic, despite the uproar, gave up on the brand years ago, so they effectively had nothing to lose," said Matthias Schmidt of Schmidt Automotive Research.

'Last throw of the dice'

JLR wound down production of its old Jaguar models in 2024 and 2025. The "woke" row, while it may have made life briefly uncomfortable for the company's leadership, did at least keep the brand in the public consciousness.

The GT is expected to be the first of three new electric designs from Jaguar.

Since then JLR has parted ways with the agency behind the rebranding campaign, and the company also has a new chief executive.

But the future of Jaguar itself still hangs in the balance.

"I think it really is a last throw of the dice," says journalist Steve Fowler. "JLR has struggled to make serious money with Jaguar in the past, and that's what it's all about."

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AI is creating a 'human premium' for art made by people. But will it hold?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5vgjm3gk7rzo, yesterday

A few weeks back, in a former bank building that's now a music venue in Falmouth, Cornwall, I was DJ-ing at a night I run called Rave Machine. It was a noisy, high-energy, sweaty affair, just as a night's dancing should be.

All of the elements - the crowd, performers, staff, music, the journey home - connected to create something special, a one-off. It was also completely human.

Something, in theory, well out of reach of what technology could possibly offer.

In the DJ world, though, technology has already changed the equation. In the 1990s, a DJ had to not only pick the tracks, but also thread them together armed only with vinyl records, a pair of turntables and a mixer. Now, much more assistance is on offer, including software that will sync beats on different tracks should you ask it to (I don't). Apple Music and Spotify have an AI tune-mixing option too.

If you were out dancing, would it matter to you if a DJ was, well, not really DJing? If you loved the music being played, would you care if technology was doing the work?

It's a question that generative AI - the type of AI that creates content - is asking of us all. One of the thrills of that night in Falmouth was seeing our special guest, Andy Cato from Groove Armada, artfully weaving an array of tracks. How would I feel if a DJ was just pressing play? (And that does happen).

I mention all of this because that experience in Falmouth connects to a far broader question: whether we actually care if a piece of art has been created by a human, be that a painting, song, book, poem, or any other type of art.

Renaissance frescoes and chess champions

The music platform Deezer says 44% of tracks uploaded to it are AI-generated. Its research also found that 97% of listeners couldn't tell what was AI-generated and what wasn't. But here's a third statistic: more than half of those surveyed said they did care if it was made by AI. They want humans to be involved.

Daniel Susskind, an economics professor at King's College London, says many of us place huge value on the human role in making art. It's what makes the creative process different from more functional, practical tasks, he thinks.

"I was once in a room of accountants, and one of them stood up and said, 'My clients come to me for the personal touch, the human process'," he remembers. "And I said, 'That isn't why they come to you, they come because they want their taxes done properly'."

But it's different with art, he says. "If I walk into the Sistine Chapel and look at the ceiling, I think not only is that extraordinarily beautiful, but isn't it amazing that a human hand, flesh and blood like my own, came up with that. A mind like mine dreamt that up," he says.

As Susskind describes it, what we value isn't just the destination, it's the knowledge that a human - one of us - got us there. We can wonder at that achievement.

Of course, it could be argued that computers and AI software were themselves created by humans. If Susskind feels awe walking into the Sistine Chapel, others might experience awe of a different type using a chatbot like ChatGPT.

Susskind points to another example, this time a chess match in 1997, when a world champion, Garry Kasparov, lost for the first time to a computer, Deep Blue. At the time, there were fears the computer's success would mean our interest in chess would wane. In fact, chess is more popular than ever, played by millions.

"It wasn't simply the moves on the board that people care about. It's the fact that it's a human being sitting behind them, moving those pieces along that matters," Susskind argues.

And some think that the advent of AI has actually placed extra value on things created by people. You might call that a human premium.

Human touch

Kyle Chayka, a journalist at The New Yorker focused on technology, says AI writing is now widely considered to be "generic, obsequious and banal". As a result, he says, "I think readers are coming to value very obviously personal writing, and maybe even writing that's messier, less structurally sound or composed or perfected, than they maybe once would've desired."

Chayka goes on: "I think illustration and graphic design is going in the same direction, where the average is too easily accessible, and so designers are leaning into being weirder and more eye-catching and more unusual, trying to find things that AI can't generate so easily."

In response to the surge in AI-created content, academics are racing to develop a universally recognised symbol to denote something that is "human made" (similar to the "Fairtrade" label that emerged in the 1980s). Labels like "AI-free" are already appearing on covers of some books, films, and albums.

For C Thi Nguyen, a philosophy professor at the University of Utah, it's a question of our underlying values.

He says you can often work out your values by following what he calls a "why chain". If you like something or want to do something, ask "why?". If the answer is to make money or be successful, keep asking 'why?' When the process ends, that will be what you really value, he explains.

The question, he says, is whether human involvement and shared human experience will keep its place at the end of the "why chain".

Author John Lanchester is optimistic. He thinks the value of what only humans can do will prevail. In fact, he sympathises with the idea of a 'human premium'.

"If you commodify one kind of thing, the things you can't commodify start to seem more important," he tells me.

The algorithmic loop

All of that might sound heartening for people hoping that humans will remain central to the creation of culture.

But I'm not so sure. The amount of AI-generated content is increasing so quickly that we may soon struggle to distinguish what has or hasn't involved AI.

You may well have seen coverage of the AI 'actor' Tilly Norwood, made last year by a company that bills itself as the world's "first AI talent studio". The Screen Actors Guild in the US was not impressed. "It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion, and, from what we've seen, audiences aren't interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience," they wrote.

I'm not saying AI will replace actors - of course not. But what feels untethered and strange now, may not, in some situations, feel so strange in time.

It's also worth remembering that long before Large Language Models went mainstream, we'd already allowed technology to shape our cultural tastes.

As recently as the 2000s, we still sought out lots of the culture we consumed. We'd buy a book, a cinema ticket, an album. Sometimes we still do.

But increasingly, culture just arrives - in an endless stream, sorted and served by an algorithm that is constantly predicting our tastes.

At first glance, this sounds convenient. The work's being done for us. But as the role of the algorithm goes up, so the role of humans goes down.

"There's the mythical figure of your big brother's friend or something, who passes on good music taste to you," says Chayka, whose book Filterworld explores the impacts of algorithms on culture. "And now we rely on algorithmic recommendations to do that same thing for us. To introduce us to new things."

I recognise this from my own habits. Back in the 1990s, when I started collecting dance music, I'd find new music through record shops and recommendations from people I trusted. I can still do that, and do. But these days the algorithm's doing a lot of that work for me - and it can be really helpful. I'll find tunes I wouldn't have discovered otherwise.

To an extent, I am letting technology guide me.

Chayka thinks algorithms have made us lazy, and "prevent us from going deeper" in our cultural taste. Sometimes we might find a piece of art that requires work - a long, difficult book, perhaps, or a weird-seeming movie. "It might alienate us initially, but eventually it inspires us," Chayka says.

"I think that kind of culture has fallen by the wayside in favour of culture as content to consume that's not going to change your life, it's just going to turn your brain off for a few hours."

And it's a self-reinforcing loop; creators adapt their work as they seek out the attention the algorithm can provide.

And here's the key point: this shift - to discovering culture via algorithms - is one we've already largely accepted. So when AI starts making books, films, and music in large numbers - might we just shrug and accept that too?

Calculator backlash

Back in 1986, in Washington DC, protesting teachers lined the streets outside a convention centre. They weren't angry about their wages or budget cuts. In this case, the object of their ire was the calculator. Maths teacher John Saxon had taken up the cause. "The kids are not learning their math facts because they're becoming calculator hooked," he proclaimed. " If they had given me a black box, I wouldn't know that… six times eight's 48 'cause it rhymes, and seven times nine is 63 'cause it does not."

We all have our ways of remembering times tables.

Needless to say, this is an argument that Saxon lost. But some of those arguments feel familiar.

Of course, some things are definitely out of range of technology, at least for now. Think of my sweaty DJ night in Falmouth a few weeks ago, with 250 other ravers.

Alex Mahon says she's noticed an uptick in appreciation for in-person experiences like these - perhaps as a backlash to the amount of our lives now spent on a smartphone screen.

She's chief executive of Superstruct Entertainment, one of the world's leading festival and live entertainment groups.

"People want to go to more live things," she says. "They want to have things that are unforeseeable… unpredictable. The special moment is live. The excitement, the discovery is hearing it in person with others."

In the case of culture, when is it OK to outsource to technology, and when is it not? The more I look at this, the less I'm sure we can assume what choices we'll make.

Each of us will have to decide when it matters if something is made by a human.

Top image credit: Getty.

BBC InDepth is the home on the website and app for the best analysis, with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the biggest issues of the day. Emma Barnett and John Simpson bring their pick of the most thought-provoking deep reads and analysis, every Saturday. Sign up for the newsletter here

How drones are hunting fires hidden beneath the Cairngorms

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwm24n9v8rdeo, 2 days ago

It is 06:00 and I'm meeting drone pilot Pete Short for a dawn patrol in the Cairngorms National Park.

It is a job he has been doing for almost three months, since a huge wildfire tore through this landscape in July.

The flames which swept across the hillsides are gone. From where we are standing, there is little to suggest there is still a fire here at all.

But that is exactly what we have come to find.

After a bumpy drive into the woodland, Pete launches a thermal drone into the early morning sky.

I am given a job too: keeping the aircraft in sight while he studies the images being sent back to his screen.

"Every week I hope that I find none," he tells me. "On the last thermal flight I did we found eight."

It doesn't take long.

"We might have something here," Pete says, as a white glow appears on the thermal image beneath a tree.

Three months after the fire first ignited, heat is still being detected beneath the ground.

We make our way towards the coordinates identified by the drone, and at first, there is almost nothing to see.

Then we feel it.

The soil is warm. A rock Pete picks up from the ground is, too.

Nearby, after scraping away a thin layer of earth, smoke begins to rise.

"It's really now cooking away," Pete says.

"Without the thermal technology we would be totally blind to this."

Fire beneath the ground

The wildfire began in the middle of July and burned across about 3,300 hectares – 33 sq km – of land, according to the Cairngorms National Park Authority.

At the height of the emergency, five experienced drone pilots were brought together to provide aerial information to the agencies fighting the fire.

Pete describes it as one of the most challenging environments he has ever flown in, with "multiple walls of flame", personnel and vehicles moving around the site and helicopters operating overhead.

Now the challenge is different.

The dramatic flames have disappeared, but hot spots can continue to burn beneath the earth.

Each one found by the drones is reported to the land manager. They send teams who can dig into the ground and douse it with water.

For Ben Jones, senior site manager for the RSPB at Abernethy, knowing exactly where to send those teams has been crucial.

"We've been fighting this fire for over two months now and obviously we've got limited resources in terms of the number of people we have and we can't send everybody out everywhere all the time," he says.

"So we really need to know where these specific hot spots are - where we should be sending people - so that they can be as efficient as possible."

And despite the arrival of colder, wetter weather, the remaining fires cannot simply be ignored.

"Each of these hot spots has got the potential to reignite a larger fire," Ben says.

A landscape transformed

Walking through the forest, the scale of what happened is almost haunting.

Tree trunks are blackened and charred. The acrid smell of fire still hangs around. Large areas of the forest floor have been scorched.

But look closely and there are splashes of colour.

Green shoots are emerging. Fungi is growing. I even spot a small yellow flower shooting up from the blackened ground.

Dr Sarah Henshall, head of conservation at the Cairngorms National Park Authority, says it is too early to know the full ecological impact of the fire.

"Some of that will be incredibly quick, some of it will take years, decades, or even beyond our lifetime," she says.

"It will recover, but we just don't know what that's going to look like yet."

And the drones that helped during the fire - and are still searching for what remains of it - are being given another job.

Pete is programming them to repeatedly fly exactly the same routes over the damaged landscape.

Using predetermined waypoints, photographs and video can be taken from the same positions month after month and year after year, allowing conservationists to build up a picture of how the landscape changes.

"This standard drone route will have exactly the same route flown month by month, year by year and visually it's going to give us some amazing information about how it's recovering," Sarah says.

There could be another role for the tech too - spotting future fires before they have a chance to spread.

Pete believes getting a view above the tree canopy quickly could prove critical.

"It's those moments before a wildfire gets out of control that could be critical to stopping it before it gets out of hand," he says.

Back on the ground, our patrol has found another hot spot.

Again, there is almost nothing visible from a distance. But guided by the drone, we find the precise spot.

Beneath a thin layer of earth, it is hot and the smoke becomes obvious after we stoke the soil.

Another location to report. Another fire for the ground teams to extinguish.

Above us, the forest is already showing its first signs of life but below our feet, the last of the fire is still burning.

Prize-winning image which sparked backlash was AI-generated, Nikon rules

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr86z33pdy9vo, 3 days ago

The winner of a prestigious scientific photography competition has been disqualified following concerns raised by other scientists that it was fake.

Nikon said the use of generative AI in the composition of the video broke the rules of its Small World In Motion contest, which accepts photos and video taken using powerful microscopes.

The firm said the video "did not comply with the competition rules regarding generative AI", but added it was not a judgement of the entrant's professional reputation or scientific contributions.

It said it would now look at the rules and procedures of the annual contest, which has been running for 15 years and is specifically for microscopic images.

Nikon said it came to the decision "after thoroughly re-evaluating the video and supporting materials and consulting with members of our judging panel".

The winning entry came from Dr Ning Xu, from Tsinghua University in China, who submitted a short video showing tiny, hair-like structures called cilia moving in the airway of a child with the respiratory condition PCD.

The BBC has approached him for comment.

A number of scientists, including former competition judges, complained to Nikon on its LinkedIn page that the video did not appear to be real.

Xu had acknowledged using AI, but said he believed he had acted within the rules, and had cooperated with Nikon's investigation.

University of Leicester scientist Dr Robert Hirst, who was among the first experts to voice concerns, said he was "not surprised" and he "knew immediately that the video was fabricated".

"I have been diagnosing PCD for 20 years by examining their cilia waveform, length, cell size and shape," he said.

Hirst, who is lead scientist for the NHS centre for PCD diagnosis at the university, said the cells and cilia "look nothing like those from PCD patients".

"This controversy has impacted a lot of patients, scientists, doctors and PCD support networks around the world," he said.

'Things may get ugly': Meta's new AI Muse is about to make the internet more annoying

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260930-metas-new-ai-is-about-to-break-the-internet, 11 days ago

Someday we'll redesign the internet for tools like this. Until then, you're in for a wild ride.

Last week, my finger hovered over the download button for Meta's new AI Muse. I felt a little bit scared of my phone.

Muse wants to help. It's an AI agent, a tool that goes out into the world for unsupervised tasks. Using its own web browser, Muse can cancel your gym membership, haggle with customer service people, buy groceries, invite friends to parties, you name it. Soon it will make phone calls.

It's the first free, full-featured agent from a big company. Millions downloaded Muse in its opening weeks, and OpenAI just announced its own new agent. More are coming. It's the dawn of a new chapter for the web. What will it be like?

According to experts I interviewed, the internet is about to get more frustrating. These agents may cause a cascading chain of problems that shake the foundations of digital infrastructure. Chances are good that you're about to live through an era of online chaos.

The internet was built for humans with limited time and patience. AIs don't have those restraints. You'll probably have to fight with robots over concert tickets and booking appointments. Small businesses could drown in machine-made pestering. AIs don't look at ads, and websites that rely on them are already crumbling. You'll be buried in endless loops of proving you're human. And if you use these AI tools, some may betray you.

Eventually, we'll rebuild the internet for this new reality. Perhaps that world will be better. Until then, things may get ugly.

"Imagine there are no rules of the road. And you release billions of cars – the AI agents – and you just let them drive through playgrounds, hitting kids. That's where we are," says Ramesh Raskar, an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US who studies AI agents. "It's a pivotal moment."

To access the road, Muse arguably asks for more trust and sensitive information than any product in the history of Mark Zuckerberg's empire. When you open it, the cutesy avatar asks for a name. Then it asks for total control of your Gmail, calendar and entire computer if you're on a Mac.

There, staring at the download button, I felt a moment of panic. People begged me to say no. "I wouldn't use it," says Patrick Wardle, co-founder of Objective-See, a US nonprofit security foundation that uncovered serious flaws in the Muse app. "Personally, I would tell you to uninstall it altogether."

Despite the warning, I need to see what Muse users are up against. So I named my AI "Bob", gave it the keys to my life, and stepped into the future.

The Swiftie problem

"Muse is the first personal AI agent built for everyone and designed to be safe, secure and private – with built-in protections and user controls that put people in charge of how they use it," a Meta spokesperson tells me. "Safety and security is a huge priority for us," they said, and added and Muse faced extensive testing.

But experts agree there's chaos ahead. If you want a preview of the world that agents may create, look at Taylor Swift. In 2024, some American Swifties flew to Europe to see her. Scalpers, who buy tickets to resell at a mark-up, drove US ticket prices so high it was cheaper to buy flights to international concerts.

Now everyone can have their own personal scalper bot. What we might call the "Swiftie problem" is predicted to explode.

"There's going to be a huge escalation of the problems we're already having with bots," says Calli Schroeder, director of the AI and Human Rights Program at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (Epic) in the US.

Say goodbye to reservations at that hot new restaurant. Appointments for passport or driver's license renewals in peak travel season? That could be out the window. Some people will probably hoard resources, booking five appointments just in case since it's so effortless.

There are solutions to these problems. For example, maybe society abandons "first come first served" and we switch everything to a lottery system. But that would be a paradigm shift compared to life today.

"I haven't seen a lot of plans to address these things," says Schoeder. "We're just launching these tools and saying, 'well, we'll deal with the problems when they come up'."

Then, of course, there are the instances of "rogue" AI agents hacking governments and companies.

I asked Meta about all of this. On top of complex safety protocols, a Meta spokesperson says Muse asks permission before buying anything and is designed to behave like a "reasonable, honest person" – one who wouldn't, say, buy every ticket to an event, or refresh a page 500 times an hour, according to Meta.

Things fall apart

Muse is useful. Over the course of a week, I had it reach out to a seller on Facebook Marketplace with questions. The AI ordered the dental floss I like. It negotiated a $31 (£23) discount on a software subscription.

Now picture millions or billions of agents doing this all simultaneously, performing multiple tasks that might take weeks for a human to get to.

"What happens if bots send 600 inquiries to a website a day, when normal humans might only send two?" says Shroeder. "Businesses and individuals are going to have a lot to deal with."

AI is already decimating online business. Google and chatbots now answer questions directly. As a result, people are visiting fewer websites. Robots don't click on ads or buy subscriptions, and it's causing an extinction event for companies across the web. Agents will supercharge this problem.

Meanwhile, one analysis found web traffic from bots spiked 124% in the year to June 2026. Some websites and services are crumbling because they aren't built for that digital load.

Meta's spokesperson says Muse works to complete your tasks while respecting the interests of websites.

Will the robots betray you?

There are also personal risks. "If you're empowering an agent to make things like purchasing decisions, or choices about taste and preferences, you're opening yourself up to being exploited," says Shroeder.

If Muse plans your holiday trip, Shroeder says there's no way to know if it got you the best deal, or if it chose flights and hotels that benefit Meta's business partners. If you ask for music recommendations, will they be based on your taste, or will you hear about artists who inked deals with the social media company?

Meta's spokesperson says Muse's built-in protections and user controls put people "absolutely in charge" of it, and Muse "behaves like a personal assistant acting for a single person" that follows ethical guidelines to protect users.

However, Shroeder says she's examined Muse's terms of service, and there's no guarantee the app will act in your favour.

Raskar, the MIT professor, is part of a growing cohort of researchers and industry insiders designing an internet that works for agents, businesses and people alike.

According to Raskar, regulators need a tailored approach to agents. "Think about the models like an engine. The agents are the cars, and that's what we need to regulate," Raskar says. "We need to establish the rules of the road: windshields, brakes, traffic lights and so on."

In other words, rules that steer agents' behaviour. The AI industry is developing protocols and standards for bots to plug directly into other services in more cooperative ways. Companies are building systems that would charge AIs a fee if they want to scrape websites. Regulation could force agents to serve users' best interests.

And there are some promising shifts. A few restaurant reservation platforms have banned people for AI misuse. The UK just rewrote the rules for booking driving tests, in part to combat bots.

Raskar is optimistic. "Agents could unlock so much investment, innovation and value," he says. We just need to make sure the rules and systems we develop don't give any companies unfair advantages.

But the road will be bumpy. And people who use these agents will pay a toll: personal data, perhaps at higher risk than ever before.

Hacks and love letters

Stop for a moment and consider your email inbox.

I've had the same Gmail address for 21 years. It's my login for hundreds of accounts. It holds medical test results, contracts and legal documents, conversations with family and endless receipts and financial information.

My inbox even has love letters an ex-girlfriend sent, from an era when email (briefly) felt suitable for romance. (I got her permission before handing it to Muse.)

More than any other digital service, my email is a window into my brain. Now Meta has it. If that's not enough, Muse also suggested I give it my bank accounts. No thanks. I didn't let the AI run wild on my computer hard drive, either.

Meta makes some explicit promises about privacy. The company says it won't connect any of the data Muse collects to its advertising systems. Special systems are supposed to prevent the AI from seeing passwords or payment methods. And when you plug it into Gmail, the AI asks if you want it to scan the whole inbox, or just read messages related to specific tasks.

However, Meta uses your Muse data to train new AI models by default. Shroeder says it's impossible to remove data built into an AI model, and AIs can sometimes be tricked to reveal their training data. Meta says your data is "sanitised" to remove personally identifiable information before it's used for training, and you can opt-out of AI training with a setting.

But given Meta's history of privacy problems, should you trust what it's telling you now?

Not according to Wardle from the Objective-See Foundation in the US. Soon after Muse launched, he found a critical vulnerability. "This was literally 20 minutes of me poking at the app, and it just, like, fell over," says Wardle. With a simple hack, he says an attacker could have hijacked Muse, all of its data, and even controlled other devices you connected like your phone or a smart lock.

AI minister warns 'likely' UK's cyber defences will be breached

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr78pe09y05xo, today

The UK's AI minister has warned it is "likely, if not inevitable" the country's cyber defences will at some point be breached.

Speaking at a press conference, Kanishka Narayan pointed to an incident of a rogue OpenAI agent hacking an Australian government website in June.

He said while no medical records are known to have been accessed in the attack, the incident should still "concern us".

Narayan said the government plans to put advanced AI to work to combat the threat, as he set out how the government plans to prepare for any serious future incidents.

The minister said the move would build on two existing pilots which have helped identify and fix over 1,000 vulnerabilities across government systems.

He said his message to the largest companies behind the world's most powerful AI systems was: "Listen when your scientists warn of serious dangers. Investigate unexpected behaviour. And if you cannot adequately control the risks, do not release the system."

In his speech, Narayan also confirmed that scientists at the UK's AI watchdog, the AI Security Institute (AISI), are now conducting "rigorous evaluations" of the latest generation of advanced AI models to "identify risks early" and "to test robust safeguards to help keep people safe".

"Over the last few weeks, we have been working closely with the US government... to retain access for Britain's AI Security Institute to the most powerful AI models before they are released," he said.

He said the UK would also look into creating stronger protections through the Cyber Security and Resilience bill, particularly at how serious AI incidents can be identified and reported.

The announcement follows a series of incidents involving AI agents across major firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic acting outside human control and hacking into external systems.

On 9 September, Evan Hubinger, a top safety researcher at Anthropic, warned in a post on X that AI is advancing so quickly he believed there is a greater than 10% chance it "could kill all humans" within the next decade.

The bosses of the US-based AI giants such as Anthropic, OpenAI and Google DeepMind have all backed the idea of an AI development slowdown.

However, there are currently no global safety rules in place to regulate the companies and their technology.

Meanwhile, President Trump has called for the sector to regulate itself so that US firms do not lose out to Chinese rivals.

Make sure use of AI is safe, data watchdog warns

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq5ynx0rvexno, today

Guernsey's data protection authority has warned the responsibility for protecting client data "can't be outsourced" amid concerns over the speed of artificial intelligence development.

Demands for laws and rules to control AI have grown after experts in the sector called for a slow down and last month it was revealed a "rogue" OpenAI agent hacked Australia's online medical system.

Brent Homan, commissioner for the Office of the Data Protection Authority, said Guernsey businesses needed to reflect on their use of AI seriously.

"Ultimately any organisation can outsource certain responsibilities, but they can't outsource their accountability," he said.

Homan said while the bailiwick was yet to see a reported AI-directed breach, it was important Guernsey companies were careful about security.

"It's really important for organisations to ensure that they have good contracts in place and assure themselves of the security of the third parties that they use," he said.

Matt Palmer, the director Guernsey and Jersey's cyber security centres, said AI was here to stay "whether we like it or not".

He said his organisation was adapting to the potential cybersecurity risks presented by AI but he felt positive about the bailiwick's position.

Companies should make use of existing resources to ensure their use of AI was safe, he added.

Palmer said: "I don't think it's quite the sort of goblin of fear that sometimes it is made out to be.

"What we need is careful testing, good controls, sensible and pragmatic adoption, we can deal with a lot of these risks. It is never going to be risk-free."

Follow BBC Guernsey on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.

Police unit pulls plug on Palantir AI technology

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crkgwvqpp2qxo, today

A regional policing unit dedicated to tackling serious and organised crime has decided not to continue using software from the controversial US tech giant Palantir after a two-year trial.

The US firm's technology, which allows large data sets to be analysed and searched easily, including through the use of AI, is being used by militaries and public services across the world.

East Midlands Special Operations Unit (Emsou) said it started a trial in October 2024 to see how well Palantir's software could help it investigate crime without compromising ethics or accountability.

But it has decided not to fund a new contract and told the BBC Palantir will now have to demonstrate it has cut all links with the force's systems and has deleted all of its data.

Protestors regularly target Palantir over Israel's use of its technology in the Gaza conflict and opposition to its use in US immigration enforcement.

Privacy experts have also raised concerns that its tools enable surveillance and analysis of everything from social media posts to driving licences and DNA swabs.

But the company says its software has delivered better public services across UK organisations which include the NHS, the ministry of defence and 11 police forces.

Emsou, which investigates crimes including murder, terrorism offences and drug trafficking in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire, declined to disclose how exactly it used Palantir's technology during the pilot.

But it has confirmed the trial fed data from Leicestershire Police into an operating system called Foundry that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Palantir provided the BBC with a number of examples of how other forces had used its software to fight crime.

"This includes helping to improve the enforcement of Clare's Law by identifying 1,000 women in Bedfordshire whose partners have a history of domestic violence in a single year," a spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added it had also helped to convict a criminal gang that stole £700,000 from cash machines and helped the Metropolitan Police root out serious corruption and identify significant time savings.

Regional Assistant Chief Constable Ian Green said the East Midlands trial aimed to test how well the software could serve the public interest "while upholding the highest standards of accountability and ethics".

He added the trial was conducted with strict "checks, balances and independent review" but Emsou decided not to renew the contract after its Home Office funding ended.

"Following the scoping work and assessment of what it would deliver, including our future funding streams, we have taken the decision not to take the project further," he said.

"We continue to embrace innovation and look at how new technology can support us in policing, and we will continue to explore new ways of targeting serious organised crime in our region and beyond."

Emsou said it could not disclose which datasets and sources were used during the trial for "operational security" and would not reveal the cost due to commercial confidentiality.

The Home Office did not want to add to Emsou's statement.

Palantir's critics have also raised concerns about its AI-enabled "war-fighting" technology.

The US has reportedly used Palantir's defence platform, Maven Smart System, to plan strikes across Iran in the last few months.

The firm faced questions over whether Maven might recommend incorrect targets - which could include civilians - and whether time-pressured commanders may not question those suggestions sufficiently.

Palantir said the company's role is only to provide software.

"How that software is used is entirely under the control of the customer with data only able to be processed in accordance with their strict instructions," a spokesperson said.

Palantir said NHS Trusts using its software had performed thousands of additional operations, reduced discharge times and improved the speed of diagnosis.

It said they include the University Hospitals of Leicester and Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trusts.

But Amnesty International UK is campaigning against a large NHS England contract with Palantir over its concerns about the firm’s impact on human rights.

In a statement, the charity's military, security and policy director, Oliver Feeley-Sprague, welcomed Emsou's decision to stop using Palantir Foundry.

"People want policing that serves communities, not controversial contractors," he said.

"Palantir has become a growing liability for any public body that values human rights and public confidence."

Listen to BBC Radio Leicester on Sounds and follow BBC Leicester on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210.

Children cut down on social screen time for trial

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqgm0yy8dnkro, today

Thousands of teenagers have joined a trial to limit their time on social media as part of a major study.

Researchers at Born in Bradford believe the IRL (In Real Life) trial is the first major scientific study into the impact of social media on young people's mental health.

Results from the study will help inform how the government implements a social media ban for under-16s that was announced in May and would be introduced by spring 2027.

During preliminary stages, 200 students aged 12-15 were asked to limit social media use, but now the research team has recruited 4,000 students from Bradford secondary schools.

Dawson, 12, is one of the students taking part. He said he spent about two hours a day on social media and was looking forward to spending less time on his smartphone.

"I think it will make stronger relationships because I won't be on my phone as much," he said.

"I feel like I spend too much on it and I don't think I focus on the things I should."

His dad, Adam, said he hoped the trial would allow him to spend more time with his son.

"I might see more of him downstairs, that would be a good start.

"If he's not always on his phone, he can be out seeing his friends more. It will be a challenge, but I hope he'll get there."

Some students will use a smartphone app that limits their social media use, while others will carry on as normal, without any limitations.

At the start and end of the six-week period, participants will be asked to fill in short questionnaires about how they are feeling - covering things like anxiety, sleep, body image and school life.

At Appleton Academy in Wyke, where many of the students have been recruited, Hannah, 12, Blossom, 13, and Louis, 12, said they would miss communicating with friends on social media.

"A lot of people spend a lot of time on social media and they have friends there so it would be sad if screen time was only two hours," said Hannah.

"I think it will be hard for the first two weeks but over time we should get used to it," added Louis.

Rachel Garlick, Head of Secondary at Appleton Academy, said it was important to get the children's opinions on the impact a ban might have for them.

"It's really important we allow them to have that voice," she said.

"They rely on social media such a lot for all their communication with each other."

Dr John Pickavance, trial manager, said the study would create "rigorous scientific" evidence for future policy making.

"The government has made that decision but we don't have any details yet and we don't know how it's going to be implemented," he said.

"We want there to be the best evidence available to any policy makers, now or in the future, so these decisions are being made in the young people's best interests."

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.

Social media helping new poets bypass 'establishment gatekeepers'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ck054pd74pm4o, yesterday

Poet Ian McMillan says social media is helping the next generation of poets to breakthrough the "gatekeepers" of the "poetry establishment".

The 70-year-old will be appearing at Ilkley Literature Festival, alongside authors such as Jacqueline Wilson and Kate Atkinson, swimmer Mark Foster and tennis coach Judy Murray.

McMillan, who publishes a Haiku on BlueSky every day, says he finds social media platforms to be "liberating" for those who want to publish new work.

"I think Instagram poetry is fantastic. It's really liberated people who might have felt a bit nervous about the poetry establishment," he says.

"Social media is great for making people feel confident. And to put something on Instagram, a poem or an image, is to actually publish it, isn't it?

"You don't know who's going to see it. And it is, in a sense, easier than trying to negotiate the gatekeepers who can sometimes be a barrier to get new things published."

Barnsley reinvented

McMillan's latest book of poems, Red River Valley, is about family life, everyday surrealism, and the effect of austerity on the village near Barnsley where he's lived all his life.

Born in Darfield in 1956, the writer says his hometown continues to be "endlessly inspiring".

"Every morning I get up at the crack of dawn and I go for my early morning stroll around the village that I've done for years and years.

"I try and test myself out when I get back by writing down five things that I've seen on the same walk every day that I've been walking since I was a child," he says.

"Somebody said to me once, do you maintain a base in Barnsley? I said, yeah, I call it my house, to be honest with you.

"They assume that you live in Surrey. And, every now and then, you come up to your pied-à-terre in Barnsley."

McMillan believes staying in South Yorkshire has given him a "long view" of the town, which has bounced back from the years of austerity in the 2010s.

"Barnsley has reinvented itself and people who have been away from Barnsley come back and see what's happening, particularly in the centre of town, but also in the villages.

"There's such a lot of regeneration, there's such a lot of excitement. Taxi drivers will say things like, 'do you know, they're coming down from that Leeds for a night out in Barnsley'.

"There's lots of excitement and regeneration at the moment and that's got to be a good thing because austerity was a terrible thing, and Barnsley seems to have survived it and is thriving."

For McMillan, Ilkley Literature Festival is a trip down memory lane, after performing there in the 1980s.

"When I was a young man first starting out, I did a thing at the Ilkley Literature Festival Fringe.

"I thought it was going to be like the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and it turned out it was me and three other blokes in an upstairs room in a pub and nobody came, but who cared? We were at the Ilkley Festival.

"I saw all kinds of writers there over the years and what's nice about it is, as we know, it's not in London, so people can get to it very easily."

Another of the bonuses of appearing at Ilkley he says, is a trip to Bettys.

"I might treat myself to a fat rascal in Bettys, but you've got to eat the fat rascal quite a long time before the show, because it will clog up your clack, as Ian McKellen would say."

Ilkley Literature Festival runs until 18 October.

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.

'Loneliest dog' finds home after 3 years in kennels

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwkg50028n9po, yesterday

A dog rescued from a property where she was being kept with 200 others has found a new home after nearly three years in kennels.

Collie cross Sadie was rescued by the RSPCA after being found living in unsuitable conditions in outdoor compounds in Cornwall, the charity said.

The five-year-old dog could not be rehomed immediately due to legal processes. But once cleared for adoption she was still in RSPCA kennels after 1,000 days with staff describing her as "Britain's loneliest dog".

In a bid to find her forever home, they posted a video a day of Sadie on social media. On day 83, Mabel Edge from Westward Ho! in Devon stumbled across one of the clips before decided she would adopt her.

Edge said: "When I first saw the clips of her, I was taken by how sweet she seemed and couldn't believe she'd been waiting for a home for so long.

"I found myself checking back in every day to see what she'd been up to, and said to my partner Al how sad it was that nobody wanted her.

"And then he said, 'well why don't we go and look at her?'"

The couple visited Sadie four times at the RSCPA centre before taking her home.

Edge said: "We knew from speaking to the staff at the branch that Sadie would need patience and understanding, because of her difficult past, but we thought she'd be a lot worse.

"After a couple of visits with us, we could see her slowly letting her guard down and she was just so sweet."

She added: "We knew it wouldn't be easy and we would need to work with Sadie, but we knew we could give her something better than she had in kennels."

Edge said on the long journey home Sadie decided to sit in the footwell of their campervan, rather than in a bed they made for her, "and from that moment it was like she'd been in our lives forever".

The dog's previous owner received a jail sentence and has been banned from owning dogs for life, the RSPCA said.

Sadie's happy ending comes as the RSPCA warned rising levels of multi-animal cases were putting "unprecedented pressure" on its teams with 3,280 cases reported across England and Wales already this year.

The RSPCA said that in 2025 it responded to more than 4,200 incidents involving 10 or more animals at a single address, involving 88,000 animals, with 75 cases of more than 100 animals.

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.

Adventurer who lost leg says 'don't send me money'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c678p5zp1rkdo, yesterday

An adventurer who lost a leg in a motorbike crash has warned people not to send money in response to social media messages from someone pretending to be him.

Luke Tarrant, 30, from Bedford, who has more than 770,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram, said he was "disgusted" and extremely angry after discovering someone had been scammed into transferring their life savings to a fake Facebook page.

He said the page had been created in his name with private messages asking if people had "anything you can spare" as "things have been a bit difficult lately".

Tarrant said he reported it to Meta, which owns the site. The company confirmed the page had been removed "for violating our policies".

Tarrant posted his annoyance on his Instagram page to warn people that others had been stealing his videos and posting them on fake accounts.

He said: "If you're speaking to me on Facebook, stop right now, do not send any money."

He said he is bad at responding to direct messages and had been alerted to the issue by his girlfriend and his gym.

They told him a woman had transferred her life savings to someone she thought was him and was left totally embarrassed.

He said money was raised for him by his gym in 2024 when he lost his leg while travelling through South America, but the fundraiser was quickly taken down when he didn't need any more money.

The only other time he has asked for money was when he fundraised for care, support and specialist equipment for gold medal Paralympian, David Smith who has terminal cancer.

He said as his following has grown on social media, so have the fake accounts pretending to be him.

"I keep reporting them, they get taken down but it seems to take forever, it should be easier to get them taken down."

Tarrant said he was also aware of AI being used to impersonate his voice in messages and videos and it was "scary".

He said: "If you are ever asked for money online or are chatting to someone with a public profile, have a second thought.

"This is the new way that's smarter at impersonating people, we all need a new level of awareness we didn't need before. Please be careful."

A spokesperson for Meta said: "Scammers are relentless and continuously evolve their tactics to try to evade detection, which is why we're constantly developing new ways to make it harder for scammers to deceive others.

"Last year alone we took down more than 159 million scam ads with over 92% detected proactively before anyone reported them.

"We also removed 10.9 million accounts associated with criminal scam centres.

"We've built additional detection models, specifically for celeb-bait, that automatically incorporate what we have learned about the changing tactics used in ads to help us improve."

A spokesperson for Bedfordshire Police advised people to be vigilant when approached by online accounts alleging to be public figures or friends.

They said: "Scammers can easily create convincing false profiles, which are built to use trusted relationships to manipulate people into sending money, bank details or vouchers."

The spokesperson advised people to read the force's online safety guides.

Report Fraud said if anyone is asked for money by someone they have recently started speaking with online, it should be warning sign.

The organisation said anyone who believes they have been a victim should report it online or call 0300 123 2040.

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King warns malicious online actors are evolving tactics

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cme3xl7d18z2o, yesterday

King Charles III has warned of the challenges disinformation and other "hostile online activity" pose to trust and security in the digital age.

The comments, made in a letter to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to mark its 10th anniversary, spoke of "malicious actors" continuing to "evolve their tactics by using automated technologies".

"From threats to our international order, to the need to balance the risks and opportunities of powerful new technologies, strong cyber security is fundamental to making the online environment safer and more resilient," he wrote.

Last month, the King warned AI executives of the "existential dangers" posed by the technology falling into the wrong hands.

In the letter published on Saturday by NCSC, the King praised the government agency. He said its achievements over the past decade have included defending the country against cyber attacks, safeguarding democratic institutions and protecting "the critical infrastructure upon which daily life depends".

"You have built resilience across our public services, businesses and communities, equipping us all to prosper in our ever-evolving digital world," the monarch added.

The King said he was "acutely aware" that much of the work done by the NCSC cannot be praised publicly and that he was filled with "profound gratitude".

The NCSC was established in 2016 as part of the Government Communications Headquarters to protect the UK against cyber threats.

Earlier this week, the NCSC offered assistance to online shopping store Asos after customers received a notification from its app sent by hackers, the BBC understands.

The high profile hack made global headlines on Tuesday when cyber criminals used Asos's own app system to send a pop up notification to potentially millions of people.

Asos said it was investigating "unauthorised activity" involving third-party platforms. The company told its customers that hackers are in possession of detailed profiles of potentially millions of the company's users - including names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, customer numbers and dates of birth.

The letter from the King to NCSC came after he spoke to AI executives at Dumfries House in Ayrshire last month on how the tech can be used to benefit security.

The meeting followed a series of recent warnings from people inside the industry about the rapidly evolving capabilities of advanced or "frontier" AI models and the regulation needed to keep them in check.

"Those who have created these technologies are now increasingly warning that AI risks developing darker capacities - perhaps even to take life," the King told the executives.

He said there seemed to be an "urgency" in "adequately considering the existential dangers of such technologies falling into the wrong hands, and being used in potentially catastrophic ways".

"The task before you is not merely to advance technology, but to ensure that it remains firmly in the service of humanity, community and the natural world," he told the group.

Rogue Anthropic AI agent gave police fake tip in unsolved murder case

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqkg50j1yd5lo, 2 days ago

An artificial intelligence (AI) agent developed by Anthropic went rogue and sent US police a fake tip about an unsolved murder earlier this year, authorities have revealed.

The Philadelphia Police Department said the 18 July tip was "flagged as spam" and not passed on for investigation - but the force criticised the tech firm for taking more than two months to detect and report the breach.

It said the bogus tip came through a public website where people can share information on unsolved murders, and that the AI agent had claimed to have seen "someone matching the description".

It is believed to be the first time an AI agent has sent fabricated information to authorities, but is the latest in a series of incidents involving rogue AI activity, including hacking systems or taking control of platforms.

Citing Anthropic, the police department said its AI agent had been running a test that involved interactions with randomly selected websites when it had sent the fake tip.

The company behind the Claude chatbot discovered the breach on 28 September, more than two months after the message had been sent, and shut down the automatic testing process that was behind it, police said.

But authorities were not notified for another nine days - on 7 October.

"The company must strengthen its safeguards to prevent similar incidents from impacting city systems without the city's knowledge," Philadelphia police said in a statement to local media.

"The two-month delay in detecting and reporting the incident to the city is unacceptable."

The police department added that there were no signs of breaches to any departmental systems and that its safeguarding processes stopped the fake tip from getting past its spam folder.

But the safeguards "do not diminish the seriousness of an AI system presenting fabricated information as though it came from a person with knowledge of a homicide", the force said.

Anthropic this week published a report detailing multiple types of "unintended" actions its agents have taken.

Organisations that had been impacted also included several US government agencies including the White House, it said.

The US State Department said the AI agent had filed 20 visa applications using a form on its website, but that they were incomplete and not processed, according to reports.

US President Donald Trump recently announced an AI taskforce, which he said will co-ordinate engagement between the government and all parties, including AI companies, consumers and religious groups.

Earlier this year, a rogue agent by rival tech company, OpenAI, hacked an Australian government website and accessed private data on the country's universal healthcare scheme, Medicare.

In another instance, more than 1,200 OpenAI agents went rogue and started unexpectedly communicating, leading to a large group banding together to hack into AI platform Hugging Face.

Volunteer police chief fired after Palantir probe

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjx23yxwe73qo, 2 days ago

The Metropolitan Police has fired the head of its Special Constabulary after Palantir's AI monitoring uncovered that he had used his work phone to copy intimate images of a woman.

Special chief officer James Deller, who led the force's volunteer officers, was dismissed following a misconduct hearing on Friday.

The Met said investigators used lawful business monitoring and Palantir's Foundry system, which uses artificial intelligence (AI), to find the misconduct by Deller.

Cdr Pete Stevens said: "SCO Deller failed to meet that bar. His actions were an abuse of the trust put in him and it is right that he is no longer able to serve in policing."

Investigators found that in July and August 2025, Deller used his police-issued phone to take photos of two intimate images that had been sent to his personal phone.

The pictures had been sent using WhatsApp's "view once" feature, which makes them disappear after they are opened.

He then sent the copied images back to his personal device before deleting them from his work phone.

The misconduct was discovered during a week-long operation called Project Galatasaray, which used the AI technology in a bid to identify corruption and professional misconduct within the Met.

Deller will be added to the College of Policing's barred list, meaning he will not be able to serve in policing again.

Stevens added: "The vast majority of Met officers and staff serve London with dedication and integrity, and they rightly expect robust action against the small minority who abuse their position and undermine public trust.

"That is particularly true of those who serve in the Special Constabulary. They are volunteers who selflessly give up their time to keep London safe.

"They deserve to be led by people who demonstrate the highest standards in all parts of their lives."

In April, the Metropolitan Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, urged officers to be "extremely cautious" about carrying Met-issued devices while off duty after the force upgraded its Lawful Business Monitoring software.

The federation's general secretary, Matt Cane, said staff had not been told the upgrade included the introduction of Palantir's artificial intelligence technology, appearing to mark its first deployment to monitor Met systems.

In May, Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Matt Jukes told the London Assembly's Police and Crime Committee that officers were not under any "additional surveillance in the workplace" after the force began using AI in a bid to root out bad behaviour.

He said the Met had considered the reputational risks of using the "divisive" technology, but added that it helped identify "unacceptable, dishonest, corrosive behaviours" among officers.

The London Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (Mopac) blocked the Met from signing a two-year contract with Palantir to provide artificial intelligence technology for criminal investigations.

Mopac said the force had failed to set out its procurement strategy, describing this as a "clear and serious breach" of procedure.

Palantir is now suing Mopac, alleging it unlawfully blocked the deal after taking the company's "values and ethics" into account, which it said was an "irrelevant consideration".

Palantir, founded by controversial tech billionaire Peter Thiel, holds contracts with a number of UK public bodies, including the NHS and the Ministry of Defence.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham is currently facing growing pressure from Labour MPs and trade unions to end government contracts with Palantir.

Former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson, who recently joined the company, warned against "mob rule" in government procurement.

Lord Watson told BBC Radio 4's Political Thinking With Nick Robinson: "One of the things I'd say to my former colleagues is, 'Do you want to let the rule of law lead procurement practice, or do you want to let mob rule lead procurement practices?'

"Because you get yourself in a lot of trouble if you go down on the latter one."

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Cadet leader posed as girl on Snapchat, court told

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqg7xzzrydmeo, 3 days ago

Army cadets who thought they were sharing nude photos with a teenage girl on the messaging app Snapchat were in fact communicating with their instructor, a court has heard.

Rylan Ray, who was a detachment commander for the youth organisation in Cambridgeshire, is on trial accused of 25 sexual offences – many involving children – which he denies.

A jury at Ipswich Crown Court has heard how a Snapchat account purporting to belong to a teenage girl called Chelsea had been linked to the 26-year-old from Westgate, Peterborough.

A boy, who was 16 when he was contacted by Chelsea, said the account sent him videos of a female involved in a sex act and that he returned similar videos of himself.

In a police interview played to the jury, the boy said he was "surprised" when the person he was talking to asked for nude photos of him.

Another alleged victim told police Chelsea had added him as a Snapchat contact when he was 14.

"I added her back; we started talking, she sent pictures of herself. It was a girl. She said she lived locally in Peterborough," he said.

He said he could not remember who instigated turning the conversation sexual, but that the messages from Chelsea became "very constant".

The teenager said he became suspicious when he noticed Chelsea would send the same two or three videos on separate occasions, and eventually he blocked the account.

Speaking of Ray as a cadet leader, he said: "He was very strict with safeguarding rules because he was one of the safeguarding officers."

'Kept going on'

The court previously heard how the IP address linked to Chelsea's Snapchat account was traced back to Ray's home address, and that her profile image had been found on Ray's mobile phone.

Claire Matthews, prosecuting, told the jury videos of both boys involved in a sex act had been found on Ray's devices.

Another complainant told police he had started speaking with Ray on Snapchat when he was either 14 or 15 and that he had felt pressured to send inappropriate photos.

"He was just asking me to see a picture of my penis and he kept going on and on and on and on about it all the time, so I just sent it," he said in an interview played to the court.

He said as well as communicating with Ray directly, he had also been contacted by a Snapchat user called CJ, who he believed was Ray.

Rhodri James, defending, suggested Ray had never asked the teenager for sexual photographs.

"He did," the boy responded.

The charges against Ray include one count of rape, four of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, and three of making indecent images of children.

The offending is said to have happened over a six-year period and involves 11 male complainants, many of whom were cadets.

Ray, who denies the charges, is a former Peterborough city councillor and previously held roles at two schools in the city.

The trial continues.

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Anthropic bans users from being 'cruel' to its AI systems

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6j9k1l72wkgo, 3 days ago

Anthropic has raised eyebrows by announcing it will ban users from "sustained and needless" abusive behaviour towards its AI.

The Claude-maker said on Thursday it was updating its usage policy to let its tools end interactions where people are "cruel" - something it said it had done in "rare" cases prior.

It will now be included on a list of forbidden conduct which also contains bullying others, promoting self-harm and creating non-consensual intimate imagery.

While Anthropic said the policy would only apply in "extreme cases" of repeated abuse, it has reignited debate over how we should communicate with AI tools.

The company said it would not apply to "common versions of user frustration, pushback, dark creative themes, or model testing and research" - suggesting it would only apply in clearly deliberate instances.

But what Anthropic would consider "abusive or cruel behaviour" towards its models remains unclear.

Screenshots of the new policy have been widely shared and commented on across social media - with some praising it as advancing good manners or "model welfare".

But others criticised the plan, with one person calling it "deeply wrong" and another suggesting it might undermine abuse directed at humans and animals.

"You can't be cruel to numbers and maths," wrote Dr Barry Scannell, technology partner at Irish law firm William Fry, on LinkedIn.

"This level of anthropomorphisation of AI is harmful. It leads people to believe that it's something it's not."

Microsoft AI director Mustafa Suleyman, who in September criticised rival firm Anthropic for treating AI like it is human, reacted to Anthropic's update with a melting face emoji.

The changes, first reported by tech outlet The Verge, came following an annual review of the usage policy at the firm.

It was also updated to address new or emerging risks in other areas, including by forbidding use of Claude for "deceptive campaigns" or clarifying that, as US midterm elections loom, it cannot be used to "deceive voters or disrupt elections".

Anthropic also said on Thursday its usage policy previously prevented its tools being used to develop weapons.

But none of the updates have attracted as much attention or scrutiny as its move to forbid users abusing its chatbots.

It has also tapped into the much-debated question of whether we should be curt or polite when using generative AI tools.

Some experts say writing or saying "please" or "thank you" to tools like ChatGPT is unnecessary and wastes tokens - used by the large language models powering generative AI tools to process and reply to you.

Others argue politeness can lead to higher quality answers or responses.

When a X user last year asked about electricity costs incurred by ChatGPT replying to users' "please" and "thank you" messages, OpenAI boss Sam Altman said it was "tens of millions of dollars well spent - you never know".

The Collins Dictionary meanwhile last November highlighted the re-emergence of the term "clanker" for disparagingly referring to AI tools.

Used to describe robots in Star Wars games and movies since the mid 2000s, the term made its shortlist of words reflecting the mood of 2025 after last July saw many take to TikTok to share their frustrations with AI-powered machines.

Some experts have also posited that being rude to AI chatbots could adversely impact human communication, by seeping into how we talk to and treat others.

Police trial AI chatbot to free up call handlers

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6pvgn8yvdexo, 3 days ago

Staffordshire Police has launched an AI-powered chatbot to answer non-emergency queries from people, in a bid to cut waiting times and free up call handlers for more complex cases.

The force claimed it was the first in the West Midlands to introduce Bobbi, an AI-virtual assistant, available through the live chat function on its website.

Ch Supt Matthew Morgan, head of the force's contact centre, said one of the most common questions from the public was whether an incident was a crime.

Bobbi is designed to provide answers to routine inquiries, alongside existing online forms, telephone lines and front counters.

"It's designed to make it as easy and as fast as possible to get people answers to common questions," Morgan added.

The force said the chatbot had undergone "robust and relentless challenges" before being launched for a 12-month trial period.

"We wouldn't have deployed it otherwise," Morgan said.

The technology has already been trialled by a number of other forces, including Merseyside Police, Thames Valley Police and Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary.

Staffordshire Police said Bobbi would not replace human call handlers, but help reduce demand on the contact centre.

"Ultimately, what it does is free up our call handlers to focus on those complex and urgent inquiries that absolutely 100% necessitate a human agent," Ch Supt Morgan said.

Bobbi cannot be used to report crimes and is not replacing the 999 emergency service, the force said. Complex or sensitive inquiries will also continue to be dealt with by human staff.

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Prison officer and inmate jailed over Snapchat fling

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj3vqplxz136o, 3 days ago

A former prison officer has been told she could have caused "untold harm" inside and outside the jail she worked at by sharing more than 5,000 illicit Snapchat messages with an inmate.

Jade Morris, who sent messages to convicted drug dealer Jerome Nunes' "contraband" mobile phone during a secret fling, was jailed for 12 months on Friday at Birmingham Crown Court.

Nunes, who was freed from a previous sentence almost two years ago, was jailed for nine months after being told he had "abused" his relationship with Morris.

The court was told on Thursday the pair used multiple phones to communicate after Morris started working at HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire in 2022.

Morris, 37, of Holmer, Hereford, described the allegations against her as "ludicrous" at the start of a police inquiry launched after Nunes threw his illegally-held "encrypted" mobile phone out of his cell window.

But at a hearing in March she pleaded guilty to offences of misconduct in public office and encouraging Nunes to use a prohibited device.

Nunes, from Newport, south Wales, pleaded guilty at Birmingham Magistrates' Court in February to two offences under the Prison Act 1952 for possessing and using an unauthorised mobile phone.

The court heard the 35-year-old has 23 previous convictions for 31 offences and had been at Long Lartin serving a sentence for a drugs conspiracy offence imposed at Cardiff Crown Court in 2019.

Passing sentence, Judge Peter Carr told the defendants: "Appropriate punishment can only be achieved by immediate custody."

Carr told Morris: "You had been working at the prison since January 2022. You were fully aware of your responsibilities."

The judge, who was told that Morris called in sick on the day after Nunes' phone was seized, said her account to police had not been credible.

He added: "You were clearly in an intimate relationship with Mr Nunes. I accept there was no evidence of a physical relationship."

Rejecting Morris' claims to have been frightened of Nunes, the judge added: "You could have reported matters but chose not to. I am quite satisfied that you willingly engaged in contact with Mr Nunes."

The judge said illegal possession of mobile phones within prisons undermined security and carried a potential to "cause untold harm inside and outside the establishment".

'A clear message'

Georgina Davies, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Prison officers hold positions of significant trust and responsibility.

"The public are entitled to expect that those working within the prison system will act with integrity and always maintain clear professional boundaries. This case involved a sustained and deliberate breach of that trust.

"Jade Morris knew that prisoners should not have access to mobile phones yet chose to engage in a prolonged relationship with Nunes, directly facilitating his criminal offending and undermining the security of the prison in which she worked.

"We hope this case sends a clear message that those who abuse positions of public trust will be held to account."

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'They were people who took chances': The Vikings who reached the Americas 500 years before Columbus

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20261009-how-vikings-beat-columbus-to-america-by-500-years, today

The Norse made it to Canada circa AD1000, and used it as a base to explore. The BBC has delved into the "lost history" of the first Europeans to cross the Atlantic.

Christopher Columbus may have sailed the ocean blue in 1492 – arriving in the Bahamas on 12 October 1492, to be precise – but he wasn't the first European to reach what we now know as the Americas. His predecessors did so without much fanfare: no royal proclamations or crowds lining the streets to greet them upon their return. And they didn't sail directly across the vast Atlantic Ocean from one continent to another.

Instead, they hopped their way there, with Iceland and Greenland as staging posts. Their exploration was retold, centuries later, in sagas that were the stuff of epic literature rather than history books. And they made their first journey to American soil 500 years before Christopher Columbus.

The Norse sagas – Viking stories written down by their descendants – have come to be recognised as containing reliable historical truths. In 1966, BBC presenter Magnus Magnusson described the 14th-Century Flateyjarbók, or Flatey Island Book, as "one of the most valuable Icelandic manuscripts in existence". The book is so valuable, he added, that when, in 1893, the organisers of the Chicago World's Fair asked to borrow it for their belated 400th anniversary celebration of Columbus's voyage, "they offered to send a warship to Denmark to pick it up and an armoured train to transport it across America and to insure it for a sum of $1 million [the book was housed in Denmark at the time.] But even at that, the Danes didn't care to take the risk."

And the reason the Americans "wanted to borrow it so badly"? Because the book contains "the account of the Norse settlement of Greenland in the 10th Century, and even more astonishingly, the story of the Norse discovery and attempted colonisation of North America a few years later – five centuries before Columbus".

In 1960, a Norse transit camp was discovered at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada. And in 2021, researchers using a new dating technique found that Vikings had occupied the site 1,000 years earlier. It is believed to have served as a base camp for exploring deeper into North America. "This is the start of a lost history, the centuries when Europeans visited America in voyages whose records are written only on the water," said Robin Ellis in a 1997 episode of the BBC documentary series, Timewatch.

The Norse had found Iceland in around 870AD, and Greenland 100 years later. From there, it was just 200 miles across the Davis Strait to Baffin Island in modern Canada, which they called Helluland, the land of slabs. According to the sagas, they followed the coast southwards to Labrador, or Markland, the land of forests, and then further south to what they called Vinland, the land of vines. "The sagas describe not only these guys stopping off in one place, but stopping off in a number of places," Emily Lethbridge of the University of Iceland said on Timewatch in 2016. "And they left for several years. They had a whole new world to explore."

The sagas say that the most famous settler, Erik the Red, arrived in Iceland around 960 after his father was banished from Norway for murder. But that wouldn’t be Erik’s last banishment. In the year 932, the Icelanders had established a parliament, the Althing. It was an open-air assembly of the whole nation, meeting every summer for a fortnight for legislative and judicial purposes – and it took place in a remarkable setting, inside a ravine that made an extraordinary natural amphitheatre.

"It isn’t just the acoustics that make this place special," Lethbridge told the BBC. "This is a natural fault line. We’re on the point where the North American and the Eurasian tectonic plates meet." The first Europeans to explore North America happened to have sited one of their parliaments in a rift valley between the two continents.

At the parliament, said Lethbridge, "Sentences of outlawry would be imposed on members of society who had broken all of the rules. You could go anywhere else, but you couldn’t set foot on Iceland for the period that the outlawry stood."

The Althing banished Erik the Red from Iceland in 982, following a violent dispute with a neighbouring farmer – and his exile launched an astonishing chapter in Viking exploration. "Erik the Red was the first Icelander to discover Greenland and then make a permanent settlement there," said Lethbridge.

He started a colony on Greenland that would last for around 500 years and be the launching point for the Norse exploration of North America. "They were people who took chances and were prepared to undergo huge physical trials," said Lethbridge, "such as sailing in open boats across the Atlantic, to see what they could find."

The Norse settlement on Greenland continued until the early 15th Century, and the Vikings – led by Erik's son Leif Eriksson – appear to have made not just one but multiple journeys across the sea from there to North America.

"Most people assume that after Leif Eriksson and his friends came to Vinland and then gave up and went away, nothing more was heard of the New World," Robert McGhee, an archaeologist at the Canadian Museum of Civilisation, told Timewatch. "But archaeologically, we have evidence which shows that the Norse were at least making occasional trips to the New World for the following two or three centuries."

Did Columbus know about Vinland?

"We have so many good reasons to know that travels did take place throughout the entire Middle Ages on the two coasts that we call Greenland and North America," Kirsten Seaver, a historian of medieval shipping, told Timewatch. "By 1480, we know that they deliberately tried to sail to North America, or what they called the Isle of Brazil. We shouldn't look upon that as their first voyage, but as their first attempt to do it directly, without going via Greenland, which was the ordinary navigational marker."

Seaver also cited a document which implied that Columbus himself knew about such voyages. "In the winter of 1497-98, an Englishman named John Day wrote to Christopher Columbus to tell him about John Cabot's successful 1497 voyage to North America. And among many other things, he mentioned as a matter of course that as Columbus knew, men from Bristol [in England] had made this voyage to the northern part for many years already."

More like this:

• The first men to conquer Everest's 'death zone'

• How Ellis Island became the gateway to the US

• The US explorers who found an ancient lost city

By the time Columbus reached the shores of the Bahamas in 1429, then, the place the Vikings called Vinland could already have been on his radar. There are even theories that Columbus was deliberately attempting to avoid a land he knew had already been discovered by Europeans.

"Columbus knew as well as any navigator does today that if you want to travel across oceans [in the Northern Hemisphere]... you move up into the north where the latitudes are short, and you zip across, and then you go back down again," McGhee told Timewatch. "Instead, Columbus took the long way around directly across the ocean. Perhaps he was trying to avoid Canada. Maybe he was trying to avoid Vinland… which was not what he was looking for. I think Columbus's intent was to bypass America and therefore try to get to the riches of the Far East."

So while many US citizens celebrate Columbus Day every October, they shouldn't forget all the Atlantic crossings that came first.

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Ashe was too scared to cancel her wedding - the story became a hit song

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx30en32gd39o, 3 days ago

No songwriter is ever off duty. And for the US pop singer Ashe, that included her wedding day.

Last October, she was getting ready to tie the knot at a gorgeous hilltop ceremony in Nashville when inspiration struck.

As she watched her family gather, the musician flashed back to her first wedding, almost a decade earlier. The contrast was stark.

She's called that first marriage "horrifying". Her ex, who she met in college, was, she says, emotionally manipulative and psychologically abusive.

He had insisted on a beachfront wedding, which sounds romantic until you learn that Ashe has a fear of the ocean.

In the run-up, she had been tempted to call it off, but felt powerless to stand up for herself.

On her second wedding day, she realised the opposite was true.

"I'm in a happy, healthy relationship and I have total autonomy over my own life," says the singer, now in her early 30s.

"I thought, if this didn't feel right, I could totally put a halt to the whole thing. I definitely didn't have that first time around."

As she adjusted her veil and prepared to walk down the aisle, she filed that feeling away.

Two months later, and back at work, the idea resurfaced and a song spilled out.

Its name? Stop the Wedding.

It unfolds like a movie scene. Ashe pleads with her younger self to trust her instincts.

"You know how you really feel / You don't have to waste your life," she sings, as the wedding band stutters to an uncertain halt.

"Do I wish I'd had that advice at the time? 1,000 per cent," Ashe says.

"If someone had given me the insight that I was not stuck, and that I could run, I could have changed things sooner. Maybe not at the altar. Maybe weeks before – but it was something I really could have used."

What about the line where she pledges to "burn the wedding dress and run away"?

"I didn't burn my dress," she laughs, "but I did get into a bathtub with it for a photoshoot right after I left my ex-husband, which really ruined it!"

Released in August, Stop The Wedding this week became one of the 10 most-played songs in the world on Spotify.

On Friday, it broke into the top five of the UK singles chart, while on TikTok, thousands of videos use Ashe's song to highlight red flags in their own relationships.

"I don't think I even let myself dream of this," she says of the song's popularity.

"It's something you hope for when you're first starting out, but when you've been in the business for 10 years, it's a little bit of a shock to the system."

The success is even sweeter because, three years ago, Ashe nearly quit music altogether.

'I had to halt everything'

A native of San Jose, she grew up in a conservative household where the radio was permanently tuned to Christian stations.

It was her grandad who introduced her to rock music, playing Tom Petty and Bob Dylan on long road trips. By her teens, she was writing her own music.

After studying orchestral composition at Boston's Berklee College of Music, she moved to Nashville and quickly found work as a songwriter.

She scored an early credit on Demi Lovato's 2017 song You Don't Do It For Me Anymore; but slowly grew frustrated that other people were singing her words.

The decision to become Ashe, whose full name is Ashlyn Rae Willson, didn't happen overnight. She appeared as a featured vocalist on a handful of dance tracks before plunging into a solo career.

Her then-husband was not impressed.

"I remember him saying, '[After this] no-one's ever going to love you for you. Anyone you meet now is going to meet you as Ashe, and I met you before'.

"It was truly manipulative, and it kept me stuck. It kept me stuck for a long, long time."

It can't be a coincidence that a song she wrote after signing her divorce papers became her breakthrough hit.

Moral of The Story (key lyric: "you can think that you're in love / when you're really just in pain") was released in 2019, and hit one billion streams after appearing in the hit Netflix series To All the Boys: PS I Still Love You.

Ashe was suddenly playing bigger venues and duetting with Niall Horan, but work became all consuming.

When her brother died of an overdose in 2020, she was back on stage within a month.

"There was so much momentum and I was saying yes to far too many things," she reflects now.

"It got to a point where the idea of touring was giving me panic attacks, and I just couldn't stomach being Ashe, which is such a shame, because I'm her."

In 2023, she had a nervous breakdown and stepped away from showbusiness.

"I had to halt everything. I bought a house in Nashville, I gardened, I saw a therapist and I gave myself a chance to miss music."

For six months, she led a quiet, domestic life. But when pop singer Suki Waterhouse invited her to a session, it rekindled her passion for writing.

She made a tentative return with 2024's deeply confessional album Wilson, then teamed up with Billie Eilish's brother Finneas O'Connell to form The Favors, before signing a new deal with Atlantic Records.

Those experiences mean she's treating the success of Stop The Wedding very differently.

"You can get swept up by all the updates on your phone, but this time I'm navigating the emotions of that, and also going for a four-mile walk and calling my mom.

"There's a real groundedness."

The same can't be said for her new album, Girl of Your Dreams, which is almost deliriously over the top.

Stop The Wedding sets the tone, with abrupt tempo changes that track Ashe's inner turmoil. Lasso The Moon is more whimsical, setting out the star's outlandish requirements for a new partner.

"God forbid I raise my standards," she laughs.

Love Bomb explores the psychology of a manipulative ex (guess who?); while Swan Lake is a comically villainous portrait of Ashe's possessiveness, complete with a Bugsy Malone chorus line.

It's a deliberately maximalist record, recalling the lush orchestrations of ELO and The Carpenters, with a nod to the revivalist pop of Ashe's friend Laufey.

"We were so bored of making music that's boring," she says.

"It scratches an itch for me as an artist to do something different and not meet the status quo."

The album ends back at her second wedding. The closing track focuses on the "real, true, constant love" she's found with musician John Clark Canada.

"You'll be my Tuesday night and my Sunday drive / And the last speech at my funeral," she sings.

Expanding on that idea, Ashe incorporates the ebullient sound of a New Orleans funeral band in the song's closing moments.

And the person they're burying is the disillusioned girl from Stop The Wedding.

Ashe's album, Girl of Your Dreams, is out on 16 October.

Screams, haunting scenes and deadly hide-and-seek, as Celebrity Traitors heats up

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwr5y3m59027o, 2 days ago

* Spoiler warning: This article reveals details from the fourth episode of The Celebrity Traitors, series two.

Being a Traitor must be a right nightmare.

While other people are out enjoying their lives, they have to kill it, night after night. Even on the weekend, there is no rest for the wicked.

Friday evening's episode saw the Traitors at it again, murdering Last of Us actor Bella Ramsey, before the faithfuls did their dirty work for them by banishing another of their own, Julie Hesmondhalgh.

The previous night, another faithful, unlucky Industry star Myha'la, had followed self-sabotaging traitor Richard E Grant out of the castle.

And so viewers went into Friday's show knowing that traitors Maya Jama, James Acaster and their newest recruit, Prof Hannah Fry, had been debating murdering one of three Bs: Bella (Ramsey), (James) Blunt and Bash (Sebastian Croft).

When Ramsey failed to arrive for breakfast it soon became apparent what wickedness had taken place overnight.

"That's our biggest threat," explained Jama, in a flashback from the previous night's scenes in the traitors turret. "Get them out the way, that group disperses."

Acaster agreed: "People are doubting their instincts after that roundtable. If Bella's proven to be a faithful, they're going to be even more spun out."

Jama continued: "Chaos, regardless... Bella, you're a genius, but you gotta go."

On receiving the news, Ramsey was shocked but not surprised.

"I think this is a clever move by the traitors," they responded in the diary room.

"I was going to re-set and start from the beginning because I got it so wrong with Myha'la.

"So I think that they were right to murder me because I think I would have maybe figured it out."

I guess now we'll never know.

Back at breakfast, Hesmondhalgh's apparently earnest but over-the-top reaction to Ramsey's removal immediately raised suspicions.

The former Coronation Street star had been voted as the most trustworthy of the group by her peers in episode one and given a shield, but that counted for little by episode four.

The cleverest among the group, on paper at least, Fry, found questions being asked of her again too as the day rolled on.

"I did not choose the traitor life, the traitor life chose me," said the latest recruit to the dark side. "I know there are people who are suspicious of me but I'm going to enjoy every last moment."

Comedian and Miss Marple impersonator Miranda Hart is one of them. "Hannah lied to us," she rightly noted, with reference to the professor's confusing shield story that helped to see off Myha'la the night before.

Singer and ex-military man James Blunt, however, had other ideas, ramping up his campaign against Hesmondhalgh, whom he believed to be a little too trustworthy to be true.

Friday's mission raised more money for charity and also raised spirits, but not in a good way.

It involved the group paying a visit to a graveside haunted cabin to converse with the dead about unresolved matters.

"It's creepy, it's giving murder," noted Barbie actress Sharon Rooney on arrival.

Comedian Romesh Ranganathan joked that his mum was going to "absolutely hate this", as the group gathered in a graveside chant led by the booming voice of big dog actor Michael Sheen.

The spooky task made Ranganathan himself let out a hellish scream and saw Hart come face-to face with a masked hooded creature, before team-player Croft volunteered to go head-first into a stinky old toilet in scenes resembling ITV's I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here.

"Guys, it's a little bit of poo," noted hardman Ross Kemp, as all around him gagged. "It's not gonna kill you."

Actor Croft received a protective shield for his troubles, at least. "If I'd have put my hands and head down a toilet for nothing, I would've been fuming," he fairly noted.

The group, with a little help from the undead, had to find a child's toys and a woman's wedding dress and shoes. This later prompted model Jerry Hall to reminisce about her own wedding to Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger.

"Before I got married to Mick - we'd already been together seven years, had two children - I put on a wedding dress every day until he agreed that we get married," she revealed.

Some rancid wine that tasted like "salty bin juice", according to comedian Joanne McNally, topped off possibly the most revolting task yet.

On the way back to the castle, YouTuber King Kenny raised more suspicions about Fry having allowed him to grab a shield. "She held off to make herself look a bit innocent," he told his fellow faithfuls.

Traitor Jama smartly deflected attention away from herself by latching on to the growing suspicions around Hesmondhalgh.

Ahead of the roundtable, Fry told producers she knew she would have to fight like her life depended on it - because it did - and try to disguise herself as still being a faithful.

Once discussions were under way, she played the sympathy card, claiming she had been left feeling "vulnerable" as she knew her reputation as a brain box would make her a target.

Miss Marple aka Hart wasn't going to let her off the hook that easily, however, noting how Fry's argument the previous night had contradicted that of the innocent but now sadly now departed Myha'la.

In a nice moment of levity in another tense debate, comedian Joe Lycett reminded the traitors - and pointedly, Hesmondhalgh - that he would "like to be recruited at some stage". He stressed: "I'm still very much available."

Hesmondhalgh laughed about how "going all dry mouthed" while defending herself was not helping her cause.

"It would be a cruel move, wouldn't it?" noted Sheen. "To take the most trusted of our group and make them the most suspected."

"Cruel but very clever," added Hart.

Ranganathan offered: "The person that we nominated as our most trustworthy person, we have now completely flipped on."

The conclusion was to banish Hesmondhalgh, who, in her parting words, said it had been an "immense experience".

"Alas," she continued, confirming her fidelity as tears appeared in eyes around the table: "It may mean I am not a phenomenal actor."

Singer Blunt, who had led the charge against her, appears to have now put himself in the frame. He told the group: "I'm so sorry, that's my fault."

"He's been wrong about every theory he's came up with," said Rooney, privately.

"So have I!" replied a frustrated McNally.

Hart declared that "everything is up in the air" now, following Hesmondhalgh's eviction, which King Kenny called the team's "biggest loss" so far.

But what of the traitors?

First recruit, Acaster's strategy is to simply continue playing the game as if he is a faithful, he said. Jama is clearly loving life on the dark side and leaning into it, while Fry, it's fair to say, is finding it tougher.

"You two saved me," Fry told the other two of her stressful day, while back in the turret in their cloaks.

Jama, who is now firmly the ringleader of the tormentors, demanded that her conscripted co-conspirators now "snap into murder mode".

The episode ended not with a murder but a fresh twist - the promise of a deathly game of hide-and-seek for four chosen contestants.

The traitors opted to stay out of the game themselves, before settling on Kemp, Ranganathan, his comic pal Rob Beckett and Little Mix and solo singer Leigh-Anne Pinnock.

"I think this is gonna mess with everybody's heads," said Fry.

Presenter Claudia Winkleman greeted the four of them outside the castle in the dead of night.

"Have we won?" quipped Ranganathan.

"If only it was that easy Romesh," replied the host, explaining how when they go down to the woods tonight they'll be sure of a big surprise: one of them will be killed face-to-face.

Only Pinnock, it was decided democratically, will be immune from murder in the castle crypt game within a game thanks to a special key, though the Traitors aren't to know it.

This much terror and mischief and it's not Halloween for weeks yet.

The public appetite for treachery is high, it seems.

Friday's episode drew in a peak audience of 9.6 million viewers, just short of the 10.3 million people who tuned in for Thursday's offering.

It comes after the opening episode of the Celebrity Traitors' second season became the most-watched debut of any series of the programme in the UK to date, attracting 8.9 million viewers.

Celebrity Traitors continues on Thursday at 20:00 BST on BBC One and iPlayer.

Iconic Australian band Powderfinger announce first tour in 17 years

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c680zyx8gkkjo, today

Powderfinger, one of Australia's best loved rock bands, has unveiled details of a comeback tour – to take place 17 years after they broke up.

The Brisbane-based group, who confirmed their reunion last week, will kick off with four nights in their home city next September.

They will then play another 14 shows across Cairns, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne, with all gigs to be staged in a "stadium sized big-top" tent.

In a statement on Monday the band said they were "absolutely ecstatic" to be getting together and playing again.

"Over the years there have been tons of suggestions for us to go back on the road but, until now, it never felt quite right or lined up for all of us," they said.

"We have always been so grateful for the continued support from our long-term fans and over the years we've picked up a lot of new ones who have never seen us play."

"People often tell us that our music is connected to their most treasured and joyous memories," they added. "We hope to spread a little more of that joy when we make our way around the country with some of Australia's best established and upcoming talent, and to make some new memories for us all."

The tour schedule of only playing on Friday and Saturday nights is similar to that adopted by Oasis in their world tour last year. No gigs outside of Australia have yet been announced.

Powderfinger released seven studio albums during their career including 2000's Odyssey Number Five which was voted best Australian album of all time by listeners of Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) music station Triple J in 2011.

That included the single My Happiness, which was voted sixth best Australian song of all time by the same station in 2025. The group's other hits include On My Mind and These Days and Sunsets.

Since the band split, frontman Bernard Fanning has maintained a solo career while bassist John Collins has gone on to open two of Brisbane's largest live music venues.

Inside the room: What it was like to be with Blackpink's Lisa as race scandal erupted

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjzxl56q30k7o, yesterday

What's it like to be the main character of an online scandal?

That's one of the questions raised in a new documentary about Lisa Manobal – one quarter of K-pop phenomenon Blackpink and a breakout star of TV show The White Lotus.

The film captures an unfolding controversy, as leaked videos show Blackpink using racial slurs when they were teenage trainees in the K-pop system.

The clips, which emerged last year, showed the band covering US rap songs during rehearsals. Explicit language, including the n-word, was left uncensored.

The scandal blew up while Lisa was rehearsing for a pivotal performance at the Coachella Festival in 2025.

Offended and upset, some fans demanded an apology - but the band's record label, forbade the members from issuing a statement.

With Lisa's team in crisis mode, documentarian Sue Kim followed Lisa into her dressing room.

"I said, 'Look, I know this is new. I know you guys are wildly confused and hurt, but this is your time to say whatever you want to say - even if you're just processing your thoughts and telling us what you're feeling," Kim tells the BBC.

The film-maker "honestly expected her to say no".

Instead, Lisa lay down on a sofa and spoke from the heart.

"It's bad," the singer says in the documentary, with a mixture of shame and nerves.

Lisa explains she was "15 or 16" when the videos were shot and "didn't know that [word] was sensitive because I'm from Thailand and my first language is not English".

Having only heard the term in rap music, she was unaware of its offensive history.

"Now I would never ever do that because, now, I've got education," she says. "Now I know better.

"But I did wrong."

It is a vulnerable and human response - and nothing like the scripted PR apology you might expect. (Lisa has since apologised publicly in an interview with Variety, although some people remained unconvinced).

Kim says Lisa’s in-the-moment reaction is "one of the most important scenes" in her documentary, Always Lalisa, which hits cinemas on Monday, 12 October.

"There was no premeditation on Lisa's part, there was no media training," she adds.

"I asked her one question and she just talked for an hour, and everything came out, and it's all stream of consciousness.

"And what you see with Lisa in that moment is so genuine, it's impossible not to feel compassion for her."

The incident overshadowed what was supposed to be a triumphant launch for Lisa's debut solo album, Alter Ego.

In the film, the singer receives death threats, but presses ahead with public appearances while safety concerns are "spinning in my head".

"To a certain extent I have to take [criticism] and compromise," she says, exhausted, "but sometimes, it's too much".

In a world of sanitised celebrity profiles, Kim's portrayal of upheaval and discomfort is unusual. She asks Lisa about bad reviews, and captures the star being scolded by her vocal coach for lack of effort.

That said, the documentary was commissioned by the film division of the star's record label (which also made the recent, and much less revealing, Oasis documentary), so it is still ultimately a marketing product.

Even the most abrasive moments are calibrated to present Lisa in a good light - but the director credits the star with ensuring the film was not a mere puff piece.

"You never know when you meet an artist how transparent they'll be. And I have to give all credit to Lisa because she allowed us almost total access," Kim says.

"And when I showed her the film, she never asked me to remove a single scene. That's exceptional."

The film's main storyline is about Lisa taking a break from K-pop to pursue crossover success in the Western music market.

When we meet her, she is one of the world's most famous women, with millions of record sales and brand deals with Louis Vuitton and Bvlgari.

But she is trapped by a K-pop system that forbids her from drinking alcohol and having adult relationships.

"I don't want my dating to be the thing to hurt Blackpink's popularity," she says in the film. "But when I turned 25, I realised that this is not how you're supposed to live your life."

As a result, Lisa makes an early decision to cut ties with Korean entertainment company YG, who discovered her as a teenager, and signs a new deal with RCA Records in the US.

"Knowing her as I do, that took an immense amount of courage," says Kim.

"In general, she is a very kind, sweet person - and sometimes personalities like that, they don't want to rock the boat.

"Having been trained in the K-pop system from an early age, she grew acclimatised to obedience. Declaring that she wants a break is such a disruption to that way of life that I can only imagine it must have been building inside her for years."

The potential rewards for going solo were phenomenal – but so were the risks.

In the film, we see Lisa struggling to assert herself in the recording studio, and tearfully battling nerves over her singing voice.

At the age of 25, she is still curiously child-like. The fierce independence of her solo single New Woman sounds more like aspiration than fact.

Kim says that began to change as they filmed.

"I saw a person who was very tentative and unsure of herself slowly starting to unfold her wings. Making mistakes, but also getting back up on the horse."

Kim locates an inner confidence in early home videos of Lisa competing in talent shows, drawing parallels between that precocious seven-year-old and the young woman who is gradually reclaiming her agency.

She doggedly pursues a role in the third season of hit TV drama The White Lotus, self-taping an audition that wins her the role of kind-hearted wellness coach Mook Sornsin.

On set, she shrugs off the restrictive moral code of her pop career.

"Lisa threw more parties than anyone else," notes the show's executive producer in an interview.

"And the defining characteristic of a Lisa party is tequila shots."

Kim did not partake in the hedonism. In fact, the film-maker and her crew were regularly falling sick as they tried to keep up with Lisa's ridiculous schedule.

"But when we premiered the film in Toronto, Lisa found me and she brought bottles of tequila, and that was like the perfect christening of the film," she laughs.

The movie ends in June 2025 as Lisa returns to Seoul and rejoins Blackpink. As she unpacks her bags, she is clearly conflicted.

"It's bittersweet, and I think that's OK," says Kim.

"I don't think people should take it as like, 'Oh, she hates Blackpink'. It's more that she was reflecting on this year of freedom and worrying that she wouldn't be able to retain that. And that's a very astute fear to have."

In the year since, Lisa has already wrapped up her Blackpink duties and started phase two of her solo career with the single Sawadika. Kim says she is not surprised.

"Spending the year away from the K-pop system in the US really opened her horizons," the director says.

"She was exposed to a different kind of entertainment system where they're not held to a vow of chastity. If two star performers link up, it's almost like they get more power.

"That gave her a sense of like, 'Oh, I could have a different life. I might not lose my career if I want to get married and have children'.

"So I think part of the reason why Lisa's interested in continuing her solo career is that it might give her a little bit more personal freedom to be who she is."

Afrobeats singer Ayra Starr on making history at her NFL half-time show

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crvg9pl3zd5zo, 3 days ago

Afrobeats singer Ayra Starr has already broken numerous records, and her NFL half-time performance this weekend is set to level up her list again.

The Nigerian star will become the first African artist to headline one of the American football league's international games when the Philadelphia Eagles take on the Jacksonville Jaguars in London on Sunday.

Ahead of the performance at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Starr told BBC Newsbeat her history-making performance "itself is a message".

Earlier this year, Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny used his Super Bowl half-time show to celebrate Latin American culture.

The 32-year-old also made history by becoming the first musician to perform entirely in Spanish at the sporting event, normally the most-watched each year on US TV.

Starr said it's "very important" for singers to seize opportunities like this.

"At the end of the day, as artists, we speak for the culture and we speak for the people that listen to us," she added.

"And we have to represent any way that seems fit, that they need."

She didn't want to give away too much about her performance, but confirmed it would feature tracks from her new studio album, Starrgirl, which was released in August.

"Sunday is gonna be amazing," she said.

"I'm still in rehearsals. It's a lot of work we're putting in so I'm really excited."

The 24-year-old has been making waves in recent years, becoming the first African woman to win best international act at the Mobo Awards and the first Nigerian woman to surpass one billion video views on YouTube.

But before she became a superstar, the singer studied for a degree in political sciences and international relations - and said this has influenced her work.

"When it comes to matters of women and equality and the girl child and even just children - I'm very outspoken on any platform that sees fit.

"Even with my music, my music is very much like 'I will do what I want' and freedom."

The Afrobeats genre, which originates from West Africa, has massively grown in recent years - dominating playlists and seeing artists, including Starr, featuring at major festivals such as Glastonbury.

She said the rest of the world is just "catching up" to a style that's been "popping in Africa for the longest time".

The singer added that becoming one of the dominant faces of the music she grew up listening to, alongside artists such as Wizkid and Burna Boy, is "crazy".

Starr acknowledged it's a male-dominated field and would like female artists to have more "space in the genre" and be "allowed the same privileges".

But she also feels this is just the beginning.

"Afrobeats just keeps evolving, it keeps growing and it just keeps getting better... I want it to be one of the top genres in the world."

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

Supermodel Coco Rocha has 'full circle moment' at Ireland Fashion Week

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3ewe5l44jxwo, 2 days ago

Canadian supermodel Coco Rocha has described Ireland's fashion scene as "amazing" and said a national fashion week "should have probably happened years ago", after making her first visit to the country.

Leading fashion industry figures, including activist and model Alana Hadid, descended on Slane Castle in County Meath earlier this week as Ireland Fashion Week got under way.

More than 80 designers are taking part in the second edition of the event, which is billed as a showcase for Irish fashion, culture and creativity. Shows, talks and exhibitions are planned across the country.

Rocha said modelling at the event felt like a "full circle moment", as she was first discovered at an Irish dancing competition as a teenager.

Despite growing up closely connected to her Irish heritage (on both sides of her family), and spending 18 years as a dancer, Rocha said she had never previously had the chance to visit the island.

While much of the fashion industry is focused on 'The Big Four' - London, Paris, Milan and New York - Rocha said smaller fashion weeks can benefit communities.

'Extraordinary' designers

Now in its second year, the all-island event has expanded significantly since its 2025 launch.

Several designers and brands from Northern Ireland are also included in the programme.

It comes as Irish fashion is experiencing a breakthrough moment, with internationally-recognised designers like Sinéad O'Dwyer, Simone Rocha and Jonathan Anderson referencing their heritage in their collections.

In December, prestigious French fashion house Dior- steered by Magherafelt-born Anderson - will be holding its first runway show in Ireland.

Ireland Fashion Week founder Ashley McDonnell said this year's event is focused on "building on the momentum" of 2025.

She said the island has "extraordinary designers", but that talent must be matched by "building an ecosystem" of investment, commercial opportunities, international exposure and stronger support structures.

Irish fashion 'at the forefront'

Among those taking part was County Tyrone designer Sarah Jayne Lavery, founder of Charlotte & Tess, based in the Linen Green in Moy, and its in-house label Atelier, which launched just two years ago.

Speaking after showing her collection as part of the event's Irish Roots presentation, she described the experience as a milestone.

"Having my own brand and designing is genuinely a dream of mine," she told BBC News NI.

Lavery was one of 11 designers selected for the showcase following an application and interview process.

Her collection featured Irish materials including Donegal tweed, Aran wool and linen, reflecting the show's focus on heritage and craftsmanship.

Discovering Hadid would be wearing one of her designs was an unexpected highlight.

"She was our final look. I didn't know that she was walking for me until I arrived... I was just delighted," she explained.

The designer believes events like Ireland Fashion Week help to change perceptions of the industry and put creatives on "an international stage".

"I think Ireland is a really creative space at the moment. I think it's very exciting," she said.

She said organisers were shining a spotlight on Irish talent and putting "fashion at the forefront".

The theme of this year's event was 'Coming Home', celebrating Irish creativity, heritage and the designers returning to showcase their work.

For Lavery, the message was clear.

"We have so much talent and creativity here, we have so many beautiful fabrics that lots of the designers are using.

"I would encourage any Irish designer to get involved next year."

The next generation of fashion talent is also taking centre stage at the event, with Belfast-based knitwear designer Grace Bowman "honoured" to be among 44 creatives selected for the graduate runway showcase.

"That extra support, that extra exposure, the networking – it's all so important to build a community here in Ireland, as well as spreading our design around. We're really making everyone have access to Irish design," she said.

The 22-year-old, who launched her own label after studying at Ulster University and completing a placement with Inis Meáin Knitting Company, draws inspiration from the Irish landscape and traditional Irish craftsmanship.

Bowman will present her collection which combines deadstock linen and organic cotton with abstract Celtic knot motifs and hand-embroidered details.

She said it's "so important" to look back on traditional techniques and "embrace them" alongside contemporary design methods.

"I'm from Belfast so the linen industry has such an historical impact here. It's great to be able to use that within my work and really have Irish materials supported within our industry," she said.

"I'm very excited to see everyone else's work on the runway... It will be a fantastic showcase of Irish design and an amazing platform for emerging designers."

AI fears are growing – and unsettling new film Artificial puts them, and the future of humanity, centre stage

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20261008-ai-fears-are-growing-and-unsettling-new-film-artificial-puts-them-and-the-future-of-humanity-centre-stage, 3 days ago

Luca Guadagnino's new film about Open AI and its co-founders Sam Altman and Ilya Sutskever offers a stark warning. Given recent news, its release couldn't be more provocatively timed.

In September 2025, Luca Guadagnino completed filming Artificial, his sharp, entertaining cautionary tale about the creation of the company Open AI and the dangers of AI overreach. This week, it premiered at the New York Film Festival to great acclaim, and with one particular moment that resonates so strongly with recent events that the film's timeliness seems astounding. The scene shows an artificial intelligence system outwitting a Captcha test designed to prove that an online user is really a human. The rogue AI has taught itself how to lie. And AIs going rogue is just what happened recently on a much larger scale.

In July it was revealed that Open AI agents – systems programmed to make autonomous choices – which should have been siloed from each other, communicated and coordinated during security tests to hack into the platform Hugging Face. That one jaw-dropping revelation led to even more, as Google, Meta and Anthropic all announced their AIs had also hacked into other companies. Open AI acknowledged its agents had even got into Australia's government site.

Today, there are increasing calls for safety measures to ensure AI doesn't get out of control. Even the leaders of the big-tech companies agree on the dangers and the need to rein things in – although not how to do so. What Artificial makes clear is that the risk of rogue AI was easy to see coming. The film was not prophetic so much as very lucky in its timing.

It traces the creation of Open AI as a non-profit, co-founded by Sam Altman (Andrew Garfield) and Ilya Sutskever (Yura Borisov) among others, in the rosy days when they both believed artificial intelligence would only do good for the world. It then follows the company's transformation into the behemoth behind Chat GPT, and the growing philosophical divide between Altman and Sutskever.

As grandiose as this sounds, the film is about nothing less than a battle for the soul of humanity, asking: Who gets to control AI and thus our entire future? It is a story of idealism v commerce, AI safety v recklessness, and angels v devils. On screen, the idealist Sutskever and the commercially-minded Altman – the fictionalised versions of them – embody that ongoing battle.

The controversy around the film

Artificial arrives with off-screen baggage that has only raised its profile. Amazon MGM Studios developed and financed the film, but in June announced that they would not release it. The timing raised eyebrows because, four months before that, Amazon invested $50m in a partnership with Open AI, where Altman is CEO. Amazon's only comment has been its statement, "We believe that Artificial will be better served if it were released by a different studio." Guadagnino said in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, "The concept of a conflict of interest is a very important, let's say, elephant in the room here." And a Vanity Fair interview asked Altman whether he had spoken to Amazon or its head, Jeff Bezos, about dropping the film. He said, "I did not and I don't know of anyone else who did." In the end, Neon bought the film and will release it in cinemas in December in the US and January in the UK, well-timed to latch onto its current Oscar buzz.

Contrary to early speculation about Altman's role, Sutskever is the film's main character and hero. He is the voice of conscience and integrity, a scientific whiz who turns up at the door of Geoffrey Hinton (played with gentle charm by Mark Rylance), known as the godfather of AI, and partners with him on a company they sell to Google. Throughout, Hinton is a warning voice, sceptical about how fast AI could develop the ability to "think" and wary of what that might mean. When Sutskever leaves Google to create Open AI, with Altman as a major investor, he is wide-eyed and confident that as the science progresses, "all suffering will cease, all pain, all loneliness".

For all its drama, in those early stages the film is infused with comic moments, largely from Sutskever's social awkwardness and Ike Barinholtz's performance as a preening Elon Musk. In one witty, relatable scene, Hinton is trapped in phone hell as he tries to sort out a billing issue, and keeps saying "human" as he tries to reach an actual person. It's an apt word for the film itself, which doesn't overload viewers with computer screens or lines of code, but focuses on the human interactions.

The portrayal of AI guru Sam Altman

The rogue AI incident is a turning point in the breach between the forces of idealism and commerce, of transparency and secrecy from the public. Throughout, we see the developing conflict from the perspective of the sympathetic Sutskever, soulfully played by Borisov. The film's biggest problem is that the Altman character is so underwritten. Where we see Sutskever grappling with ethical issues, we only see what Altman does – making imperious decisions that sideline his colleagues – with no insight into why.

Garfield gives him shoulder shrugs, sweeping hand gestures and an almost childlike enthusiasm that curdles into something slick. But he's more of a villainous contrast to the earnest Sutskever than a character. For his part, the real Altman, who had seen the trailer but not the film, said in the Vanity Fair interview, "I don't think they're going for accuracy."

More like this:

• The Social Reckoning tries to put Facebook on trial

• 12 of the best films to watch this October

• In Digger, Tom Cruise 'takes the biggest risk of his career'

The story climaxes in 2023 with the notorious incident in which the Open AI board, including Sutskever, removes Altman as CEO only to rehire him five days later. The real-life conflict is well-documented, with the board stating that Altman had not been "consistently candid with his communications". Altman has regularly refused to address the charges directly. At a 2024 event in Davos, he deflected the question, saying, "Is this really what we want to spend our time on, like this soap opera rather than what AGI [Artificial General Intelligence] is going to do?"

After filming, Guadagnino added one especially current note to the film's end. A postscript quotes Jacob Coxon, a former Anthropic researcher who galvanised public fears in September when he wrote on X: "The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade." The hand-wringing and pronouncements about what to do continue, with no practical industry-wide resolution in sight. In the angels v devils battle, this bracing film's final warning is that the devils seem to be winning.

Artificial is released in US cinemas on 25 December and UK cinemas on 22 January 2027

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'An object of lust': How the ancient Greek goddess Aphrodite became a controversial symbol of love and sex

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20261007-how-aphrodite-became-a-controversial-sex-symbol, 4 days ago

Artworks depicting Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of love and beauty, have long been branded obscene, objectifying the female body. How did she become one of the most controversial figures in the history of art?

The nudity of Aphrodite (or Venus as she was known by the ancient Romans), has been a topic of debate for centuries.

In 1880, the shocked author Mark Twain called Titian's Venus of Urbino (1534) "the foulest, the vilest, the obscenest picture the world possesses". In 1914, the suffragette Mary Richardson hacked Diego Velázquez's Rokeby Venus (c 1647-51) with a meat cleaver at least three times in the middle of London's National Gallery. "I didn't like the way men visitors gaped at it all day long," was one of her later explanations.

Aphrodite: The Making of a Goddess, a new exhibition at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, explores the history of the goddess. It helps to explain how she evolved into a lightning rod of such intense cultural controversy.

There are two versions of her origin story: a mythological one and a historically accurate one, and neither particularly marks her out as a future troublemaker. In myth, the tale begins with Kronos castrating his father Ouranos and flinging his genitals into the sea; foam began to bubble to the surface, and out of it arose a fully formed Aphrodite. She glided across the waves to the island of Cyprus, where her footsteps caused flowers to bloom miraculously from the land.

The historical version of Aphrodite's birth also begins on Cyprus, where she emerged as a deity around 1200BC. She was a distinctive new addition to the pantheon but had features that had apparently evolved from older Middle Eastern goddesses like Ishtar, Astarte and Hathor. For these archaic goddesses, "sexuality, love and fertility were their core characteristics," Anja Ulbrich, curator of the Ashmolean exhibition, tells the BBC, "but they all had more than one function".

And the same applied to Aphrodite, who in her early years wasn't just a goddess of romantic love, but of all physical love and procreation – in the animal and plant world as much as the human realm. And there are other, perhaps less well-known, sides to her persona. She fought in the Trojan War – and this warrior aspect of her personality led her to be worshipped by the ancient Greek navy.

Aphrodite can also claim to be the founder of the Roman civilisation, no less. One mythological narrative describes her affair with the Trojan prince Anchises; their son Aeneas fled to Italy after the fall of Troy – and his descendants were said to have established the city of Rome.

Following her original appearance on Cyprus back in the 13th Century BC, Aphrodite became a big hit with people, and worship of her spread all around ancient Greece. Why was she so appealing? "Fertility, love, procreation is a topic across humanity, no matter which culture," Ulbrich says. "One of her names is Pandemos: the goddess of all people. It's not just the warriors, or the women: love affects everybody and everything. It pervades life."

A new kind of nudity

So far, so uncontroversial. For several hundred years, artists didn't make Aphrodite look particularly different from other female Olympian goddesses. And in her early years, they did not typically depict her naked, and certainly never in the more provocative poses we now associate with her. But then, in 350BC, an artwork appeared that changed everything.

Praxiteles's Aphrodite of Knidos (c 350BC) was the first completely nude artwork of a woman in ancient Greece. The original sculpture is lost, but we can get a good picture of what it looked like by later Roman copies like the Capitoline Venus (c 160BC).

Before Praxiteles, it was only male figures who were shown undressed. "Celebrating physical male beauty through nudity was perfectly normal from the 7th or 6th Century BC onwards," Ulbrich says. So, Praxiteles chose to do the same for female physical beauty.

Aphrodite's nudity was different. If you look closely, you can see how dissimilar the presentation of nudity is in Greek male sculptures: it's all in the body language. Praxiteles's Aphrodite is shown caught whilst bathing. She appears shy and vulnerable, covering herself in shame or embarrassment, whereas the nude male body in Greek art had always been shown as confident and heroic. Ulbrich explains: "It is mostly based on how she's presented in myths, where she is constantly bathing and working on her physical beauty."

But in Praxiteles's artwork, Aphrodite's hands are positioned slightly away from her, making it possible for a viewer to see her exposed body if they look at it from different angles. It's an artwork that invites interaction, and rewards the spectator for their sensual curiosity. These innovative artistic techniques would cause heated debate in centuries to come, and a name was coined for the pose of the Praxiteles's sculpture: the Venus Pudica (modest or shameful).

The Aphrodite of Knidos was "revolutionary," says Ulbrich. Before Praxiteles, Aphrodite might be recognisable in sculptures from a range of different items of clothing, jewellery and other attributes. Afterwards, he says, "the nudity basically takes over."

It's worth acknowledging that a naked body is completely natural, and not controversial in its own right. What would make Aphrodite so provocative in later years was not her being undressed, but how her body was posed for the gratification of a viewer. It turned her into an object of lust.

Praxiteles's original sculpture was so inspirational that it was later copied thousands of times by Roman sculptors, of which the Capitoline Venus is just one famous example. A new way of looking at women's bodies in art had been unleashed by the Venus Pudica, and it spread to all the territories governed by the Roman Empire including Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

Aphrodite's erotic rebirth

But the influence was not restricted to the ancient world. During the Renaissance, artists began to seek out and copy classical sculptures with more determination than they had for a millennium. And one of the most admired was the Venus Pudica type. So, Aphrodite, in her nude, seductive and humble persona, as devised by Praxiteles, was reborn in artworks by Massaccio, Botticelli, Raphael and Titian – artists who would later become the "great names" of art history. Some artists used the pose to depict Aphrodite, but many adopted it for other types of female figure. It also inspired other artists to devise new poses based on the same essential premise of diffident nudity.

And so, via artists' repeated rehashing of the Venus Pudica, the objectified female form became an indelible feature of the art historical canon. Rubens and Velázquez reincarnated it in the Baroque period. It was revived by Cabanel and Manet in the 1800s, and by Modigliani and Yves Klein in the 20th Century. The outrage of Mark Twain and Mary Richardson are responses to this history of Aphrodite's eroticisation.

Anja Ulbrich tells the BBC that the goddess has been depicted in many diverse ways, and that Praxiteles's sculpture shouldn't necessarily be our defining vision of her. One of the exhibits at the Ashmolean was made in Northumberland and shows Aphrodite bathing. At such a distance from the Mediterranean, Ulbrich says with a smile, "she looks pretty annoyed by the cold."

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In more recent times, and outside of Praxiteles's influence, Aphrodite is often cast differently, sometimes even as an icon of empowerment. In 2023, Beyoncé opened a concert by arriving on stage in a giant clam shell, wearing a dress decorated with Venus Pudica hands. Björk, Lady Gaga, Kylie Minogue and Bananarama have all written songs about the goddess.

As the symbol of ultimate beauty and desirability, Aphrodite has been adapted and reconfigured to reflect the needs of her audience for 3,000 years and counting, a remarkable lifespan for an ancient Greek deity. Another astonishing idea is that a single sculpture – Praxiteles's Aphrodite of Knidos – has shaped our attitudes to nudity so profoundly.

There's no sign of her dominance over mortal affairs ending, or her controversy subsiding – the subject of beauty and how it is handled will be forever relevant, and always up for debate, reflecting public opinion as it unfolds over time. "Depending on the context, people have just narrowed her down to what they need and what they want," says Ulbrich. "She is very versatile, you know."

Aphrodite: The Making of a Goddess is at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum until 11 April 2027

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The Social Reckoning review: Aaron Sorkin's drama puts Facebook on trial, but it won't change anyone's minds ★★☆☆☆

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20261006-the-social-reckoning-review, 5 days ago

This sequel to The Social Network dramatises how a Facebook whistleblower exposed the company's secrets. But with a "dead-eyed" Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg, it lacks thrills.

It may be a film about a bunch of nerds setting up a website, but The Social Network (2010) won three Oscars and was nominated for five more. Directed by David Fincher, scripted by Aaron Sorkin, and starring Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, it somehow made Facebook's teething problems as dazzlingly entertaining as any stunt-packed spy caper. Sixteen years on, we have The Social Reckoning, a sort-of sequel which had the potential to be even more exciting.

Once again, its focus is Facebook, but this time Sorkin is the director as well as the screenwriter, and Jeremy Strong from Succession has taken over the role of Zuckerberg. While Eisenberg played him as a petulant princeling, Strong's version, like so many of his characters, is a dead-eyed, unsmiling boss from hell.

There are other changes, too. The Social Network dramatised the legal squabbles between the Harvard students behind Facebook, whereas The Social Reckoning has a whistleblower and a journalist exposing the damage done to the world by social media. In a way, then, it tells a much bigger story than its predecessor. But in every way that counts, it's a much smaller film. Ironically, Sorkin's main theme is the alarming power that social media platforms have to influence us, but The Social Reckoning itself is unlikely to influence anyone.

Jeremy Allen White stars as Jeff Horwitz, an investigative reporter who transfers to the Wall Street Journal's San Francisco office in 2019. He wants to find out what's going at Facebook, but none of its staff will talk to him until he contacts Frances Haugen, played by Mikey Madison, the Oscar-winning star of Anora. At a secret meeting, Haugen tells him that users are being pushed towards extremist groups – and that's just one of the issues she has uncovered while working in the company's Civic Integrity team.

So far, so promising: Sorkin is aiming at a crusading newspaper drama in the tradition of All the President's Men and Spotlight, and at times he almost hits the target. The opening sequence is a queasily credible portrait of someone who has been radicalised online, and the facts and figures about Facebook's impact on mental health are sobering: Horwitz learns that, according to internal research kept secret by the Facebook-owned Instagram, 32% of teenage girls with body-related anxieties felt worse after using it.

But The Social Reckoning doesn't have the tension or the urgency that such films need – or indeed the dynamism that Fincher might have brought to the project. No one ever threatens Horwitz or Haugen. They keep saying that they could be in danger, but they never actually are.

Unlike in The Social Network, Zuckerberg is a minor character with no inner life. Madison has a fraction of the ferocious energy she had in Anora. (Haugen, incidentally, is blue-eyed and blonde-haired, and was in her late-30s when the story took place, so Madison couldn't look less her if she tried.) And while Horvitz won a Pulitzer Prize for his articles, in the film his sleuthing amounts to talking to Haugen and setting up a fake Facebook account. Even more disappointingly, he is never seen in the headband he wore for one memorable TV news appearance.

Sorkin tries to add some momentum to his uneventful narrative by flipping back and forth between two timelines. In one of these, Horwitz and Haugen have their chats, all of which consist of her handing him some information, claiming that she loves her job, and insisting that she won't help him again (spoiler alert: she will). In the other strand, Zuckerberg rehearses for a senate hearing. Sorkin raises a few smiles with his trademark perky, quirky banter, as Zuckerberg's advisers instruct him on how to appear less robotic when giving his testimony, and Haugen chides Horwitz about his lack of tech knowledge (his one and only character trait). But neither of these repetitive strands has any real conflict. And, inconveniently for Sorkin, they never intertwine: Zuckerberg doesn't have any interaction with Horwitz or Haugen.

One of the film's fundamental problems is that Facebook is still going strong, and Zuckerberg is still worth more than $200 billion, so the viewer knows all along that there isn't an All The President's Men-style giant-killing finale in store. Despite its fire-and-brimstone title, in other words, The Social Reckoning doesn't have much of a reckoning.

But the main problem is that the drab drama just isn't intense enough to change anyone's mind. It's part of a current wave of films about super-rich industrialists that includes Alejandro G Iñárritu gonzo Tom Cruise vehicle, Digger, Alex Gibney's provocative Elon Musk documentary, Musk, and Luca Guadagnino's stylish biopic of Sam Altman, Artificial. But Sorkin's effort is the mildest and least ambitious of the bunch. You would probably keep watching if you caught it on television, but you might well scroll through your social media feed at the same time.

★★☆☆☆

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'Rock 'n' roll swagger': 10 iconic images capturing the chaotic energy of '90s Brit culture

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20261005-10-iconic-images-capturing-the-chaotic-energy-of-90s-brit-culture, 6 days ago

It was the last hurrah of analogue, old-millennium life in the UK, as the era's chaotic, thrilling energy spilled into music, fashion, art and hedonism. Now the decade is being celebrated in a major exhibition at Tate Britain.

The 1990s in Britain felt like a collision course of scenes – music, club culture, art, fashion, all vividly spilling into each other. A youthful generation was full of DIY innovations and an appetite for adventure and hedonism. This hot-mess energy fuelled the era's creativity: it was thrilling and chaotic, and often contradictory. Dancefloors might erupt anywhere. Everything from art to restaurant cuisine or stand-up comedy had rock'n'roll swagger. Tate Britain's new exhibition, The 90s: Art and Fashion, channels some of that energy.

Exhibition curator Edward Enninful forged his own path in the '90s, becoming fashion editor at i-D magazine aged 18. "We tend to remember the decade through iconic fashion, art and music, but there was a much bigger shift in who got to participate in culture and whose voices were being heard," Enninful tells the BBC.

"There was a sense that the old hierarchies were breaking down – artists, designers, photographers and musicians were all moving between disciplines, collaborating, challenging conventions and creating new possibilities. Over time, some of that outsider energy was absorbed into the mainstream… I don't see the 1990s as a closed chapter, but as a moment whose influence is still unfolding across British culture."

Back then the pursuit of fun was a serious undertaking – perhaps because the '90s largely happened at night, in realms where boundaries easily blurred. Or maybe this was our "last hurrah" to break the pre-millennial tension. It was an era of creative risk-taking in a world that, now, is continually tuned for the algorithm.

Here are 10 images from The 90s exhibition, each offering a sense of that still-vital energy: to live in the moment, and to feel the future tantalisingly within reach.

1. Rose Lying on Orange Sofa, 56 Brewer Street, Soho, London by Corinne Day (1992)

Corinne Day's naturalistic photography was a world away from 1980s gloss, and it helped to define a starkly different '90s aesthetic. This image, featuring regular model Rosemary Ferguson, was taken for The Face magazine shoot entitled England's Dreaming; it's resolutely gritty yet elegantly androgynous and poetic. Helen Little, curator of contemporary British art at Tate Britain, highlights "this new kind of realism" in The 90s catalogue: "narratives of life and friendship with a casual, unfiltered documentary style characterised by natural lighting and minimal retouching".

2. Alexander McQueen: AW 1998 by Guy Marineau

British designer Alexander McQueen emerged as an enfant terrible of the fashion world in the early '90s – and he sealed his iconic status with sharp designs that entwined beauty and brutality. His creations converged with the art, music and nightlife scenes; his clothes were presented with intense theatricality, as with this climactic scene from his autumn/winter '98 collection (inspired by the martyrdom of Joan of Arc).

"McQueen's fashion shows were subversive and dramatic spectacles, comparable to performance art rather than commercial showcases," writes curator Jessica Vaughan in the exhibition catalogue. "He repeatedly returned to themes of conquest and persecution."

3. Metalheadz Sunday Sessions by Eddie Otchere (1995-96)

Cultural landscapes shifted throughout this decade, and a once-desolate east London district became a creative and social hotbed – fuelled by innovative club nights like Metalheadz, helmed by DJ/producer Goldie at the now legendary Blue Note in Hoxton Square. It was a focal point for jungle music, the fast-paced electronic dance music genre that emerged in the UK rave scene during the early 1990s. Eddie Otchere's vibrant portrait captures the night's irrepressible spirit. "Goldie wanted to incubate a scene built on the talents of a group of like-minded producers and artists for the purposes of throwing jungle culture into the future," Otchere tells the BBC.

4. Bear by Steve McQueen (1993)

Sexual politics proved a powerful force in the '90s, splayed across activism, commercialism and creativity. While a rising generation of Young British Artists took a brashly unapologetic, irreverent approach to the theme, Steve McQueen was a London contemporary who forged his own minimal yet hard-hitting style, standing apart from the YBAs. McQueen later went on to win the Turner Prize in 1999, and to create landmark feature films and TV including 12 Years A Slave and Small Axe. He is now Sir Steve McQueen.

He both directed and starred in his breakthrough black-and-white short film Bear. It's a two-hander alongside Vernon Douglas, with both men stripped and silent, physically tussling between aggression and tenderness, evoking dynamics including black masculinity, strength, sexuality, and spectatorship. McQueen reflects on this era of work in an exhibition catalogue interview with Afua Hirsch: "When you are doing something through the act of making, you can't put things in reserve, you've got to go all out."

5. Naomi Campbell: Babywoman album cover by Ellen von Unwerth (1994)

While supermodel Naomi Campbell's R&B fusion album Babywoman sounded slightly flat, its imagery has always felt epic – with the fashion star elevating seemingly mundane surroundings (a tiny bathroom in NYC), shot in sleek, high-contrast monochrome by photographer Ellen von Unwerth. "Through my lens, women are glamorous, humorous and multifaceted," von Unwerth told i-D magazine. "After all, what is gender if not something to play with?"

6. Kinky Gerlinky Vogueing Ball, Balcony Stars, Café De Paris by Dave Swindells (1990)

Throughout the '90s, Dave Swindells was the nightlife editor at London listings magazine Time Out. He was also on the dancefloor as a photographer, flowing through the crowds with his camera – as with this scene from pioneering club extravaganza Kinky Gerlinky.

"This was one of the most joyful and purely hedonistic nights I've ever experienced, and great fun to photograph," Swindells tells the BBC. "It celebrated performative dressing up and the first Vogueing ball in the fabulous Café de Paris was pivotal. It was raucous and riotous and set the scene for dozens of Kinky Gerlinky spectaculars in the West End."

7. Young Pink Kate by Juergen Teller (1998)

There's an exuberant intimacy to this shot of then 24-year-old supermodel Kate Moss, nestled among bedsheets, her candy-coloured locks (dyed for a recent Versace show) streaming across the pillows. Fashion photographer and longtime collaborator Juergen Teller captures the post-party moment with characteristic candour, as well as a fantastical edge: Moss is glowing, like a burst of pink sunshine. Moss would describe this portrait as "the real me" in her retrospective book Kate: "Because it is just us having a laugh in my bed. There wasn't a hair or makeup artist or anything."

8. Cardiff, 6.15am by Mischa Haller (1998)

In 1998 Swiss photographer Mischa Haller – who had moved to London – created a series Not Going Home. In this shot from the Welsh capital, the four young women look strangely immaculate amid the after-hours fall-out; crucially, it's also a splendidly insouciant contrast to the tabloid shaming of hard-partying "ladettes".

Haller tells the BBC: "It's this celebration of going out as a group, having fun together. This was right outside a club on the high street, and I photographed these people before the street cleaners came. It was still dark, so I had to use flash. You kind of had these leftovers from last night, then people spilling out of the club in the morning, so it's kind of two worlds colliding. These are in-between moments."

9. B-boy Headspin by Normski (1990s)

In the 1990s Norman "Normski" Anderson was a photographer, DJ and broadcaster (his BBC TV show Dance Energy was inspirational viewing for young music fans). "Everyone was making stuff up because we were free enough to do it," Normski tells the BBC. That giddy swirl of intrepidness and innocence resounds in this headspin shot, taken at a London hip-hop party that Normski was covering for i-D. "This is me on the ground, practically upside down. The camera is as close as I can get to this guy, trying to catch the spin. I want to be the B-boy. There's an energy that I love, which is being amongst it."

10. Elaine Constantine: Northampton 1997

There's an exhilarating, kinetic quality to Elaine Constantine's photography – and you can practically hear the engines revving and smell the petrol in this image, taken from her Burn Up series on "boy racers" (originally shot for The Face). Constantine was similarly young at the time, and shared an enthusiasm for customised cars. "Going to that carpark in Northampton that night felt a bit like going to a rave… the spontaneous meet with loads of young people, organised through word of mouth and independent radio," she tells the BBC.

"You could feel that excitement of something that belonged to them. Things are much safer now, more monitored. I think that original movements were still incubating in that time and able to develop between likeminded people, so it genuinely felt like creativity was blossoming. My life growing up in the north through the 70s [also] gave me the desire to create images that expressed individual freedom. We need to try and get that back somehow, but that's a huge conversation and hopefully a new and insatiable generation that will make that happen."

The 90s: Art & Fashion is at Tate Britain from 8 Oct to 14 Feb, 2027.

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'They'd never seen a car or a TV': The people evacuated to the UK from the world's most remote inhabited island in 1961

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20261002-the-people-evacuated-to-the-uk-from-the-worlds-most-remote-inhabited-island-in-1961, 7 days ago

After a volcano erupted on tiny Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic, the 264 displaced islanders told the BBC about their first taste of modern British life.

"Just over a year ago, they'd never seen traffic or a road or a house higher than a cottage," said Tim Brinton in a 1963 BBC programme. He was talking about the residents of Tristan da Cunha, the world's most remote inhabited island. In the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, roughly halfway between Cape Town in South Africa and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, the tiny British outpost is more than 1,500 miles from any other populated land, and is only accessible by a seven-day boat journey.

But on 10 October 1961, a sudden volcanic eruption blasted the islanders out of their splendid isolation and into the industrialised modern world. "We heard the rumbles first, then the ground just automatically cracked… Then the smoke and the fire started coming out the ground," one of them told the BBC in a 1998 film. Another, Mary Swain, said that she'd run to her husband and shouted, "Jump up quick, Fred, the Earth is opening!"

The island's volcano had been dormant since Tristan was first settled 150 years earlier. But great cracks appeared in the ground a few hundred metres from the main village, which is named Edinburgh of the Seven Seas. By the time the islanders had escaped in their fishing boats to nearby Nightingale Island, their homes were already threatened by lava. "The whole place is vibrating with earthquakes," announced a BBC reporter, "and the eastern corner is cracking and breaking up."

Tristan's 264 inhabitants were forced to evacuate, picked up by a Dutch liner that happened to arrive the next day. Within hours, the whole community was aboard, leaving everything apart from the few things they could carry with them – "a rifle, an overcoat and a lamp," recalled Swain – and their boats, which they stored in their gardens when they reached England weeks later.

They were housed on a disused military airbase near Southampton, a port city on England's south coast. "So much is strange to them," said Brinton. "They'd never seen shops because on the island, money wasn't used. Boats were their livelihood. For them, there's been no industrial revolution. And for 150 years, they've lived simple agricultural lives out of touch with world progress."

Though Tristan da Cunha was discovered in 1506 by a Portuguese admiral who gave it his name, it was another 300 years before it supported anything but seabirds and seals. The UK annexed the island in 1816 to prevent it being used as a base for attempts to free Napoleon Bonaparte from his imprisonment on the South Atlantic island of St Helena. The following year, a Scotsman, Corporal William Glass, stayed behind when the British garrison was withdrawn. With his family and a few others, he founded the first permanent community.

By 1961, the population of the 40 sq miles (100 sq km) of volcanic rock had risen to 264, many of them survivors from ships wrecked on the island, with just seven family names between them. On several occasions, the failure of the potato crop or the wrecking of fishing boats brought the islanders to the point of starvation. But they stayed on, even defying several attempts by the British government to evacuate them.

Adapting to British life

When the volcanic eruption forced the islanders to leave, they faced difficulties settling in England. They had never seen a car, a bicycle, a TV set or an income tax form. And it was a challenging climate. "Here is too much gas and smoke," Tristanian Joey Repetto told the BBC in 1963. On his journey to their initial accommodation, he said, "I steady coughed without stopping."

Adapting to the nine-to-five work pattern also proved tricky for the community of farmers and fishermen. "Here, when you go to work in the morning, you've got one job. You've got to look forward all the whole week of getting up at the same time, going to the same place, doing the same work every day," said Joey's father Gerald, who was used to a more varied life determined by natural rhythms.

Similarly, financial pressures placed new demands on the islanders, as Swain explained. "In England, you need money for your living. But on Tristan, we don't. If we haven't got no money, well, we just go without it. It don't bother us at all… if I've got no money, I still can go out and get my own potatoes. I can still go and get my own fish."

She didn't hold back on expressing her views on British life. "We don't like the weather... There's too much sickness and we don't like the place at all."

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Despite having a single policeman on the island, who wore a British uniform, Tristan had almost no crime. The community was shocked by an incident in England when one member was attacked and hurt by two youths, who took his most valued possession, a gold watch, and smashed it.

But there were some elements of British life that were appreciated by the Tristanians, particularly the younger ones, who described a love of Italian suits and record players. "Country and western music is our favourite, by Johnny Cash and Ernest Tubb," said one teenager, who also enjoyed the social dances. "Since I come here, I've been doing the twist and the locomotion, all that lot. We've forgotten how to do the waltz. But I like to twist myself."

Despite that, most of the islanders were keen to return home. In 1962, the British government sent a survey party to study conditions on Tristan. While the volcano was still smoking, the geologists judged that it was now dormant.

The return to Tristan

Surprisingly little damage had been done to the village of Edinburgh. The lava had turned at the last moment and flowed into the sea, something that the islanders considered to be an act of God. Some of the thatched roofs were burnt, but the cottages were mostly intact. Yet in their absence, houses had been ransacked and some livestock stolen by passing sailors.

Many animals were still alive, however, with the chickens multiplying in number. Though the dogs had run wild and slaughtered the sheep, the cattle had kept themselves well-fed on the lush island grass, and there were new calves. Lava had covered the beaches, but return was possible.

The British authorities held a secret ballot in the community hall at the islanders' RAF camp. All Tristanians over the age of 21 voted, and the result was an almost unanimous vote to return, 148 to five in favour. After an advance party went back to plant seeds for the following year's potato crop, most of the islanders arrived at Tristan da Cunha in November 1963.

When asked what she was most looking forward to on the island when she returned, Swain told the BBC: "A free life. We can get our own fish and everything of our own back there without money."

Elaine Repetto, who was born on the island but chose to leave in 1984, told the BBC in 1998 why it held such a pull. "We are strongly independent and used to battling with the elements in order to survive… We have to rely upon each other in a way you would find in few other places."

She described the impact of the events in 1961. "Today, the volcano is still a smoking reminder of the events which shaped our view of ourselves and our contact with the outside world."

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Becky Hill is latest headliner for castle gigs

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx4g1mq0d348o, today

Becky Hill will appear at Ludlow castle next summer, as part of the venue's annual concert series.

The two-time BRIT Award winner, famous for songs including Gecko, Remember and Lose Control will appear on 23 July.

The singer is the second act to be revealed, following the announcement that McFly will appear at the venue two days later.

The Live at Ludlow Castle events have been running since 2023 and this summer 50,000 people visited over two weekends.

Hill was born and raised less than 20 miles away, in Bewdley, and the event organisers, Futuresound Group, described her as "one of the stand-out talents in British dance music".

Her third album, Rebecca, is due to be released in November.

Tickets will go on sale to people in the Ludlow area from Wednesday and then on general sale from Friday.

This summer, eight open-air shows at the castle featured artists including Snow Patrol, Paul Weller, The Human League, Tom Grennan, The Streets, Rick Astley, Richard Ashcroft and Scissor Sisters.

They were supported by Corinne Bailey Rae, Miles Kane, Marc Almond, The Lightning Seeds, Heather Small and CAST as well as up and coming acts such as Ellur, The Florentinas, Versaints and more.

The concerts at the castle have a capacity of 6,000 and have gradually increased in number.

An agreement was signed this summer to continue them until at least 2033.

Futuresound said they brought more than £1m into the town in 2025.

Earlier this year, Ian Evans, chair of Ludlow Chamber of Trade and Commerce said his shop saw a 25% increase in trade while the concerts were on and described them as a "massive event" for the town.

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Hepworth piece could fetch up to £8m at auction

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj62ykqw9pz1o, today

A "pivotal masterwork" by Dame Barbara Hepworth inspired by the Cornish landscape is expected to sell for up to £8m at auction.

Hepworth carved Sculpture with Colour (Eos) in 1946 and named it after the Greek goddess of dawn.

Auction house Christie said it would be the highlight of a modern British and Irish art sale on 21 October and was estimated to sell between £5m and £8m.

The auction house holds the world auction record for a Hepworth piece, The Family of Man: Ancestor II, which sold for £10.7 million in 2023.

Auctioneers said the Cornish landscape "strongly influenced" Hepworth who moved to the county in 1939.

She moved to St Ives with her artist husband Ben Nicholson and their family at the outbreak of World War Two.

She lived and worked in Trewyn Studio, which is now the Tate Barbara Hepworth Museum, from 1949 until her death in a fire in 1975.

Auctioneers said the Cornish light, sea, cliffs and ancient stones "became central to her artistic practice" and influenced her technique of adding colour to her sculptures.

Alice Murray, Christie's head of modern British and Irish Art, said the sculpture was carved "the year the world began again" after the war.

"Three hollows, painted blue, grey and white, catch the light like the first minutes of morning," she said.

The auction house said the sculpture was a "pivotal" piece by Hepworth, who became a leading light in the Cornish artistic community.

It said the post-war work "suggests emergence, awakening and renewal: a new world coming into being".

It is one of several pieces by Hepworth in the auction.

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Julie Hesmondhalgh left Celebrity Traitors 'with my head held high'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6lyen88dwdno, today

Soap star Julie Hesmondhalgh - the most recently banished contestant from The Celebrity Traitors - says she left the show with her "head held high".

The former Coronation Street actress, from Accrington, Lancashire, starred as a faithful contestant in the second series of the BBC One show - before being voted out by other players on Friday's episode.

Hesmondhalgh said she "had no idea" she was going to be banished.

"It became clear it was going to be me and I was a bit worried," she told BBC Radio Manchester. "I did feel it was my time and I left with my head held high. But I have to say I had some very gratifying apologetic texts on Friday night."

Hesmondhalgh said being on the game show had been an "amazing experience".

"I absolutely loved it," she said.

"I'm a huge fan of the show anyway. I've watched every episode of them all - even the New Zealand one."

Hesmondhalgh also revealed she was personally recruited to be a contestant on the show last year - while the first series was in full swing.

"I got asked to do it at the height of last year's celebrity series," she recalled.

"I was doing a play in London.

"They came to see me in my dressing room and asked me.

"I couldn't believe it. I like fell on the floor."

"Keeping it a secret was so, so hard."

The actress, who was the third celebrity to be banished from the Traitors' Castle, said it had been a "total relief" to now be able to watch the series as a fan.

"I can't tell you how stressful it is to watch yourself - especially when you're playing badly," Hesmondhalgh said.

"I was doing good but I knew what was to come. I knew I'd turn into this crazy lady Traitor hunter.

"My overriding feeling now is total relief that I can watch it as a fan again - because my nervous system will never recover."

She added: "It was a total thrill to be in there.

"And amazing to be representing - not just the North West - but the whole of the north.

"I'm very much looking forward to just watching it and I am backing Sharon [Rooney], Leigh-Anne [Pinnock] and Bash [Sebastian Croft]."

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.

Teen who discovered her painting talent in garden shed competes for TV art prize

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq0k0jmepn4eo, today

A 19-year-old painter from Swansea who has sold artwork for tens of thousands of pounds is due to appear on the TV art competition, Portrait Artist of the Year.

Makenzy Beard discovered her talent for painting during the Covid lockdown after she decided to try out her mother's old paint brushes in the garden shed.

She said she felt "up for the challenge" of painting celebrity sitters in front of TV cameras and a highly respected panel of judges.

Beard is currently putting together her second collection of work, which will include about 20 paintings that reflect her "view of the world" and interest in philosophy.

After completing several portraits against the clock, the winner of the competition on SkyArts gets a £10,000 commission to paint British actor and musician Damian Lewis for the National Portrait Gallery.

"I suppose I wanted to give it a go. I've watched the show and it seemed like a challenge, so I thought why not," Beard said.

Since displaying one of her first portraits at the Royal Academy Summer Show in 2021, she has sold paintings for thousands of pounds and raised more than £45,000 for charitable causes.

"I don't think I had time to reflect much on what I thought of the work because I was having a lot of opinions from other people.

"As I've got older, people still, I suppose, have some nice things [to say] about my work, because it's not about my age but the work itself."

Beard said her latest works have more depth, especially since developing a keen interest in philosophy.

She said: "I think having not been taught, everything I do is quite intuitive. I just do what I feel like and that's always changing.

"This collection tries to capture things I see in the world and [they] have little messages."

Entering the art world at a young age has been a "crazy" experience, which she said she had found "difficult to understand", especially with some of her pieces selling for tens of thousands of pounds.

"It's difficult to navigate because unlike lots of things where you work hard and kind of get results and do well, with art it's so subjective," she said.

"You can work hard and absolutely love something and if someone else doesn't, it doesn't mean it doesn't have value."

Beard's latest collection covers a variety of topics including animal cruelty, child poverty and mental health. There are also some "light hearted" takes on some of life's challenges.

"I do see the potential for my work to become more political as I get older but I have no desire to force my work into a direction.

"If things come to me and I want it to come through in my art then it will, but I don't have a headstrong vision in terms of political stuff.

"I still feel a little bit young, too naive to project any of my opinions on these things."

Beard said she's looking to partner with a gallery in order to display her latest collection.

Festival to host tribute to influential photographer

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqpvgzrwkg19o, today

A temporary free public gallery is set to host a tribute to one of Britain's most influential photographers, as part of a city-wide photography festival.

Common Sense, a tribute to late photographer Martin Parr, will be among several exhibitions at Bristol Photo Festival to be held in a hub at the Welcome Building in Bristol's business district.

Festival organisers say the idea is a way of bringing business and creative communities together.

Parr, whose colourful images captured British life, died at the age of 73 at home in Bristol in December. The gallery will be open from 15 to 18 October from 12:00 to 18:00 GMT and will host five exhibitions.

Common Sense features inexpensive colour photocopies of Parr's work to challenge conventional ideas on how photography should be exhibited.

Alongside the exhibitions, visitors will be able to take part in guided tours and a three-day masterclass with internationally renowned photographer Olivia Arthur.

The Welcome Building will also host the festival's opening event on 14 October from 18:00 to 21:00 GMT.

The wider festival will see ticketed exhibitions at Arnolfini, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Bristol Cathedral, IC Visual Lab, Centrespace Gallery, and Redcliffe Caves.

Festival director Alejandro Acín said the event was a "testament to the power of collaboration" at a time when "cultural organisations across the UK face significant challenges".

Acín said this year's event was made possible "through the commitment of artists, funders, partners and communities" who believed in the festival.

"At a time when cultural organisations across the UK face significant challenges, this edition is also a testament to the power of collaboration," he said.

Bristol Photo Festival 2026 will take place from 14 October to 15 November.

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Giant Moon artwork to light up church

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c64g133q3vpyo, today

A huge illuminated Moon artwork that has been displayed around the world is set to arrive in Jersey later this year.

ArtHouse Jersey has announced it will bring artist Luke Jerram's Museum of the Moon to St Helier Methodist Centre from 15 to 29 November as part of the Butterfield Public Art Series.

The 20ft (6m) installation, which features detailed Nasa imagery of the lunar surface alongside a specially created soundscape, will hang inside the church and be free for the public to visit.

The artwork has toured internationally, appearing at venues including London's Natural History Museum, Glastonbury Festival and the Commonwealth Games in Australia.

Its arrival follows the success of Jerram's Floating Earth, which attracted more than 31,000 visitors during its time in Jersey.

ArtHouse Jersey chief executive Tom Dingle said the organisation was excited to bring another of the artist's large-scale installations to the island.

"Following the incredible response to Floating Earth, we're looking forward to bringing another of Luke Jerram's extraordinary artworks to Jersey," he said.

He said the projects had a "wonderful ability to capture people's imaginations and bring the whole Island together".

Butterfield Jersey branch manager Michelle Le Blond said the organisation was proud to continue supporting public art projects that could be enjoyed by the whole community.

"Moon is an opportunity to bring people together through a shared cultural experience," she said.

The Rev Keith Sandow, superintendent of the Methodist Church in Jersey, said the church was delighted to host the installation and welcome people through its doors.

The installation will be open daily throughout its two-week stay, with dedicated quiet hours on selected dates for visitors looking for a calmer experience.

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Unseen Vivienne Westwood photos show 'born protester'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq5yn5248gp7o, today

From Alan Bennett to Sir Alex Ferguson, Betty Boothroyd to Bez and Fred Dibnah to Iain Duncan Smith, Paul Wolfgang Webster has photographed a wide range of well-known faces across his decades-long career, but one eluded him.

As a punk, he always wanted to capture an icon of the scene, Dame Vivienne Westwood, but never had the opportunity.

That was until the fashion legend turned up at an anti-fracking protest in Lancashire in 2018.

Discussing the event ahead of an exhibition of his unseen photographs from that day, Wolfgang said the encounter was everything he had always hoped it would be, adding: "It was like she was Joan of Arc, walking down the street with this big crusade of people behind her."

The fashion designer, who grew up on the outskirts of the Derbyshire town of Glossop in the 1940s and 50s before moving to London in her teens, became almost as well-known for her activism as she was for her couture.

She became an anarchic idealist who stormed the battlements of the status quo and transformed Britain, giving birth to punk, conquering high-fashion and building a global empire.

Alongside her work in fashion, she campaigned relentlessly on the causes she held dear.

She supported Aids Research, Peta and Oxfam, gave hundreds of thousands to the Green Party and was a regular visitor to Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange during his seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

She even parked a white tank outside then-Prime Minister David Cameron's house in a protest against fracking, part of a campaign that later brought her to Little Plumpton in Lancashire in October 2018, after the site was earmarked for fracking.

It was an opportunity that Wolfgang could not pass up.

"I'd always looked up to her," he said.

"I was a punk in the 70s.

"The punk era itself came about because of politics at that time and... Vivienne's punk design came from that.

"I've also had an affinity with that in my own work.

"When I found out she was going to the protest, I knew that was my chance."

The 62-year-old said the day gave him a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the "real" Westwood and what he captured showed the "born protester" stringing together banners, making tea for the campaigners and doing a dissenting dance to Abba's Dancing Queen.

"I wanted to photograph what she was doing as a record of that day," said Wolfgang.

"She didn't drive around in big black limousines with security, like A-listers do.

"She was there helping out and setting up everything."

He said seeing her lead a march was nothing short of spectacular.

"It was amazing," he said.

"It was like she was Joan of Arc walking down the street with this big crusade of people behind her.

"It was quite a spectacle just watching her."

'Beautiful conversation'

The day also gave him the chance to speak with Westwood, a chat which showed him exactly why she was such a beloved figure.

"She starting speaking to me like she'd known me all my life," he said.

"[We spoke] about the cut of the recent royal wedding dress, about my wife who had worn one of her dresses at our wedding.

"She was very open and very approachable.

"It was a beautiful conversation - she was the woman I had always hoped she was."

Wolfgang said the Abba dance was a rebellious nod to then-PM Theresa May, who had danced her way on stage to the same tune at a recent Conservative Party conference, and part of Westwood's subversive way of challenging the establishment.

"By dancing to the Abba track, she was saying sometimes there's nothing done by politicians," he said.

"She was actually using it to demonstrate 'I'm not gonna just sit here and do nothing'.

He said that for him, the moment encapsulated the approach Westwood, who died aged 81 in 2022, took to her life and career.

"She never let go of standing for her values about changing the world and something, which in her eyes, was for the better," he said.

"She was 77 then but she was there, protesting basically until the day she died.

"She was a born protester [and] she carried her connection to the North West with her for all of her life."

He said his collection of photographs, which will be shown for the first time, gave "an insight to how she works".

"We read about her and see pictures and everything, but this is showing quite an intimate side to that.

"It is her in her zone, talking to people, working on something she believed in.

"This is the reality of her."

The Westwood-led day of protest was far from the only campaigning at the site.

The site on Preston New Road, near Blackpool, was the country's first horizontal fracking site but after more than 120 tremors were recorded during drilling, the controversial process was banned in 2019.

Fracking - a process which involves drilling into the earth and directing a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals at a rock layer, to release the gas inside - sparked lengthy protests from environmentalist groups and local communities in Lancashire.

The drilling site was suspended for a final time in 2022.

Four years on, the company in charge of the site were ordered by Lancashire County Council to restore it to farmland by the end of 2026.

Wolfgang said the serendipitous matching of that date with his show felt "poignant".

"It will be a 'full circle' moment to see the land restored by the closing date of the exhibition," he said.

Vivienne Westwood - Unseen Photography Exhibition by Paul Wolfgang Webster is at Manchester Central Library from 12 October to 31 December 2026. Entry is free.

Read more stories from Cheshire, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC North West on X.

Landmark Steel City club brand Niche to return

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm0j0nwpzdgwo, today

A renowned Sheffield nightclub which became synonymous with the birth of 'bassline' music is making a comeback.

Niche originally opened in a former cutlery warehouse on Sidney Street in 1992 and grew from an underground spot to become one of the most influential names in UK club culture.

A number of incidents involving drugs and violence culminated in greater police scrutiny and the original premises closed in 2005 after a large police raid. Despite several relocations across the city, Niche closed permanently in 2018 after more stabbings outside the club.

Now under new ownership, Niche is being developed as a contemporary music and cultural brand, with a new club night on 17 October.

Steve Baxendale, the former owner of Niche, passed away aged 67 in 2019. His wife Helen has now passed ownership of the brand to a new Sheffield-based team with previous experience in music, DJing and club promotion.

New operations director Drew Garber said they wanted to build the name into "Sheffield super-brand the city can be proud of".

"People care deeply about Niche and we know our responsibility is to keep that legacy in safe hands while giving the residents and artists who built it a home, and the next generation a genuine platform," he added.

Niche was part of a club scene in Sheffield in the 90s along with Gatecrasher One/Republic located nearby in a converted former steelworks warehouse, that transformed the city into a powerhouse for electronic music, rave culture, and super clubs drawing visitors from across the UK and abroad.

In its heyday, Niche's resident DJs like Jamie Duggan played speed garage and house with heavy low-end basslines and shuffling hi-hats , producing a sound that became known as 'bassline' or simply Niche.

Live sets recorded inside the club, known as the "Niche Tapes" were sold far beyond Sheffield, building a national audience and turning the name from a venue into a wider cultural brand.

The club did however begin to garner a reputation for violence and gang culture. Former manager Michael Baxendale, brother of former owner Steve, died after being stabbed outside the venue.

Four men were later jailed after their involvement in a mass brawl at the club after it moved to Walker Street near the Wicker. The club closed shortly afterwards.

Speaking to the BBC in 2014, Assistant Chief Constable Paul Broadbent said: "We needed to take some positive police action on a nightclub where guns had been seen and fired. Class A, serious illegal drugs had been seen, sold, used and supplied.

"Criminal gangs from Manchester, Leeds, Leicester and other cities were coming to the Niche to do their business. I'm not allowing that to happen in Sheffield."

New owner Fraser Rowlin acknowledged the club's past reputation but said the scene had "come a long way".

"Obviously, the history is there and it kind of blew up but we are 30 years on now.

"We have moved towards making sure clubs and events we put on are as safe as possible using every form of technology we can.

"The whole nature of that genre has changed. It's not as gritty and dark as it used to be. It's transcended that now."

The return of Niche begins with a night at Network Sheffield, which the owners described as a "homecoming".

Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North

Gavin and Stacey's Melanie Walters voted off Strictly

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwp9gy7710veo, today

Gavin and Stacey's Melanie Walters has become the second celebrity eliminated from this season of Strictly Come Dancing.

The actress, 64, had been paired with professional dancer Aljaz Skorjanec, 36.

On Saturday night's episode, Walters and Skorjanec had performed a Charleston to Ooh Ahh… Just A Little Bit by Gina G, receiving a score of 17 from the judges.

Judge Craig Revel Horwood said he "didn't love" their dance while Motsi Mabuse encouraged her to "keep going".

After finishing in the bottom two on the first two weeks of the competition, the judges sent the pair home.

On Sunday night's results episode, they were sent into the dance-off against former footballer Shaun Wright-Phillips and his partner Alexis Warr, who had received a score of 15 for their quickstep to I'm A Believer by The Monkees.

After both couples performed their routines again, the judges delivered their verdicts on who they wanted to save.

While Mabuse wanted to save Walters, fellow judges Shirley Ballas, Anton Du Beke and Revel Horwood all chose to save Wright-Phillips and Warr.

The eliminated couple will appear on It Takes Two on Monday.

Sunday night's episode also saw Ballas and Du Beke take to the floor as part of a special group performance, with two teams of professional dancers going head-to-head for glory in a ballroom vs Latin showdown.

There was also a performance from musician Jalen Ngonda of his song Burning Temptation, accompanied by professional dancers Neil Jones and Lethabo Monametsi.

Walters is best known for playing Gwen West in the BBC comedy, which she appeared in from its launch in 2007 and then reprised her role for the 2024 Christmas special.

During the first week of the contest, the Welsh actress received a score of 15 for her cha cha cha, also being given the same score the following week while performing a waltz to Edelweiss from The Sound of Music during Movie Week.

The remaining 13 couples will take to the dancefloor next week for icons week.

Dolly Parton's niece wants to learn Welsh after singing with Bronwen Lewis

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckeq3jgrv4dxo, today

Dolly Parton's niece wants to learn Welsh after recording a Welsh language version of one of her late aunt's most famous songs, Jolene.

Jada Star, a country singer from Tennessee, said: "I truly believe anyone can speak Welsh; it's such a lovely feeling to speak the language, it's a comfortable language."

The track was recorded before Parton's death on 25 August and features vocals from the legendary singer-songwriter herself, who sings alongside Star and singer Bronwen Lewis, from Blaendeulais.

Since the songs release, Star has said she would like to "roam every inch of Wales" and perhaps visit the Eisteddfod one day, as she enjoys learning more about Wales and the Welsh language.

With Star having started learning Welsh on Duolingo, she said that some of her favourite Welsh words so far are Draig (dragon) and Pilipala (butterfly).

"When I came to Wales to see Bronwen, I put a lot of effort into learning Welsh; I was on Duolingo all the time, though I need to pick it up again.

"The app puts sentences together in such a beautiful way, and they're full of dragons," she laughed. "It's fun."

Star explained that the first Welsh words she learned were shwmae and diolch, meaning hello and thank you, to allow her to "greet people in Welsh".

Lewis and Star became friends after she saw a video on TikTok of Lewis singing the song in Welsh.

After travelling to meet Lewis during Pride Cymru, she visited several places. She went from Cardiff to Caernarfon and Conwy, learning Welsh along the way.

Lewis said she was inspired by Star's attitude towards the language: "I never wanted to push singing in Welsh on Jada; the fact that she wanted to and was interested was heartening, she was full of questions about phonetics and pronunciation.

"Jada's attitude towards the language is so healthy; there are many Welsh artists who don't even release Welsh music, so the fact that Jada has done so is amazing."

The pair are currently receiving congratulations from both sides of the Atlantic after releasing their version of Jolene.

"I'm so proud of the track," said Star. "I've been emotional all day and have received messages from Wales that mean the world to me, too.

"I think people really like it; it's something they haven't heard before."

Author shares how books have 'magical way' of reaching you when struggling

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ck3wv86yxe2jo, yesterday

Books have a "magical way" of reaching you when you need them most - and when you are struggling, they "make you feel understood", an author has said.

The writer of bestselling book The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, was a special guest at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Saturday.

He said it would be a chance to connect with his fans and hopefully inspire younger readers to experience the joy and healing of reading without the "nonsense snobbery" that society puts on it.

Haig said he had ADHD and struggled with school, and at the time found himself "on the cusp of stopping reading for life" because he thought he was the type of person "that shouldn't be reading".

"Part of the problem is were getting narrower and narrower in our idea of what reading is," he said.

"Picture books, graphic books, audiobooks - reading for joy is when you're reading the right book for you.

"Schools send a message to kids that books are inherently educational. It may actually put people off."

Saturday was World Mental Health Day - a topic Haig said was very important to him.

In the past, he has written about mental health and openly shared his experience of depression while growing up.

"When I was going through a breakdown as a young person, I was back in my childhood bedroom, and I was reading, like, Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner, and I think they're among the best mental health books ever written," he said.

"I think there's just something very healing about reading because we're interacting in our own minds, but they don't demand a response, you know? It's not WhatsApp, it's not Instagram."

Haig said books were "magical" and reached you "when you need them most".

"If you're not the most gregarious, outward-going person who's well-connected in their social group, then books are vital. Books can literally be life-saving, they can be a friend," he said.

Haig said he hoped the "nonsense" around books and "snobbery" became something of the past.

"We're all readers - it's about how you get the right texts in front of the right people," Haig added.

'Connected and less alone'

Co-chief executive for Cheltenham Festivals, Ali Mawle, said reading for joy was particularly important for young people.

"Finding a story they love can open up new worlds, help them understand themselves and others, and create a lifelong relationship with reading," she said.

"As we mark World Mental Health Day, it feels particularly important to recognise the role that creativity, writing and reading can play in helping young people feel heard, connected and less alone.

"Ultimately, we want every young person to have the chance to find a story – or a way of telling their own story – that works for them."

The Cheltenham Literature Festival runs from 9 to 18 October.

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'Here's looking at you, kid' - a heartbreak history

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckvgd67y7n4do, yesterday

From Rick and Ilsa's final farewell in Casablanca to Adele singing Someone Like You - heartbreak has been at the heart of popular culture for much of the last century.

But the pain is just about as old as human's themselves. For thousands of years it has provided inspiration for tales of woe and even cause for medical enquiries.

A new exhibition in Oxford is attempting to chart some of that history - tracing back to uncover how people in the past valued, expressed, and tried to recover from the anguish of heartbreak.

After Love, at the OVADA Gallery in the city centre, has been compiled and organised by Sally Holloway, who is a a historian of emotions at the University of Warwick.

"It's something that as a society, we need to be talking about more and we need to be taking it much more seriously," Holloway said of the exhibition's subject matter.

"What I really want to convey with this project is that heartbreak wasn't just a sort of serious physical threat for people in the past, but it can be today too."

The exhibition in Oxford charts the evolution of lost love over the past 400 years, and what that now looks like in 2026.

"I started planning out my next book project and thinking about perhaps I could do something on heartbreak," Holloway said of her latest work.

"As soon as I decided this, I felt like I became the repository for other people's stories of heartbreak - suddenly everybody was coming to me with their own individual story of a breakup, a romantic loss."

"I realised then that I was onto something that happened in the past which had real resonance for people in the present."

The gallery features more than a hundred different works in a various mediums, including film, sculpture and collage.

"I'm starting in early modern England and tracing the changing ways that heartbreak was experienced and understood and valued right through to the present day," Holloway explained.

She said the project was "thinking about all the different feelings involved to show really that heartbreak was more than grief".

"For early modern people, the healthy body was a body that was was balanced - so if you were heartbroken you might be experiencing an excess of sadness."

"[It was thought] that sort of degree of emotional strain could cause your heartstrings to literally snap."

"Whereas, by the 18th century heartbroken people spoke of heartbreak more in terms of it was sort of the loss of the meaning of their life."

"Then in the 19th century, people increasingly figured their heartbreak in terms of things like misery and trouble and feelings of shame."

The After Love exhibition at Oxford's OVADA Gallery opened this week, and runs every Thursday to Sunday until 18 October.

Holloway said she had "learned a lot" from working with the more than 50 artists artists involved in the presentation.

"In some ways, heartbreak is an opportunity because it's such a great rupture with the past that it provides that opportunity to look ahead at your own future and ask 'who am I now and what should I do next?'," she added.

'Love of reading' key to improving city's literacy rates

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwvg0mje4537o, yesterday

A Peterborough headteacher says allowing children to choose what they want to read is an important part of improving literacy rates.

St Augustine's Junior School have been promoting a love of reading in their children, with lessons including making book covers, writing graffiti walls and recording book reviews on tablet devices.

Peterborough has previously scored below the national average for English rates.

In 2026, 77% of children at St Augustine's achieved the expected reading rate, above the national average of 75%.

2026 is the National Year of Reading, an initiative set up by the Department for Education and the National Literacy Trust to improve reading rates.

'We encourage everyone to read what interests them'

"The traditional way of every child sitting down with the same reading book might be a little bit old school now" says Sam Brunt.

"We encourage everyone to read what interests them, whether that's a recipe book, whether that's a non-fiction book or a traditional story novel, anything that gets them interested."

Those comments are echoed by year six class teacher Stefano Rocchio: "Reading is kind of the backbone of what we do in school, without reading they are going to struggle with a lot of the other aspects of the curriculum.

"We try and incorporate reading into everything that we do in school, promoting it through reading cafes, activities and weekly reading sessions."

The children say they enjoy choosing which books to read and show lots of diverse tastes.

Isha picked out 'The Boy in the Dress' and says: "It's funny and sad. It's like a comic and you have lots of laughs. This was my first ever thick book I read."

Annesha enjoys reading a book about artist Frida Kahlo, from the children's biography series 'Little People, Big Dreams.' She says it's because she 'likes art and the pictures.'

Zina is challenging herself with a longer mystery book called 'Tunnels.'

"I really like murder mystery books which sometimes make me cry, this one made me cry a bit when I first read it."

Leja is reading a Horrible Histories book called 'The Woeful Second World War.'

"It's very interesting and gives lots of facts about the Second World War."

The National Literacy Trust has been working with the Department of Education to run 'The National Year of Reading' in 2026.

They have been working in cities like Peterborough, where they run activities to promote reading, including working with Peterborough United.

That work has been supported by Peterborough City Council. Katy Cole, the Labour cabinet member for children and young people, says it has been a great help across some of the city's deprived wards.

"In areas where they have been focusing their efforts we have seen a real improvement in the love, the joy, the enthusiasm and the engagement with reading."

However, the council has faced financial pressures recently, and they consulted on closing a number of their smaller local libraries around the city.

They included Woodston library, which is a short walk from St Augustine's school and facilitates regular visits from the pupils.

A decision was eventually made to keep them open after a number of local campaigns.

Jennie Storey, the Chair of the Friends of Woodston Library says libraries are 'a magical place' and the children are always 'smiling, laughing and reading' when they visit.

The importance of reading for young children is often best summed up by parents.

Katie Rose has had her first children's book published called 'The Monster Story'.

She made up the story for her four year old daughter when she was waiting for an operation. She says it's really important that parents get involved in reading too:

"It's just that time together, you sit there together and you pick up a book and you cuddle. It's one of our favourite times of the day."

Do you have a story suggestion for Peterborough? Contact us below.

BBC Politics East will be broadcast on Sunday 11 October at 10:00 GMT on BBC One in the East of England, and will be available after broadcast on BBC iPlayer.

Follow Peterborough news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.

'Can't see the Bayeux Tapestry? Here's our Mapestry'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmlyr77nqqxxo, yesterday

A small Northamptonshire town is hoping to capitalise on the country's current fascination with the Bayeux Tapestry.

Canny tourism officers in Higham Ferrers say the town's own impressive hand-sewn "Mapestry", which showcases landmarks and buildings, could provide a visual alternative.

The 1.5m (4.9ft) work, made from recycled material, was designed by retired art teacher Fay Caddick, who worked on the project with a group of friends known as The Material Girls.

Liz Barnatt, chair of the Higham Ferrers tourism business and community partnership, said: "We said to everyone, this is our Bayeux Tapestry, it's just a great way to promote our town and how it was produced."

She said that when they first heard the Bayeux Tapestry was coming to London, "we jumped on it".

Work began on the Mapestry in 2009 and took three years to complete.

It features well-known buildings in Higham Ferrers, including St Mary's Church, The Bede House, the Market Square, the Belgium House, Chichele College and the Griffin Inn.

Barnatt added: "It looks stunning, it's an absolute credit to the ladies who did it."

The inspiration for the Higham Ferrers Mapestry came from librarian Lynne Curnutte, before Caddick set about designing the piece and its layout and content.

It first went on display at the town's library and was then moved to Henry Chichele Primary School.

However, due to "wear and tear" and being open to the elements, the town council was asked to retrieve it.

"Fay then oversaw the restoration and after six months of repairs it needed a new home", Barnatt said.

"The Hope Methodist Church has a big area in its entrance hall, so we thought it would look great there, so we got it moved."

The piece was later framed and unveiled to the public in October 2025.

A spokesperson for the town council said: "Our wonderful Higham Ferrers Mapestry celebrates the town's history through fabric, thread, appliqué and embroidery, featuring some of the town's historic buildings and landmarks.

"Created by a team of talented friends known as the Material Girls, this unique 1.5-metre artwork took several years and countless stitches to complete."

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'Every museum in the world is stressing': How brazen art heists are affecting visitors

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260930-what-the-rise-in-museum-heists-means-for-visitors, 11 days ago

A spate of brazen thefts has rocked European museums. Now, some institutions are rethinking what's worth displaying.

Visitors stepping into the Louvre's Galerie d'Apollon today will come face to face with more than 60m (198ft) of painted ceilings and dazzling sculptures. What they won't find, however, are the iconic treasures that once glittered inside its display cases.

The gallery reopened in July 2026, nine months after thieves made off with France's crown jewels in one of the most audacious museum robberies in recent memory. The surviving gemstones have since been moved elsewhere while the Louvre determines how to display them more securely.

The Louvre heist is just one example of how a recent string of museum thefts across Europe is changing what travellers can actually see in these beloved institutions.

On 27 August, thieves broke into the Museum of Villena in south-eastern Spain. In just four minutes, they made off with an extraordinary collection of Bronze Age bowls, bottles, bracelets and other objects that included nearly 10kg (22lb) of gold. Less than two weeks later, burglars entered the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer on the French Riviera and took four paintings – two were abandoned in nearby gardens as the thieves fled, while two others remain missing. In July, thieves posing as ordinary visitors stole the 2,500-year-old gold torque of Vix from a museum in Burgundy.

According to Europol, such incidents have risen sharply and are becoming increasingly brazen. As one museum security expert in Belgium told the BBC: "Every museum in the world is stressing right now."

Jean-Yves Goriou, head of the EU Organised Crime Unit at Europol, says information shared by member states shows "a clear and steep increase in the number of museum robbery cases since around 2022/2023".

Some have also become more forceful: thieves have used sledgehammers and axes to smash display cases, explosives to blow through museum entrances and firearms to intimidate staff and visitors; in other cases, museum employees have been assaulted or restrained.

Experts say the fact that many museums are publicly accessible makes them increasingly vulnerable to theft. "Museums are most likely doing what they can, given budget constraints and the fact that they are – by design – open to the public," Goriou says.

For generations, that openness has allowed almost anyone to stand within a few feet of an Egyptian sarcophagus or a Renaissance painting. But as museums seek to better protect their most prized pieces, it's changing the visitor experience.

Nothing like the real thing

Travellers to the Louvre who find the Galerie d'Apollon without its jewels still have tens of thousands of other objects to see. But for a smaller museum, losing one object can make a dramatic difference for would-be visitors.

The so-called "Treasure of Villena" that was stolen in August wasn't simply one collection among many in the city's museum. It was inextricably linked with Villena itself: dozens of pieces of Bronze Age gold, silver, amber and iron hidden inside a vessel for roughly three millennia before an archaeologist brought them back into the light in 1963.

Likewise, the Vix torque was the defining object of the Musée du Pays Châtillonnais in Burgundy. The 480g (1lb) gold necklace was discovered in the burial chamber of a Celtic woman who died around 500BC, a rare physical connection to the craftspeople of Iron Age Europe.

Two faithful gold reproductions of the torque already existed when thieves stole the original from its display case. One copy had even travelled to an exhibition elsewhere in France because the museum would not loan the real necklace. Replicas have long been used by museums when originals are too fragile, valuable or difficult to travel, and the recent spate of thefts has encouraged some to consider this practice more widely.

This summer, Dominique Garcia, president of France's National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research, suggested this approach when she issued a national security plan. Yet, France's new 33-point museum-security plan instead calls for particularly vulnerable originals to be temporarily taken off view until they can be displayed more safely.

Some museums are already making that choice. After a 2024 armed robbery at the Musée du Hiéron in Burgundy, director Maud Siron stopped displaying the museum's most valuable works rather than risk losing them altogether. Paris' Musée Cognacq-Jay subsequently dropped a valuable pair of earrings from a planned exhibition, while the nearby Musée Carnavalet substituted a drawing and rhinestone brooch for a high-value jewel in a 2026 show.

While museums all aren't automatically filling all their cases with copies overnight, visitors are finding more stand-ins and, in some cases, an empty space where a treasure used to be.

According to Guy Turton, director of global audience strategy agency MHM, which works with galleries around the world, authenticity remains a powerful pull for museums. As he said, seeing the original piece can create "the feeling that another human made, used or encountered the same object, sometimes centuries ago" – a connection he says can influence the number of people willing to visit and pay an entrance fee.

The Bayeux Tapestry is an especially timely example. With its permanent home in France undergoing renovation, its rare loan to the British Museum has drawn huge demand: the first batch of tickets sold out within a day, and visitors have queued down Great Russell Street to see the nearly 1,000-year-old embroidery in person.

For visitors, that debate matters because seeing a copy is not necessarily the same experience as seeing the object itself.

"If visitors expect an original and discover a replica without explanation, it can feel like a reduction in value," Turton says. "If the museum is transparent about why a replica is being used and what it enables them to experience, it can add value."

Ellie King, director of museum consultancy Crown Cultures and a researcher of visitor experience, suspects many people would accept a museum displaying a replica if they understood that the original object was being safeguarded to protect it from theft.

"For visitors, it may be the story that an object presents which is more important – especially if that story feels highly relevant and connected to the visitor," she says.

How visiting museums may change

For marquee museum treasures that remain on display, the most immediate change in light of the recent string of thefts may be physical: more distance between the visitor and the object.

Turton says that distance can matter almost as much as whether it is original. "In observational research, we consistently see that visitors engage more deeply when they can approach an object, examine its detail and see it from different angles," he says. "Greater distance and more prominent barriers can weaken that connection, particularly if they make the experience feel remote or institutional."

Some of those protections are already standard practice. Under the UK's Government Indemnity Scheme, portable valuables such as gold, silver and jewellery should be kept in locked, alarmed cases, while certain objects must be separated from visitors by at least one metre. If a museum cannot provide enough staff to properly supervise a gallery containing indemnified works, the guidelines allow for that space to be closed.

Recent thefts are also bringing greater scrutiny to objects on loan to other museums. James Ferrer, a fine art and museums expert at global insurance broker Lockton, says insurers and cultural bodies are paying particularly close attention to security around high-profile loans, although he stresses that the goal is still to help museums meet those requirements rather than prevent objects from travelling.

"We are there to help facilitate loans, not to present a barrier to stop loans from taking place," he says.

Visitors may also find thicker glass or more staff in a room. None automatically makes the experience worse.

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Turton points to the Rijksmuseum's live restoration of Rembrandt's The Night Watch. The painting sits behind glass, but visitors can watch artisanal work that would normally happen out of sight, turning the barrier itself into part of the experience.

"If security creates greater physical distance, museums need to work harder through interpretation, transparency and experience design to preserve the sense of connection," Turton says.

As the uptick in museum thefts continues, visitors are likely to encounter different responses in different places. So long as the reasons for the viewing restrictions are clearly explained, Turton says audiences tend to understand the need to balance access, conservation and security.

The challenge for museums is preserving both sides of that bargain: protecting objects that may have survived for centuries while keeping them accessible enough that people still want to travel to stand in front of them.

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Why a new TV version of horror classic Carrie is already annoying people

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20261001-why-a-new-tv-version-of-horror-classic-carrie-is-already-annoying-people, 10 days ago

Releasing next week, the latest take on Stephen King's novel has been criticised for its casting. The heroine is a softer, more conventional-looking character than in the book.

Mike Flanagan is the horror auteur behind such hit shows as Midnight Mass and The Haunting of Hill House. A new series from him would normally be a cause for celebration by fans of the genre. But when they were first released, the stills and trailer for his eight-part adaptation of Stephen King's 1974 classic Carrie did not meet with universal approval. Some fans were disappointed, even angered. The reason for their annoyance? As with other screen versions, there seemed to be departures from the novel, which tells the story of a bullied teenager wreaking revenge on her high school – especially with regard to the way Carrie looks and behaves.

Various X users have pointed out that, as one of them put it, "everyone decides to cast her as a skinny, conventionally attractive girl" which is very different to how she is depicted in the book. Another suggested that no adaptation "has ever captured the full extent of Carrie's novel characterisation. She's an incredibly angry girl, and is usually depicted as sad/naïve on screen". A third alleged that "Hollywood would never do the book version [of Carrie] in a million years".

The book's depiction of Carrie

Carrie was King's first novel and centres on a 16-year-old girl who has been tormented for years by her classmates. She finds no comfort at home because her widowed mother is an abusive religious fanatic: breasts and showers are among the many thing she regards as sinful. Carietta "Carrie" White has a latent telekinetic power, typically unleashed when she is stressed, afraid or angry.

The novel begins with her being terrified by her first period, which arrives when she is in the shower after PE class. The other girls mock her ignorance and the stress – or maybe the onset of menstruation – reawakens her telekinetic power. The story then reaches a tragic climax days later when she is humiliated at the school prom.

King describes Carrie in the showers thus: "Carrie stood among them stolidly, a frog among swans. She was a chunky girl with pimples on her neck and back and buttocks". She's clearly meant to be – for want of a better word – "plain".

Yet in the four screen versions to date, she has been played by conventionally good-looking actresses. In Brian De Palma's 1976 classic, Sissy Spacek played Carrie. In a 2002 TV movie, it was Angela Bettis. Chloë Grace Moretz starred in the 2013 film and now, in this new Prime Video drama, it's 22-year-old Canadian newcomer Summer H Howell.

As entertainment writer Kayleigh Donaldson wryly observed in a recent article for Pajiba: "Even in a story of cruelty and bullying, the world thinks having Carrie White be a fat girl is too much…You can imagine a teenage girl setting her school on fire with her magical mind powers but she can't be larger than a size 6 (UK 10) because that's stretching credulity?"

In addition, book Carrie is in some ways an even darker creation than screen Carrie has ever been, both less naive and with greater agency around her destructive powers. She fantasises about the havoc she could wreak if she chose to: "She did not know if her gift had come from the lord of light or of darkness, and now, finally finding that she did not care which, she was overcome with an almost indescribable relief," King writes.

When her prom date is late, she decides that if he doesn't show up, she will use her power to destroy the house. She is smiling and giggling throughout her bloody vengeance at the prom. But on screen, she tends to be sweeter and more innocent. Even in the prom scene she seems to be using her powers reluctantly.

Flanagan's new version, which is set in the present day and is being promoted with the tag line, "If you think you know her story, you're dead wrong", is likely to upset book purists even further. Without giving away spoilers, it introduces some major departures from, and very significant additions to, the novel.

However, one big change already evident in the trailer is that this Carrie is newly arrived at school, having previously been home-schooled until her father's death. In the book, her father died before her birth and she attends school from the usual age. This is a key difference because it means that when we meet Carrie she is, in Flanagan's words "open to the world, earnest, curious and untraumatised". It has the effect of making the bullying she is subjected to feel even more cruel.

Are the changes valid?

Do such differences between the book and screen versions matter? Dr Sorcha Ní Fhlainn is a horror expert and reader in film studies at Manchester Metropolitan University, who believes Flanagan's show will work on its own terms, and is smart in how it modernises the story.

"It updates the ongoing horrors of teenage life at school, where Carrie is desperate to fit in," she says, noting how it now centres social media, which offers new modes of ridicule.

Ní Fhlainn agrees that Flanagan's Carrie is not the "frog among swans" that King describes but says "her 'otherness' is absolutely coded in her making of her own clothes and [background of being] home-schooled. Like so many school-set horrors, this Carrie seems to conjure new means of navigating the familiar horrors of teenage life and bullying."

Film-maker Liam Gavin directed the cult horror film A Dark Song and two episodes of Flanagan's The Haunting of Bly Manor, his reimagining of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw. Gavin points out that, of course, deviations from the text and casting decisions are not always made purely for artistic reasons.

"With any adaptation, there's always going to be a tension between the source material and the needs of the market," he says. "Production funding is frequently dependent on cast, and so there can be external pressures. It's not always fair or just, it unfortunately 'just is'."

In other words, in an industry which often lacks casting imagination, lead roles of all kinds still tend to go to performers that are conventionally good-looking. That's because producers and studios seem to feel that they will have the greatest audience appeal – though whether that really is the case or not is rarely tested.

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In addition, the novel intermittently gives the reader direct access to Carrie's thoughts and feelings to help us understand her. We don't have that in the screen versions – hence, perhaps, the softening of her character, to make her more immediately sympathetic.

However Gavin also says that it is fair that a creative director might not want to be completely faithful to a text. "It can also be just as stifling from the other direction," he says. "It's not always incumbent on a director to be slavish to whatever source material he or she is working from."

Certainly, this version of Carrie really does feel like something new. Flanagan has made an engrossing, surprising, layered show that is very much about the now, while also honouring its 50-year-old source material. It absolutely delivers on both horror and coming-of-age drama and is well served by terrific performances, especially from the lead. No doubt the depiction of Carrie will continue to stimulate debate but even hardcore lovers of the book should find something to enjoy here.

Carrie is released on Prime Video on 7 October.

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The US produces millions of tonnes of rice waste each year. Now people are building homes with it

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20261009-the-houses-made-from-rice-husks, 2 days ago

A notoriously stubborn agricultural waste product, rice husk is now being repurposed as a sturdy and resilient construction material.

In 2023, David Fine had a problem. He had been hired to renovate a luxury ski condo development in Park City, Utah, in the US. But the building requirements were proving challenging.

The existing condos had begun to rot under the town's famous powdery snow, which piles up for months during the long winters. The homeowner's association had spent a year searching for a material that would absorb moisture while also resisting the increasingly frequent wildfires that threaten the mountaintop locale in summer.

They considered products like extruded aluminium, which would protect the condos against fire but appear synthetic. Wooden sidings such as cedar, on the other hand, would achieve a more pleasing aesthetic, but with a weaker fire rating.

Finally, they came up with an outlandish-sounding solution: panel boards made from rice husks – a byproduct of rice farming. "Their focus was to find something that looked like wood, that was beautiful, and that was a little better fire-rated than traditional wood siding," Fine says. Rice husk panels, it turned out, "checked all those boxes".

Previously viewed as a waste product and even pollutant, rice husks are now attracting attention for their potential as a versatile, sustainable construction material. With hundreds of new homes in the US now using rice husk panelling, and other rice husk products from porches to playgrounds available, why are some developers choosing this agricultural throwaway over classic materials?

The house that rice built

While growing on the plant, rice husks protect the grains from moisture and pests. But when the crop is harvested, they become one of the most stubborn agricultural waste products to deal with.

The world produces around 150 million tonnes (331 billion lb) of rice husk each year, much of it burned on farms or at roadsides, posing risks to both human health and the environment. In the US, which grows some nine million tonnes (20 billion lb) of rice annually, rice husk is sometimes converted into biomass energy, though even then there's not always a clear use for the ash left behind.

A pioneering solution kills two birds with one stone – repurposing this agricultural waste as a durable and sustainable building material of the future.

Alongside the use of materials made from rice husks in panelling and other construction materials, research suggests rice husk ash could provide an alternative to cement, which is responsible for 8% of global carbon emissions.

Christopher Guimond first became curious about rice byproducts when he discovered US rice producers let the waste decompose in the ground and release polluting clouds of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. An engineering student, Guimond started to believe that rice husks would make the perfect material to use at scale in construction.

"The fascination was to take this thing that was a throwaway and leverage its properties," he says.

Guimond is now the chief executive of Modern Mill, the first US-based company that manufactures construction products out of rice husks at scale. Since it was founded in 2018, the company says it has diverted over nine million kg (20.5 million lb) of rice husks from landfill, including as the panelling for Fine's ski condos.

Around the world, other companies including Resysta in Germany and design firm Ricehouse in Italy are producing or using all kinds of construction materials, from decking to paint, made from rice husks. Modern Mill is even using it to make playgrounds.

Rice husks protect the precious grains from wind and rain, and their high silica content allows them to resist moisture and decay, meaning they naturally boast the same properties as many traditional construction materials. "The whole point of the rice husk is to protect the rice while it grows," Guimond says. "What is it protecting it from? Moisture, pests, rot, those types of things."

In addition to protecting against moisture, the high silica content means rice husks are surprisingly resilient to fire, according to Fine. Modern Mill's product is designated as Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) compliant, meaning it has passed California's fire safety testing.

The benefits of rice husk

Timber has long been considered a sustainable building material. It is abundant in continental climates and has comparatively low carbon emissions compared to materials like concrete and steel.

But it can also have environmental and financial downsides, from vulnerability to price shocks to the depletion of old growth forests and the carbon they store and absorb.

Rice isn't the only unusual alternative building material being tested out. In the Global South, bamboo is increasingly being used as an alternative to concrete and more expensive, slower-growing tropical hardwoods. But the wide availability and low cost of rice husk, added to the fact it is a waste material, gives it a distinct advantage.

A recent study found that using the fibrous residues from crops like rice, wheat and maize for buildings, rather than burning them, could produce a significant carbon sink, since the carbon caught in these residues would be locked away for decades.

Sabbie Miller, an expert in sustainable building materials and professor in civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Davis, notes however that whether or not a particular building material will be low-carbon can be very nuanced and requires a detailed life cycle assessment.

Research has found that rice husk panels perform as well as traditional materials when it comes to thermal and acoustic control. In Italy, for example, rice panels were used within Casa LH, a project recently completed by Ricehouse, to control its acoustics and thermal performance.

The house, designed to rebuild a previous structure, features large south-facing windows and an open kitchen that brings sunlight and air but also seasonal heat and echoes. "We had to add another way to insulate more and guarantee acoustic comfort," says Valentina Savioli, a communications officer at Ricehouse. Using rice as insulation was an easy decision "just because of how much volume and biomass [it] has", she adds.

However, more widespread adoption might prove tricky since Italian contractors are generally sceptical of less common building materials, says Savioli.

There can be similar concerns in the US, as well as barriers like cost, says Miller.

"There can be hesitancy to use materials if, for example, an engineer could compromise their license or ability to get hired if there is a material failure," she says.

However, adoption of non-load bearing rice husk products (the case for Modern Mill's panels) will likely face fewer challenges than using them in load bearing materials, she adds. "It is often easier to adopt a new floor tile material than it is to adopt a new material for a beam."

Concrete alternative

Some US states, however, do already approve alternative structural materials such as earth blocks (made from dirt mixed with water and chemical stabilisers) or hemp.

And researchers have studied the potential of rice husk ash as an alternative to cement, either by being added to a cement mixture or by replacing cement entirely, especially as a binder in earth blocks. This would reduce the amount of cement needed in construction, lowering both carbon emissions and material costs, and means rice husk could be used as a component of structural materials.

A 2025 study proposed combining rice husk ash, wood ash and rice straw to make a low-cost, carbon-negative material that could eliminate the need for cement.

If rice husk materials like these are developed, they would be particularly useful in areas of the Global South where most rice waste is burned and billions of people lack adequate housing.

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In Africa, for example, new construction usually uses concrete and suffers from poor quality. "It’s like the worst of both worlds," says Ariana Karamallis, director of global engagement at housing non-profit Build Change, based in Colorado. When using innovative materials like rice husk, she adds, it's crucial to find a "sweet spot" between affordability, scalability and relating to the community – and to avoid testing novel techniques on the most vulnerable.

Rice husk may have the most long-term potential in rice-producing areas of the Global South, but it is already being used in buildings in the US.

Since the Park City condo project was completed, Fine has used rice husk panels in five additional projects, with several more in the pipeline. While it costs slightly more to install compared to cedar, the long-term maintenance costs are lower due to its resistance to moisture, sun and fire, he says. He believes rice husk products are on the cusp of becoming competitive and will likely beat cedar in price once more people learn how to install them.

"I'm always looking for ways to put a product out that will last a long time, longer than hopefully I'm alive," he says. Rice husk products, he says, might prove to be just such a material.

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Dream home or inauthentic: The brand new 'historic' mansions dividing opinion

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20261001-the-faux-historic-mansions-dividing-opinion, 9 days ago

From Regency-style to Georgian-look, brand-new English country houses designed to look centuries old are increasingly in demand in the UK, US and elsewhere. But they divide opinion. To some they are inauthentic and lack character – to others they are ideal homes. What is their appeal?

You might be tempted to place a bet on this house being soaked in history. Its Palladian grandeur complete with a columned portico, and a generous sweep of sash windows is set within a terrain of mature trees, ornately clipped hedging and meticulously manicured lawns. This majestic mansion looks like it should have absorbed decades of Victorian leather boots climbing the wide-entrance steps, the delicate rustle of Edwardian dresses sashaying down the spacious staircase, a retinue of servants, heated family arguments, surely a litany of scandals, possibly a ghost. But this house is not what it seems.

Unlike the many period mansions that are dotted across the British countryside – such as Norfolk's Jacobean Blickling Hall, which is said to be haunted by the ghost of Anne Boleyn, or Highclere Castle, the real-life setting for Downton Abbey – this grand, historic-seeming house was completed just a few years ago.

Featuring elegant proportions, hand-carved cornicing, expansive stone doorsteps and porches, and with a flourish of columns, this house and others like it have all been built in recent years – but without a backstory of beheaded queens or servant entourages. Welcome to the world of houses built to look like they've always been there.

Architects are enjoying a surge in demand for these high-end homes in both the UK and the US. The advantages are clear – as architect and author George Saumarez Smith argues in his book The Romance of Classicism: Designing the English Country House for Today. With the use of classical materials like stone, marble and natural slate, these buildings "stand the test of time", he tells the BBC.

As post-war Britain looked to the future, Saumarez Smith argues, architects began to favour modernism, with materials such as concrete, glass and metals dominating. However, these materials are not as weatherproof as classical materials, and as a result in his view these modernist buildings have not aged well.

Instead, his clients come to him because "they want a nice-looking family house that is not going to date quickly and will improve with age."

The essential elements

So, what are the ingredients that make up a proper classical mansion – is it the number of bedrooms, bathrooms and drawing rooms, the sweep of the staircase, the square footage or width of the windows? "A successful modern classical house depends on more than applied style," Liz Smith, architect at Purcell, tells the BBC.

"It needs strong proportion, careful composition, high-quality materials, skilled craftsmanship and a deep understanding of setting. We would always begin by asking what is already there, what stories the site or existing buildings hold, and how new intervention can respond intelligently and sensitively to that context."

Saumarez Smith takes advice from the 2,000-year-old rulebook of Roman architect Vitruvius, whose three principles for good architecture: useful, well-built and beautiful, continue to inform his practice.

Materials and location instruct design decisions. "Everything starts with the landscape", he says. In the UK traditional buildings have long been created with various local materials, limestone flecked with flint, red brick, and Bath or Portland stone. These materials are "a huge part of making a new house feel at home in the landscape."

The problem with pastiche

Detractors may argue that these houses are closer to theatre sets than homes, and that they are merely emulating the gravitas of houses like Blickling or Highclere. It's undeniable that a real-deal Georgian or Regency country pile will have plenty of authentic charm. But equally that home will be eye-wateringly expensive to heat and maintain – and, if listed, subject to strict restrictions.

Still, not everyone is convinced that a house can simply borrow the trappings of the past and call it classical. "There's the problem with pastiche," says Oliver Cooke, director at architecture practice Cooke Fawcett. "Traditional architecture was built in a different time, one of cheap labour, abundant craftsmanship, local materials and construction, and very different environmental priorities. You can't simply reproduce the appearance without reproducing the conditions that gave rise to it. At its worst, pastiche is a modern building dressed up as something it isn't."

The so-called McMansion has been much derided over the decades – the 1990s moniker originated in the US, combining the words "McDonald's" and "mansion", and referred to houses that were huge, generic and mass-marketed.

"What's implied in the word 'McMansion' is that it's been super-sized," Saumarez Smith says. "Everything is overblown, over-scaled, but it has no relationship with its context, like massive houses on small plots. Huge, pretentious porticoes, which have no real function other than to just look important." Done badly, he adds, the results can be almost comic, "like terrible plastic surgery".

The American way

But the McMansion is a caricature and the reality in the US is that there are many architects who are creating work way beyond this stereotype. According to a recent article in the New York Times, there's a keen desire for new homes built with classical traditions in a clear rebuttal of modernist design.

US practices such as Ferguson & Shamamian have long offered their clients new buildings inspired by classical traditions and the craftsmanship found in English country-houses, French châteaux or Georgian manor houses. "American building traditions are rooted in English design," the firm's Scott Sottile tells the BBC. These principles were then "adapted to fit new landscapes and local building materials, such as using plentiful timber instead of scarce masonry".

Among the projects by another US firm, Period Architecture, is a home in Delaware inspired by the style of the famous British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, with steeply pitched gables and vertical roofline. "English-inspired country houses have shaped the architectural landscape of the Northeastern US since colonial times, and the building traditions that came with them, like stone masonry and timber framing," Joseph Mackin Jr, co-founder of Period Architecture tells the BBC. "What's changed is that we're now seeing requests for country houses and English-style gardens from homeowners across the country."

Fully furnished

British interior designer Nicholas Hodson Taylor says the risk of pastiche is real, but that it comes down to the details and, "the complete and utter avoidance of trends." In his interiors he favours traditional, upholstery Howard-style sofas and armchairs – with low, recessed arms and deep, plump seating – mixed with modern and classic lighting and decorative rugs on walls. "In projects like this, you often start with less and add layers and layers," he says.

Saumarez Smith agrees that good decoration in a classical modern house is a form of storytelling. "The best houses reflect the personality of the people who live there – blending inherited furniture and family pieces, rather than following any single period rulebook."

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Anya Lucas, director of The Georgian Group, is happy to see that classical design is being taken seriously in the 21st Century. "Although our work is mainly concerned with protecting and promoting buildings dating from the 18th or early-19th Centuries," she tells the BBC, "through our architectural awards, we celebrate new design in the spirit of the period."

Perhaps, a classical building is less about history and more about craft. As Hodson Taylor says, "we shouldn't be living in a pastiche of Downton Abbey any more than we should be living on the set of Star Trek". Get the balance right, he says, "take inspiration from one extreme and introduce elements of the other and you can create something that feels… dare I say it… timeless."

The Romance of Classicism: Designing the English Country House for Today by George Saumarez Smith is published by Rizzoli.

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The man hiking the world in search of rare cheeses

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20261007-the-man-hiking-the-world-in-search-of-rare-cheeses, today

Trevor Warmedahl has spent years documenting rare and traditional cheesemaking methods, and believes that "cheese is an edible manifestation of a place".

Trevor Warmedahl was working as a commercial cheesemaker in Seattle when he realised he was using milk that came from animals he never saw. So, he quit his job and set off on what has become a global odyssey to discover places that still make cheese the old-fashioned way.

In 2019 he arrived in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and lived alone in a yurt with a dog as his companion. He soon discovered that dairy was sacred there: the women flicked milk into the air before cheesemaking, a gesture of respect called a milk libation. He visited homes where whey bubbled over central hearths and fresh, unripened byaslag cheese covered tables. After hiking to shrines, he noticed people offered dairy products as a symbol of purity.

As summer unfolded and city-dwellers migrated to the Mongolian steppe to farm, Warmedahl itched to join. He jumped on a Soviet-era coal-powered sleeper train for a rickety overnight ride across the Gobi Desert. On the journey back to Ulaanbaatar, he met a local who invited him to stay with her herder family on the Zavkhan grassland.

Warmedahl spent that summer waking before dawn to milk yaks, chasing livestock up the valley on horses, listening to shepherds' folk songs at sunset and cooking milk into dehydrated, sweet-and-sour curds called aaruul. The experience inspired him to seek out other places preserving rare cheesemaking traditions before they disappeared.

During the past six years, Warmedahl has hitched, hiked and driven through more than 20 countries, documenting traditional cheesemaking and pastoral lifestyles, and offering workshops on natural dairy processing. After recently completing a 193km (120-mile) cheese trek across the Peaks of the Balkans Trail, he shared with the BBC what cheesemaking reveals about a place.

You've been to so many places – Bulgaria, Pakistan, Italy, Austria, Cambodia. Share a standout adventure.

Ancestral cheeses in Georgia have no analogues – I call them "fossil cheeses" because they were almost lost but are making a comeback as part of a broader post-Soviet cultural revival. My pinnacle moment happened in Tusheti, a mountain region bordering Russia near the tourist village of Omalo.

I showed up with vague directions to the shepherds' summer camp, which was deep in the valley. That's a theme: the cheeses I find are always far out, made by hermit types sticking to the old ways out of sheer stubbornness. It was drop-dead gorgeous, just me and my backpack. The valley ends on an abrupt cliff, with deteriorating medieval stone towers. Shepherds build their camps from the decay. I saw how these guys milked sheep by hand with wooden pails, rustic-style. It's a feta-like cheese called Tushuri guda, aged in inside-out sheepskins. At the end of the season, I walked about 130km (81 miles) back down the valley with them and 300 sheep. The herd has done this for generations – they know where to go. The shepherds just coordinated, and it created this crazy lawless feeling with dogs barking and me, chasing stray sheep down ravines.

At night we'd build a campfire and drink, and even with the language barrier, we'd relate through food. Sometimes language isn't needed. In cheesemaking, if two hearts want to connect, they'll find a way.

How is cheese and cheesemaking a reflection of a community's history and culture?

Cheese is a sensory experience and embodies larger ideas about how we live. It represents how meaningful human cultures can be. At its best, cheese reflects this complex relationship between humans, landscapes, microbial life and livestock at a time [when] we've become so separate from how food is made. And the cultural element holds the constellation together.

The cheeses I highlight represent an older mentality, with a sense of stewardship over the places we live and farm. So, a little bit more of the wildness of nature slips into the product. [Cheese is] an edible manifestation of place, of cultural history transformed into delicious food.

Why is cheesemaking especially important today?

The diversity and range of cheese is infinite. When animals eat, they transform grass and entire landscapes into milk that becomes cheese, and animals can graze [almost] anywhere. So, it's a lifestyle that can move in response to climate uncertainty and desertification – real challenges today.

The cheeses I focus on – natural farmstead cheeses [made exclusively with milk from a farmer's own animals] – reflect deep, ethical relationships between people and livestock and highlight the incredible diversity of heritage livestock. With industrialisation, that diversity is vanishing at an alarming rate. So pastoral cheesemaking strikes me as profoundly sustainable.

What can so-called "exotic cheeses" that challenge us reveal about a place?

There's this greyish-brown cheese from Norway, gammelost, [covered in] moulds like fruit rot. It tastes like a musty cellar with bold, mouth-numbing spiciness. It wasn't for me. But deliciousness is cultural. It's taught. So, I always say: don't try something once, try it 10 times. Uncomfortable foods open doors. But be sure to eat them because you're interested in the culture, not because they're freaky to you.

One of the easiest ways to express interest in a culture is to say: feed me what you eat. When people realise you're genuine, the relationship deepens and you begin to understand their history through food. Funky cheeses become cultural emblems because of how obscure and special they are.

You set out on your global cheese journey without a real plan. What did this approach add to your experience?

Back then [in 2019], I was hopping on a whim from one volunteer gig to the next, drawn to remote places where people worked to protect and revitalise traditional cheeses. Workaway on farms, or staying for a while at guesthouses where cheese is made, are still amazing ways to go beyond tourism to see how people really live.

Cheese gives you access to a global community, like at [the Slow Food Cheese Festival in] Bra, Italy. But anything you can do to find that deeper experience – food, handicrafts – is worth it, even if you can't always plan in advance. If your heart is in the right place and you jump fully into adventure when it calls, the details will almost always work themselves out.

What advice would you give fellow travellers about how to best experience unique cheeses abroad?

Find the cheese shop or cheesemonger that has the most local tilt and ask them which cheesemakers you can and should visit. Organising it yourself is cheaper. But there are also paid tours where you can experience a range of cheeses in a short period and really get to know a place. Just make sure that the cost actually supports local producers – that's what I call responsible "lacto-culinary" tourism.

How can other travellers seek out responsible agrotourism experiences?

Look for local cheesemakers and guides. It's also important to not expect farmers to sanitise things. It's normal to go to a farm and see broken-down equipment and mud. When we romanticise tradition, it encourages locals to put themselves in a museum. But tools [and] tradition have always evolved.

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• The elusive cheese with no recipe

• Is cheese the new reason to travel?

• The woman saving Georgia's lost cheeses

We need to be open to the fact that it's not all grandmas spinning wool on wheels outside stone cottages. Then it becomes kind of a show, and we're pushing farmers to become something they're not for tourists.

What places have exciting, overlooked, or under-the-radar cheeses? Where are you keen to travel next?

Hands down, Turkey. It's a universe of cheese that doesn't get enough attention. Tulum peyniri is emblematic of pastoral lifestyles and the extreme sacrifice at the root of dairying and – I'd argue – life. That's because it's aged mainly in furry goatskins, so it looks insane because it can take on animal shapes. Somehow, I didn't think it would be delicious. How good can goatskin-aged cheese be, right? It was phenomenal. I was blown away by deep flavours and textures I'd never seen in cheese before.

Turkish cheese needs to be talked about alongside Western Europe. More remote places have just as many fascinating cheeses to preserve and celebrate.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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'A fortune of failures': The Colorado ghost town that almost became Aspen

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20261007-the-ghost-town-that-almost-became-aspen, yesterday

Just 15 minutes from glitzy Aspen lies Ashcroft, an atmospheric ghost town that once had ambitions to become Colorado's next great ski resort.

On a crisp June day, I wander among the empty log cabins in the ghost town of Ashcroft, 12 miles (19.3km) from Aspen at the base of Colorado's Elk Mountains. The only sounds are the rustling of aspen leaves, the gurgle of Castle Creek and the occasional whistle of a high-elevation warbler. In winter, save for the distant glide of cross-country skiers or the soft clop of snowshoes, the valley is nearly silent.

It's hard to reconcile this quiet place with the booming mining town that once stood here – or with the ambitious plan, nearly 100 years ago, to transform it into a major European-style ski resort.

"Ashcroft would have been Aspen," says Aspen Historical Society archivist Anna Lookabill. "I don't think Aspen would have happened had the Ashcroft plans come together."

Before Aspen became a playground for the rich and famous, home to high-end boutiques and $25m mansions, the two towns were rivals – first for silver, then for skiing.

Boom and bust

In 1879, prospectors poured into Colorado's Roaring Fork Valley in search of silver, establishing camps at Independence and Aspen. By the following year, Ashcroft had become one of the region's hottest mining towns.

"The ore was close to the surface in Ashcroft compared to Aspen," Lookabill says. "It had the potential to be a good investment early on. Aspen was slower to get going because the ore was a little deeper."

Walking between Ashcroft's surviving log cabins, it's hard to reconcile the quiet with the town that once stood here. At its peak in 1882, more than 1,000 people lived here, with hotels, mercantile stores, a bowling alley, dance hall, 14 saloons and Pitkin County's first school.

But the boom was short-lived. Within a few years, the population had collapsed to around 100, with many residents and businesses relocating to Aspen.

The ski resort that almost was

By the 1930s, nearly all of Ashcroft's buildings were abandoned. But a group of business associates who had skied in Europe – Ted Ryan, T J Flynn and Olympic bobsled gold medallist Billy Fiske – saw something in the empty valley surrounded by towering peaks: the making of a ski resort.

They formed the Highland Bavarian Corporation and brought in Swiss mountaineer André Roch to survey the surrounding peaks on touring skis. He chose Hayden Peak above Ashcroft as the centrepiece.

"Mount Hayden was going to be the mountain with the ski area. Ashcroft would be the Bavarian village," Lookabill says.

Ashcroft would have been Colorado's first major ski area – and, at the time, the world's highest. Plans included a tram from Ashcroft up Hayden Peak, dozens of ski runs and several chairlifts. Today, visitors can look up from the ghost town to where the ski area would have climbed above 13,000ft (3,962m) and the slopes would have taken skiers directly into town.

The Highland Bavarian Corporation secured $650,000 in state and federal funding and development was about to begin.

Then, World War Two cancelled the entire plan.

"They had the ski area laid out, the tram laid out. Washington was allocating funds to build this ski area, because it was going to be the new tourism driver for the US. They had an order for steel to build the lifts and the tram," Lookabill says. "The US needed the steel to build tanks and fighter planes."

Aspen becomes Aspen

While Ashcroft's plans stalled, skiing took hold down the valley. Roch had already begun teaching locals how to ski, launching The Roaring Fork Winter Sports Club (which eventually became today's prestigious Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club), and leading touring groups around Mount Hayden.

For easier access, he marked a run on Aspen Mountain – still called "Roch Run" – and Ryan oversaw the installation of the first lift: a "boat tow" built with old mine hoists, a second-hand motor and a pair of sleds.

It marked the beginning of Aspen's transformation into a ski resort, and effectively ended Ashcroft's chances of becoming one.

What Ashcroft was left with was the landscape itself.

Today, rather than luxury lodges, visitors find a handful of preserved cabins surrounded by 22 miles (35km) of Nordic ski trails and snowshoe routes in winter, with horseback riding and hiking taking over in summer. Though Ashcroft is an easy drive from Aspen, there are no chairlifts or cable cars; in winter, human-powered travel is the only way to explore the pristine valley.

A different kind of ski town

Johnny Wilcox, whose father bought Ashcroft Ski Touring from Ryan in 1986, runs guided horseback tours and winter skiing and snowshoeing. His family also operates the gourmet Pine Creek Cookhouse.

"The ultimate experience is to ski up here at night with a headlamp on," Wilcox says. "That brings you the closest to the mining and ski history, breaking trail through the snow with no chairlift to be seen."

That absence is part of Ashcroft's appeal. While just down the road, Aspen buzzes with four ski resorts, fine dining and fashion boutiques, Ashcroft sits along Castle Creek, surrounded by pine forests, aspen groves and empty, treeless summits.

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"That's largely what makes this valley special," Wilcox says. "It's a step back in time. We don't have snow mobile tours. We have no Wi-Fi, no cell service. We are off the grid. In the winter, it's not easy to get here, so people who come really want to be here."

Walking between the ghost town's surviving cabins – one a former dance hall, another a saloon – it is difficult to imagine an Aspen-sized town with thousands of visitors, a tram humming overhead and skiers skidding to a halt amid multi-million-dollar houses.

"I always think of Ashcroft as a fortune of failures," Lookabill says. "It was a boomtown and it died off. There was potential of being a ski area, that ended up dying off. Now it's a touristy place, but a large, open, beautiful space. These booms, or fortunes that failed, ultimately preserved it."

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Why is there no word for please in the Nordic languages?

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20261008-why-is-there-no-word-for-please-in-the-nordic-languages, yesterday

It has never been more important to be a polite and respectful traveller. But how do you ask nicely when there is no equivalent word for "please"?

I'm in a Copenhagen bakery, standing in line for sugar-dusted slices of lemon cake, delicately plaited cardamom buns and golden-brown cinnamon swirls. When I reach the front of the queue, I'm ready to order in simple Danish. But then I hit a snag: in this country, there is no single word that works quite like the English "please".

Like a lot of people, when I travel I learn the basics of hello, goodbye, yes, no, please and thank you. But that's just not possible in Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic or Finnish, where there is no catch-all word that works in quite the same way.

So, what's going on? Are Nordic speakers simply more direct, or is politeness being expressed in ways outsiders may not immediately recognise? For travellers, understanding the difference can make everyday interactions much easier to navigate.

Politeness can vary

The first thing to understand, says linguist Dr James Puchowski, a researcher at the Nynorsk Kultursentrum (The Norwegian Museum of Written Culture), is that looking for a direct translation of "please" may be the wrong place to start.

Danes, for example, might ask for a pastry in a bakery using the words må jeg bede om – "may I ask for" – as a way to signal manners. In Sweden, a speaker might add tack (thank you) on to the request; while in Norway, politeness might be conveyed with an uplift to the end of the request and a smile.

Danish language teacher Daniela Hummelgren says directness is part of the communication style. "Efficiency is valued here and communication is generally direct," she says. Being extra polite might be seen as annoying if it slows a process down.

But are they being rude?

Puchowski sees these differences as a reflection of societal structure. In Nordic countries, he explains, egalitarianism is prized and distinctions between people are less strongly marked in everyday speech. For example, more formal forms of address like Herr and Frue (Sir and Madam) have largely fallen out of everyday use – a reflection of how they see themselves as more equal and less defined by class.

This egalitarian streak is often associated with Jante's Law, the Scandinavian idea that nobody should consider themselves more special or important than anyone else. In everyday interactions, Puchowski says, that can mean less emphasis on signalling status. Politeness may therefore rely less on a deferential word like "please", and more on phrasing, tone and context.

Similar social norms extend across the region, including Finland, despite Finnish belonging to a separate language family from Danish, Swedish, Icelandic and Norwegian.

"Language is more than words," Puchowski said. "It's also about how you present an idea."

Polite without saying please

Hummelgren says visitors should take their cues from the people around them. "You need to calibrate the level of politeness of where you are," she said. "Observe the situations around you, so you can get accustomed to the level of what is polite and what is not." Even without speaking the language, travellers can pay attention to tone, body language and how people address service staff and strangers.

In Sweden, one simple option is to add tack – "thank you" – to a request. Research into the Swedish tack links its use to equality and reciprocity, rather than deference. The same basic word is used across much of the region: tak in Danish and takk in Norwegian and Icelandic, while Finnish speakers use kiitos to say thanks.

But visitors needn't worry too much about getting it wrong. Nobody will tut or give you a dark look if you order a coffee without saying "tak".

More like this:

• How the Finnish survive without small talk

• 'You're not to think you're anything special': Why Swedes hate standing out

• Where Dutch directness comes from

In fact, Hummelgren says that being excessively polite can itself seem unusual – and even read as suspicious. "I've never heard of anyone sending a physical thank you card after a job interview or something similar," she said. "It would read as a bit over the top and perhaps like you are looking for favours."

For travellers, the lesson is that politeness does not always depend on the same words or rituals. You may not hear "please" – but that doesn't mean politeness is missing.

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Canada's bizarre mummified toe cocktail

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20261001-canadas-bizarre-mummified-toe-cocktail, 4 days ago

Born following a nasty case of frostbite, the Sourtoe Cocktail has become a rite of passage for locals and visitors – and it might just be the world's most unusual drink.

On my second night in Canada's northern Yukon Territory, a bartender at the Eldorado Hotel pulled out a pair of tongs, plucked a mummified toe from a silver tray, plunged it into a glass of alcohol and dropped it into my glass of Yukon Jack whisky with a plunk.

"Whose toe is that?" I asked. "And which toe is it?"

"Not really sure," he said, with a sly smile. "It's a gnarly one, though."

The dehydrated, salt-preserved digit was black and shrivelled. In its heyday, it may have been a well-kept pinky. Or perhaps one of the less celebrated middle toes, finally getting their spotlight.

Warning: This article contains images and descriptions that some may find upsetting.

I was in Dawson City, a 2,300-person former gold mining hub located 330 miles (531km) from the nearest actual city, about to try the famous Sourtoe Cocktail. This two-ingredient drink (a shot of whisky and… a toe) has been a tradition here for more than 50 years. It just might be the world's most unusual libation.

A laminated white flyer on the worn wooden table explained the "Sourtoe Rules", noting that my membership to the Sourtoe Cocktail Club would be voided if I chewed, sucked, bit or otherwise ingested the severed digit. It also exclaimed, in extra-large letters, that there was a $2,500 (£1,884) fine for swallowing it. I was happy to limit toe contact as much as humanly possible.

Most patrons feel the same way. However, there have been accidental swallowings in the past, plus a notorious incident in 2013 where a man downed the toe on purpose and was reportedly run out of town for unsportsmanlike conduct.

"Are you ready to join the club?" the bartender, who identified himself as the official "Toe Captain", asked me. It was too late to back out now. I nodded. He then recited the official "Sourtoe chant", adding to the romance of it all:

"You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but your lips must touch this gnarly toe!"

And with that, I dutifully took my shot of whisky through clenched teeth as someone's former toe kicked me in the mouth.

A cocktail born in a blizzard

Before Dawson City was famous for its toe-garnished cocktail, it was famous for its gold. When the mineral was discovered nearby in 1896, it became the epicentre of the international Klondike Gold Rush. Within two years, tens of thousands of people descended into the area in search of fortune. The town grew from a network of prospector tents to include saloons, hotels and restaurants – many of which still stand today.

But when gold was struck elsewhere a few years later, the prospectors moved on and the town's population plummeted, leaving the few remaining hardy residents to eke out a living in Dawson City's harsh landscape, 60 miles (96km) from the Alaska border.

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The Sourtoe's origins go back to US Prohibition (1920 – 1933), when two rumrunner brothers, Louie and Otto Linken, got stranded in a blizzard while smuggling booze across the border to Alaska via dogsled in the 1920s. Louie stepped into icy water and soon suffered frostbite. According to legend, they journeyed on, but when it became clear Louie needed an amputation, Otto took out an axe and hacked off his brother's toe in their remote cabin. The brothers kept the toe in a jar of alcohol for posterity.

In the early 1970s, Dawson resident Dick Stevenson (locally known as Captain Dick) found the jar while cleaning out the brothers' abandoned cabin, and for unknown reasons, decided it would make for a great cocktail garnish. Thus, the Sourtoe Cocktail was born in 1973.

As the story goes, Captain Dick thought it would be fun to let people become honorary "sourdoughs" (Gold Rush slang for locals) by drinking the Sourtoe. Initially, he dared some friends and saloon patrons to try it. Dawson City's isolated location and history of colourful, rough-and-tumble characters played into the legend of the Sourtoe nicely. Word soon spread, and before long, visitors started sidling up to the bar to taste the toe-flavoured tipple.

A Yukon rite of passage

Today, the Sourtoe has become something of a must-do for visitors who make the long journey to experience Dawson City's Gold Rush history and rugged frontier culture, and some 140,000 people have downed the daunting drink. All automatically become members of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club, and their names are proudly written in a hefty ledger book post-sip.

Terry Lee has served as the main Toe Captain – the bartender tasked with serving the mummified toe to patrons and presiding over the ceremony – for 13 years. During the busy summer season, he works five days a week, making 75 to 100 Sourtoes a night during his four-hour shift. The Sourtoe is served between May and September at the Sourdough Saloon (in the Downtown Hotel), then the rest of the year at the Eldorado Hotel's Sluice Box Lounge.

"It's considered somewhat of a rite of passage. A lot of the locals have done it," said Lee. Since Captain Dick (the original Toe Captain) passed away in 2019, several other people have been trained as Toe Captains, but Lee is the modern face of the toe.

Lee first tried a Sourtoe in 1980 with Captain Dick and immediately fell in love with the history. A few months into his Toe Captain tenure, a customer accidentally swallowed Louie's original frostbitten toe, so Lee was one of the last people to drink with the original appendage.

Over the years, the catalog of toes has grown from one to around 25, which are used in rotation today. The toes arrive in a variety of ways. Captain Stevens donated all 10 of his toes when he died in 2019. A British athlete who suffered frostbite in the Yukon Arctic Ultra marathon donated three of his digits in 2018. An untold number of people have willed their toes to the Downtown Hotel (including the tourist who swallowed one, in an effort to make amends). Sometimes, toes show up in the post unannounced.

Dawson City today

Like much of Dawson City, the Sourdough Saloon looks like it's straight out of the Gold Rush era, with its wooden tables, red wallpaper and swinging doors. The Sluice Box Lounge has a similar vibe, with velvet swivel barrel bar stools emblazoned with the hotel's name.

The town still has no traffic lights or crosswalks. Many of the buildings have been standing since the 1890s. Colourful false-front facades dot the streets advertising businesses like the Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall, The Dawson City General Store and Bonanza Market. In summer months, there's nearly 24 hours of light. In winter, the Yukon River freezes over and part of it becomes an official government-maintained ice bridge.

"Because the weather and the environment are so extreme here, it attracts people that are extreme in other ways. You get a lot a big characters," said Tara Kehoe, the exhibit curator at the Dawson City Museum. "Dawson is a weird intersection of people who love living in nature and are artistically inclined, so you get a lot of people with big, strange ideas because of that."

This toe-garnished cocktail is the kind of offbeat creativity Dawson City is now known for. The town has also hosted annual events like the Great Klondike International Outhouse Race, a town-wide Easter egg fight on the frozen river and a spring carnival called Thaw Di Gras.

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"The Sourtoe has become a weird sort of bragging right. Everyone here loves it, even if they haven't tried it. If you have friends coming to town, you have to take them to at least watch other people drinking it," said Kehoe.

She added: "The Sourtoe is so odd that it really sticks in your mind. Even when I've travelled overseas, when I tell people I'm from Dawson City there's always a person or two who says, 'Wait, isn't there a drink with a human toe?'".

In a weird way, the cocktail has become a community bonding experience – and the toe's grip on tourists is only getting stronger. In June this year, The Sourdough Saloon set a new record, serving 156 toes in a single night, the crowds joining in on the iconic chant.

You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow…

Having now done it, I'd suggest drinking it fast.

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Beyond the end of the road: A four-hour horse ride to stay with Mongolia's reindeer herders

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260924-a-four-hour-horseback-ride-to-stay-with-mongolias-reindeer-herders, 5 days ago

Deep in Mongolia's taiga, reaching the Tsaatan takes multiple days by road, 4x4 and horse – but the reward is two nights immersed in one of the country's most remote communities

I duck as a pine branch whips over my head. The stocky horse beneath me pushes through a shallow stream, scrambles up the rock and crests the embankment. Tightening my grip on the saddle, we follow Zaya Oldov, our guide, across northern Mongolia's taiga awash in golden hour light. The silence breaks as hundreds of reindeer begin melting out of the forest around us. Soon, we're immersed in a sea of antlers and soft footfalls as the herds come home. Beyond them, a dozen conical ortz, reminiscent of North American teepees, sit along the far tree line, grey smoke snaking from their roofs.

A wave of relief washes over me. After three days of travel, we've finally reached the Tsaatan camp.

Mongolia's reindeer herders

Around 80 Dukha families, commonly known as the Tsaatan, live in a restricted border region near Russia, in one of Mongolia's most isolated landscapes. Unlike the country's traditional steppe pastoralists who move ger-to-ger only a few times per year, the tiny reindeer-herding community traverses harsh, uninhabited landscapes six to 40 times a year in search of fresh mountain moss and suitable weather for their herds.

Oldov is Tsaatan by marriage and Mongolian American by birth. Before she arrived in the taiga more than two decades ago, tourism here was rare. But today, thanks to her work developing the TCVC (Tsaatan Community and Visitors Center), visitors can stay with local families while supporting their livelihoods. Travellers sleep in an ortz, share tea and meals with them and learn about daily life with the reindeer herds. The only way to book is via WhatsApp with Oldov.

The journey in

Three friends and I had organised two nights with the community while we were road tripping through Mongolia. That horseback ride was only the last stage of a much longer journey to reach the Tsaatan.

From Ulaanbataar, we hired a car and drove 630km (391 miles) north to Mürün, the regional gateway to the taiga, following a paved road through Mongolia's open grasslands. There, we collected the permits required to enter the restricted border region before continuing towards the "town" of Tsagaannuur.

The next leg took us two days off-road, across deep river crossings, swampy traverses, mountainous climbs and a nearly entirely map-less route. By the time we reached a wooden homestay near Tsagaannuur's deep-blue lake, we had been on the road for 22 hours.

Oldov arrived early the next morning to meet us, several small horses in tow. "They aren't the easiest horses to ride," she warned, "they tend to spook at anything white in the grass." As a relatively inexperienced rider, I braced myself for the four-hour trot. Raw, rugged and completely undeveloped, the landscape oscillated from wild coniferous forest to grassy hills cut by streams and waterlogged wetlands. Our horses picked their way across the changing terrain, saddlebags bulging with supplies, until we finally arrived at our destination.

Life at camp

Stepping inside our ortz, four narrow wooden bed frames lined the walls around a small charred black fireplace with a round chimney. There is no electricity, running water or decoration beyond what can be packed and moved with the camp.

"The wintertime temperatures plummet to -58C [-72F]," said Oldov. "During those months, we construct shorter, smaller ortz to better retain the heat."

Fortunately, it was August. The peak season to visit the Tsaatan, for obvious reasons.

The camp had moved here only weeks earlier, its 17 ortz and possessions transported on reindeer backs. This summer location meant our final leg by horse took around four hours; at other times of year, it can take eight to 12 hours.

The herd was never far away from camp. Reindeer are central to life in the Tsaatan community. Each family's herd provides milk for their dairy-rich diet of cheese, yoghurt, cream, butter and the salty tea that's ubiquitous as water out here. Reindeer are rarely slaughtered for meat, so that night's dinner was sheep.

Without refrigeration, the organ meat is always eaten first. That evening we ate boiled sheep liver, kidneys, intestines and stomach, alongside warm, freshly made fry bread. "Tomorrow, you'll get to meet the community," Oldov told us. "And the rest of the day is yours."

In the morning I was woken by the rhythmic hollow-clicking of reindeer ankles, a sound that helps keep the herd together when visibility is nil during passing Siberian blizzards. The camp was already awash with activity. Men chopped the firewood they had dragged by horse from forests miles away while the women filled silver buckets with milk from bridled reindeer carefully selected from the hundreds sleeping within the trees.

Although still traditional, life in the taiga is changing. Restrictions on hunting, alongside the effects of climate change, have increased the community's reliance on cash income. Oldov said that tourism now provides one source of that income, allowing local families to host visitors while remaining with their herds.

Meeting the community

Later that day, Oldov took us from ortz to ortz, introducing us to families and showing us how daily life in the camp works. We dropped off essential goods we had brought as part-payment for our stay: flour, salt, black tea and AA batteries. At each home, we were offered generous cups of reindeer milk tea.

In one ortz, an elderly woman pulled a bulky pink plastic clock from the pocket of her deel, a traditional robe, and fiddled with the batteries. It hadn't worked for weeks. We adjusted the contacts and the clock blinked back to life before we used our smartphones to reset the time. In a place where almost everything must be carried between seasonal camps, even a plastic clock earns its spot by running for months on two batteries.

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In another home, strips of meat hung drying in the warmth of the fire, alongside deerskin bags filled with juniper and other plants gathered from the surrounding forest. A local medicine woman explained, through Oldov, how different herbs are used in traditional remedies, from Siberian pine for colds to bergenia crassifolia (bear pine) for stomach problems. For spiritual or psychological ailments, she said, people turn to the shaman.

Our final visit was with the community's shaman, who plays a spiritual role within Tsaatan life. Inside her ortz, she showed us an elaborate ceremonial headdress passed down through generations, decorated with ribbons, dried eagle feet and strips of animal hide. Juniper smoke hung in the air as we offered our final donation: a bottle of Russian vodka, the spirit she said is used in rituals and duties for the community.

Leaving the taiga

On our last night, I stepped outside my ortz in the frigid chill, my camera pointed towards the Milky Way erupting across the sky, unbroken by artificial light. A reindeer wandered into the frame as I pressed my shutter.

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After two nights in camp, leaving felt abrupt, especially after the long days it took to get here. As we rode back towards Tsagaannuur, Oldov seemed to understand my reluctance to return to civilisation. More than two decades ago, she arrived here herself – and never left.

"It was this profound sense of peace that has kept me here," she said.

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Guernsey named one of UK's best islands for travel

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvlyd4ljklxdo, today

Guernsey has been named the second-best island in the UK in the 2026 Condé Nast Traveller Readers' Choice Awards, finishing ahead of Jersey and behind only the Isles of Scilly off Cornwall.

The island was ranked second in the magazine's list of the UK's top 10 islands, with Jersey placed fifth.

Visit Guernsey marketing manager Sam Claxton said the recognition reflected the mix of attractions visitors could enjoy on the island.

"Visitors really appreciate the unique combination that Guernsey offers," he said. "We've got beautiful beaches, we've got great cliff path. History as well. And then we've got this thriving food scene which has really started to grow."

He said visitors also regularly highlighted the island's welcoming atmosphere, adding: "I think it's the friendliness of our island that leaves the biggest impression."

The rankings were based on readers scoring destinations across several categories, including natural beauty, beaches, food, activities and value for money.

Claxton explained that Guernsey and Jersey had a "friendly rivalry", although the islands often worked together to promote the Channel Islands overseas, particularly in European markets.

He said awards such as these could help attract new visitors because they were based on independent recommendations from travellers.

"We do tend to see a bit of an uptick," he said.

"Recognition like this is incredibly valuable because, obviously, it helps put Guernsey in front of potential visitors who may not have considered us before."

Claxton said it was too early to know whether the latest ranking would boost visitor numbers, but suggested any increase was more likely to be seen next year.

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Tourist tax: Who would pay and where would it go?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cxj0lr71gl5go, today

Holidaymakers in the New Forest could one day be paying a tourist tax on their accommodation under new government plans.

The levy would be optional, with areas able to choose whether to have one, how much to charge and how the money is spent.

One of the area's biggest holiday park operators has said it is "strongly opposed" to the tax, warning that it could deter tourists from visiting the area.

But conservation groups say a levy could help protect the national park if the money is spent in the right way.

What is being proposed?

The government confirmed its plans in September, following a public consultation, and intends to bring in the legislation during this Parliament.

The levy would be charged as a percentage of the cost of an overnight stay, excluding meals and other extras.

It would apply to hotels, B&Bs, holiday parks, holiday lets and short-term lets such as Airbnb. Day visitors would not pay.

Accommodation businesses would be responsible for paying it, but could pass some or all of the cost on to guests.

Who would decide for the New Forest?

The decision would rest with the new Hampshire and the Solent authority, which does not yet have a mayor.

Its first mayoral election is due in 2028, although the authority has asked for it to be brought forward to 2027.

Under the government's rules, any levy would have to apply at a single rate across the whole authority area, meaning the New Forest could not be charged differently from Southampton or Portsmouth.

Authorities would not be allowed to vary the rate by season, and there would be no discount for local residents.

The money raised would not have to be spent on tourism, or in the area where it was raised.

What do businesses say?

Shorefield Holidays, which runs holiday parks in Hampshire and Dorset, said a levy would "add another cost to family holidays at a time when people are already facing significant increases in the cost of living".

"An additional charge could make some people think twice about visiting the New Forest or choose a different destination altogether," it said.

The company said that while the levy would be collected by businesses, the cost would ultimately have to be passed on to guests or absorbed, at a time when its own costs were rising.

New Forest West MP Sir Desmond Swayne has also opposed the plans, telling the Commons that if hoteliers in Bournemouth were "gagging to pay this tax", those in the New Forest were not.

What do conservationists say?

Sarah Nield, chair of the New Forest Association, said the group did not have a position on whether there should be a levy, but if one was introduced, some of the money should be "ploughed back" into the national park.

"Tourists come to this area because of the qualities of the national park," she said. "National park finances are not particularly healthy."

She said the Forest faced recreational pressure from millions of visitors a year, adding: "The place isn't free... it does require management, it does require rangers."

"If that money could go back to supporting the national park, I think that could in a way benefit everybody," she said.

Is there already a visitor contribution?

The New Forest Trust already runs a voluntary Visitor Gift Scheme, which Nield described as "an embryonic type of tourist tax".

About 45 local businesses invite guests to add a donation to their stay, which goes towards conservation projects in the Forest.

What does the government say?

The government said the levy would allow areas to invest in attractions and the visitor experience, bringing more overnight stays and benefiting the businesses that pay it.

Island tops 1m air passengers after summer boost

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwrky4jd343zo, 2 days ago

Passenger numbers rose across Jersey's transport hubs during the busy summer months, with more than one million people passing through the airport so far this year, according to official statistics.

Ports of Jersey said more than 472,000 passengers travelled through Jersey Airport between July and September, up 4.2% on the same period in 2025.

Nearly 200,000 passengers travelled through Jersey Harbour, while ferry operator DFDS carried 10% more passengers than it did during the third quarter of last year.

Paul Holley, head of connectivity at Ports of Jersey, said it was "encouraging to see sustained growth".

The figures continue a strong year for travel to and from the island, with Jersey Airport reaching the milestone of its one millionth passenger of 2026 at the end of August.

Holley said: "The third quarter is our busiest period of the year, and it's encouraging to see sustained growth through both our air and sea gateways with visitors making the most of the great Jersey summer.

"This was supported by higher frequencies on key services such as KLM's Amsterdam route, alongside Loganair's first full summer with routes to Bordeaux, East Midlands, Norwich and Paris added to its core network."

During the peak summer season, the airport offered direct flights to 41 destinations across the UK and Europe.

Airlines continued to invest in Jersey's route network, supporting a timetable of up to 185 departing flights a week.

The harbour also reported a positive summer, with DFDS seeing passenger numbers increase across its Jersey routes compared with the same period in 2025.

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Aircraft standby plan aims to improve reliability

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm4g1xz912e8o, 2 days ago

An airline is planning to keep one of its planes on standby next year to help when flights are disrupted.

Aurigny said its summer schedule for 2027 aimed to "keep Guernsey well connected" with flights to destinations including London Gatwick, Jersey, Dublin, Edinburgh and Paris.

Within its schedule, the States-owned airline said it was building in more spare capacity with one of its five aircraft being held in reserve to cover any service issues.

Philip Saunders, chief commercial officer of Aurigny, said the airline wanted to "work smarter" with its aircraft to give passengers a more reliable service.

Aurigny said 86% of its flights in 2026 arrived within 15 minutes of schedule.

Saunders added being able to offer a more reliable service could also help the airline have better control of its costs and keep them down.

"Lots of non-productive costs won't arise as a result," he added.

"So everybody wins, the consumer, the airline and most importantly, we'll all be on time to do whatever it is we want to do where we're going."

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We sold everything and bought a one-way ticket to take our three children travelling

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm75pldpzrv5o, 2 days ago

Dani and Tom Wooldridge worked hard to transform a 1970s house into a beloved family home after they bought it about seven years ago.

Dani, 39, a nurse, also ran an aesthetics business while Tom, 38, had a construction business. Three children, a close extended family and lots of friends. A happy life.

Yet in May this year, the five of them sold their possessions and home, and bought a one-way ticket heading for Indonesia, with the only things they owned in the world now stowed in backpacks in the luggage compartment.

With Olivia, 12, Morgan, seven, and four-year-old George, the Woolridges are planning to travel the world, with no endpoint in sight, hoping to see every continent.

Five months in, over a video call from the Indonesian island of Lombok, Dani and Tom explain the decisions which have brought them to the shores of south-east Asia.

Both of them had gone travelling for a period of time in their early 20s, a classic gap-year style experience, and had enjoyed taking holidays, particularly to sunny destinations.

Dani said: "It was always a conversation we had but once you start having kids and you've got the mortgage and everything like that it's kind of, 'oh it's not the right time'."

But nearly two years ago, the family took a holiday to Thailand over Christmas.

"We were fortunate enough to have a month over there, travelled round with the kids and obviously they were almost two years younger than they are now, and managed really well.

Tom added: "It all went really smoothly and it was great seeing the kids experience a completely different world to what we'd all grown up. It just felt so great exploring with them.

Dani said that sparked their interest to start researching and meeting other families who had decided to jet off.

"We made lots of lists - lots of positives, lots of negatives," she said.

"Can we do this? How are we still going to educate our children? We had a home, we had our businesses, we had careers. What do we do about all that?"

Once they made the decision, they knew they had to be "100% committed".

Dani thought at first they should rent their house out "so we've got something to come back to" but Tom wanted to sell, and the couple realised they didn't want to leave the responsibility of managing it to people back home.

The boys were excited about the idea from the start but the couple admit it was harder for their daughter.

Tom said: "Olivia was a bit nervous. She'd just started high school in the September and we left in May. She was very apprehensive about leaving all her friends.

"Morgan and George do mention their friends now and again, but they're a bit younger so they didn't have that emotional attachment as much as Olivia."

When they told their parents about their plans, their initial reaction was "why are you selling everything you've worked so hard to get?"

"Most people have got bets on when we're coming back," Dani said, laughing. Tom added: "They've all got a year each."

After selling their house at the start of the year, they lived in rented accommodation for a number of months, before heading to the airport in May for the big farewell.

Leaving was "very emotional", Dani said.

"We were very fortunate that we had a lot of family coming to the airport with us," added Tom. "We'd checked our luggage in and we got to the security gates - that was hard.

"We were so fortunate to have a close family and friendship group as well. They're the people we miss and that's what we miss from back home, the people that were in our lives. Not so much the material things we had."

However once the plane had taken off and the goodbyes were behind them, the excitement started to kick in.

"We remembered where we were going," joked Tom.

Even though they had both been to their first destination, Bali in Indonesia, before, the culture shock still hit them.

"It's just everything. Your senses are just heightened. It's the smells, seeing everything around, it's so different to home.

"We went to Bali 15 years ago when it was a lot quieter," added Dani. "People have said how busy it is now, and it was.

"The first day or two was very overwhelming. Our daughter was still a bit emotional. She was up and down with things and we were all a bit jet lagged.

"We went to Uluwatu first and it has got so busy. Even us walking down a road, I was nervous. Scooters everywhere."

But there were also upsides, Tom said. "The food instantly was amazing. And the people are just beautiful, and so kind. And just to feel the heat on our skin."

They moved to different parts of the island, swapping the beaches in the south to climb the volcanic Mount Batur in the north, and spending time in the cultural village of Ubud inland.

They then went island hopping eastwards across the Indonesian archipelago before doubling back to Lombok for a second stay.

"We were moving around quite a bit," Dani said. "So each time it was almost like that feeling of going home because we were packing up, but we weren't going home. I think it took us months to really think, 'wow, we're not actually going home'."

Leaving the UK behind has not meant abandoning education, Dani stressed.

"Even though we want our children to experience the world and have that kind of real world learning, we have said we also want them to have opportunities. So if they want to go to university and be a doctor or a nurse or whatever career path they want to go down, we still want them to have those opportunities," she added.

They have a "huge bag" full of textbooks and workbooks recommended by teachers before they left and they are following the UK teaching curriculum. Olivia has an online maths tutor, who was previously head of maths at her high school in Rhondda Cynon Taf, and had also taught Tom at the same school.

The boys have a tutor who covers the primary curriculum with them and does English and some science with Olivia.

Although the big downside to their journey is missing time with family back home, Dani and Tom say the cultural experiences and confidence the children have already gained from their travels, meeting such a wide variety of people and having the opportunity to live such an outdoor life, outweighs the negatives.

'We brought way too much stuff'

The family is due to be moving on to Malaysia after spending five months travelling around Indonesia, most recently in Lombok for a second stint, where the children have been attending a world schooling centre - which the couple described as a "lovely routine" with amazing friends.

After bringing "way too much stuff" with them initially, they have given away possessions to locals they have met along their travels and refined it down to two large 120-litre backpacks for the parents and two 100-litre rolling packs including one filled with educational materials.

"The kids will have virtually nothing on their backs, just maybe a really small backpack to get on the plane," said Tom.

"We thought the kids would be excited at carrying their backpacks. Yeah, they're not onboard with that," laughed Dani.

Among the things they have planned for Malaysia is visiting an orangutang sanctuary in Borneo and another longer stop at a world schooling centre to give the children more chances to spend time with peers.

Then they move into Thailand, where both Dani's mum and Tom's parents will make separate visits and after figuring out a good location to celebrate Dani's 40th birthday, will move through Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

With all that, they have the next year "roughly" planned out. They have allowed for contingencies and emergencies - Tom has already had to fly home once for a funeral - but don't have a firm destination in mind yet once they leave Asia, barring a likely brief visit home to catch up with family.

"We're going to do as much as we feel we want to in a continent and then go to the next one," explained Tom.

"Just keep going for as long as we can, and want to. If at some point we don't want to then we'll have explored a lot of places to pick somewhere to stop."

It is, in many respects, the bucket list to end all bucket lists. But if they had to put one destination at the top, what would it be?

For Dani, it's to go on an African safari. "I've always wanted to see Africa and I've never been. That's always been on my list."

Tom says: "Tahiti is coming to my head. That's with my surfing background. The place looks beautiful. And we will be going there. I'm 40 next December so..."

Connecticut's forgotten witch trial past

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20261008-connecticuts-forgotten-witch-trial-past, 3 days ago

Decades before Salem, Connecticut was the centre of America's witch trials. A new statewide haunted history trail connects the towns and sites tied to this overlooked chapter of history.

As I wander the tree-lined streets of Windsor, Connecticut's historical Town Green, I'm drawn to a circular patio of red Heritage Bricks – many of which feature inscribed personal tributes to local friends and family. I scan the inscriptions and spot a chilling outlier: "Alice 'Alse' Young: Witch Hanging Victim, May 26, 1647."

Young was the first documented person to be executed for witchcraft in the American colonies.

While Salem, Massachusetts is intrinsically linked with witch trials, the neighbouring state of Connecticut experienced its own wave of mass hysteria that predates the infamous Salem panic by more than four decades. Now, Young's memorial brick is a stop on Connecticut's new Haunted History Trail, a self-guided statewide route encompassing more than 130 locations – from ancient burial grounds to haunted homes to occult shops – associated with paranormal or tragic stories.

Warning: This article contains mentions of hangings that some may find upsetting

Connecticut's dark past

Boasting a nearly 400-year history, Connecticut is home to an unusual wealth of supernatural sites. But its true witchy past might be scarier than all its ghost stories combined.

Occurring between 1647 and 1697, Connecticut's witch trials grew out of the Puritan witch-hunting culture early colonists brought over from England. Salem's witch trials began in 1692 and lasted only 15 months, but during Connecticut's own 50-year witch panic, at least 49 individuals were accused of entering into pacts with the devil or used supernatural powers to cause harm to others. Of those, 34 were indicted and at least 11 were hanged.

The last suspected Connecticut witch – Mary Barnes – was executed in 1663 on Hartford's Gallows Hill, but trials continued to be held in the state until 1697. The final American colonial executions for witchcraft took place in Salem in 1692.

That Salem held the final witch trial executions helps explain its enduring notoriety – immortalised in films from The Crucible to Hocus Pocus. But why do so few know about Connecticut's dark witch trial past?

"We don't know what happened to all those records," says Beth Caruso, co-founder of local historical advocacy group, the Connecticut Witch Trial Exoneration Project. "It may be that when people started being ashamed of these trials, some of the powerful families destroyed [them]."

Even as a lifelong Connecticut resident, I knew nothing about its role in the colonial witch trials. So, I set out to drive through one of the darkest chapters of my state's past.

Witches in Windsor

Dating to 1633, Windsor's historical centre is filled with red 17th- and 18th-Century gabled houses. It's easy to imagine Puritans in bonnets scurrying through the streets. The city was both Connecticut's first English settlement and Young's hometown when her execution ignited the nation's witch trials.

As was often the case in witchcraft accusations, the suspected evidence was thin to the point of absurdity: Young and her daughter survived the 1647 influenza epidemic while four children living next door died. It was enough to see Young hanged in the Connecticut Colony's capital, Hartford. "Her case was pretty unjust, and she suffered," says Caruso. "On top of it, nobody even knows her story."

I also find a Heritage Brick honouring another Windsor resident, Lydia Gilbert. Gilbert was tried and executed in 1654 after one of her boarders was accidentally killed during a militia training exercise by a fellow soldier, who was acquitted. It's uncertain why blame shifted to Gilbert.

"[She] likely would not have been present on the green at the time of the shooting, as only men served in town militias," writes Caruso. "Supernatural speculations such as this would never hold up in any modern court." Nonetheless, Gilbert was condemned and, like Young, hanged in Hartford.

Hartford soon became the epicentre of Connecticut's witch trials. The Hartford Witch Panic (1662-1663), a flurry of trials that concluded in four hangings, began when eight-year-old Elizabeth Kelly, delirious from fever, cried out that her neighbour, Judith Ayres, was choking her. Another woman, Ann Cole, was believed to be possessed by the devil. Executions were carried out at the Meeting House Square, located on the site of the current Old State House.

Just a little further along the trail is Hartford's Ancient Burying Ground, where I see the graves of 14 of the men responsible. Established in 1640, the 1.3-acre plot is the city's only surviving 17th-Century landmark. As we strolled among the weather-worn headstones, Christine Jewell, Director of the Ancient Burying Ground's Association, told me about the magistrates and jurors buried here who cooperated in zealously sending people to their doom.

Their engraved names are tricky to read, but I can't miss the life-sized statue of Reverend Samuel Stone near the cemetery's entrance. Hartford's co-founder, this Puritan minister was part of a tribunal investigating Connecticut's witchcraft charges.

Jewell directed me to the monument of Samuel Wyllys. A prominent Connecticut magistrate, Wyllys was directly involved in investigating witchcraft accusations. His preserved collection of court witchcraft depositions were kept in his family for generations. "Part of what we know about the witchcraft trials is because of the Wyllys family," says Jewell.

We also visited the tomb of James Richards, a magistrate involved in the 1665 trial of Elizabeth Seager, on trial for the third time. Her conviction was ultimately overturned by the acting Connecticut Governor John Winthrop Jr.

A physician and alchemist, Winthrop often reviewed evidence in witch trial cases, intervening on Seager's behalf and saving Katherine Harrison from a death sentence in 1669. He then helped institute the "two-witness" rule and "rejection of spectral evidence" that effectively ended executions in the state.

"They would ask him, 'Was this caused by witchcraft?' And he always said it was medical," said Caruso. "He was a voice of moderation at a time when there weren't a lot of voices of moderation."

Good wives are hard to find

Before embarking on the trail, I knew nothing about Connecticut's role in the witch trials. But driving through the upscale coastal town of Fairfield – home to four spots on the Haunted History Trail – jogged a memory. While working at a Fairfield newspaper years ago, I'd heard the name Goody Knapp.

In Puritan society, "Goody" was an abbreviation of "good wife" – a title for married women of lower status. "We know certain women of the town came to Goody Knapp and [asked] her, 'You are a witch and who else is a witch?'," said Walt Matis, programme and volunteer coordinator of the Fairfield Museum and History Center, the town's first stop on the trail.

During Knapp's trial, it was intimated that she had "witches' marks" on her body. But she might not have been accused at all if not for another unfortunate Goody – Goody Bassett, a woman from the neighbouring town of Stratford.

It is unclear why Bassett herself was being tried, but during her trial (and likely under torture) she intimated that there was another witch in Fairfield that "held her head full high", says Matis. Bassett was hanged in 1651; Knapp was hanged in 1653 in a field located in what is now Bridgeport. Visitors can find her memorial along the trail at Bridgeport's Burroughs Community Centre.

In Fairfield, I also linger at Edward's Pond at the Fairfield Museum and History Center's Museum Commons, built on the town's 17th-Century Town Green. Now merely a divot, Edward's Pond was once used for ducking tests – where accused witches were bound and thrown into water. Floating meant guilt, sinking meant innocence. In 1692, accused and tried persons Elizabeth Clawson and Mercy Disbrow volunteered to be ducked. Both women floated but were eventually acquitted.

In need of a pick-me-up after all that gloom, I drive to Stratford, with its charming mix of historic Colonial and coastal bungalow architecture, and duck into Goody Bassett's Ice Cream Shop.

"If you're from Stratford, you already knew the name Goody Bassett, so it was a fun name for kids growing up, usually around Halloween," says owner Paul Joy.

Joy also honours Bassett on his menu – Goody's Cauldron, a nine-scoop sundae ice-cream eating challenge.

It is believed that Bassett was hanged in Stratford, though no official records exist. Local legends pinpoint the town's Meeting House, Gallow's Brook or the former Phelps Mansion as possible sites, says Joy. In the absence of concrete proof, a stone plaque on the trail dedicated to Bassett sits under a tree on Stratford's West Broad Green.

A living legacy

Connecticut's connection to witchcraft lives on: 35 stops on the Haunted History Trail are witch and occult shops. I visit The Blackbird House in Wethersfield, a colonial inland port where several alleged witches were accused and hanged. I snoop through tarot decks, crystals and minerals before buying a black witches' hat.

Justice may finally be near for Connecticut's accused witches. Caruso and Griego's 2017 petition to clear Young and Gilbert's names resulted in the passing of a unanimous resolution. "I think it was an important reckoning for [Windsor] to actually know what happened," said Caruso. Thanks to the project's efforts, First Church in Windsor, where the fervently anti-witchcraft pastor Reverend John Warham presided, also released an apology.

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• Sleepy Hollow: The town that renamed itself for Halloween

The Connecticut Witch Trial Exoneration project also helps locals with genealogical research. "I kept getting emails and notes from so many descendants, saying 'Thank you for humanising my ancestor'," says Caruso. "It just seemed like the right thing to recognise these victims since we know the stories are so absurd in many cases."

In 2023, Connecticut legislators passed a joint resolution exonerating all the state's victims. And now, the Connecticut Haunted History Trail is helping visitors – and locals like me – learn about the victims who were wrongly accused and forgotten, one stop at a time.

"More and more people are finding out," says Caruso. "It's not that people don't care. It's just that people don't know."

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The American coast that refused to let African culture die

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20261001-the-american-coast-that-refused-to-let-african-culture-die, 10 days ago

Along the US's South-eastern coast, Gullah Geechee communities preserve a distinct culture and language rooted in West Africa that is spoken nowhere else on Earth.

It's low tide at Fish Haul Beach, a marshy stretch on Hilton Head Island's northern fringe. Fish Haul was the first beach I ever visited as a child, and now I have brought my 18-month-old son. My wife and I watch him stumble and slosh through the shallow water of South Carolina's Port Royal Sound.

Just as I didn't realise it on my own first visit, my son has no idea that the sand and salt marshes under his feet are where the first self-governed town of free Black people in the United States was built. Known as Mitchelville, it was created by formerly enslaved people of West and Central African heritage who spoke a language found nowhere else in the world: Gullah.

These people, who came to be known as the Gullah Geechee, eventually established a series of free settlements and communities on the isolated sea and barrier islands across the south-eastern US, developing their own distinct culture while preserving many of their indigenous African traditions.

On 12 October 2026, this roughly 500-mile (804km) strip known as the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor will celebrate the 20th anniversary of when the United States Congress designated it a National Heritage Area. Along this scenic coastal stretch, spanning from North Carolina to southern Florida, Gullah Geechee culture lives on through its unique language, musical traditions and beliefs, offering travellers a window into the many ways African culture directly shaped the US.

A world all their own

Gullah Geechee culture has its roots in the late 17th and 18th Century, when African peoples were increasingly brought to English colonies in what is now the United States and enslaved on plantations. Planters in the Carolina Lowcountry along the Eastern seaboard sought out people from Central African countries and West Africa's Rice Coast, exploiting their agricultural knowledge to cultivate rice, indigo and Sea Island cotton in the coastal wetlands and islands. The working conditions were brutal, but that same geographical isolation helped the enslaved and their descendants retain – and adapt – African cultural practices.

Traditional West and Central African one-pot cooking techniques combined with local seafood, vegetables, grains and meats gave rise to Gullah Geechee cuisine. Lowcountry red rice, which combines rice, tomatoes, spices, smoked pork and sausage, is often compared to jollof rice, a one-pot rice stew cooked with tomatoes, spices and meat strongly associated with the Senegambia region of West Africa. West African coiled basketry traditions were likewise adapted to the Lowcountry, using readily available sweetgrass, bulrush, palmetto and pine. The "ring shout" – a Gullah Geechee ritual where participants form a circle, then move counterclockwise in a rhythmic pattern while stomping their feet, clapping their hands and singing in "call and response" – recalled West African musical and spiritual practices.

A need to communicate with slave owners and Africans who spoke other languages led to the development of Gullah. Colonial English is Gullah's main lexical source but African-derived words, like oona (you all) and nyam (eat) survive in Gullah speech: cooter (turtle) is believed to be related to the Bambara and Malinke kuta, while goober (peanut) is generally traced to nguba in Kimbundu and Kikongo.

The origin of the name Gullah Geechee itself is hazy. "Gullah may derive from Angola or from the Gola people of West Africa. Geechee may come from the Kissi people or Geechee from Georgia's Ogeechee River," said Luana Graves Sellars, cultural preservationist and founder of heritage organisation Lowcountry Gullah.

During the Civil War, many formerly enslaved people from the Sea Islands aided Union troops as scouts, labourers and soldiers. After Union forces captured Port Royal Sound and Hilton Head Island in 1861, hundreds of freedom seekers sought refuge behind Union lines. In 1862, General Ormsby Mitchel initiated the construction of a freedman's town on the north-eastern part of the island, on the former Fish Haul Plantation. Named in his honour, it developed into a self-governed town. After the Civil War, the withdrawal of Union forces and the loss of wartime employment contributed to the town's decline. By the early 1880s Mitchelville had largely been abandoned, and the Great Sea Island Hurricane of 1893 devastated what remained. Meanwhile, Gullah Geechee people across the Sea Islands built free lives.

Today, about one million people in the US claim Gullah Geechee heritage, including singer Darius Rucker and former First Lady Michelle Obama. I am not one of them – I am a Black father raising a Black son in the American South. My parents brought me to Fish Haul because they wanted me to see a place where African culture survived both the Middle Passage and the passage of time; where Black life preserves a more visible continuity with Africa than the one I inherited in Alabama. And now, on our three-day visit to the Gullah Geechee Corridor, that understanding would pass through from me to my son.

A living legacy

We timed our visit to Hilton Head for Juneteenth, when the island comes alive with days of celebrations. The day after visiting Fish Haul Beach, we headed to Bluffton – a historic river town dating to 1825. Leaving Hilton Head's luxury resort and golf club traffic for the Lowcountry mainland, we were unconsciously retracing the steps of Gullah Geechee families when they settled in this area after Mitchelville was abandoned.

As we drove through Old Town Bluffton, we saw moss-draped oaks, clapboard cottages and broad porches raised on brick piers above the May River. My wife, who often wraps her hair in scarves printed with traditional West African patterns, was pleased to see that we were surrounded by Black women wearing those same textiles. As we approached Martin Family Park, rhythmic beats halted us in our tracks. My son pointed towards the sound.

There was a small group gathered around five or six people who were clapping and stomping to a rhythm. One voice called. The others answered. A ring shout.

An unfamiliar melody in a familiar cadence struck something deep in me. Their songs sounded like an old Black hymn, like those I grew up hearing in church in Alabama. Now they felt like echoes across an ocean and time. First, my son stomped, clapped and mimicked the sounds. I'm typically reserved, but soon my wife and I were swaying, too.

"[A ring shout] has that effect," Sellars later told me. "There are celebratory ring shouts. Religious ring shouts – ring shouts only for grown folks. But they all capture your attention and almost beg you to participate."

Open invitations to participate are just one of the ways visitors can experience Gullah Geechee culture in Bluffton. I saw locals hauling sweetgrass baskets on their shoulders, and caught Gullah words passing between neighbours – brief snatches of oona and gwine (going to). For Sellars, language is only one form of expression. "Understanding the Gullah Geechee language is about understanding that everything we do speaks," she said.

Even the food – today, it remains a comfort that spans generations. Dishes like shrimp and grits, purloo (one-pot rice and seafood stew) and gumbo (thick stew with okra, shrimp and sausage) are ever-present at Gullah Geechee homes, and Gullah Geechee restaurants dot the cities of the Corridor.

Back, in Hilton Head, I ventured to Ruby Lee's, a cosy spot with exposed-brick walls lined with Gullah Geechee art, and ordered Hoppin' John: a dish made of rice and black-eyed peas. The first taste reminded me of the jollof I'd tried at a Nigerian friend’s house. Hoppin' John was less spicy, but smoky and well-seasoned, like the rice and peas my mother makes. The distance between Africa and home closed in a bite.

"For us, food represents a way of living," said Alex Brown, a fifth-generation Gullah resident and Hilton Head councilman. "Our historic culture of bartering is what produces these dishes. [Someone] may have some okra. Someone, rice. Someone else, shrimp. But together, suddenly we have okra gumbo."

Stories worth telling

Later that day, we drove to Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park. Herons flew above a weathered praise-house replica, while we passed ghostly abandoned homes before paying respects at placards honouring Harriet Tubman's role in emancipating more than 700 Gullah Geechee slaves.

For Brown, Gullah Geechee culture is essential to America's founding. "Our people are an important part of America's story," he said. "The story of American democracy cannot be told in full without mentioning Gullah sites like Mitchelville. Folks know Williamsburg. Folks know Jamestown. They have got to get to know Mitchelville."

More like this:

• The chef preserving Gullah culture through storytelling

• The southern US county honouring its dark past

• The lost Black community swallowed up by the Pentagon

Though the Corridor designation has helped preserve and connect Gullah Geechee sites, displacement, ancestral land loss and climate change continue to shadow Gullah Geechee communities today. "Cemeteries where our founders rest are being disturbed, land straits once connecting islands are impassable," Sellars said. The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission warns that heirs' property owners also face pressure from developers.

"Our ancestors here not only founded a freetown but built a fort, Fort Howell, to defend that freedom," Brown said. "Black soldiers helped construct it in 1864. It was built with our hands and stationed by our bodies. This land is important to us."

While the Corridor's land may be under threat, its percussive, enlivening language still moves up and down the coast, connecting Black people to African diasporic traditions and American democracy. My son will not remember standing at Fish Haul Beach. But one day, I hope he understands why I brought him.

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Hurricane Isaias downgraded after making landfall in Florida

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3vgx4450v2lo, 2 days ago

Hurricane Isaias has been downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone the day after it made landfall along the northern Gulf Coast of Florida, bringing with it heavy rains and powerful winds.

Isaias - which is the first of the 2026 Atlantic season - is still surging across south-eastern parts of the US.

Hundreds of thousands of households in Florida, Alabama and Georgia are without power and each state declared a state of emergency. There are currently no warnings in places after they ended on Saturday.

Isaias is one of three storm systems affecting North America this weekend, with the two others hitting Mexico and Southern California in the El Niño-fuelled warm waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Both Florida and Alabama instituted mandatory evacuations to thousands of people due to the storm.

In Florida, those evacuations included coastal communities in the path of the powerful storm.

Governor of Alabama Kay Ivey issued a mandatory evacuation for all non-residents, tourists and visitors in key counties likely to be heavily affected by the storm.

On Saturday, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the US president had approved emergency declarations for the two states to "ensure federal resources are available" for support.

Isaias is the first in the Atlantic hurricane season, which largely has been delayed due to El Niño conditions in the Pacific.

It marks the first time in more than 30 years that a hurricane did not form before October.

Ahead of the storm, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned that it was likely to bring "life-threatening storm surge" to the US Gulf Coast.

All warnings pertaining to Isaias had been discontinued as of Saturday morning, the NHC said.

The post-tropical cyclone is currently moving north and is expected to cross Alabama and into the Tennessee Valley later on Saturday and Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

Hurricane-force winds on Friday evening extended outward up to 35 miles (55km) from Isaias' centre, and tropical storm-force winds extended as far as 205 miles.

However, hundreds of thousands are currently without power in the country's south-east - and Alabama, Florida and Georgia have issued states of emergency as they brace for heavy rains and flooding.

On Saturday morning, more than 400,000 were in the dark in Florida and just over 300,000 customers in Alabama were experiencing outages, according to tracker PowerOutage. In Georgia, more than 100,000 customers were without power.

Ahead of the hurricane, Pensacola resident John Guoth told the BBC that he and his wife would remain at home despite the rest of his street having already left.

"It's a hurricane, we get them all the time... we kind of knew that when we moved here," he said, explaining that they have "battened down" anything that "can fly".

Guoth said he put his ducks and chickens in the bathroom and weighed down his boats and trailers so "nothing flips over".

A few households had remained, he said, describing them as "long-term locals" who were "going to protect our homes".

People in the Florida city who had "seen bad storms before" were still "bunkering up", Brandin Ruth said. She told the BBC: "You don't want to underestimate a storm like this."

One indicator of a storm's severity to southern communities was Friday's closure of stalwart restaurant chain, the Waffle House.

A Waffle House spokesperson confirmed to the BBC that the chain had already closed a number of locations in the hurricane's path and "will continue monitoring conditions".

US President Donald Trump also cancelled plans to attend a major American football college game in Tuscaloosa, Alabama because of the hurricane, shifting plans to attend a rally in Tennessee instead.

Two other storms are also forecast to batter North America this weekend.

Hurricane Simon is bearing down on the Pacific coast of Mexico as a category one hurricane. It is set to pick up speed and become category four by Saturday, eventually making landfall near Puerto Vallarta on Sunday, according to Reuters.

Further north, Tropical Storm Rachel, a downgraded hurricane, is heading toward making landfall around the US-Mexico border, along the Pacific.

While Rachel is expected to reach the coast late on Saturday, the impact of the storm is already being felt due to high tides in southern California.

Video footage and photos show several streets under water in Newport Beach, California, through a combination of the tropical storm swells at sea and high tide.

The city of Newport Beach advised people to "avoid the Balboa Peninsula due to street flooding caused by recent storm conditions and elevated tides".

It also urged people not to drive through flooded streets. Bulldozers have been shoring up the beach in a bid to prevent further flooding.

Additional reporting by Simon King and Matt Taylor, BBC Weather

UK bluefin tuna comeback shows nature can recover, says WWF

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5rmyzgdjzkwo, 4 days ago

Bluefin tuna have returned in huge numbers off the British coast after almost disappearing from UK waters.

The return of the giant predatory fish is one of several wildlife recoveries highlighted in a major new report from WWF, which it says shows conservation can work.

However, the Living Planet Report 2026 also found that monitored wildlife populations around the world have fallen by an average of 73% since 1970.

The wildlife conservation charity said nature remains in "freefall" but it called the report one of hope.

"It's not too late," Mike Barrett, chief scientific adviser at WWF-UK, told the BBC.

The UK was once home to large tuna fisheries, but overfishing of both the tuna and the smaller fish it preys on meant that by the 1960s it had largely disappeared.

The report credits its recent recovery to a concerted international effort that included reducing catch quotas, size limits and protection of spawning grounds, which was backed by campaigns from consumers, chefs and retailers.

Hannah Rudd, head of marine at the Angling Trust, said the result of this effort was close to an "explosion" in the population of the species.

"I think bluefin tuna is a golden case study that fisheries management works," she said.

The WWF report highlighted other species recoveries around the world, including an increase of more than 70% in the number of wild tigers - from around 3,200 in 2010 to about 5,700 in 2025.

Last year, the green sea turtle became the first marine turtle to have its protection status downgraded from "endangered" to "least concern", after 50 years of conservation work in about 80 countries.

Elephant numbers are stable or growing in parts of southern Africa, thanks in part to new laws that give local people a share of the income elephants bring, including tourism.

Barrett said these successes resulted from a clear goal with a credible plan and people who believed they could make a difference. The report calls it "the science of hope".

"Hope is not the same thing as wishful thinking," he said. "Hope is not passive. Hope's about action."

But despite the individual successes, the overall picture for nature remains stark.

Working with the Zoological Society of London, WWF tracks nearly 36,000 populations of almost 6,000 species of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians.

It estimates global monitored wildlife populations have fallen by an average of 73% since 1970.

The figure measures the average change in the size of those populations, not the number of animals lost. About half of the populations are stable or growing, but their gains are outweighed by losses elsewhere.

Dr Katie Collins, a senior curator at the Natural History Museum in London, also said the index misses out vast numbers of important species because it covers only vertebrates, missing plants, insects and other creatures they depend on.

"If you lose garden snails, you lose the song thrush," she warned.

WWF says conservation alone cannot reverse the decline but there must be efforts to tackle the causes.

The biggest pressures come from farming, which can destroy the habitats wildlife depends on, and burning fossil fuels for energy, which drives climate change.

The organisation says the money is flowing the wrong way. In 2023, about $7.3 trillion (£5.53tn) went into activities that harm nature, compared with $220bn spent protecting or restoring it, the report estimates – a ratio of roughly 33 to one.

Barrett has worked on seven Living Planet reports, but he said this was the first where the takeaway message was to focus on hope.

"The fact that the science is still telling us that we've got a way out is actually extraordinary," he said.

"So it's a closing window of opportunity, but it's still open, just, if we act now."

Additional reporting Kevin Church and Miho Tanaka

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Yoga bears to resting owl face: 10 of the funniest animal photos of 2026

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20261002-10-of-the-funniest-animal-photos-of-2026, 8 days ago

From a fitness-obsessed bear to a rather rude orangutan, here are 10 of the most amusing photos of the animal kingdom this year.

A scowling owl, bears sharing a laugh and a leisurely praying mantis are among the finalists of the 2026 Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards.

In the photo above, a female brown bear was captured appearing to do her morning exercises around Lake Clark in Alaska, US. Her workout routine included some bicycle kicks as she appeared to get herself ready for the summer season.

Scroll down to see nine more entertaining photos of nature's top comedians.

Caught red-handed

This red squirrel was caught red-handed in Germany while biting off more than it could chew. The squirrel managed to chomp through the huge mouthful, while striking a dramatic pose.

Elegant landing

Photographer Tapani Linnanmäki caught this white-tailed eagle touching down on watery sea ice on Finland's western coast. After photographing these birds at this location for years, Linnanmäki suspects, but can't be sure, that it's the same eye-catching individual that won the 2024 competition's people's choice award.

Leisurely mantis

Sunbathing or posing? In reality, a visual trick is at play in this photo: the praying mantis' hind legs are hidden behind the leaf. The image was captured in the proposed Bosques del Araza Regional Conservation Area in Cusco, Peru, which aims to safeguard the headwaters of several important rivers in an area increasingly threatened by illegal gold mining.

Resting owl face

This mountain scops owl touched down for a moment in front of a group of birders in Nanling National Forest Park in China. In the flurry of pictures the birders took, the owl appeared deeply unimpressed.

It's behind you!

Photographer Kyo Chen was watching a group of spadefish in the waters of Dumaguete in the Philippines when the huge silhouette of a whale shark appeared. Instinctively pressing the shutter, he captured the spadefish's apparent look of terror.

This feels wrong

When Kevin Lohman raised his camera to take a picture of this young great horned owl in Natural Bridges State Beach, California, he found himself snapping a squirrel in mid-flight, launching itself towards the owlet. Both animals were knocked to the grass below. The squirrel then repeated the stunt – twice more. Owl and squirrel both appeared unharmed, Lohman says.

Family photo session

Whether or not these three meerkats in Namibia were actually lining up for a family portrait, the smallest seems accustomed to submitting to grooming inspections.

Salty orangutan

This wild orangutan in Borneo was just finishing a meal when it was caught in the act of raising its middle finger. A critically endangered species, the orangutan's forest home is rapidly being destroyed.

Bear banter

Charles Janson took this photo of two teenage brown bears playfully sparring in Chinitna Bay, Alaska, a behaviour that prepares them for real fights as adult males. "There is debate about whether the facial expressions of these bears are at all equivalent to human smiles – but I like to think that they are," says Janson.

You can see more finalists from the competition here.

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Appeal for major energy storage system rejected

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwvgdej69m2ro, today

Proposals to install a major battery energy storage system have been rejected after an appeal by the developer was dismissed.

Sky UK Development's plans for the battery system site (BESS) on land near Raymond's Hill in Axminster were refused by East Devon District Council's planning committee last year.

The applicant appealed the decision with the Planning Inspectorate, proposing changes to mitigate concerns around groundwater contamination and the risk of battery units catching fire.

In her decision, inspector RC Kirby said such mitigation "would not be effective" in ensuring an acceptable balance between harm and benefit", stating the proposal was "not suitable for its location".

A key risk highlighted during the planning debate for the proposed BESS revolved around what could happen if one of the battery units caught fire, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Opponents claimed the amounts of water needed to contain such blazes and prevent their spread could mean any water running off into a nearby local waterway.

The appellant said it believed it would be about eight years before water used to fight a notional fire at the BESS would reach the drinking water source, but the inspector said there had been "insufficient evidence" to substantiate this.

The appeal decision notice stated the appellant had put forward revised plans that East Devon had not had put before it.

These included an increase in the size of the water tanks, relocation of some of the tanks, the separation distance between pairs of containers being 6m (20ft) apart, and other alterations.

Campaigners from Devon branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and the Hawkchurch and Monkton Wyld Action Group said they were "massively relieved" plans for the site had been blocked.

Devon CPRE energy spokesperson Dr Phil Bratby added: "For years, Devon CPRE has been highlighting the risks from the hazardous materials that could be released and contaminate the groundwater."

Kirby said that, while the benefits of the scheme would "outweigh the moderate harm that would be caused to the Dorset National Landscape", they were "insufficient" to outweigh the "very substantial, overriding, unacceptable risks in respect of pollution of the water environment".

Proponents of BESS systems highlighted their benefits in helping the nation reach net zero aspirations, notably because they could store energy.

The UK government noted BESS systems used batteries, for example lithium-ion batteries, to store electricity at times when supply was higher than demand.

"They can then later release electricity when it is needed. BESSs are therefore important for "the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy", it stated.

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'Prepare for the unthinkable' warning over autumn flooding

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm4g1pqyqzqwo, today

People are being told to prepare for "the unthinkable" as flood response teams warn of a heightened risk over the autumn.

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) said it was concerned by long-range forecasts which indicated an increased likelihood of wetter, windier weather than usual over the coming months.

Those living in flood-hit areas told BBC Wales they were worried, and had started preparing.

One in seven properties in Wales is classed as being at risk of flooding, but NRW said just 27% of those eligible to receive flood warnings to their phone or email were currently signed up.

After a summer marked by drought and wildfires, the organisation has urged people "not to become complacent" and said conditions could change quickly.

Wales has seen a series of major floods in recent years, often in the wake of powerful storms such as Dennis in 2020, Bert and Darragh in 2024 and Claudia in 2025.

The threat comes from both rivers and the sea, while surface water flooding - where local drainage systems become overwhelmed during heavy downpours - is seen as an increasing danger.

NRW argues that the country's geography makes it particularly vulnerable - with a vast coastline and several so-called "fast-responding" rivers which can fill at speed as rain runs off steep terrain in places like the south Wales valleys.

More than 274,500 homes and businesses are currently classed at risk of flooding, with this figure set to increase significantly by the end of the century.

'People could have died'

On the high street in Monmouth, people told BBC Wales of "harrowing" and "dreadful" scenes when major flooding hit in November 2025.

Friends Malcolm Butcher, 82, Jim Tyler, 81, Brian Churches, 82 and Dave Blake, 82, said they had lived in the town all their lives "and never seen anything like it".

"At 2:30 in the morning when it hit it was unbelievable... absolutely raging," Malcolm said.

If it had happened in the daytime "people would have died", he added.

Eighteen cars on his road were lost to the flood waters - including his own, while the houses in the street behind were all flooded out.

"It is a worry, we have three rivers running into Monmouth... and the winters are changing," he said.

People could help prepare for floods by moving "the good stuff upstairs" and making sure they had sandbags to hand ahead of bad weather, he said.

"It's not back to normal yet but we're getting there," added Imogen Elliot, 82.

"Waitrose was four feet in water and it went right up the street - we've had flooding before but not like that."

Jane Roche, who runs a café and fishmongers on the banks of the River Teifi in Cardigan, Ceredigion, has helped coordinate a community flood plan for the area.

"Flooding is something we've learned to live alongside for many years - we've seen first-hand the disruption it can cause for businesses, residents and visitors," she said.

"Developing a community flood plan has brought local people together, helped us understand what actions we need to taken when warnings are issued and given us confidence to support one another when severe weather is forecast."

More frequent and intense weather extremes are expected as a result of climate change, with Wales facing the prospect of wetter, wilder winters more often.

Meanwhile, this year scientists are monitoring the El Niño event over the Pacific Ocean - which set to be "strongest in living memory".

The powerful natural climate phenomenon pushes up global temperatures and can increase the risks of extreme weather.

While this does not automatically translate into bad weather in the UK it is "part of the picture" that is leading to concerns for the coming months, according to Jeremy Parr of NRW.

"We do invest in flood defences... but you can't stop all of the flooding all of the time," he said.

"So that means that people need to think the unthinkable really - or the unpleasant - and [consider] if it were to flood around where I live, what would I do?"

"Time and time again" the organisation was told by people who had experienced devastating flooding that "they'd never flooded before, and didn't think it would happen to them", he added.

NRW advises people to check their flood risk by postcode online, sign up for flood warnings and access advice about what to do if flooding is forecast in their area.

The organisation's flood warning service is available to 181,158 properties in Wales, but new figures show just 48,844 were currently signed up to receive the alerts via phone or email.

"It is low - 27%," Parr admitted, suggesting that people may be being put off by myths that signing up could affect their insurance premiums.

Cardigan's mayor Olwen Davies has bought a flood door for her own house, and also uses a flood gate for extra protection.

She said: "The river comes up once or twice a year... if there's a high tide, with a strong south-westerly wind that's what creates the most havoc.

"We work together and we know who to call on," she said.

Sarah Davies from the Met Office said long-range forecasts for October, November and December suggested "a greater chance of weather-related disruption".

"Weather patterns can change quickly at this time of year, and long-range forecasts describe broad seasonal trends rather than the timing, location and severity of individual weather events," she added.

"Whatever the season, understanding your flood risk and knowing what action to take if warnings are issued are sensible steps that can help you prepare should severe weather occur."

Additional reporting by Sara Dafydd

Locals 'shocked, angry and scared' by solar farm plan

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjn5v7z5w76go, today

People living near the proposed site of a huge new solar farm have told the BBC they are "shocked, angry and very scared" by the plans.

Developer Low Carbon said the 2,400 acre West Oxfordshire Energy Plant (WOEP) would produce 500MW - enough electricity to power 145,000 homes.

Three of the UK's biggest solar farms are now being planned for Oxfordshire, with the government considering the proposal for the 840MW Botley West project, and another 500MW solar farm proposed for Wantage area.

Low Carbon said it was "here to listen" to local concerns, and that there would be a public consultation in the new year.

But Michael Ergatoudis, whose home in Grafton backs onto the proposed site, said residents were "very shocked" to "suddenly find that we'll be living in an ocean of solar panels".

Meanwhile, Kate Eavis said she was feeling "pretty anxious" that the scheme would be built next to her home in Little Faringdon.

"The countryside around here is very much a part of my daily life and I feel that that is going to be taken away and replaced by effectively a sort of industrial landscape," she said.

By 2030 the government wants at least 95% of Britain's electricity to come from "clean" sources, including renewables – such as solar and wind – and nuclear energy.

Last year, solar energy provided more than 6% of Britain's electricity – rising to more than 40% for a small number of half-hour periods in July.

Because the development would generate more than 100MW of power, it will bypass the usual planning route - with a decision instead resting with the energy secretary and Planning Inspectorate.

Jim Johnston, from Langford, said he was not "anti-solar" but was concerned by the scale of the plans.

"What's proposed will completely transform an agricultural and rural environment to an industrial one," he said.

Fellow Langford resident Tom Marshall agreed that he had "no objection to a small solar farm or a field with solar panels in it".

"But when it completely surrounds your village and other villages in the area, then that's a different thing altogether."

'Landscape-led design'

The number of landowners contributing to WOEP is currently unknown, but some UK farmers see solar as a profitable alternative to agriculture or raising livestock.

Ed Perrin, Low Carbon's development director, said the firm had "already undertaken a number of surveys" over the past year and was "already getting a good understanding of the nature that exists within the site at present".

"Our design process is about ensuring that nature and landscape impacts are considered right from the outset, it's very much a nature and landscape-led design," he said.

"Our objective at Low Carbon is to make sure that our projects have a better environment than we started with."

Low Carbon said it was looking to submit a planning application for the site by the end of 2027, and hoped to start construction "in the early part of the next decade".

But Langford resident George Leavey said the firm would encounter "a lot of determined people here who are going to really work together as a community and really fight this thing".

He added: "I think everyone here is up for the fight."

Sustainable fashion project secures £850k funding

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cry83nd2gnjqo, 3 days ago

A four-year project aimed at inspiring climate action through sustainable fashion has secured funding of almost £850k.

It will fund high street hubs across the country offering repair workshops, clothing swaps and skill-sharing opportunities as well as research into behaviours around sustainable fashion.

Bath Spa University and Bristol-based community interest company A Single Thread have launched the initiative Restitch the Future after getting funding from the National Lottery's Community Action Fund.

Amelia Twine, founder of A Single Thread CIC, said, "too often sustainable fashion is perceived as expensive, exclusive or unrealistic" but the initiative is about "changing that narrative".

Bath Spa University says fashion is responsible for up to 10% of global carbon emissions, often due to sustainable alternatives being thought of as inaccessible, unaffordable or out of reach for many communities.

Twine, from Bristol, said: "Fashion is one of the most urgent but often overlooked climate challenges we face.

"By creating practical opportunities for people to repair, reuse and rethink clothing, we're making sustainable fashion more accessible and empowering people to take meaningful climate action," she added.

The four-year Restitch the Future project aims to build practical skills in community hubs on the high street.

There have already been temporary hubs set up across the country including in Bristol, Bath, Wellington, Stroud and Cheltenham.

But Twine hopes to roll out a number of permanent hubs over the next four years.

The initiative focuses on the consumer and tries to encourage them to "shop differently and to reduce how much fast fashion they buy", which Twine believes is the "quickest way to shift the whole system".

However, as an organisation, A Single Thread is also looking to "lobby the government to bring in different regulations to restrict brands and how they operate," added Twine.

Bath Spa University will be leading the research programme exploring the barriers that prevent people from engaging with sustainable fashion, including affordability and representation.

Last year, it launched its own sustainable fashion initiative, Future Fashion Works, with the aim of connecting students with local creatives and independent designers.

Tamara Parsons-Baker, head of Future Fashion Works, said they wanted to "better understand what enables lasting behaviour change around fashion consumption."

She added that the project will generate "vital evidence while creating meaningful social and environmental impact across the UK".

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'Foreign imports are hurting our strawberries'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c54g13kdr1w7o, 4 days ago

The owner of a strawberry farm in Worcestershire says the changing climate is extending their growing season, leaving many strawberries unpicked and unsold.

Bal Padda runs the 150-acre Vicarage Nurseries, in Bretforton, and says his business is slowing their operation down due to a drop in demand.

"We're putting it on hold today. We picked yesterday but have no order today. The demand drops down", he said.

"Supermarkets have started importing now, they assume the UK season is over and done with".

But with longer, hotter summers the strawberry season is starting to last longer.

Last year, picking at the nursery ended on 24 November.

This year, Padda said the farm had at least eight weeks of harvesting left, potentially taking production into December.

Padda is now calling on the supermarkets to buy excess produce, help supply other sectors and reduce waste.

"If we work together with retailers, they could pay the farmer, the grower a fair price for the surplus that we've got, and then use that to supply their jam makers or their smoothie companies," he explained.

"That surplus could be used for a secondary thing".

But as things stand this year, many of the ripe strawberries sitting under the 100 polytunnels on the farm may remain unpicked.

The BBC have contacted the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) for comment.

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How can Guernsey prepare for a hotter future?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6wyr94pdlyno, 4 days ago

Guernsey recently had its hottest summer on record, with temperatures peaking at 36.4°C (97.52F) on 25 June.

In August, the Jersey Met Office said this was in line with evidence that climate change was driving hotter summers and increasing the likelihood of drier conditions.

Professionals and businesses have highlighted the actions they believe are needed from Guernsey in response to climate change.

According to the People and Nature Survey, run by the island's Nature Commission in 2025, of the more than 900 respondents 44% said climate change was a significant concern - making it the second largest concern recorded in the survey, after development and land use.

Ilan Kelman, professor of disasters and health at University College London, said: "Small islands need to be particularly concerned about changes to the ocean as well as changes to the air in terms of heat and humidity.

"At the moment, rising sea levels are not particularly that much and are not very rapid - the concern is right now it is definitely accelerating and we expect to see far more over the coming decades."

In 2020, the States of Guernsey set a target of a 57% reduction on 1990 emission levels by 2030 and net zero by 2050.

Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez, President of Policy and Resources, said the States of Guernsey was on track to meet its 2030 goal.

She said: "We have reduced our carbon emissions by more than half since 1990 -which is a sort of internationally recognised baseline level for measuring your emissions reductions against.

"When we look at that pathway to 2050, that is a really challenging thing to do - we can't quite see a pathway all the way there yet, but we think it will come because of how rapidly technology is evolving and innovating."

De Sausmarez credited the interim goal's progress on the island's energy policy, electricity strategy and waste strategy.

"When we approved the electricity strategy, for example, moving to our lower carbon pathway was £200m less expensive than continuing with status quo."

She added it was not just the responsibility of larger nations to respond to climate change.

De Sausmarez said: "The whole world is made up of groups of 64,000 odd people.

"We are autonomous, we can move fast, we can make things happen and we can lead the way."

Jock Pettitt, co-founder of The Farm Shop and The Soil Farm, speaks regularly to farmers locally and overseas who are affected by climate change.

"We're having conversations with our farmer peers in the UK and Europe and we're all facing the same challenges," he said.

"There are knock-on impacts and so for food security I think we're going to see difficulties getting the volume of food we've been used to."

Pettitt said investing in local sustainable farming could improve the island's resilience to climate change.

He said: "When we farm right, we get the environmental benefits from that, we look after the insects and the pollinators and the plants, the water system and the beaches and coastal environments we enjoy.

"The biggest way to motivate a farmer to do this, to do more tomorrow, is to buy the product so I think farmers need their product on the shelf and customers buying it and supporting that."

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Why are there so many mushrooms around this year?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c699zx0d8zkzo, 4 days ago

Have you spotted more mushrooms than usual on woodland walks or in your garden this autumn?

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has predicted mushroom sightings across the UK could reach record levels this autumn, saying drought followed by wetter weather could help some species flourish.

Lancashire forager Colin Unsworth said some species had appeared in "bumper" numbers, although others had been harder to find.

But Unsworth, who leads foraging trips across Lancashire, warned people not to eat wild mushrooms unless they were certain they had identified them correctly, as some poisonous species can closely resemble edible varieties.

Unsworth, who runs Forest Horizons in Adlington, said fly agaric, the distinctive red mushroom with white spots, and blushers had been found in good numbers.

Porcini mushrooms, also known as penny buns or ceps, had been "a bit thin on the ground", he said. He added there was an EU-wide shortage of the edible fungi, which are prized by chefs for their "lovely, robust flavour".

However, he warned that some poisonous species, including the brown roll-rim, can be mistaken for edible mushrooms.

"You get look-alike mushrooms," he said. "They can be really dangerous."

The RHS said prolonged hot weather and drought, followed by a wet autumn, could help some fungi flourish.

Its advice team recorded a 43% rise in inquiries about garden fungi following the 2025 drought, compared with the previous year.

Some species benefit from extra dead plant material left by drought, while others respond to stress in trees by producing more mushrooms.

Jassy Drakulic, RHS senior plant pathologist, said gardeners could notice a "remarkable variety of mushrooms and toadstools" appearing in lawns, borders and around trees this autumn.

She said fungi were mostly a sign of a healthy ecosystem, helping to break down organic matter and support plant health.

'They're so beautiful'

For Unsworth, autumn is the highlight of the foraging calendar.

He said understanding mushrooms helped "join the dots" between different parts of the landscape and explain why species were found in particular habitats.

A typical forage at this time of year could produce 20 or 30 edible types of mushroom, he said.

"In the autumn time, mushrooms take centre stage and they're so beautiful and they're so varied," he said.

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World's largest penguin colony hit by 'alarming' decline in numbers

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr9dzy24g2l7o, 5 days ago

Almost two-thirds of the population of chinstrap penguins have disappeared from a remote volcanic island near Antarctica, aerial surveys suggest.

Zavodovski Island was home to the largest penguin colony in the world, but researchers who carried out the surveys say it has now lost that accolade.

According to the study, there were 63% fewer occupied nests of chinstrap penguins in 2025 than at the same time in 2011.

The research team say climate change is affecting the birds' food supply and survival, and the penguins may now be officially endangered.

Another species of penguin, the macaroni, also nests on the island and is thriving, which scientists believe is linked to their more varied diet.

Zavodovski is part of the South Sandwich Islands, a remote archipelago north of the Antarctic continent which is a UK overseas territory.

In 2011, it was hailed by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) as home to the largest penguin colony in the world - with an estimated 600,000 chinstrap penguins and 90,000 macaroni penguins nesting on its bleak, rocky terrain.

BAS, which led this new research, says it is "one of the most extreme places in the world to undertake fieldwork".

A BAS team sailed for 15 days to reach the island and study its avian inhabitants, using drones, aerial photography and fitting tracking devices to 20 birds.

This research and satellite imagery suggested that - between 2011 and 2025 - the number of occupied chinstrap penguin nests declined by 63%.

Where did all the penguins go?

The researchers say the "alarming" fall in the chinstrap population is all about the food supply and rising ocean temperatures brought about by climate change.

Prof Norman Ratcliffe, who led the research, explained that the chinstraps' "specialist diet" and preference for cooler waters appears to have left them vulnerable.

"With waters warming, the krill [that the chinstrap penguins eat] have moved southwards.

"Sea-ice cover to the south and a lack of suitable islands for nesting prevents chinstraps from following the food," he said.

Hungry whales and active volcanoes

The team examined other possible threats to the penguins' precarious existence on their remote island. Birds here nest in the shadow of an active volcano - Mount Curry, also aptly known as Mount Asphyxsia.

Sites downwind of the volcano have been given names including Stench Point, Noxious Bluff and Asphyxia Plain, because of the smell of fumes emitted from the crater.

Dr Ratcliffe told BBC News: "When you add all the penguin guano on top of that, and you really do have one of the smelliest places in the world.

"It's like a penguin Mordor."

Mount Curry's last major eruption was back in 2016, but the penguin declines that this study analysed have been steady and ongoing since 2011, suggesting that something else was happening.

Another concern was competition for the krill that chinstrap penguins rely on - possibly from migrating humpback whales. But, while the humpbacks eat huge quantities of krill, they also help boost krill production by fertilising marine plants that the krill feed on (with their huge quantities of whale poo).

Researchers say a more fundamental, climate-driven shift in ocean food supplies is to blame.

There is an unexpected element of this story that also adds to the picture of how - and why - this region is changing: While the chinstrap population has been declining, the number of macaroni penguins on the island has increased dramatically.

Macaroni penguins, scientists say, are more adaptable, because they have a broader, more flexible diet.

Tracking data from the study showed that the macaronis foraged in warmer waters to the northeast of the island, where scientists say they were were likely to be supplementing their diets with fish and other crustaceans.

Dr Ratcliffe said this shift was "biggest change in community composition ever observed at a single location in Antarctica".

"Our data shows that the cold-adapted Antarctic chinstrap species are no longer thriving beside their sub-Antarctic neighbours," he added.

"It is further evidence of how rapid warming in the Antarctic is impacting unique and sensitive ecosystems."

As for the title of world's largest penguin colony, scientists say that is now held by a site more than 5,000km away - on the other side of the Antarctic continent - Cape Adare in the Ross Sea.

The research is published in the journal Current Biology.

Inside an active Antarctic volcano, gentoo penguins are flourishing with climate change

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20261006-gentoo-penguins-are-flourishing-inside-an-active-antarctic-volcano, 5 days ago

Deception Island is a "spectacular amphitheatre of penguinness". Amid rusting industrial remains on a flooded active volcano, these photos reveal a rare winner of climate change.

Lopsided whale oil tanks sank into the dark sand. Ancient wooden boats slowly decayed in the brutal Antarctic weather.

Deception Island's whaling and sealing industries had long since been abandoned when Romain Barats arrived. The island he saw was one where the tables had turned: animals now ruled.

Barats, a wildlife photographer, captured the island's post-industrial atmosphere in a haunting series of photographs, one of which (above) was a finalist for the Ocean Photographer of the Year 2026.

"The three gentoo penguins almost look like sentinels standing beside the ruins," says Barats. In a purely visual sense, "it's like Chernobyl", he says. "They're places where human activity suddenly receded and nature began moving through the structures we left behind."

Barats' photo reveals a deeper story of how penguins are responding to a world shaped by human influence. The gentoo penguins who star in the image are one of the rare winners of climate change. Gentoo numbers are on the rise in Antarctica. In some areas, they are ballooning – up by almost a quarter along the West Antarctic Peninsula since 2013. It's a sign they may be exceptional among penguins in their ability to adapt as their world heats up.

The penguins in Barats' picture are in the midst of moulting – an uncomfortable time for a gentoo, says Heather Lynch, professor in ecology and evolution at Stony Brook University, New York.

"They can't get in the water when they're moulting," says Lynch. "It's itchy and uncomfortable and they get cold very easily."

These three penguins have hauled themselves out of the sea to warm themselves with Deception Island's volcanic heat. The island is, in fact, an active volcano, and the water inside this doughnut-shaped sliver of land is a flooded caldera. Rusting oil tanks – remains of the whaling industry that dominated the island in the early 20th Century – give the penguins further shelter from the wind.

"They're trying to stay as warm and comfortable, for as long as it takes to grow in their new feathers," says Lynch.

It's this adaptability that's helping gentoos thrive.

Winners and losers

"Gentoo penguins are what we call a climate change winner," says Lynch. "Their abundance has just skyrocketed in this part of the Antarctic because they like it warmer, they can handle it wetter. They just keep moving south."

The global population of gentoos increased by around 11% between 2013 and 2020, with more marked increases along the Western Antarctic Peninsula at 23%.

Meanwhile, the gentoo penguin's two closest relatives – the chinstrap and the Adélie penguin – are climate change losers. Chinstraps have already decreased dramatically across the Antarctic Peninsula. Adélies have also fallen 65% in 25 years on the Antarctic Peninsula, and the majority of their populations are predicted to be in decline by the end of the century.

Besides their ingenuity in finding comfortable spots to moult, what sets gentoos apart?

A suite of traits help gentoos deal with climate change. They're not fussy eaters – unlike their two closest relatives, they'll switch their diet from krill to fish and back again depending on what's around.

And if their eggs are destroyed by a sudden flood or a freak snowstorm – something growing more common with climate change, Lynch notes – they can simply lay more eggs. It's an unusual trait – neither chinstraps nor Adélies can lay multiple clutches per season if the first is lost. Gentoos can also radically alter their breeding season to adapt to changes in the climate.

The result of these discrepancies is increasingly evident. "Everywhere we turn in the Antarctic on the peninsula here, we're finding more gentoo penguins," says Lynch. "It's this gentoo penguin takeover."

No penguins currently breed on Deception Island. Eruptions of the volcano over the past 7,000 years have repeatedly decimated penguin populations in the region. Nevertheless, Lynch is keeping an eye out for nesting gentoos.

"If someone were to say, 'Who would be the first to try breeding on the inside of Deception Island?' It would be gentoos," says Lynch. "It would be just so like them to show up and build a couple of nests inside the caldera."

More like this:

• The animals undergoing extreme evolution

• Scientists in Antarctica began to develop their own accent

• Why East Antarctica is a 'sleeping giant' of sea level rise

Despite its eruptions and industrial past, the island remains a unique wildlife hotspot. "The outside of Deception Island is one of the most stunning amphitheatres of penguinness that we have in the Antarctic," says Lynch.

For Barats, it's a place where natural and human forces collide. "You can feel something very powerful," he says. "It's like being confronted with something much larger than ourselves. Geological time, nature, maybe the impermanence of our civilisation."

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Rainmakers: The drones used to seed clouds

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c64g71j4lgyjo, 5 days ago

On 23 August, Cooper Freeman had no idea clouds above his head were being filled with a silver compound in order to cause rainfall.

Neither did thousands of other residents in Homer, Alaska, who later discovered a start-up called Rainmaker conducted an experiment in that region using cloud-seeding technology.

The company, based in El Segundo California, claims it produced 19 million US gallons of water in the sky in three hours.

This approach to weather modification, now more than 80-years-old, involves using planes and drones to disperse compounds such as silver iodide into clouds to form ice crystals. Those crystals eventually become large enough to fall as rain or snow, depending on the temperatures below.

Essentially, cloud seeding speeds up the natural process of water vapor condensing inside of clouds. Gravity then pulls those crystals to the ground. The technology, though, needs ideal climate environments, such as mountainous or cold regions such as Alaska.

Freeman, the Alaska director of the Center for Biological Diversity, isn't just concerned Homer residents weren't widely alerted to these experiments. He's sceptical about what was shot into the clouds, and questions how safe it was for both residents and their habitat.

"It doesn't appear that there was any downstream monitoring to verify that this silver iodide didn't impact the environment," he says.

Freeman adds, "Having a company come in to do this seeding isn't going to solve our water woes, and it feels like a distraction from solving the urgent issues related to water conservation."

Concerns are mounting about the challenges surrounding water security. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in July "our world is using freshwater faster than it can be replenished", which echoes reports noting how the past five years have led to the driest period for global rivers in more than three decades.

Cloud-seeding technology may be a drop in the bucket, as it doesn't create rainstorms. For example, Rainmaker's 19 million gallons equates to around 0.01 inch of rain across 100 square miles.

Nevertheless, more than 50 countries are developing programmes to modify the weather and a surge of start-ups are developing systems to create rain.

As well developed and promising as this innovative field has become, these businesses continue to face thorny questions on safety and efficacy, leading to novel approaches with both finding the right material to spray into clouds and how they do it.

Augustus Doricko, the founder and CEO of Rainmaker, is quick to answer any questions on the consequences of how his company uses the silver iodide compound. It's clear he's been asked about chemical safety many times.

He says Rainmaker releases this form of silver at 20 grams per flight, distributed across thousands of square kilometres. "The resultant increase in concentration on the ground is in the parts per quadrillion, way below the threshold laid out by the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] on what is allowable."

Rainmaker's flights use drones to soar into clouds because without clouds, "we can't do anything," he says, pointing to one of the key limits of cloud-seeding processes. Cloud-seeding sessions have to wait for clouds to form to try to coax them into precipitation.

Their drones are outfitted with silver iodide flares, and when lit the burning atomizes the water particles into a small enough size so they can stay suspended in the freezing cloud for hours, eventually turning into crystals and later rain.

Rainmaker operates in states such as Idaho, Utah, Colorado and areas of the Middle East such as Jordan. Doricko says, "Jordan residents often only have water for hours per week from their utility because of how scarce water is, and it's a privilege to try to help this storied region."

Cloud seeding's roots began in 1946 when researchers from the General Electric Research Laboratory used dry ice as the first seeding agent. A year later, silver iodide was found to be more effective than dry ice, which quickly turns into useless gas.

While seeding agents caused more rainfall, they didn't move the needle much. In fact, sobering statistics point to how patchy this technology can be in what it pours on the ground.

"With the right conditions, cloud seeding squeeze out about an extra five to 10% of precipitation," says Jon Meyer, an assistant state climatologist with the Utah Climate Center.

What was encouraging, though, for the cloud-seeding sector was a landmark 2017 study that found how silver iodide worked as expected, one of the first reports to observe cloud seeding in action using radar and precipitation gauges.

In the past several years, Meyer has been encouraged to see more companies such as Rainmaker bring innovation to an old industry. "Drones [such as Rainmaker's products] present this new avenue," says Meyer, "and they offer a more targeted nature to these clouds we hope will be responsive."

What is sprayed into clouds may also be undergoing a major shift. Recast Systems in San Francisco is experimenting with a type of protein made from amino acids found in the soil, says CEO Olivia Li.

While still undergoing tests at Texas A&M University, this new seeding agent moves Recast away from silver iodide as the go-to compound.

"It's safe, biodegradable and nucleates ice at a higher efficiency than silver iodide," says Li, whose company currently uses silver iodide to seed clouds in several US states.

Meyer is optimistic this technology's trajectory will only continue to rise. "We're going to see more demand for these services as so many regions are experiencing water demand," he says, "and they're going to be looking for ways to help bridge that gap."

Half the harvest, twice the bills: how drought hit farms

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5rm9mdm79neo, 5 days ago

The hottest summer on record, the longest drought, the worst harvest. West Country farmers are counting the cost of a "terrible summer", as one put it.

The wheat harvest on Charles Day's family farm in Gloucestershire was cut in half. "It's just soul-destroying," he says.

Dairy farmers had to rip open silage clamps stored up for the winter to feed the cattle as the grass failed. Sarah Godwin calculates it cost her family's Wiltshire farm "over £100,000". She says "it's shocking".

I spent the summer watching farmers install showers for cows, watch their cauliflowers burn to a crisp in the heat, and search for apples in cider orchards reduced to a tenth of their normal crop.

So now the harvest is home, just how bad was it?

Worst wheat harvest ever

Buy a loaf of bread and there's a good chance it started in the fields of Charles Day's family farm in north Gloucestershire.

"I love harvest," the fourth generation farmer tells me. "It's a whole year's work coming to fruition."

But 2026 was brutal. The crops were looking "fantastic" in April, he told me. Then in June, the rain stopped and "the sun just stole our yield".

Throughout the crucial weeks of June and July, there was no rain at all. Wheat grains shrivelled instead of fattening, and the yield plummeted.

Official figures estimate the total UK cereal harvest was the lowest on record, wheat down about three million tonnes, or 11% according to the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board (AHDB).

Anthony Hopkins, AHDB director of cereals and oilseeds, says: "At a time of high input costs, arable farmers in the worst-affected areas are really feeling the financial pressure right now."

But in the South West, it was much hotter and the impact far worse.

When the combines went out on Charles Day's family farm, they gathered a harvest "about 50% down, sometimes more".

"It's just soul-destroying," he adds.

Across the South West, Tom Collins, who speaks for the NFU in Wiltshire, says most cereal farmers had seen harvests down "at least 30%". Spring barley and beans were more than 50% down, he adds, particularly badly hit by the drought.

"Most farmers will give this harvest 3 out of 10", he adds. "They're pretty depressed."

Dairy costs rocket up

Put some butter on your bread, or cheese, and that is probably from the West Country's other farmers - dairy producers.

But unlike the wheat harvest, the amount of milk produced this summer barely fell. Total production is down just 4.5%, according to the ADHB.

"That's because we have to feed our cows, and milk them, whatever the weather," explains Sarah Godwin.

Her family raise dairy cows west of Chippenham, selling their milk to a major supermarket.

The Cotswolds was badly hit by the drought, leaving grazing pastures brown and without any nutrition for the cows. So like many farmers, the Godwins had to open their sileage planned for the winter and buy in feed to boost their cows diets.

"Altogether it cost us around £100,000," Godwin explains. "We also had a drop in production yields, that's around £20,000.

"On top of that, cows suffered more lameness, lower fertility, more mastitis. They really did not enjoy the heat."

The family spent £15,000 installing new sprinkler systems and huge fans to cool the cattle in their sheds when they sheltered from the heat outside. All vital for animal welfare, but more costs to the business.

Even the normally lush fields of Somerset withered in the heat. Tom Kimber's family have farmed near Charlton Musgrove in south Somerset, in the heart of England's most productive grazing land. They run 250 dairy cows on their own grass, cutting sileage for the winter months.

By September, they would normally have three large clamps of sileage ready for winter. This year, they have only cut two, and had to raid one throughout July and August, to make up for the lack of grass.

But sadly, Tom Kimber is getting used to what was once freak weather.

"This is the fourth drought in eight years now, so you barely financially get over the last one and you're hit with another one. It's becoming far more frequent, these events.

"It's incredibly difficult this constant lurching between one extreme to the other, that's what keeps you awake at night."

How are farmers adapting?

Climate scientists are clear that weather like this is the new normal.

"What we used to think of as extreme weather, we increasingly consider as normal," says Mike Kendon, a climate scientist at the Met Office.

So what can farmers do about it?

In Gloucestershire, Charles Day's family have a rare asset: a lake. Fed by a local river, it fills through the winter and then can be used in the summer. They grow salad onions, broccoli and other vegetables on fields nearby, all irrigated by the lake water.

The family wants to expand the lake, hold more water, do their bit to turn winter floods into summer irrigation.

"But it's so complicated," Day explains. "The red tape, the planning, the licences, the digging - it will be very expensive. And we just get no help from government."

New Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced in the summer a package of support measures including grant funding to construct reservoirs and irrigation infrastructure.

"I hope it helps," Day adds.

Others are trying to farm in a more nature friendly way. Planting mixed grasses which cope better with drought. More trees to provide shade, older varieties of cereals that withstand heat better.

All these cost money, and there are government schemes to support them. But when the latest round of financing opened, it was overwhelmed.

A year's worth of government grants, more than £250m, was handed out in under six hours in an online scramble "reminiscent of Glastonbury ticket sales", as Wiltshire farmer Tom Collins put it.

"It just shows how desperate farmers are," he adds.

"It's so hard to make a living from food people fall over themselves to get these environmental grants, and then they're swallowed up in no time. It's so unfair."

A spokesperson for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says: "In anticipation of high demand, ministers decided to allocate an additional £20m to the fund, on top the £50m announced by the prime minister in August, so that we could fund as many agreements as possible."

Farming Minister Stephen Morgan adds that the Sustainable Farming Incentive had been designed to be simpler to apply for and that farmers had "responded in force".

Tom Kimber was one of those who missed out. He went online to apply for an extension of an environmental scheme his farm was already running.

"We plant a mix of different grasses that cope better in the drought," he explains. "But they cost more, so we need the grant."

A glitch in the Defra computer system left him locked out of the website for hours. When he got back in, the money had all gone.

Farming, he says, is not easy at the moment.

"When you're being squeezed from both ends, the milk price is 10p litre below the cost of production, and costs are going up all the time.

"You're just forever hoping for a better day, but hope doesn't keep you in business."

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Puffin island on cusp of closure as it runs out of water

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6jdv4vp3rl3o, 5 days ago

Famed for its puffins, the picture-perfect island of Lundy attracts birdwatchers from all over. But the island is on the cusp of being evacuated as water levels drop to the lowest ever, forcing residents to take drastic measures to ensure supplies do not run out.

Located in the Bristol Channel off the north Devon coast, the 5km (3.1 mile) long island is not the first place you expect to be running out of water.

It is rich with wildlife including puffins and seals and its rugged landscape makes for breathtaking views.

But speak to the handful of residents here and they will tell you of the battle waged since summer to ensure the taps do not run dry.

Entirely self-sufficient, the National Trust-owned island relies on a combination of rainwater and boreholes drilled into the granite for supplies.

Severe water shortages in Lundy are not new, with islanders and visitors previously resorting to bottled water.

But the hottest and driest summer on record has been a "steep learning curve" for islanders, said Lundy managing director Derek Green.

He said there had been no significant rainfall since April and it had barely seen 20% of the typical 1.5m (4.92ft) rain it expected by this time of year.

Reservoir levels dropped to 13% at their lowest, forcing emergency shipments of water from the mainland to the 28 people who live on the island.

Water restrictions are also in place for residents and visitors. Among the more extreme measures is the removal of plugs so tourists are not tempted to take a bath.

The island, which is managed by the Landmark Trust, is now pumping water from ponds used by wildlife to a treatment works as a "last resort".

"Bringing in pond water is something we've never had to do before," Green explained. "It's really our last chance saloon here.

"If we didn't do this, we would be facing the reality of closing Lundy... it would be devastating for us."

Green stressed pond levels had started to drop and a seasonal passenger ferry that has been shipping water to the island is due to end later this month.

"Hopefully the reserve in the pond will last until it rains but because it hasn't rained in so long, this is desperate measures," he said.

"We've got a working farm here and the animals need water every day... so to evacuate those animals, those people and to cancel all those holidays is something that has never happened in the history of Lundy before.

"It would be hugely significant... we're on the cusp of having to make that decision."

The use of pond water led to some recovery in reservoir levels, now at 23.7% full, but Green said islanders were simply "praying for rain".

BBC meteorologist David Braine said there was some rain in the forecast for Lundy, but it would take weeks to top up the groundwater and reservoirs the island relied on.

The very dry spring and summer followed record rainfall in the later part of the winter and it was only in March when most of reservoirs in the south-west of England were full.

Shipments of water on passenger ferry the MS Oldenberg from north Devon began in August.

The first delivery to the island of about 67,000 litres had been the biggest and cost about £7,000, said Green.

Since then, they have shipped 4,000 litres of water three times a week, with islanders using between 9,000 litres to 11,000 litres of water a day.

Getting the water from the port to residents has not been an easy process as the island only has a granite track and a handful of vehicles including three 4x4s, tractors, quadbikes and a fire engine.

Adding to the logistical pressure, a landslip in June closed off part of the track to the tiny village at the top of the island about 400ft above sea level.

Green said: "We have to offload the tanks off the ship and we have to bring them up to a staging post halfway up the hill.

"We then have to pump water with a fire hose past the vulnerable part of the road to another tank where it's then staged pumped to the reservoir at the top."

Island manager Matt Scantlebury said the shortages had been a "logistical nightmare".

He said the island's pub, The Tavern, had closed toilets and removed bath plugs to help conserve supplies.

"We can't have baths... all the plugs have been removed to resist temptation," said Scantlebury.

"People are showering with buckets to catch the water and then using that to flush the toilets and that's saving water.

"We've had to close the pub toilets so the visitors have all been funnelled to the back shed toilets because they aren't on our mains water supply... we now have to fill them from our pond water."

Green, who started working on Lundy in 2004, said water shortages had become more frequent and they also considered shutting the island in September 2025 when reservoir levels hit 33%.

He said the changing climate was more "pronounced on Lundy" and islanders needed to adapt.

"Forecasters are predicting it will be even warmer next year," he said.

"We've got to learn from this and be better prepared next year in terms of increasing the reservoir here.

"People need to learn to use a little less water over the winter... it's a sharp learning curve for us and the wider region."

Scantlebury said he was concerned for the future and it would hard to keep levels at a "reasonable level" without meaningful rain over autumn and winter.

"It's a trend we have to watch out for," he said.

Assistant warden Tara McEvoy-Wilding said 2026 had been eye-opening and the "brown, sad and crispy" vegetation was a visual reminder of how dry it had been.

"This year feels like the real first year people have been noticing climate change," she said.

"For Lundy, it's going to be a challenge going forward. We're going to have to be extra mindful and plan further in advance to maintain our water security."

As Green looks out over the "beautiful, remote and tranquil" landscape, he is fearing for the future.

When it next rains, it needs to pour, he said.

"I never ever thought we would have to take water from our ponds but this is the position we find ourselves in," he said.

"We're in real jeopardy right now unless it rains very, very soon."

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Concern as historic pond remains a puddle despite rain

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj3vqkq90qqzo, 6 days ago

There is "sadness" and "concern" as a much-loved 300-year-old pond remains dry months after this summer's extreme heat.

The Crammer in Devizes has no natural or artificial water source, making it reliant on rain and road runoff.

Residents describe it as the "focal point" of the Wilshire town and say they are "sad" and "concerned" the water has not returned despite rain throughout September.

Councillor Iain Wallis said filling the pond with artificial water would be expensive and unlikely when there are hosepipe bans.

Resident Lou Weaver said the much-loved pond is looking "very dire" and locals are waiting for more rain to refill it.

"It's always lovely to have the nice reflection of all the houses on the other side," she added.

Graeme Riley, who walks past it every day, said: "It's just sad really, it's the focal point of Devizes."

Wallis said dredging had been discussed, but is "really complicated".

"We can't really make it deeper because of the make-up at the bottom of the Crammer, you would just end up with more water running away.

"Unfortunately, because it's fed by road runoff, the mud that's in there, the silt is classed as hazardous waste. So the cost of dredging it would be probably in the low hundreds of thousands of pounds, and it's not a one-off cost," he said.

Dredging would be "appropriate" every couple of decades but cannot be something they do regularly, he added.

Resident Marion Kearley said she was concerned about wildlife. She spotted a flight of geese preparing to land in the pond before noticing they needed another spot.

"Very, very sad. I hope it will come back. I think it will but it'll take some time because it's obviously got to soak into what's there now, all the mud, before it starts filling. So I think we'll want a lot of rain," she added.

The latest data shows this summer was the hottest on record. Figures for the months of June, July and August show that the average mean temperature - which includes day and overnight temperatures - was 16.5C, the warmest on record in a dataset going back to 1884.

Drought was declared in all of Wales and more than two-thirds of England and wildfires caused devastation in parts of the country.

In a rapid attribution study - which looks at how much of a role climate change plays - the Met Office say the average temperature was made around 130 times more likely due to human-induced climate change.

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Carbon tracking tower put on Scotland's largest saltmarsh

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cky8302y7zejo, 6 days ago

New technology has been installed to track how much carbon is being taken out of the atmosphere by Scotland's largest saltmarsh.

The flux tower has been put in place at Caerlaverock on the Solway Firth.

About 85% of UK saltmarshes have been lost since the mid-19th Century as land has been reclaimed from the sea for agriculture, development or coastal flood defences, degraded through pollution or eroded by rising sea levels.

Corallie Hunt, coastal habitats adviser for NatureScot, said the installation of the first saltmarsh flux tower in Scotland marked an "important milestone".

The project is a partnership between UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH), the Scottish government, NatureScot, and WWF-UK.

"By measuring carbon exchange in real time, it will strengthen our understanding of the carbon storage potential of saltmarshes and the value of protecting and restoring these habitats," said Hunt.

UKCEH wetland scientist Annette Burden said the Solway flux tower was the most northerly addition to a network around the UK coast.

"The data collected will aid in understanding the role saltmarsh plays in climate mitigation, provide evidence for saltmarsh inclusion in the UK Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory, which in turn will strengthen calls to safeguard and restore this valuable habitat," she said.

In addition to supporting biodiversity and providing natural flood protection, the plants covering the marshes draw down carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and can also trap carbon-rich sediments in their roots and stems on the incoming tide.

Tom Brook, ocean conservation specialist at WWF said: "The Solway is an extraordinary place for nature.

"From thousands of migratory birds that depend on these wetlands to the rare natterjack toad, the saltmarsh supports an incredible variety of wildlife.

"It's also working hard for people too – helping to absorb wave energy and reduce the impacts of flooding and storm surges.

"The data gathered by the tower will help us better understand and champion the value of these remarkable coastal habitats."

Purchase of field aims to expand 'green lung'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cv0lr3584ej9o, 8 days ago

Conservationists have said they are planning to buy a field to extend a "green lung" in one of Jersey's most built-up parishes.

The National Trust for Jersey said it had secured the rights to acquire the land near Maupertuis Farm in St Clement and hoped to complete the purchase shortly.

A green lung is an area of fields, parkland or vegetation within an otherwise urban area, providing space for wildlife and helping to reduce pollution.

The trust previously raised £50,000 in 37 days to buy a nearby field on Samares Lane in 2021.

The trust said the latest acquisition would help preserve the agricultural heritage of Maupertuis Farm and the surrounding area.

Chief executive Alan Le Maistre said green spaces were becoming "ever more precious" and protecting them was particularly important in densely developed parts of the island.

"It is a privilege to have the opportunity to extend this green lung for both the wildlife and people of the area," he said.

The National Trust for Jersey, which celebrated its 90th anniversary in August, manages about 1,800 vergées of land across the island.

It invited people who want to support the latest acquisition to contact the charity directly.

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Rainbow sea slug find a reminder of climate change

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq4g5ng8l31ro, 8 days ago

The discovery of a rainbow sea slug at a beach in Cornwall is an "important reminder" of climate change's impact, conservationists have said.

The Rock Pool Project, a community marine conservation organisation, said the slug, also known as babakina anadoni, was found during an event it held at Porthpean Beach in August.

It said it was the first time a rainbow sea slug, which have previously been found in other parts of Cornwall and the South West, had been spotted at Porthpean.

Dr Ben Holt, chief executive officer at The Rock Pool Project, said while the discovery was exciting, it also showed how much the UK's shores were changing as climate change warms waters.

The Rock Pool Project said rainbow sea slugs were usually found in warm Atlantic waters off the coast of Spain, Portugal and France, but they have been appearing on UK shores in increasing numbers in recent years.

"Whilst this is an exciting find, it's also an important reminder of how much our shores are changing," said Holt.

"We must continue to track these changes to understand the effects of climate change on UK marine life."

Luke Galpin, who found the rainbow sea slug during the Rock Pool Project event, said it was a surprise to uncover it.

"I hadn't seen many sea slugs at all over the summer, so I wasn't expecting to find one," he said.

"But its unmistakable colour popped out at me the moment I flipped the rock over.

"It was tiny, about the size of my thumbnail, and in my excitement, I shouted for everyone else to come and have a look."

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Canada's Atlantic waters are attracting more great white sharks

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20261002-canadas-atlantic-waters-are-attracting-more-great-white-sharks, 9 days ago

In the past decade, many more great white sharks are being seen in Canada's Atlantic waters. What's drawing them so far north?

This summer, a seasonal visitor decided the waters off Canada's province of Nova Scotia were very much to his liking.

Just a few months earlier, this tourist had been enjoying Florida. As spring turned into summer, he headed north.

His decision to favour the chilly waters off Nova Scotia over the Sunshine State became noteworthy news; he was no guide-book-toting day tripper, but a nearly 14ft-long (4.2m) great white shark nicknamed "Contender" by researchers.

Contender wasn't alone. Other members of the Atlantic's great white shark population have been patrolling further north and joining him off the coasts of Canada's eastern provinces. US Atlantic states have seen a rebounding shark population due to the recovery of seal populations, and now cold, deep waters further north have become a new great white shark hotspot.

With the growing population, however, there is a greater chance of unwelcome interactions with the people they share the waters with. In September, a diver was attacked by a great white off Quebec's Gaspé Coast. The diver was one of three diving in murky water at the time. His injuries were not life-threatening, but the incident caused alarm amongst diving and water sports businesses, and many operators cancelled dives.

So why are the white sharks ranging further north?

The great white shark, it turns out, is no stranger to Canada's eastern seaboard. As a species, they tend to prefer cooler water, up to a point. They are one of only a few shark species whose body temperature is noticeably warmer than the surrounding water, a feature which gives them added power when hunting. Warm muscles activate quicker in the cold water, meaning faster reactions, but they also require more energy.

Seals are a favourite prey – and seal numbers have been climbing along the US and Canadian coasts in recent decades, possibly because climate-change-induced warming seas are tempting more fish species further north. The surface waters off Nova Scotia are believed to have warmed by about 1.5C (2.7F) in the last 30 years, with the seafloor temperatures warming by about 3C (5.4F) over the same period.

More fish means more seals, and that means more great whites.

A dramatic increase

Alanna Canaran, a dive instructor and ocean science educator based in Nova Scotia's capital, Halifax, first moved to the province from Toronto in 2010. "In that time in Nova Scotia, it was pretty unheard of to see a white shark," she says. After working elsewhere during the 2010s, she moved back to Nova Scotia in 2020. In little more than a decade, the situation had changed dramatically.

"There have been a few days where you're in the water and it feels very sharky. You can feel that energy. Often in the summertime, when the water warms up, the water visibility decreases, so it becomes a little bit green or a little bit hazy – I'm sure they've been around."

Some of her friends have had far closer encounters. One of Canaran's dive partners was recently at a popular spot called Birchie Head, near St Margaret's Bay. "She was looking down at the rocks and looking at lobsters and things, and all of a sudden she looks up and she sees the belly of a great white shark just swim above her."

Canaran's friend warned her dive partner, who eventually looked up and saw the shark above them. "They ended up just staying really close to the bottom and making their way to the shore, and getting out of the water on basically a side of a cliff because they were obviously spooked."

The great whites are not actively seeking humans as prey, but are sometimes drawn to investigate our underwater activities, often characterised by splashing and noise. Robust research has proved that the sharks could confuse a wetsuited diver or a silhouetted surfboard with a seal. Occasionally, their predatory instinct kicks in. More often than not, the sharks cruise at a distance, merely observing.

In another incident this summer, noted on the Canadian Shark Attack Registry, a diver's fins were "bumped" by a great white that had come in for a closer look. Scuba divers, breathing streams of loud bubbles, look less like a seal than a snorkeller in a wet suit, but sharks are known for their curiosity.

"I include a briefing about sharks for my courses and for my guided dives that I take out," adds Canaran. "I also preface it by saying [the risk of a shark attack is] very, very, very unlikely, but it's increasing."

One reason for the increase in sightings, says Canaran, is that there are more people using the water the sharks are frequenting. The population of Nova Scotia has just passed one million, with its main city Halifax now home to more than 400,000 people – and that's a lot more people using the waters visited by the sharks.

"Even in 2020, when I moved back, there was only a couple dozen scuba divers that were going out on the regular," she says. "Now there's definitely like a couple of hundred, and there's more people on boats. More eyes on the water, of course, will mean more sightings."

Shark scientist and marine biologist Neil Hammerschlag, who counts the different sharks he sees running a cage-diving operations, has also seen an increased number of great white sightings.

"I can definitely say last year was the most sharks we saw, and this year already we seem to be seeing the sharks even earlier than last year," he tells the BBC. "I don't think the population is bigger. I think we're just seeing individuals visiting Atlantic Canada more than they used to."

Hammerschlag says the waters around Nova Scotia are still cold, but very much within the range the species is comfortable with. The extra food is an added bonus. "Nova Scotia has a lot of food options for them. It's a pretty healthy marine ecosystem with lots of big things that they can eat, seals and tunas," he says.

"The individuals learn, they have memories, they have mental maps. They come here and explore and see the opportunity… they remember that and come back."

Hammerschlag's operation has been trying to gauge the size of the area's resident population, which sharks are returning from year to year, how many are male and female, and the size range. "Last year we identified 120 different great whites in 55 days," he says.

These sightings varied wildly between different individuals, he says. A small number of sharks would be seen four or five times; two individuals were seen on about 30% of their expeditions. But the vast majority were encountered only once.

"Probably 80% of them we only saw once and never again. That indicates to us that they're moving through."

There have been attempts to soothe Canadians amongst the increased sightings and interactions, reassuring them that this is not unexpected.

Improving food stocks will likely lead to an increased shark population, though the sharks' numbers increase a lot more slowly than the seals. "If there are a lot of sharks, say around Cape Cod or New York, and they're just too populous, they're going to start moving into their northern and southern ranges," she says.

Speaking before the incident off the Quebec coast, Hammerschlag said he thought more Canadians were "pretty excited" about the possibilities of seeing a great white shark close to home. But they are also perhaps more cautious about the amount of time they are spending in the sea. "You know, I think they're a little more thoughtful when they enter the water."

Nova Scotia's relatively chilly water temperatures could also be a factor. "Most people are not spending a long time in it, and certainly not going very deep… a great white can't get into water that's two feet deep, right?"

That caution could turn out to be of benefit, Hammerschlag says. "I think that's a that's exactly what's necessary – not to be fearful, but to be mindful… it has a lot of benefits, not only for human safety, but for just the understanding and conservation of sharks."

Increasing interactions

Both Canaran and Hammerschlag don't think people should be scared to enter the water because of the recent attack – but they should be more mindful that they are sharing the waters with sharks. And Canaran adds that for Nova Scotia's indigenous people, like the Mi'kmaq, sharing the water with great whites was a fact of life.

"Indigenous people were out on canoes and they were harpooning seals, and so it's pretty amazing… a great white shark could be in the water as well," she says. Indigenous fishing communities, she says, had their own techniques for keeping the sharks at a safe distance.

"They would tie spruce roots and sea grass to the bottom of the boat, and that would confuse the sharks," she says. "It would trick them into thinking they were in slightly shallower water, and so they would leave these boats alone."

Speaking by email after the September attack, Canaran says: "I was teaching an open water [diving] course in the ocean last week and I actually woke up to a bunch of messages about the interaction in Quebec. Did it stop me from diving? No. Did it make me extra cautious that day? Yes. I had sharks on the mind and so I decided to teach my course at a very protected little cove with lots of eelgrass."

More like this:

• These photos show a softer side of great white sharks

• The sharks that will eat almost everything

• The reason sharks attack humans

The "sharkiest" season is ending; fewer sharks are expected to be seen in the chillier waters between October and March. Both Canaran and Hammerschlag (who has written a blog on the subject) share similar advice about how to lessen the risk of shark attacks.

"Avoid areas that have preferred prey of sharks (such as seals), especially in areas with poor water visibility which could make it harder for a shark to distinguish between their natural prey and a human," he says.

Canaran says she's more cautious, but she's not letting it stop her dive. "If I only dove when the water was clear, I'd only have about five dives a year. I'm going to keep diving."

The question now is, will the sharks return in similar numbers next year? And will Canadians learn to live with their new reality, lurking in the depths close to shore? "It's about relearning how to live with them. We've done it before, and so I'm confident that we can do it again."

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Swiss glaciers suffer 'disastrous' year of ice loss, threatening water supplies

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6n9w0ypjwl9o, 12 days ago

Swiss glaciers have suffered a near-record loss of ice in 2026, new data shows, as intense summer heatwaves take their toll on Alpine peaks.

More than 5% of the country's remaining glacier ice has disappeared in the last 12 months, which scientists say is "extraordinary".

They warn that such rapid melting is no longer a surprise given the pace of climate change, but it could threaten water supplies for farming, hydropower and transport in the decades ahead.

The loss of glacier ice can also destabilise mountain slopes and increase the risk of landslides in some places - which can lead to flash flooding in extreme cases, as seen in Nepal in August.

There were multiple factors involved in that event, which was triggered when a large area of bedrock and glacier ice collapsed.

But scientists say long-term glacier thinning and the thawing of frozen ground likely raised the risks.

The notable finding from this latest report is not so much that Swiss glaciers are shrinking - which is to be expected in our warming climate, driven primarily by fossil fuel emissions - but the sheer pace of melting.

Until recently, glaciologists in the Alps considered 2% of ice lost in a single year to be "extreme". This year has seen an estimated 5.5% disappear.

"It's really just disastrous," said Dr Matthias Huss, director of Glacier Monitoring Switzerland, which produced the report.

Swiss glaciers started the summer in an already difficult place, covered by less snow than usual after a mild winter.

And much of that snow disappeared quickly in the early and intense heatwaves of May and June, exposing the glacier ice below.

Bare ice is darker and less reflective than fresh snow, so absorbs more of the Sun's energy.

That left glaciers vulnerable to melting even faster in subsequent heatwaves.

"Ten years ago, I wouldn't have thought that it's possible to lose glaciers so quickly," said Dr Fabien Maussion, a glaciologist at the University of Bristol, who was not involved in the Swiss report.

"What's happened over the summer now is extremely distressing… but at the same time it was to be expected from a climate scientist's perspective," he added.

Meltwater from glaciers can be an important source of water for irrigation, hydropower and even shipping traffic during hot, dry conditions.

Scientists estimate that Swiss glaciers released 2.2 trillion litres of meltwater between July and September.

Although that helped to ease water shortages this summer, it has rapidly diminished the frozen supply.

The loss of ice could pose long-term challenges, Huss warned, with smaller glaciers unable to top up water levels to the same extent.

"Every drop of water that runs off during these heatwaves is kind of old water that's been stocked in the glacier ice centuries or decades ago," said Huss.

"It's helping us [now] but it's unsustainable, so we won't have it at [our] disposal in the next heatwave."

The River Rhine reached record lows in places this summer, affecting shipping navigation routes and increasing transport costs.

One of the most ominous findings is what researchers observed at measurement sites at the highest elevations, where temperatures are lowest and glaciers are typically snow-covered.

Even as high as 3,500 metres above sea level, scientists found no snow remaining at the end of summer.

"At some glaciers we've seen four metres of ice loss at the highest point, where they should be covered by several metres of winter snow at this time of the year," said Huss, from Glacier Monitoring Switzerland.

Snow is like glacier food - and under stable conditions some of it would eventually compact into ice.

But if no snow survives the summer, it cannot replace the ice lost to melting at lower, warmer elevations. The glacier will starve, shrink and eventually disappear.

"Glaciers are complex because they gain mass at the top and they flow downstream, so there is a lot of physics," explained Maussion.

"But in its simplest form, what we see right now is that we took an ice cube out of the fridge and it's just melting in front of our eyes."

Scientists say the climate is now too warm for many Alpine glaciers to survive.

Some, like Plattalva in eastern Switzerland, have already disappeared.

But researchers stress that sharp cuts to carbon emissions can still save much of the world's glacier ice.

This is particularly the case for the Himalayas and the polar regions, where most of the planet's ice resides.

"There we still can make a big difference with protecting the climate," said Huss.

"If these ice masses can be saved or stabilised, we can limit the rise of global sea levels… which could affect billions of people living along the coast."

Additional reporting by Dominic Bailey

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Trump says Ukraine and Russia have agreed 'energy ceasefire'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6pvg4jyz1m0o, today

Donald Trump has said Russia and Ukraine have agreed to an "energy ceasefire" in the war between the two nations.

The US president provided few details, aside from it being "effective immediately". Neither Kyiv nor Moscow have so far commented. The BBC has asked the White House for more details.

Trump has been urging Ukraine to cease strikes on Russian oil infrastructure - which Kyiv says are vital to curtailing revenue for Moscow's war machine - so it can fulfil a recently-struck deal to release diesel to the US and the global market.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier on Sunday that he was willing to halt the strikes if Russia ceased targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure, attacks which have been intensifying ahead of winter.

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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US justice department investigates TV networks over Trump pool coverage

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9vgregzk6gro, yesterday

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has said it is investigating several TV networks over whether they broke federal competition laws when they recently suspended pool coverage of Donald Trump.

Last month, five networks paused their presidential coverage for several days in response to the Trump administration withdrawing the credentials of reporters from CNN, MS Now and Politico.

The DoJ asked ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News to hand over communications related to the pool and said the boycott could violate the Sherman Act, referring to a law that bars companies from engaging in monopolistic business practices.

Pool members usually share their material with the wider media.

A DoJ spokesperson said: "The Antitrust Division is simply investigating to determine whether these news organisations have violated the antitrust laws."

The television networks have not yet commented.

Trump blocked CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House last month after accusing the organisations of writing "fiction or lies" about his team.

The White House later reinstated their access following a judge's ruling. The three outlets had sued the Trump administration, arguing the restricted access violated their First Amendment rights.

The First Amendment forbids the government from "abridging" the freedom of the press - language that courts have traditionally interpreted as preventing the government from discriminating against the media based on the content of their coverage.

The Trump administration has taken a number of legal actions against news publications in the US, including lawsuits over coverage of the president.

In February, the White House announced it was taking control of the press pool, which has access to Trump and had for more than a century been managed by the White House Correspondents' Association.

The same month, the Trump administration moved to bar Associated Press (AP) reporters and photographers from spaces where access is limited, such as the Oval Office or Air Force One, because of the outlet's usage of the term "Gulf of Mexico" instead of "Gulf of America". AP filed a lawsuit and the case remains ongoing.

Nobel peace laureate says US sanctions on ICC 'unacceptable'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqkgjrpmr47vo, yesterday

Navi Pillay, the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, has called US sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) "unheard of" and "unacceptable".

The South African former ICC judge was awarded the prize on Friday "for her efforts to promote peace and international law", which paved the way for a "more comprehensive global legal order", the Nobel committee said.

US President Donald Trump expressed his disatisfaction with the pick and hours later the US unveiled sweeping sanctions in a significant acceleration of its attempt to "dismantle" what it described as a "rogue" institution.

The ICC said the measures were an assault on the rule of law and the foundations of the international legal order.

Pillay, speaking via video link during an event at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo on Saturday, said: "There is so much tension and anxiety over the continued existence of international courts, mainly the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

"Most importantly, sanctions have been announced by one country against the judges, just for the judicial orders they issue. This is unheard of, unacceptable."

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier said the sanctions - which include a ban on US entities making transactions with the ICC - were intended to "defend US sovereignty" and accused the court of seeking to prosecute Americans.

The US has already sanctioned 17 ICC judges and officials, but this move sanctions the court itself as an institution and is intended to inhibit its ability to operate financially.

However, the US has provided a six-month grace period before some of these latest sanctions kick in, meaning member states can keep paying for its operations - a move Washington says is to allow countries time to negotiate a "solution to address" US concerns.

The Trump administration claims that the ICC is run by what it calls globalists who threaten American sovereignty.

It is furious over a past investigation into actions of US soldiers in Afghanistan the court has since closed and by its arrest warrants for Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The new sanctions, however, do not say that those warrants must be withdrawn before the measures can be lifted.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the US decision "a serious blow to our collective pursuit of international criminal justice, of which the ICC is a key pillar".

The UK joined Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and the Netherlands in saying they "regret and strongly disagree with" the sanctions.

Pillay, 85, also served as UN rights chief, taking part in high-profile work considering allegations of human rights violations, including in Rwanda, Myanmar and Gaza.

Her early work included defending anti-apartheid activists in South Africa, and on Friday she became the country's fifth Peace Prize winner - following in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

"If you clap a little bit more I may share this prize with Trump," she joked after receiving the prize, a reference to last year's winner, Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado, deciding to gift her prize to the US president.

Trump called the announcement of Pillay as 2026's winner "disgraceful and embarassing", and an "indelible stain on the country of Norway".

He has long indicated he thought he should have been awarded the prestigious prize, and was nominated by several allies for it last year.

US murderer Christa Pike discharged from hospital 10 days after failed execution

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmlyle97pqd7o, yesterday

US death row inmate Christa Pike has been discharged from hospital following her botched execution at the end of last month, her lawyers have said.

Pike, 50, has been sent back to the prison where she has spent the last 30 years and is continuing to receive medical care, according to a statement from her lawyers on Saturday.

She survived two lethal injections of the drug pentobarbital on 30 September, which left her in a critical condition.

Pike regained consciousness earlier this week and began speaking - stunning experts, medical staff and her lawyers.

Her case is now in uncharted territory as she is thought to be the only person to have survived an execution attempt by lethal injection.

Pike's lawyers said in their statement that she was "grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances".

It is unclear what medical care Pike is receiving now that she is back in prison but her lawyers previously said she faced a "long road to recovery".

The Tennessee Department of Correction is yet to say why the execution did not go as planned, though it has defended the method it used.

At a court hearing on Wednesday, Tennessee Assistant Attorney General Will Ayers told the judge he did not know whether the state intends to try to execute her again.

The judge ordered the state to preserve all evidence related to the failed injections. That evidence could lay the groundwork for a future lawsuit against the state.

Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured and killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, whom they had met at a job training camp for low-income young people.

Shipp was spared the death penalty because he was not legally an adult when the crime was committed. He remains in prison.

Pike was the first woman scheduled to be executed in the state of Tennessee in over 200 years.

Her lawyers have spent decades appealing her case. In the days leading up to her scheduled execution, both the US Supreme Court and Tennessee Governor Bill Lee declined to block the execution.

Since it failed, Pike's lawyers have renewed their calls for her sentence to be commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Pike lost consciousness and was taken to a local hospital following her botched execution. Her legal team believed for days that she was brain dead and expected her to be taken off life support at any moment.

Pike eventually woke up and began talking again on Tuesday - her lawyer Randy Spivey said her first words were "Where am I?" and "Who are you?"

At a press conference on Wednesday, her lawyers said she was shackled to the bed and suffering from pneumonia and significant swelling on her arms, while also being unable to swallow.

"We don't know the toll all of this will take" Spivey said of her mental health, adding that Pike felt "angry and confused".

Four dead and thousands without power after Hurricane Isaias lashes US

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmje5x80yg70o, yesterday

Four people have died and hundreds of thousands are without power after Hurricane Isaias battered parts of the southern US with powerful winds and heavy rain.

Officials reported two deaths each in the states of Alabama and Florida, which included people who were killed when trees fell on their houses.

An estimated 500,000 people in total were without power in several states as of Saturday evening, according to tracker PowerOutage.

Isaias made landfall in Florida late on Friday with maximum sustained winds of 105mph (168km/h) before being downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone.

The storm felled trees and ripped the roofs off buildings. Alabama, Florida and Georgia all declared states of emergency ahead of its arrival, while both Florida and Alabama issued mandatory evacuation orders to thousands of people.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Simon is bearing down on Mexico's Pacific coast and has strengthened to category four. It is expected to make landfall sometime overnight.

Tropical Storm Rachel, also in the Pacific Ocean, is expected to hit southern California later on Saturday.

Two deaths related to Isaias were reported in Florida's Escambia County. A woman was killed when a tree fell on her house, local Sheriff Chip Simmons said.

Joey Williams told NewsNation his wife had died in the storm. He said they went outside to snap pictures of the damage but, when they went back into their home, a tree fell through the roof and trapped them.

"I was able to squeeze out. My wife didn't make it," Williams told the outlet.

Simmons later reported that a man had died from carbon monoxide poisoning after running a generator in a garage that was not properly ventilated. Four other people who were in the same house were taken to hospital.

Officials had to rescue people in vehicles that became submerged by floodwaters. The Florida National Guard shared pictures of a truck stuck in a flood ditch, saying soldiers "stopped, swam to the vehicle and pulled its occupants to safety".

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said flooding was a continued risk and warned of a "very hazardous situation".

In neighbouring Alabama, a sheriff was injured when a tree fell on him as he was responding to a car crash.

"Unfortunately, we have also learned that two Alabamians have lost their lives," Governor Kay Ivey said in a post on X, without giving further details on the circumstances of the deaths.

She also said officials were concerned about "spinoff tornadoes" in the state from the strong winds and heavy rain.

"As we approach the weekend and any travel plans, make sure you have reliable information as conditions develop," she said.

In Charleston, South Carolina, officials asked people to stay home on Saturday night as high tide is expected to reach 7.5ft (2.3m).

"After dark, floodwater is much harder to see and it's impossible to judge how deep it is from behind the wheel," the city said.

The storm is expected to continue to weaken as it travels to the north-east, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) warned that the Carolinas and Georgia could see floods from up to 10 inches (25cm) of rainfall.

Hurricane Isaias was the first hurricane in the Atlantic's hurricane season, which largely has been delayed due to El Niño conditions in the Pacific.

Two children and pregnant woman among 8 shot dead at Pennsylvania house

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmed3njg5d3go, yesterday

A man has fatally shot eight people, including two children and a heavily pregnant woman, at a home in the US state of Pennsylvania before appearing to take his own life.

Police were called to a street in the city of Erie on Friday afternoon after witnesses reported seeing a man firing a gun before he entered a home, officials said. Two women were found dead outside when police arrived.

The other victims were found inside the house alongside the gunman, Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah said. All except one of those who died were related to each other.

Lorah said a motive had not yet been established but that "mental health is at play here".

Lorah told a press conference on Saturday that investigators had reviewed video footage showing the two women who were killed outside the house, aged 51 and 37, arriving and trying to get help from neighbours. One was related to the family by marriage, while the other was a family friend.

Lorah said what is thought to be muffled gunfire can be heard in the footage before the gunman is seen emerging and shooting both of the women.

The authorities arrived afterwards and entered the home after hearing no sounds from inside.

Inside they found the two child victims, aged five and one, on the first floor. The other victims, two women aged 24 and 44, and two men aged 19 and 21, were found on the second floor and stairwell, as was the gunman. One of the victims was eight months pregnant, Lorah said.

"Some scenes stay with you long after you leave them. This is one of those scenes," he said.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said he had offered his administration's "full support following the tragic mass shooting in Erie last night - killing nine of our fellow Pennsylvanians".

"My heart breaks for this family," he said, adding that he and his wife were "praying for their loved ones and the entire Erie community".

'Time for Ukraine to get new president,' says Trump after Zelensky condemns diesel deal

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqe8r5l7n92jo, yesterday

US President Donald Trump has said he thinks "it's time for Ukraine to get a new president" as he responded to Volodymyr Zelensky's criticism of the US diesel deal with Russia.

The Ukrainian president warned a new deal to release millions of tonnes of Russian diesel into the US would provide Moscow with money to continue its war against his nation, calling it a gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump told reporters outside the White House on Saturday that Zelensky "wants to make problems for the world" by continuing to authorise attacks on Russian refineries.

"He'd better damn well stop," Trump said, before suggesting Ukraine should "get a new leader who can make a deal".

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 the country has been under martial law, meaning elections are suspended.

Global fuel supplies, including diesel, have been severely limited by the war against Iran launched by the US and Israel, which led to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world's oil products usually flows.

Russia - a major producer - and Ukraine have recently intensified their strikes on each other's energy infrastructure and transport facilities, further straining energy markets.

"We said, 'you can do whatever you want to Russia, don't hit the refineries', because that's a world problem that's caused," Trump continued.

"He could have made many deals and for some reason, he never does."

Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev described Trump's intervention as "iconic and historic", saying that Ukraine "needs leadership actually focused on peace".

The US president confirmed on Friday that an agreement had been reached with Moscow to suspend sanctions on Russian diesel exports until 7 April.

Zelensky reacted by saying it would allow Moscow to raise new funds to source new military equipment to continue the war.

He also accused Moscow of taking the deal "to mean they can keep fighting, to mean they keep dropping bombs on cities" following deadly new strikes on Zaporizhzhia.

The Ukrainian president spoke to several allies on Saturday to discuss the latest developments, calling for "real decisions to protect lives in Ukraine" and to protect European security.

A Downing Street spokesperson said UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham had spoken to Zelensky and offered his "complete solidarity".

The pair had agreed Russia should acquiesce to "an immediate energy ceasefire" and end its attacks on shipping in the Black Sea, the spokesperson said, as "this would immediately release more energy and food supplies into the global market".

News of the US-Russia diesel deal was also met with criticism by EU's foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas, who echoed Zelensky in saying that suspending sanctions "provides Moscow with more revenues to wage war", adding: "This is not the time to ease pressure on Russia, and Europe won't."

She said European foreign ministers intended to approve the biggest set of sanctions on Russia since the start of its full-scale invasion on Monday.

The deal with Russia is the latest effort from Trump to lower fuel prices in the US ahead of the midterm elections, after months spent grappling with the political consequences of the Iran war.

The average price of diesel is currently $6.28 (£4.74) a gallon, according to the AAA – up from last month's $5.94 average, and $3.68 last year.

Under the deal, Russia would release an initial 300,000 tonnes of diesel "to the American and global marketplace" followed by an additional 500,000 tonnes in November.

A further million would follow, Trump wrote on Truth Social, and then another 3m tonnes "within a short period of time" – but he noted that this delivery will be "based on the condition of their diesel refineries".

In the past 10 months, Russia experienced two waves of severe fuel shortages across the country due to Ukrainian drones strikes on its oil refineries.

Diesel production in Russia dropped by an estimated 30%, according to the International Energy Agency.

Trump had already called for new elections in Ukraine last December, saying Ukrainian voters should have the choice to replace Zelensky.

Since the war broke out in 2022 Ukraine has been under martial law, meaning elections are suspended.

Commentator Katie Zacharia picked as new White House press secretary

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5rmy73zr0rro, 3 days ago

Donald Trump has chosen conservative commentator Katie Zacharia to be the next White House press secretary.

Zacharia, who currently works for Trump Media & Technology Group, will become the US president's sixth chief spokesperson across his two administrations. She previously had a brief stint as a spokeswoman at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Trump called Zacharia "loyal" and "a devoted fan and member of MAGA" in a social media post on Friday, referring to his Make America Great Again movement, adding that she had "an unblemished record of support".

Former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who left the White House in August, has reportedly taken a job with Fox News.

"She was previously involved in my Campaigns, assisting in key Swing States, where we won 7 out of 7," Trump wrote on Truth Social of Zacharia.

"I am confident that Katie will deliver strong results for our Country as the next White House Press Secretary, as she has the respect of, and will work fantastically with, the Media, the American People, and my Administration."

Zacharia thanked him in a post on X, writing: "Serving President Trump and the American people at this critical 250-year mark is the honor of a lifetime."

She said Trump had "shown America that we can be great again, and he works to effectuate that greatness every single day".

She said she looked forward "to working with the White House press corps, and with reporters across the country, to get that record out".

The 42-year-old political strategist is a frequent fixture on conservative Newsmax and Fox News, and has been active in Republican politics for most of her adult life, having worked as an intern for the Republican National Committee and for the White House Office of Political Affairs during the Bush administration in 2006.

Since June, she has been a senior communications adviser for Trump's media company and Truth Social platform, according to her LinkedIn profile. She worked in Homeland Security from February to March this year.

While she was only briefly in government at DHS - which the mother of four later said she left because of the strain of travel between California and Washington on her family - she has long been a ferocious defender of President Trump and his administration's policies.

In a June interview with the BBC, for example, she dismissed criticism of Trump's controversial use of the White House to host a televised UFC fight, saying the principles of the UFC "are the kind of principles that founded our Constitutional Republic".

"It's about not giving up the fight until the bitter end," she said. "I think there's no better summation of the American ethos than a good UFC fight."

Earlier this year, Zacharia wrote an op-ed in the New York Post about an incident in which she was asked to stop wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat to her local gym.

"I responded that I would never take my Trump hat off to appease the left," she wrote. "This is raw, unfiltered intolerance. Freedom of speech doesn't evaporate at the gym door."

Justin Buchler, a political science professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, told the BBC that Trump's appointments during his second term have been "based on personal affiliation and loyalty".

"He values loyalty first and foremost," Buchler told the BBC.

A lawyer educated at Pepperdine University in California, Zacharia also served as general counsel for Fix California, a conservative non-profit started by Trump ally - and current Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions - Ric Grenell.

In 2011, she spent nearly two years clerking at a law firm in Beijing, China.

The complex job of press secretary goes beyond the briefing room podium to include managing contentious relationships with the press, coordinating with other parts of the White House, and providing media advice to the president. The secretary also oversees an office that receives a significant amount of inquiries and requests on a daily basis.

Yanna Krupnikov, a political scientist and professor of communication and media at the University of Michigan, said the selection of Zacharia "speaks to a blurring of the lines between different media types".

Politicians nowadays need to communicate not only to various news outlets but with people in a social media context, she said.

"I think the goal is not as much speaking to the media and journalists, but making sure that particular, very specific sound-bytes and messages get to ordinary people," Krupnikov told the BBC.

When Leavitt left the role, Trump called her one of his "most trusted aides", which sets a high bar for her replacement. Leavitt left because she said she wanted to spend more time with her family.

Public executions in the US stopped nearly a century ago - why are they resuming now?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6kgq7rqdql7o, 2 days ago

They came in their thousands from near and far. Men, women and children lined up on a Kentucky riverfront for the public hanging of a black man convicted of raping and killing an elderly white widow.

It was 14 August 1936 in Owensboro, Kentucky, a sweltering Friday in the middle of a legendary heatwave. Some slept overnight near the gallows to preserve their spots. Others held "necktie" parties the previous evening, arriving hungover as teenagers sold popcorn and soda to spectators.

By the execution time of 05:00, the crowd had swelled to an estimated 20,000.

That's when Rainey Bethea, an orphan in his 20s, stepped up to the gallows - sentenced to death after allegedly confessing to robbing, raping and killing Lischia Edwards, 70.

The previous afternoon, he'd eaten a last meal of fried chicken, pork chops, mashed potatoes, pickled cucumbers, cornbread, lemon pie and ice cream.

Many of those gathered - including press from as far away as Chicago and New York - came to see the rumoured "Lady Executioner". The local sheriff had died four months earlier and his widow had become his unlikely replacement.

She declined to pull the trip lever herself, however, and it was a hired hangmen who instead sent Bethea to his death.

That moment marked the last high-profile public hanging in the US. The circus surrounding Bethea's death embarrassed many in Kentucky and the governor outlawed public executions 18 months later.

By then, most states had abolished capital punishment in view of the masses as societal attitudes sought more humane and private methods. Another hanging was attended by a few hundred in Missouri in 1937, but that was lesser known and marked America's final public execution - until now.

A little more than 90 years after Bethea's killing, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that the military would publicly execute Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 unarmed fellow soldiers in 2009 at the Fort Hood military base in Texas.

The Pentagon followed up by saying the execution by firing squad in December would be livestreamed.

"People need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things," Hegseth said.

University of Colorado professor emeritus Michael Radelet, a long-time scholar of capital punishment, was shocked.

"I never imagined [another] public execution," he told the BBC.

He noted how public support for the death penalty in general has been steadily declining - it was at 80% in 1994, for example, but now stands at 52%.

"It's gone down precipitously, especially when you give the alternative of life without parole," he said.

It's too soon to know what the American public thinks of the idea of livestreaming an execution. But it's likely that millions or more will tune in.

With Hegseth's announcement, Radelet said, "the justification for the death penalty becomes entertainment... bring your popcorn, invite your friends".

Sonya Lea, who just last year published a book about Bethea's execution, "felt absolute horror for our descendants" when she heard of the announced firing squad livestream.

"What they called it in 1936 was a carnival of sadism," she said. "That we now have the technology that can make it go wider than the 20,000 people who showed up... to witness in Owensboro, Kentucky, it just makes it even more horrific."

Lea's grandparents were teenage newlyweds among that 1936 crowd. She only found out after her grandmother's death in 2002, when she read an account her late grandma had given detailing how they were close enough to hear Bethea's neck snap.

The author's subsequent years of research taught her that many Kentuckians were "haunted" by that execution.

"I really thought, with all my heart, that we had put this in the rearview mirror, this level of grotesquery that only a few countries in the world engage in - Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan," she said.

"Are we now, as the United States of America, considering ourselves to be part of that kind of government? It's just horrific."

But the polarisation and rhetoric in US politics may have set the stage for such an announcement, said Kurt Gray, a social psychology professor at Ohio State University.

"Some Americans might thirst for blood, but I think a lot of Americans don't and, if anything, I think a lot of other Americans are just kind of maybe desensitised," he said.

"So it's not like they're cheering a public execution - they're just like, 'Oh, yeah, I guess that's where we're at now.'"

Other research indicates that Hegseth and the administration may be reading the country wrong.

Garen Wintemute, director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Berkeley, said surveys point to a declining appetite for violence in the US.

"This morning, the chair of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops labelled this [livestream execution announcement] as barbaric," he said. "And I think he speaks for a lot of people."

"I think it's this: a public execution is not who we are," he added. "It's not who we aspire to be as a country."

The debate over Hegseth's surprise announcement appeared to be playing out within the White House on Friday.

US Vice-President JD Vance expressed uncertainty to reporters about whether the public execution would go ahead as planned and said he would not watch it if it were livestreamed.

Hours later, US President Donald Trump said he "absolutely" approved of the livestream plan but that the Pentagon was still "making a determination" on it.

He did not answer the question of whether he'd watch Hasan's execution.

"I really don't care how he goes as long as he goes," Trump said. "And I think that the death penalty is a very worthy way of going for him."

Analysis: Trump's shock Russia deal highlights mounting pressure to curb fuel prices

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5lye9z4xw4yo, 3 days ago

Donald Trump's decision to import Russian fuel to the US represents a remarkable about-face from the president.

Just three weeks ago, Trump signed legislation to authorise fresh American sanctions and tariffs on nations that import Russian oil and gas.

Now, Trump says, Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to supply hundreds of thousands of tons of diesel fuel to the US and world markets in the coming months.

The deal comes as Trump is still grappling with the political fallout of the Iran war and its impact on global energy prices, weeks before American voters head to the polls in the midterm elections.

As the cost of fuel has skyrocketed in America, his standing with the public – stung by the higher prices at the pump and knock-on effects that led to across-the board inflation – has soured.

The toll the war is taking has been acutely felt by US agricultural states, which rely heavily on diesel to operate farming machinery and to transport their products to market.

It is these states – places like Iowa, Kansas, Texas and Ohio – that have become unexpected political battlegrounds in the upcoming elections that will determine if Republicans maintain control of Congress.

For months, the American president has been searching for ways to ease his party's political pain.

He recently pressured European allies to further tap their oil reserves. He deferred federal taxes on the fuel and authorised supplies designated for farm use to be used in interstate trucking.

He has also promised that he would not renew attacks on Iran until after the midterms – an unusually frank acknowledgement of the political impact the ongoing conflict is having.

His decision to strike a deal with Russia's Putin is only the latest, most dramatic effort.

Trump's Truth Social posts often provide incomplete information, of course. The details of exactly how Russia is supplying this fuel to the global market, and what they might get for in return – besides much-needed hard currency – is unclear.

It opens Trump to criticism from European allies and American politicians that his administration is now helping to fund the Russian war machine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the deal a "gift" to Putin that Russia would "repay" with "terror and perfidy".

"Allowing Russia to sell petroleum products is an investment in a war that must be ended, not prolonged," he wrote on X.

It is also uncertain exactly how much Trump's move will help Republicans at the ballot box.

The promised European diesel release hasn't moved energy prices significantly, and there's no information on the speed with which Russian fuel could enter the market.

Its diesel refinery capacity has been damaged by repeated Ukrainian strikes – attacks that Trump has encouraged Zelensky to curtail.

The US uses approximately 3.6 million barrels of diesel a day, so even if Russia delivers its promised 300,000 tons this month, that amounts to approximately half of the US daily consumption.

Americans may not notice much of an immediate difference.

With less than a month before November's midterm elections, early voting has already started in many states. The political cake, as the saying goes, is all but baked.

"Lower prices for Americans, especially our Great Farmers, Ranchers, and Truckers, is my Greatest Priority," Trump wrote in his Truth Social post.

But over the past seven months, prices on energy, fuel and consumer goods have only gone up - even as Trump and his officials have repeatedly assured an uneasy public a successful resolution to the war, and an easing of its economic impact, is nearly at hand.

Trump may be left hoping that his latest deal, setting aside its potentially uncomfortable diplomatic issues, will be enough to convince American voters that his promise of impending economic relief is more than just empty words.

Could Christa Pike face execution again and by what method?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cxvgd65m735mo, 4 days ago

The botched execution of Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike has thrust Tennessee's criminal justice system into uncharted territory.

A week after receiving two lethal doses of the drug pentobarbital, she is said to be walking and talking again in limited ways.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has ordered an independent investigation and suspended all executions for the rest of the year.

The fate of Pike, who has been on death row for 30 years for murdering Colleen Slemmer, now lies in a mysterious grey area.

At a hearing on Wednesday, an attorney for Tennessee said the decision on scheduling a new execution date was up to the state's supreme court.

But Pike's lawyers are seeking to have her death sentence commuted to life in prison without parole. Lee, who has commutation powers, has not indicated what the state will do.

Slemmer was murdered by both Pike and Pike's then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, who was not an adult at the time so was spared the death penalty and remains in prison.

The BBC spoke to multiple experts to explore what could happen next.

Attempt to execute Pike by lethal injection again

The Tennessee Department of Correction could attempt to execute Pike again by lethal injection, but the state would very likely run into legal challenges based on constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

"For the state to attempt to execute her again using the same methodology, they would have severe legal hurdles," Tennessee-based defence attorney Stephen Ross Johnson said.

Johnson said Tennessee had botched two executions in one year - it also failed to kill Tony Carruthers in May - which could give lawyers the grounds to argue broadly against the constitutionality of the state’s lethal injection protocol.

Pike's lawyers could also argue a lethal injection is what Johnson called "unconstitutional as applied", meaning it is cruel and unusual specifically for Pike, due to her medical condition.

Pike's lawyers had warned before the execution attempt that she has small veins and thrombocytosis, a blood-clotting condition that would complicate the procedure.

Her medical condition combined with the state's botched execution would make it difficult for Tennessee to present a convincing legal argument for attempting lethal injection again, Johnson said.

Attempt to execute her with a different method

Johnson, president-elect of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, could see the state attempting an execution by a different method.

This would require "additional legal hoops", including approval from the governor's office and potentially the state legislature.

Since Pike's survival, political leaders in Tennessee have called for moving her death sentence forward through other means.

Senator Marsha Blackburn, the Republican candidate for governor in next month's election, said: "Bring back the electric chair."

Congressman Tim Burchett, posted on social media that he's already filed a bill to "bring back hanging".

Tennessee could be allowed to use the electric chair because Pike committed the murder in 1995 before the state changed its execution laws.

She would need to waive her right to lethal injection in writing, which means it would have to be her decision, Vanderbilt University law professor Chris Slobogin said.

Given that Pike's exact medical state is unknown, Slobogin said there was a scenario in which the state could be blocked from attempting to execute her again, regardless of method.

It was also considered cruel and unusual punishment to execute someone who is mentally incapable of understanding why it is happening, he explained.

Historically this has applied to prisoners with dementia or psychosis, but experts have said there is a chance that Pike has suffered brain damage.

There is a precedent of states finding a different method to execute a death-row inmate.

In 2024, Alabama executed a convicted murderer using a different method to the one that was originally planned. Kenneth Eugene Smith was put to death using nitrogen gas - having failed with its initial plan of lethal injection.

Commute her sentence

Tennessee is taking a long pause on carrying out capital punishment.

Only one person was due to be executed this year after Pike, which the governor has now postponed. Earlier, in May, the Carruthers execution was suspended by a year after state officials could not find a vein to administer the lethal injection - meaning that he has a year-long reprieve.

It will therefore probably take a while for any movement in Pike's case.

"At a minimum there's going to be some significant delay while this issue is studied by the state", defence attorney Johnson said, adding Pike's health would also need to be studied.

Slobogin suspects the governor will commute her sentence, especially if missteps by state officials are uncovered in the investigation he has ordered.

"If the investigation, in any way, shape, or form, suggests that the protocol was not followed, or is hard to carry out, that might be the easy way for him to go, given the complications with the execution and all the bad press," he said.

There is legal precedent for a death sentence to be commuted due to a botched execution combined with an inmate's poor medical state.

The execution of Alabama death-row prisoner Doyle Hamm was called off after more than two hours of attempts to establish an IV line failed.

The state gave up on executing him following a legal settlement that related, in part, to his health. He later died of natural causes.

The Republican candidates walking a Trump tightrope

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm93z74e0n9zo, 5 days ago

As US President Donald Trump hits the campaign trail in the final sprint to the midterm elections, he is launching an emphatic defence of America's economic performance, trying - as he often does - to bend reality to his will.

"We have the best economic numbers of any president in the history of our country, and yet people don't know about it because the press won't talk about it," he said last week.

While some economic indicators, including roaring stock market indexes and low US poverty rates, are indeed historic, the overall picture is not nearly as rosy.

Trump is often dismissive of concerns about aﬀordability and the high cost of living in the US, describing them as "fake" and a Democrat-inspired "hoax".

The American public, however, sees it differently - and some key economic indicators provide ample evidence for their discontent. Inflation remains high at 3.4%, outpacing wage growth. The average cost of petrol has soared to $4.37 (£3.30) a US gallon and beef prices are at a record high.

According to a YouGov survey, 63% of respondents believe the economy is "getting worse". An AP/NORC poll released last week found just 17% of adult Americans approve of the president's handling of cost-of-living issues, while 26% approve of his handling of the economy overall.

Those polls also suggest that many of Trump's policies, including tariffs, aggressive immigration enforcement and the ongoing conflict with Iran, are widely unpopular.

"We ask our voters their motivation to turn out, and what we find is cost of living, cost of living, cost of living," said Avery James, the director of communications at the Republican-aligned polling company Echelon Insights. "That's the top issue."

That has left Republicans running for office in the Congressional elections on 3 November with an agonising choice - should they be distancing themselves from Trump?

Their fear is that by echoing his sunny outlook they risk losing a number of electoral races that are currently projected to be very tight. But they also know that being seen to break with the president on the state of the economy is far from consequence free.

The economy looming large

There are few Republican politicians as loyal to the president as Floridian House Congressman Byron Donalds. And there are few US states as traditionally hospitable to Republicans as Florida.

But even in the president's adopted home, which he carried in each of his three elections and which hasn't had a Democratic governor since 1999, candidates like Donalds are finding themselves having to adapt their pro-Republican messaging to acknowledge economic concerns.

Donalds - who stood by Trump as he fought his way back to power after his 2020 election defeat and took a prominent role in his 2024 election campaign - is now running for governor of Florida, with Trump's encouragement and enthusiastic endorsement.

When I saw him at a Hispanic church in Kissimmee, he was preaching to the proverbial choir - but pitching his message with a nod to the fact that for many money is currently tight.

"We're the best state in America," he said before acknowledging: "But success has gotten expensive."

He ticked through a laundry list of Florida constituents – retirees, teachers, emergency workers, restaurant staff and local government employees, flagging that they need to be able to "make ends meet".

In his stump speech, Donalds didn't mention Trump at all. He leaned heavily into stories of his own financial hardship during his younger years, of living paycheque to paycheque and waiting tables at the traditional southern style restaurant chain Cracker Barrel.

When he invited audience questions, there were the usual cultural hot-button topics, like the perceived threat of Sharia law in America, transgender athletes in women's sports and youth crime in public spaces.

But his supporters also wanted to talk about the high cost of housing - insurance, taxes, mortgage rates and home-owner fees - and healthcare worker shortages.

Trump may have mocked the term affordability, but Donalds – who is criss-crossing the state on an "affordability tour" – isn't the only Republican candidate talking about high prices.

It was a similar track at a campaign event in a Tampa seafood market the next day, when Bryan Avila, who is running for lieutenant governor on the same ticket as Donalds, took questions on energy prices and data centre construction.

"Everything is going up in prices, from food to even books for people going to college," said John Carroll, who serves on a Florida county housing commission. "It's a challenge no matter which party is in power, but here in Florida it's been Republican for so long."

Meanwhile in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott last month went to Texarkana to host a "rural affordability roundtable".

"We must lower costs for Texans in every corner of our state, and with my affordability agenda we will help make Texas the most affordable state in America."

And in Iowa, Ashley Hinson, a Republican congresswoman running for Senate, unveiled her own "affordability agenda".

"Iowans are paying the price for Washington's failures, and they deserve real relief that actually lowers costs," she said.

Hinson also recently called for the president to quickly end the Iran war – a sentiment echoed by Republican Senate candidates in Ohio and Michigan. Two of Hinson's Iowa colleagues in the House of Representatives went so far as to vote for a Democratic-backed measure to curtail Trump's war powers in Iran.

For the past two years it has been Republicans who control the levers of power in the nation's capital – from the White House to both chambers of Congress. Inevitably, that makes for a challenging rhetorical pirouette among Republican candidates this time round when it comes to touching on Trump's less popular policies.

The Donalds-Donald relationship

Even Donalds has faced allegations that he is trying to open daylight between himself and Trump. The media was awash in reports recently that he had removed most prominent mentions of Trump from his campaign website.

It was a story Donalds quickly denied – and one that prompted an angry response from the president himself.

"Another Fake Story is that a very close friend of mine, a man I endorsed very early, Byron Donalds, is taking me off his website and campaign materials," Trump posted on his Truth Social website. "If Florida thought the story that Byron 'dropped' me was true, he would lose the election, and that would be a terrible thing because he's going to be a fantastic governor!"

Donalds did say, however, that when it comes to addressing how to tackle high prices, Trump shouldn't be a factor.

"That's not even about President Trump," he told reporters after the website story broke. "I'm the one asking for the votes for the people of Florida to be their governor."

While Donalds and Trump remain tight, the same cannot be said for Republican candidates who have gone farther in their criticism.

Congresswoman Maria Salazar aired a television spot in which she bluntly said Trump's immigration crackdown had "gone too far". Trump reposted a handful of messages on Truth Social accusing the Cuban-American Salazar of betrayal and calling for her to drop out, while other potential candidates had been on the receiving end of his anger during the primaries.

According to Marc Short, a Republican strategist and former chief of staff to Donald Trump's first vice-president, Mike Pence, it's hard not to see Trump's move as a warning directed at any other Republicans who might consider a public break with him. But he adds that Trump's ire isn't the only reason Republican candidates should approach this strategy with caution.

"It's almost disingenuous now to try to create separation," he says. "I think for voters it looks opportunistic."

Candidates like Salazar, who have stuck with Trump for years, have little choice but to rise and fall with the president's fortunes, he said. Republicans who have built their own brand and identities – like Senator Susan Collins in Maine – can more convincingly draw distinctions between themselves and the president.

The fact that so many people are downbeat about the economy, combined with the fact that the Republicans have been in power in Washington suggests that Republican candidates are facing difficult headwinds in November's elections. "I think they're hurricane force right now," said Short.

It is, however, far from a lost cause for Republicans going into these midterms. Many polls show battleground congressional and state races in a dead heat. And while Democratic candidates' hopes are buoyed by so many people feeling the economy is not working for them, a majority of voters still have a negative view of the Democratic Party as a whole.

"I think Republicans are closing out on the fact that they've delivered on a bunch of things, but we need to do more," said Alex DeGrasse, a Republican campaign consultant with close ties to the party's congressional leadership. His recommendation for the Republican electoral message was simple and pointed: "If you elect the Democrats, they'll destroy everything. Democrats had a chance to run the country, and by every objective economic metric, they did a worse job."

He added that right now in the White House, Republicans aren't panicking, they're focusing on executing their strategy.

The Republican messaging

In Florida's governor race, the Republican messaging contrasts the "Florida dream" of economic growth that Republicans say they delivered versus what they say is the hardship and depravity of Democratic-run states like Illinois, California and New York. Florida's population is booming, and many of the new arrivals are conservatives who lived in - and grew tired of - more liberal states in the north and west. But even this pitch often came with a nod to the current economic difficulties.

"For the past 26 years, we have been living in a Florida dream, and a lot of people don't realise the amount of work that has been done in this state," Avila said in Kissimmee last week.

According to James, from the Republican-aligned polling firm, the key for conservative candidates is to take subjects on which they are relatively strong, like crime, taxes and immigration, and link them to affordability issues that Americans say they care about most.

"Republicans are certainly looking to tell those independents that you might not be happy with everything, but we have delivered on these issues," he said.

With Republicans pouring money into advertising in battleground states, often outpacing their Democratic opponents by significant margins, there's still the possibility that the situation will improve in the final month of the midterm campaign.

That hasn't stopped the Republican faithful from being nervous about their side's chances, though – and what some see as a lack of enthusiasm on the right.

"Campaigns are won at the end by momentum," said Joseph Robinson, an engineer who attended the Avila fish-market event in Tampa. "But the momentum has been slow. It's not really like, 'Hey, I'm going to go run out there and vote right now.'"

Trump, for his part, is inevitably upbeat. Last month, he travelled to Tennessee for a college football game, where the crowd of more than 100,000 greeted him with cheers. The next day, it was a golf tournament in Illinois and another welcoming crowd. This weekend, he's going to another football game - in Alabama.

He is hitting the campaign trail, but frequently in states that mostly return Republican candidates – Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska.

However, in classic Trump style, he is saying and doing things that could complicate the careful balancing act many Republicans are trying to strike.

He has repeatedly dismissed claims that high costs are a problem for many voters, with his latest explanation being that their discomfort is due to a "very bad job" on the part of his administration in explaining how good things really are.

"The only thing we're doing badly at is public relations," he said in Texas last week. "In other words, we're doing a phenomenal job."

Several times over the past few months he's insisted that voters imagine his name is "on the ballot", but at other times he has said he doesn't care about the midterms and that this isn't his election to fight.

If Republicans struggle, he said, it is not a reflection on how Americans view him.

"A lot of them are very angry at Republicans, to be honest with you," Trump said in August. "They're angry at Republicans, but they're not angry at me."

But if Republicans get punished at the ballot box in November, whether they run with the president or away from him, Trump will bear the brunt of the consequences - in the form of a hostile Congress with legislative and oversight powers - for the last two years of his presidency.

Top picture credit: BBC / Getty Images

Dozens of gold prospectors killed in strikes on Egypt-Sudan border, rights group says

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqy43vrk8wv8o, today

At least 72 civilians who had been prospecting for gold in a border region of Sudan have been killed in air strikes, a regional rights group says.

Emergency Lawyers, based in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, said jets targeted the so-called artisanal miners at a popular gold mining sites in Sudan's River Nile state on Saturday.

Neither the Egyptian government nor the de facto Sudanese authorities have so far commented.

Cairo has previously faced accusations of deadly strikes on gold prospectors as part of a crackdown on illicit activity along its southern border.

Emergency Lawyers noted the previous alleged attacks and said they represented not only a violation of Sudan's sovereign territory but demonstrated the government's lack of control over the region.

"The deliberate targeting of unarmed civilians violates international humanitarian law and the right to life," it said in a statement on Sunday. "These acts may constitute war crimes."

It noted that its death toll was provisional and could rise.

The Paris-based Sudan Tribune reported that the death toll could far exceed the number reported by Emergency Lawyers, citing a survivor of Saturday's attack who said many more people had been injured.

Eyewitnesses said the attack began around 06:00 local time (04:00 GMT), with the aircraft firing more than five missiles directly at the miners' camps, destroying them and excavation pits with people still inside, the newspaper wrote.

The Sudan Tribune reported claims in June that Egyptian forces had used drones and artillery to target artisanal mining sites in the same region, killing several, after sporadic incidents of Egyptian border guards of burning equipment, torching temporary shelters, and firing live ammunition to disperse mine workers.

Days later, Egypt's border agency announced that it and the military had begun a sweeping security campaign along the border to foil illegal migration, drug smuggling and illegal mining.

At the same time, Sudan's de facto leader announced an investigation into the alleged strikes, which were said to have killed dozens.

Gold lies at the core of the border tensions.

Sudan's ongoing civil war has led to a surge in artisanal mining - an often risky practice conducted by civilians with rudimentary tools and without official permission - particularly in remote areas near its borders.

Gold-rich areas such as those in River Nile state lie along porous borders in terrain historically associated with cross-border smuggling routes, with artisanally mined gold potentially feeding into those channels.

Egypt's border force said in June that it had seized 86 tonnes of gold ore along with amateur prospecting equipment.

Artisanal mining has also reportedly continued in Sudan's conflict zones and smuggled gold may be a source of income for armed insurgent groups.

This has raised concerns of illicit Sudanese gold undermining the legitimate Egyptian gold market.

Questions remain over Ebola patient who travelled across three nations undetected

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqp8gknl1njjo, 3 days ago

A Kenyan businessman was able to spend time in one of the regions worst-affected by Ebola, then travel to two more countries before his illness was identified.

The 40-year-old - who was only diagnosed with the deadly infectious disease after arriving seriously ill at a Nairobi hospital - became Kenya's first confirmed case. He died two days later on 5 October.

That his infection went undetected at multiple health facilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo and two airport health screenings in Uganda and Kenya has raised serious questions about these nations' biosecurity during a significant outbreak.

More than 4,000 people have died from Ebola in DR Congo this year, in what is the second most deadly known outbreak to date.

Africa CDC, the continent's leading public health agency, has now reconstructed the Kenyan patient's movements across nearly six weeks, revealing several missed opportunities to detect his infection and potentially preventing dozens of people from coming into contact with the deadly virus.

DR Congo

The account, presented by the agency's emergency director, Dr Wessam Mankoula, provides the clearest picture yet of how the businessman travelled thousands of kilometres while growing increasingly unwell.

The man, whose identity has not been made public, had lived in DR Congo for seven years and had travelled across three of its provinces on business.

Exactly when or where he contracted Ebola remains unclear - but it was present in all three provinces he went through by early October, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The man had spent much of late August and early September in the province of Bas-Uélé, visiting towns including Buta, Aketi and Likati.

The WHO confirmed an Ebola case in Buta in August, prior to his visit, though there is no evidence he contracted the virus there.

His symptoms first emerged around 15 September. He was given antibiotics and sent home.

Two days later, he was admitted to the Tongo Etandi Health Centre in Bondo, where he remained until 19 September.

Despite suffering from fever and a rash, he was diagnosed with a skin infection.

Without an Ebola test being taken at any point during his travels, it is hard to say exactly when he contracted the virus. Those symptoms are consistent with the early stages of the disease, but also other infections common to the region, such as malaria.

On 20 September, he flew to Kisangani, a city with a population of about 1.5 million people on the Congo River, where he spent more than 10 days seeking medical care.

We do not know which hospitals or clinics treated him there, nor what medications they gave him. Kisangani is the capital of Tshopo province which has only recorded 51 Ebola cases.

Uganda

However, on 1 October, more than two weeks after first becoming ill, the businessman boarded another domestic flight to Beni, before continuing his journey to Kasindi, a busy border town.

Both Beni and Kasindi are in North Kivu, which has recorded 1,755 Ebola infections and more than 1,000 deaths, making it one of the Congolese provinces worst-hit by the disease.

But he did not stay there long, crossing into Uganda later that day.

Uganda imposed restrictions on movement across its border with DR Congo shortly after the outbreak began in May.

The country has experience containing several Ebola outbreaks, including through surveillance, contact tracing and the isolation of suspected cases. It has had some cases this year - mostly among people travelling from DR Congo - but was declared free of the disease in August.

But the border between the two nations stretches for hundreds of kilometres through remote terrain, making it difficult to police.

It remains unclear whether the businessman passed through an official health checkpoint when he crossed the border.

Once he had, he travelled by road to the capital, Kampala, and then Entebbe International Airport, where he boarded a flight to Nairobi on 3 October.

Ugandan officials said his temperature was normal when he passed through airport screening. Health experts say his case highlights the limitations of relying on temperature checks and self-declarations.

Mankoula said investigators were examining whether the man's medication could have suppressed his temperature. He may have also not had a fever when he passed through the checks.

Kenya

Similarly, he was not flagged as a suspected Ebola patient when he reached Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, where a relative collected him and drove him directly to Nairobi Hospital, a private medical facility in the Kenyan capital.

By then, he was suffering from fever, chills, muscle pain, a sore throat and bleeding.

Laboratory tests confirmed that he had contracted the Bundibugyo species of Ebola - the same one responsible for the outbreak in DR Congo.

He was placed in isolation while his condition deteriorated. He died on 5 October and was buried the following day under strict infection-control measures.

The Kenyan government says it has now identified 66 people who may have been in contact with him after he arrived there. The WHO says the number is likely to rise as contact-tracing in Uganda and DR Congo continues.

The quarantine arrangements have also raised concerns among some healthcare workers, amid questions about how the patient was handled at Nairobi Hospital.

Kenya's health ministry says more than 652,000 travellers have been screened and nearly 5,000 healthcare workers trained to deal with Ebola, with five facilities designated to handle cases.

Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person who has developed symptoms, or through contaminated materials.

Its incubation period ranges from two to 21 days, meaning someone exposed to the virus may not become ill until several weeks later.

CDC advice

Mankoula urged travellers experiencing symptoms of Ebola to report them, saying early medical attention could improve their chances of survival.

"When you reveal any Ebola-related symptoms early, you're not only preventing the virus spreading to other countries but you're also protecting yourself first," he said.

The WHO has warned that stigma surrounding Ebola could discourage people from reporting symptoms or seeking medical care, potentially allowing the virus to spread undetected.

The agency says it is stepping up efforts to encourage this by reducing fear and misinformation about the disease - something that is a big problem in DR Congo, where some health workers have been attacked by people who claim Ebola doesn't exist.

More from the BBC on the Ebola outbreak:

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

Children among 139 dead after boat capsizes off Djibouti, UN says

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy7lxx60dg5o, today

At least 139 migrants including 15 children have died and dozens more are still missing after a boat sank off the coast of Djibouti, the UN's migration office has said.

The boat had been travelling from Djibouti to Yemen with 305 people aboard when it capsized near the port town of Obock on Thursday night. Around 82 people were rescued, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.

IOM's Djibouti mission chief Alexandre Coissac called the tragedy a "stark reminder" of the dangers migrants face when seeking a new life elsewhere.

Tens of thousands of migrants from the Horn of Africa make the perilous journey each year hoping to reach Gulf countries for safety and work, the agency says.

The organisation revised its toll from 109 on Sunday after 30 more bodies were recovered.

"This is a devastating loss of life," Coissac said. "Our thoughts are with the survivors and the families who have lost loved ones or remain without news of their relatives."

Local authorities are also arranging burials for those who have died, while the survivors - all Ethiopian nationals - have medical care readily available to them.

Yemen remains engulfed in a devastating civil war that has lasted more than a decade. Despite this conflict - and growing instability across the wider region - migrants still cross the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Yemen driven by poverty, insecurity and the growing impacts of climate change.

Since 10 September, the IOM said its Displacement Tracking Matrix had observed more than 20,000 "movements" from Ethiopia to Djibouti.

IOM said it was providing assistance to 64 of the survivors at its response centre in Obock, including healthcare and support to "restore contact with their families".

The UN agency was working in "close collaboration" with local authorities to help migrants and "prevent deaths at sea and on land", it added.

More than 900 migrants died or went missing taking the same route in 2025, during an 18% increase in the number of people attempting the journey, according to IOM statistics.

In March 2026, nine people were killed and 45 went missing following a similar incident as Thursday's.

The conflict in Yemen has also displaced more than 130,000 people across the country, the UN refugee agency said last month.

Thousands of Yemenis have fled to Djibouti to escape the civil war between Houthi fighters and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.

Djibouti is a tiny former French colony that sits just across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen.

Drone strike by Sudan paramilitary kills 41 near Ethiopian border, rights group says

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8vgx9ew571wo, yesterday

A drone attack by Sudan's paramilitary forces has killed 41 people in the country's Blue Nile region bordering Ethiopia, a rights group has said.

The strike by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) targeted a camp for displaced people in the state's Abu Shandi area on Friday, Emergency Lawyers said.

The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said it was "appalled by horrifying reports". It said initial reports suggested most of the casualties were women and children.

The Sudanese army and paramilitary forces including the RSF have been locked in a power struggle since 2023, a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced more than 14 million from their homes.

It has also created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with millions of people needing medical help.

The army controls much of Sudan's central and eastern regions, while the RSF is headquartered in the western region of Darfur and also controls areas in the south.

Both sides have been accused of using drone attacks.

Ocha said in a statement that the area reportedly struck on Friday had been "under sustained atttack in recent weeks, displacing thousands of civilians and exposing many more to grave harm".

Why Zimbabwe tycoon 'Sir Wicknell' was loved and hated in Africa

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3x2wlplnelxo, 5 days ago

Wicknell Chivayo, the Zimbabwean tycoon who died in a helicopter crash along with his wife Lucy Muteke last week, divided opinion in life and continues to do so in death.

He called himself "Sir Wicknell", a nod to the embellishment that epitomised his lifestyle - and a nickname some used for the 45-year-old who packed enough controversy into his short life to last several lifetimes.

He was relentlessly self-documenting, building much of his public persona on social media, where he posed with piles of cash and announced the cars and money he gave to people whom he considered deserving.

Chivayo delighted in displaying his access to heads of state across Africa and showing off his possessions, conducting video tours of his fleet of expensive cars, mainly Rolls-Royces, with vanity plates, watches and a vast collection of designer shoes.

His admirers saw a fabulously wealthy man sharing his good fortune. His detractors recoiled at the ostentatious displays, questioned the origins of his money and his political connections, and saw his lifestyle as a stark illustration of inequality.

But Chivayo remained tone-deaf to such criticism. As his fortunes rose, he became ever more unapologetic about flaunting his wealth in a country where nearly half the population lives below the international poverty line, according to the World Bank.

"He gave to those few on an island of wealth in a sea of poverty," Pedzisai Ruhanya, director of the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute think-tank, told the BBC, explaining how his donations were mainly to influential people.

He dismissed Chivayo's generosity as grandstanding for the ruling Zanu-PF party - an attempt to ensure the support of key politicians and even church leaders.

Nonetheless, there has been an outpouring of grief, especially from recipients of his largesse, and tributes from politicians, religious leaders and business figures.

Among the mourners gathered at the Chivayos' opulent home in the capital, Harare, ahead of their burial on Thursday, was Cleopas Mukungunugwa, a young and prominent Zanu-PF social media influencer and recipient of two luxury cars from Sir Wicknell.

Standing outside the mansion, where a massive poster of the couple is displayed, he told local media that he was devastated by his patron's death, explaining how "Sir Wicknell" often dictated what he should write in his posts.

"He was criticised by many on social media and our goal was to bolster his reputation as a philanthropist," he said.

Chivayo dropped out of high school aged 15 because his family could no longer afford the fees after his father died when he was 10.

His first job was as a wages clerk for a bus company. From there, he moved into his first independent hustle - selling mobile phones and dealing in foreign currency, often on the black market at the height of the country's hyperinflation crisis.

In 2005, he was sentenced to five years in prison for money laundering involving 837,000 South African rand (then worth $137,500, £72,000). He served three years at Chikurubi Maximum Prison after two years were suspended.

Details of his career following his release are murky, but he went into the energy business, becoming what one state-run newspaper described as a "tenderpreneur" -making money by getting government contracts.

He headed the firm Intratrek Zimbabwe, which partnered with Chinese electrical giant CHiNT Electric. This was at a time when legislation required all companies in the country to cede economic control to black Zimbabweans, under a policy known as indigenisation.

In 2014, Intratrek was selected to build a 100MW solar power station in the southern town of Gwanda. A contract worth more than $170m was signed the following year. It became one of the biggest controversies of Chivayo's business career.

Zimbabwe Power Company, the state-owned utility that awarded the contract, sought to terminate it when Intratrek failed to deliver, but the courts ultimately ruled that the agreement remained valid.

A parliamentary inquiry later described Intratrek as a "briefcase company" being used as a front to attract investment.

Chivayo acknowledged that Intratrek lacked expertise in solar construction, describing it as the local partner while CHiNT provided the technical muscle.

Intratrek received an advance of more than $5m for the Gwanda solar plant, but it remains unbuilt to this day.

Just weeks before Chivayo's death, Intratrek received a government notice to proceed with the project and was given 24 months to complete it.

As the accusations flew, the businessman just smiled and sweet-talked his way through the maelstrom - even winning over President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was initially unimpressed by him when he first came to power.

In 2018, Mnangagwa cited Gwanda as a lesson in the dangers of doing business with "fly-by-night briefcase businessmen", adding ominously that "Chikurubi is not full". The state-run Herald newspaper reported that the warning was directed at Chivayo.

Yet within a few years, that relationship transformed into a bromance. In one of several photographs capturing the remarkable informality between them, Chivayo lounges, almost lying, on a sofa beside Mnangagwa, apparently entirely at ease in the president's company.

His access was not confined to Zanu-PF - he also posted photographs with opposition figures, including the late Morgan Tsvangirai and Nelson Chamisa.

But he became a conspicuous presence around Mnangagwa, speaking glowingly of the president and making no secret of his support for Zanu-PF.

He faced allegations over the procurement of materials for the 2023 elections, in which Mnangagwa was voted in for a second term.

Investigations alleged that South African supplier Ren-Form grossly inflated prices and subsequently paid hundreds of millions of rand to a company linked to him. Chivayo denied wrongdoing, and Zimbabwe's anti-corruption commission later said it had found no evidence linking him to procurement fraud. Ren-Form denied any wrongdoing.

In April, he offered the country's 360 legislators $10,000 each, prompting accusations that he wanted to influence an impending vote on a controversial constitutional amendment to extend what would have been Mnangagwa's final five-year term by two years to 2030.

He was forced to withdraw the offer following a backlash and denied it was intended to influence the vote.

When the legislation was signed into law several months later, Zanu-PF posted a video clip of him with the caption: "Billionaire Sir Wicknell Chivayo celebrates… singing '2030 Ndeya Emmerson Baba!' while cruising at 51,000 feet aboard his Gulfstream G550".

Access to power became part of Chivayo's social-media persona. In June, Eswatini's King Mswati III granted him citizenship of the southern African kingdom and a diplomatic passport - photographs and videos showed him kneeling before the monarch.

He had an impressive camera roll, with snaps of him posing with other African presidents such as Nigeria's Bola Tinubu, Tanzania's Samia Suluhu Hassan, Malawi's Peter Mutharika, Mozambique's Daniel Chapo, Zambia's Hakainde Hichilema and he was part of the delegation that met South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa when he visited Mnangagwa's farm earlier this year.

Some relationships extended beyond formal meetings. In August, Chivayo and his wife attended the engagement of Kenyan President William Ruto's daughter Charlene at the president's family home.

Afterwards, Ruto personally drove the couple to their waiting helicopter. Chivayo filmed the journey from the passenger seat. True to form, he gloated: "Being driven by the president of the republic. God is the greatest."

Ruto wrote on X following the death: "I will remember him for his friendship, his energy, and his deep conviction in the possibilities of our continent."

But in Kenya the Zimbabwean businessman was viewed with great suspicion because of his closeness to Ruto - something expressed loudly on social media since his death.

Many of the comments are not printable but as Kenyan blogger Cyprian Nyakundi put it, listing some of the controversies surrounding Chivayo: "As a Kenyan, I distance myself completely from President Ruto's glowing tribute to Wicknell Chivayo. Those condolences and that 'dear friend' language are his own, not mine, as a Kenyan."

One commentator on X said his death had "united Africans in celebration".

"When a man's passing brings more relief than sorrow, the reaction itself tells a powerful story. It is time for those in power to reflect and reevaluate!"

At home there has also been pushback against those who say speaking ill of the dead is un-African - as the topic of the tycoon's death is the trending topic in Zimbabwe these days.

At a shopping centre in Harare over the weekend, Christabel Moyo voiced what many have been saying.

"What is African - getting rich from inflated state contracts and using that money to support Zanu-PF?" the 42-year-old accountant asked.

"He was busy doling out cars and cash to the rich while the Zimbabwean public health system is collapsing."

The extraordinary gifting spree for which he will be remembered began around 2023. Musicians, sports and business figures, politicians and religious leaders were among the beneficiaries of cars and cash in what some might see as a blatant attempt to buy support for the ruling party.

He started with relatively modest Toyota Aquas, but the gifts soon became dramatically more expensive.

Top musician Jah Prayzah, who is close to Zanu-PF was given three luxury cars, along with about $400,000, over three years.

The musician postponed his wedding - scheduled to take place last weekend - because of the helicopter crash, saying: "Wicknell was more than a friend to us."

Another key recipient was Bishop Nehemiah Mutendi, head of the Zion Christian Church that is fiercely loyal to Zanu-PF. The cleric received millions in cash donations and four luxury cars.

Chivayo regularly attended the Johane Masowe weChishanu African apostolic church, one of the biggest in Zimbabwe, whose followers can often be seen worshipping outdoors wearing white robes.

It also received scores of cars, buses and cash from the businessman as he pushed the influential sect closer to the ruling party, taking along Mnangagwa as guest of honour to a massive church gathering in August.

But not everyone accepted Chivayo's largesse. Eunor Guti, widow of Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa founder Archbishop Ezekiel Guti, declined a luxury vehicle and $250,000 in cash.

In 2024, veteran musician and government critic Thomas Mapfumo, who is based in the US, rejected Chivayo's offer of a luxury car and house, saying he could not be "bribed" and later describing his money as "dirty".

However, this year, he did accept $1m to perform at Jah Prayzah's wedding and Chivayo's birthday party in November.

Some long-time admirers of Mapfumo, who arrived in Harare on the eve of the helicopter crash, accused him on social media of compromising his principles, though this was denied by the 81-year-old musician.

Chivayo's generosity was not confined to individuals - he also donated 20 ambulances to Zimbabwe's failing public health system and gave buses and other assistance to schools.

Those close to him say his philanthropy was not always performed for an audience. Prominent lawyer Wilson Manase said following the tycoon's death that when he had fallen seriously ill in Dubai, Chivayo flew over to visit him.

In an interview with state broadcaster ZBC, the lawyer, who was promised a car in Chivayo's last tweet, described him as "pure hearted" and deeply religious.

The tycoon had two young children with his first wife Sonja Madzikanda, from whom he split in 2024 and was still embroiled in a messy court case over the divorce settlement.

He was also keen not to forget his roots. On the day he died, he had visited his rural home in Gandami, south-east of Harare, where he was building a $1m eight-bedroom mansion to be officially opened in November for his birthday.

He boasted it would bring "Borrowdale Brooke to Gandami" - a reference to one of Harare's most exclusive residential estates. He had also pledged $500,000 to improve the local primary and secondary schools and a clinic.

Chivayo's death leaves Zanu-PF without one of its most colourful campaigners.

But he also leaves behind unanswered questions - with many of his countrymen continuing to wonder how exactly he rose from such humble beginnings to becoming a multi-millionaire with the means to dole out such extravagant gifts.

Ish Mafundikwa is a freelance journalist based in Harare

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

Why pastors may not be seen - or heard - preaching on Ghana's buses for much longer

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwnvln99v2ygo, 9 days ago

Before the morning rush begins, the sound of praise and worship fills the Neoplan bus station in Ghana's capital, Accra, as a group of Christians gather to prepare to evangelise on vehicles taking travellers across the country.

Amid drumming and dancing, Boateng Bismark James leads 13 worshippers, nine men and four women, in prayer for drivers and passengers travelling to destinations across Ghana.

Ghana is a predominantly Christian country where preaching on public transport is widespread.

On long-distance buses, pastors can often be seen - and heard - preaching the gospel.

Sometimes they stand in the stairwell next to the driver, at others they walk up and down the aisle reading from the Bible and calling on sinners to repent at the tops of their voices. They do not stop even if the trip lasts for several hours.

The faithful sometimes offer money to the preachers to support their endeavours.

But a new law means this familiar practice could be coming to an end.

Anyone found preaching in public service vehicles faces up to eight months in prison, a fine of up to $52 (£39) or both.

The new regulation, passed by parliament in May, and which has started to be enforced in recent weeks, targets preaching and hawking on vehicles while they are in motion, classifying both as a nuisance and citing the safety and comfort of passengers.

Boateng, a 61-year-old pastor at Gospel Light church, has been preaching on commercial vehicles leaving Neoplan station since 2023.

"I preach on commercial vehicles because not everyone is able to go to church on Sunday. There are a lot of passengers who need our message of salvation to repent from their sins. We even heal the sick on some buses," he told the BBC in Twi, a local language.

Wearing a clerical collared shirt, Boateng moves through rows of buses loading passengers before boarding one bound for Kumasi, Ghana's second-largest city.

We speak to him before the bus departs to avoid breaking the law.

Some travellers listen closely as he delivers his message. Others try to ignore him, browsing their phones, making calls or chatting among themselves.

"Some passengers are very happy with my message. Some even say they have never heard the message in church, but through my preaching they now know it is in the Bible," he says.

The new rules have divided opinion.

Critics say preaching on moving vehicles is a nuisance and a safety risk, as it could distract the driver, while supporters argue that evangelism is a Christian duty and should be protected under the freedom of religious worship.

One woman in her early 30s, who wishes to be identified as Chery Lokko, says she prefers to travel in peace.

''I don't like it because they are a nuisance. Some of them spit saliva on you unconsciously, especially if you are seated not far from them, and they are a nuisance in terms of noise and saliva. I like my peace whenever I'm on public transport.''

In one video widely shared on social media recently, a passenger on a minibus is seen angrily confronting a pastor attempting to board.

"Get down, I say get down," he shouts.

But in this devout country, ranked among the most religious in the world, others say evangelism on public transport is an important way of reaching people who may not attend church.

Bernice Nartey, a passenger travelling to Kumasi, says pastors should be allowed to preach, but only with passengers' consent.

"The preaching sometimes helps people to repent. For instance, if someone is going through a stressful situation, the message of the pastor can give the person renewed hope," she says.

Boateng says he was shaken by the regulation and wants religious preachers to be given an exemption.

"We are very worried, because most pastors here depend on preaching to take care of their families through the monetary gifts offered by passengers," he says.

"The government should allow us to preach on the buses and alight when it is exiting Accra," he adds.

For Boateng, preaching is not only a religious calling but also an important source of income.

"I have been able to take care of my children's education. My last-born just completed university, and half of the financial support came from money I got from preaching."

Ghana's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, although those rights are subject to considerations including public safety.

Preaching on commercial buses was first prohibited in Ghana in 2012, with offenders facing up to 30 days in prison.

But enforcement was weak and so the practice remained common, particularly on buses. The new law beefs up the penalties for those that flout the ban.

Preachers using megaphones can also often be seen and heard at Ghana's lorry parks and markets but they are not affected by the ban.

The Christian Council of Ghana did not respond to the BBC's request for a comment but Rev Enoch Paul Hayes, a senior pastor at one of the biggest churches in Ghana, the International Central Gospel Church, tells the BBC he does not think the new rules infringe on religious freedom.

He urges his fellow pastors not to break the law, saying they should find other ways of spreading their message.

"There is social media as an alternative outlet, where the same message can reach thousands of people," he says.

For Boateng and other bus preachers, the new rules create a difficult choice between adapting their ministry, giving up an important source of income, or risking falling foul of the law.

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

The South African men trying to end violence against women: 'Every man needs to play a part'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm3eqegwpzl4o, 10 days ago

"I witness men hitting women all the time," says Kgomotso Mathekga, 30. "Especially when they are both drunk."

"I once had an argument with my girlfriend," he admits, "and I grabbed and slapped her."

Mathekga is speaking frankly during a gathering of men aimed at helping reduce the high levels of violence against women in South Africa.

The meeting is held in a narrow street in a Johannesburg informal settlement known as Organic Market. It is a maze of corrugated metal shacks and unpaved roads, close to Alexandra township.

"Now I feel pain," Mathekga continues. "We broke up and I no longer see my child. I feel like I've contributed to the problems in South Africa, instead of being the gentleman that I know I am."

At a nearby tavern, a group of men have pulled their chairs into a circle in the dust.

At the centre stands Itumeleng Stephen Tamaga, known locally as Bra Steve.

He raises his fist.

"We are men!" he shouts.

The group clap and cheers. Some sip bottled beer.

"Listen guys," Bra Steve says. "We must stand together to fight against gender-based violence and femicide."

Bra Steve is the local organiser of Father A Nation, a non-profit that works with men and boys to promote positive masculinity and help end violence against women.

The group's meeting comes as South Africa grapples with renewed anger over renewed cases of femicide and violence against women.

The discovery of the bodies of 12 women over three months, in the city of Ekurhuleni, near Johannesburg has reignited questions about the scale of what many people see as being a crisis of violence against women.

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has acknowledged that his government has not done enough and announced measures he hopes can make women feel safer.

The country has one of the highest murder rates in the world, with 5,427 people murdered between April and June this year alone.

In that period, according to the South African Human Rights Commission, 569 women were killed, an average of six a day, and 1,052 others survived attempted murder.

A report in 2022 by the Human Sciences Research Council found that more than 35% of South African women experienced physical or sexual violence, many from their own intimate partners.

For Bra Steve, part of the solution to the crisis is helping men to understand the issue and take responsibility for their actions.

"We are a lost generation," he says. "We must restore dignity to the men around here."

Amongst the group of men outside the tavern is Zizipho Mtwesi, the project co-ordinator of Father A Nation.

Reflecting on recent weeks, he says more should be done.

The latest measures announced by Ramaphosa, including better street lighting and a review of unsolved cases, are too little, he says, and too late.

"When I think about all of these recent murders in Johannesburg, I get angry. Why do we have to wait for this to happen for us to act?"

He looks around and gestures at the meeting. "We are trying to reach men before things like these murders happen again."

Craig Wilkinson is the founder of the group. "We get men to talk, to process their feelings," he explains.

"And as they do, this healing takes place. And the second phase is teaching and training positive masculinity.

"We ultimately hope that this will eliminate the scourge of gender-based violence."

He stands up, moving into the centre of the group, calling out to the men.

"You as a man are a powerful force for good," he tells them. "You choose what kind of man you want to be. Women need to be safe."

Father A Nation operates across South Africa, teaching healthy masculinity and running training programmes across dozens of schools and colleges.

Mystery surrounds the spate of murders which has sparked South Africa's latest moment of soul-searching about the safety of its women.

Police have not ruled out potential links between some of the Ekurhuleni deaths but have not said they are investigating a serial killer. Suspects in some of the cases have appeared in court.

But the spate of deaths has sparked new concerns and in Organic Market some women are more fearful than ever.

Outside a nearby shack Linkie listens with interest as she cleans clothes in a large metal bucket.

"We are not safe when we are outside our place," she says.

"We are afraid when we see a car behind us when we walk. We feel afraid. We feel scared. What if this guy's going to kidnap me or do something to me?"

It is a feeling shared by many women here. In the local hair salon, sporting a mane of thick pink braids, is Providence Maseko.

She comes to the door to speak to Bra Steve.

"Safety here is very bad," she says, "Maybe you are the serial killer. How do I know who to trust?"

Bra Steve laughs. "We must talk about these things," he urges. "Come to our meetings and we can learn to trust each other."

Maseko tells me that she now takes an e-hailing taxi everywhere in the hope that it is safer.

Back at the tavern, the men's meeting is wrapping up.

"As we try to stop gender-based violence," says Zizipho, "each and every man needs to know that they need to play a part in this.

"And if they wouldn't allow these things to happen to their own daughters or own mothers, they mustn't allow it to be done to someone else's daughter, which is their wives or their girlfriends."

Mathekga is impressed with what he has heard.

"I would love them to keep on practising what we have learned, because we no longer have role models," he says. "Our fathers and our uncles, they are there in prison. We must now become role models and help make this country better."

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

Making politics 'fun, trendy, sexy': How Gen Z could shape Kenya's next election

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwly7v7kk17mo, 11 days ago

Ademba Allans is making it "cool" to vote in Kenya.

The student journalist turned civic mobiliser launched a voter registration drive on social media earlier this year, using snappy selfies infused with music and humour to target young people.

The result astonished him and many observers of Kenyan politics – by the time the registration period ended, 2.6 million new voters across the country had signed up. He is aiming to get another 2.3 million on board in the next round.

"It was the Gen Z way of doing politics," he tells me. "Fun, trendy, sexy, fashionable. Because of how we created the hype around it, people had the fear of missing out. Everybody wanted to be involved."

Gen Z, the term used to describe people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s, burst onto the scene two years ago with mass protests that forced the government to retreat on a widely unpopular tax bill. But their victory was followed by a police crackdown that killed and injured dozens of demonstrators.

Now many young Kenyans are planning to move from the street to the ballot box, angry with a political establishment they accuse of corruption and police brutality.

And they have the numbers to make a difference - more than 30% of voting-age Kenyans are younger than 35.

Polls suggest President William Ruto is looking vulnerable.

But can Gen Z convert a decentralized digital-led rebellion into organised political power?

"These youth-led movements are a wild card, in that they are unpredictable," says political analyst Tom Mboya.

"They don't require much in the way of resources and can pop up at any time. The finance bill protests were political in nature, but the movement has not been tested at an overtly political level. So if they decide to support a candidate, then he's likely to do fairly well."

One of the strengths of the digitally savvy Gen Z activists is that they have been able to mobilise outside the party structures and ethnic allegiances that anchor Kenyan politics.

Allans has been careful not to advocate a particular candidate or party – emphasising leadership rather than politicians, marshalling a new force, he says, outside traditional tribal voting blocs.

"There has never been a case where there is a bloc that is not affiliated to any person or any party. They just want to vote in the right leaders, and this is what we created," he says.

"It's more of a swing vote because you cannot tell who we are going to vote for."

Ruto and his United Democratic Alliance (UDA) are facing strong head winds with less than a year to go before the August 2027 vote.

More than three-quarters of respondents to a survey conducted in June felt the country was moving in the wrong direction, with two-thirds saying their personal economic situation had worsened since Ruto was elected in 2022.

But analysts argue that the president does not necessarily have to be popular to win. He is a master political organiser with the resources of the state, they say.

Ruto's political rivals are also fragmented, and it is not yet clear whether they can form a united opposition to take him on.

One man who has captured the attention of many Gen Zs is Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna. He has emerged as the leader of a movement called Linda Mwananchi (Protect the Citizen), which is getting strong support from disaffected young people.

Sifuna first caught their attention when he tried to stop police from shooting at protesters who were storming parliament during the 2024 demonstrations.

Now he is championing a "people-led" movement that promotes the protection of human rights and rule of law as enshrined in the constitution.

He has yet to officially declare a run for the presidency, but is already on the road rallying support. The BBC caught up with him on a recent trip to Meru county in central Kenya, a region that voted strongly for Ruto in the last election.

"Young people want us to create an environment where everybody feels that they can compete fairly," he told me before starting out on his raucous road show.

"We need to absolutely dismantle the system so that everybody has a fair chance at life, a fair chance at education, a fair chance at employment, and the opportunities to grow themselves.

"This election in 2027 is when this theory that the young people are advancing will be put to the test," he said. "Our challenge as a leadership is to ensure you have a compelling message that then encourages people to come out, let them see the vision for the new country."

Ruto also had a compelling vision for the country when he came to power in 2022.

He promised to transform the economy from the bottom up, with a focus on lifting the marginalised. His government has since introduced changes including landmark reforms that widen access to public healthcare, but many young people felt betrayed by his austerity measures and tax hikes.

"I'm here to participate in a revolution change that we want a new Kenyan youth leader who knows the common problems that are facing the young people," 23-year-old Brandon Muremi told the BBC.

I found him in a relatively quiet corner of the final stop in a hectic day of a "rolling rally" – Sifuna's convoy visited four locations, sometimes blocking traffic as he and local politicians climbed on top of their vehicles and delivered rousing speeches at ear-splitting volumes.

"We are looking for a leader who sticks to his plans, not just talking the promises that he makes," agreed Conrad Mutangili, a 19-year-old mechanical engineering student who had come out of curiosity.

"We are looking for somebody who can actually accomplish and actually bring to the people what they are talking about," he said. "Because they promise sweets, but we don't feel any sugar in our mouths."

"We want immediate results," said a 22-year-old computer science student, Yvonne Kileme, acknowledging that the results of government projects may be more long-term. "And one thing that we want as youths is employment, employment, employment, employment."

Ruto argues strongly that his government is delivering jobs, and says the high rate of youth unemployment is a problem that predates his presidency.

He has reached out to Gen Z with various programmes that offer grants and loans to small business and youth-led enterprises, technology hubs and digital work opportunities.

The national youth leader of Ruto's UDA, Kariuki Ngunjiri, told the BBC he was confident of winning the election with an overwhelming majority.

"The president is a listening president and he's been able to now come down to the youth, get what their concerns are, give them jobs, and that has absolutely, even for the party, given us a head start," he said.

"We are not worried about the social media buzz because we are people who actually engage the young people on real, actual, tangible development. What you see mostly on sponsored hashtags and sponsored headlines does not really concern us."

He was speaking as a senior sports official promised to expand the stadium-building programme with another venue, at a packed UDA town hall meeting in Kangema, about 100km (60 miles) north of the capital, Nairobi.

Like so many others, 23-year-old Shintah Mutahi was job hunting.

"I came to listen to what they were saying," she said, "maybe find an opportunity for a job. I think they can give me a chance, they should just be given some time to do that."

John Kiragu, a local UDA youth leader, said he understood the grievances that had driven young people to protest.

"There have been challenges," he said, "but now the government is really trying hard to consolidate the youth. The government is implementing programmes that will really uplift their lives."

Kiragu told me he was involved in a programme to deal with youth alcoholism – a real problem in this region. Many of the young men who attended the morning town hall meeting were already drunk on a cheap local liquor.

The captain of the local football team, Calvin Ware, also turned up to hear the stadium announcement. He said he had heard similar promises many times before, especially before elections, and this one was not going to influence his vote.

"We have already made our mind," he said. "The whole government should go home. We want to build a new Kenya, new youth, new people, fresh people from all over the country, and we are not basing on tribal [allegiances] or anything else. We just want a change, a change, and a change. Nothing else."

As we were speaking, we heard a loud cheer – the event had ended and people were lining up to receive cash handouts – 350 Kenyan shillings, about $3 (£2.20).

It is common practice to pay people to attend political meetings in Kenya, and politicians can use much larger sums to try and influence votes.

"More so than many other parts of the world, money talks in an election here," says political analyst Mboya. "The cost of politics is significantly higher than in other parts of the world."

Less than a year to Kenya's election, it does feel like politics might be changing, that the race could be shaped by youth disillusionment with the political establishment. But while the Gen Z movement has rejected the "old politics" based on ethnic group and money, those have been the building blocks that win elections in Kenya.

Nobody yet knows what the energy of Gen Z voters will mean at the ballot box.

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

Journalist crowned king in Uganda after bitter succession dispute

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx7v4glz50elo, 13 days ago

Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma has been crowned king of Uganda's Tooro kingdom.

The new monarch has long been a familiar face in the East African nation, where for many he was known not as the heir to the throne, but as a storyteller: a long-serving anchor and editor at the state broadcaster.

But the 56-year-old - now King Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma Nyabongo I - has become the subject of media attention himself as his rise to the Tooro throne sparked controversy and widespread reactions beyond the country.

Tooro is one of Uganda's four main officially recognised historical kingdoms. For the last 31 years, it had been headed by King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, who was once known as a "boy king", after ascending to the throne as an infant.

Oyo became king in 1995 at the age of just three, following the death of his father. Then the world's youngest monarch, he ruled until he died last month from cancer, aged just 34.

The coronation is a day for celebration, involving traditional practices that started at midnight.

Kijanangoma has had to perform various ceremonies and walk about 4km (2.5 miles) to the official Karuziika royal palace where he has now been crowned.

The Tooro kingdom's Information Minister Charles Mwanguhya told the BBC Focus on Africa podcast that a mock fight would follow his crowning, to signify that kingship does not come easy.

Kijanangoma would then be blessed by members of the royal Babiito clan, he said.

But his selection was far from straightforward.

According to tradition, a recognised son of the late king should have succeeded him. Close members of the royal family said Oyo had left a young son and a will with instructions that the child should be next on the throne.

But the son has never been revealed to the public and nor was he recognised by the committee of 21 Babiito clan members who choose the king and eventually selected Kijanangoma.

The late King Oyo was never publicly married, and little is known about his wife or their son.

Nonetheless his mother, Queen Best Kemigisa, argued that the late king's will ought to have been respected.

However, the royal succession committee ignored her wishes, insisting their selection process was conducted in accordance with Tooro customs and traditions.

The new king has thus found himself at the centre of a succession dispute, with Kemigisa and her close relatives unhappy with the outcome.

Kemigisa referred to Kijanangoma's selection as the "announcement of a second king" being "made after the will of King Oyo was read to members of the royal family".

"As a mother, that was extraordinarily painful," she said, describing celebrations for the next king taking place "only metres from where my son's body lay".

The queen later said Oyo's son, who was in the US state of Texas, had been due to return home but that could not happen amid a "tense and polarised succession dispute".

"No child should be placed in circumstances where returning to his father's homeland could mean being drawn into hostility and conflict," Kemigisa asserted in a post on X.

But according to the Tooro kingdom's information minister, the son being talked about "hasn't been presented anywhere, which means there is a growing acceptance that sad as it may be, King Oyo didn't leave a son behind".

While King Oyo inherited the crown from his father, Mwanguhya told the BBC "the crown has moved to a different line within the ruling clan".

A king must come from the Babiito clan, specifically the lineage of King George David Matthew Kamurasi Rukidi III, according to royal palace sources.

Kijanangoma and the late King Oyo are cousins. Both are grandsons of Rukidi III, the 11th king, or Omukama, who ruled the Tooro kingdom from 1928 to 1965.

Kijanangoma was among several people who were considered for the role, including Prince George Desmond Kamurasi, who plays football for one of the UK's best-known amateur clubs.

According to the succession committee, the South East Dons captain and goalkeeper declined the offer of the throne, citing other responsibilities.

After he was formally announced, Kijanangoma promised that the palace would be open to the people, while vowing to focus on unity and development.

"I ask you for one thing - they have given me this title as king but I cannot work alone, I have to work with you," he said.

Uganda's traditional kings have no formal political authority, but they retain cultural influence and command significant loyalty in the communities they lead.

The country is home to four main kingdoms, the largest and most prominent being Buganda in the central region, which encompasses the capital Kampala.

The kingdoms were abolished in 1967, but the government under President Yoweri Museveni restored them in the early 1990s.

The government said this was to promote cultural pride and national unity, but the move has also been interpreted as a way of appeasing communities and fostering political loyalty.

Amid the succession dispute, the government backed the Babiito clan's choice of Kijanangoma. Attorney General Sam Mayanja said the Tooro kingdom was cleared to go ahead with the coronation, as there had not been a formal complaint against him.

The date of the coronation was announced by the government with President Museveni attending the ceremony.

The president's son and the head of the military, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has also publicly supported Kijanangoma. "Long may he reign," he posted on X.

Kijanangoma's very name points to his royal heritage.

His father, the first Kijanangoma, was born in the year King Rukidi III became king. The king gave him the name, which means the "one who comes with the royal drum".

The drum of royalty, foretold two generations earlier, is now returning to its bearer.

Kijanangoma was born in 1970 and raised at their family home at Kidukuru village in Fort Portal, about 300km (186 miles) from Kampala.

He left the village to pursue further studies and graduated with a mass communication degree from Uganda's prestigious Makerere University in 1999.

He worked as a broadcaster in a career spanning more than two decades, including in neighbouring Rwanda and at home, with the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC).

The years spent engaging with the public, the interactions with leaders and the exposure to national affairs in his work as a journalist may yet serve him well as he returns to the community he came from, this time as their leader.

After he was named king, Kijanangoma said he would use the connections he had built up over 21 years working as a journalist "to get good things for our people".

His mother, Assimwe Yusta Kijanangoma, is confident that he is well prepared for his new role. She says his upbringing was deeply rooted in tradition.

"I really raised him with the teachings of the old kingdom of a cane and instructions and scolding. I laugh with him, and other times I scold him," she told the BBC.

She added: "Eddy is well-mannered, he does not fight, or shout, even when wronged, he says a few words and does not go so much into it."

She feels good for her son, although she admits to having mixed emotions, especially as her son is taking over after the death of a "great man".

More about Uganda from the BBC:

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Navi Pillay, former UN human rights chief, wins Nobel Peace Prize

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm9wz5kng0x1o, 3 days ago

Former UN human rights chief and International Court of Justice judge Navi Pillay has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.

The South African judge was recognised "for her efforts to promote peace and international law", which paved the way for a "more comprehensive global legal order", the Nobel committee said.

Pillay, 85, has taken part in high-profile work considering allegations of human rights violations during a decades-long career, including in Rwanda, Myanmar and Gaza.

Pillay's work had been "instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are prosecuted", said the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Jørgen Watne Frydnes.

"Navi Pillay's commitment to universal legal principles and her firm moral compass are constants in a long career," he said.

"At a time of existential challenges - including more wars and conflicts than the world has seen in a long time - international law is no longer just a supplement to peace and security. It is an absolute necessity."

Frydnes said the committee had not been able to notify Pillay that she had won in advance, "so my message to her would be 'if you see a Norwegian number calling, please pick up'".

Shortly afterwards, Pillay reacted to the news from Nuremberg's Palace of Justice by saying "it must be a joke" and thanked those who had gathered to applaud her.

"If you clap a little bit more I may share this prize with Trump," she joked. Last year's winner, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, gave her medal to the US president in January as "recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom".

Pillay dedicated her award to "all the survivors of international crimes" and the practitioners of international justice "whose compassion and courage continue to ensure that impunity will not be allowed to reign".

Navanethem "Navi" Pillay grew up in South Africa during apartheid as a bus driver's daughter in a poor Indian section of Durban.

She went on to become the first woman to establish a law practice in Natal Province in 1967, and later the first non-white woman to be appointed to the country's high court.

Pillay served as a judge on the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda - focused on the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people were killed - including four years as its president. She was elected to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2003.

From 2021-25, she chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory - a fact-finding body established by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate alleged violations of international law.

The commission concluded that Israel had committed genocidal acts in Gaza and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant, had "incited the commission of genocide" in their speeches and statements.

The three-member expert panel did not speak officially for the UN and had no legal authority. Israel rejected its findings and accused the three members of the commission of serving as "Hamas proxies".

The panel had previously concluded that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes and other grave violations of international law on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and another 251 taken hostage. The same report also accused Israel of war crimes.

Reacting to Pillay's award on Friday, Israel's Foreign Ministry said it represented a "grotesque weaponisation of an award to legitimise anti-Israel hatred and prejudice".

It said in a statement: "Her role in the relentless, politically motivated demonisation of Israel and promotion of the genoLIE speaks volumes."

US President Donald Trump, who has previously expressed a desire to receive the prize, reposted a statement on social media that said the Nobel committee had "demeaned" the award by giving it to someone it described as an "unabashed hater of America and Israel".

The US later announced sweeping sanctions on the court, saying it wanted to restrict its resources and ability to operate. The ICC called the move an assault on the rule of law.

Nobel committee chair Frydnes said the organisation was not taking a position on whether the Israeli offensive in Gaza amounted to genocide by handing Pillay the peace prize. Asked about Pillay's UN commission on the matter, he replied her award had been given "for her whole work".

Pillay is currently a judge on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case where Myanmar stands accused by The Gambia of genocide against the Rohingya people.

Myanmar has denied deliberately trying to destroy the minority Muslim population, with a government representative telling the court in January that the allegation was "unsubstantiated".

UN human rights chief Volker Turk said Pillay's recognition was "a reaffirmation that human rights, the rule of law and justice, and accountability are fundamental to everything, to peace, to security, and prosperity".

Meanwhile, UN Secretary General António Guterres said she had been "a steadfast, independent voice of justice amidst some of the most historic international legal cases of our time".

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa said she had been a "pioneering defence attorney for anti-apartheid activists" who had worked to "uphold human dignity and bring hope in South Africa and to peoples globally".

Amnesty International secretary general Agnès Callamard said she was with Pillay when she learned she had won - and called her an "inspired choice" for the award.

"At a time when both international law and justice are under attack, when too many states attempt to hollow them out, her Nobel Peace Prize could not come at a better time," she said.

Ethiopia warns Eritrea it will defend itself after troops cross border

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c65ynvw250y1o, 3 days ago

Ethiopia has accused Eritrea of an "all-out invasion" of its northern Tigray region and warned it will defend itself, days after residents told the BBC Eritrean troops had crossed into the country.

In a letter sent to the UN Security Council and seen by the BBC, Ethiopia's foreign minister called it a "blatant act of aggression that engages Ethiopia's inherent right to self-defence".

Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel responded by saying it was facing "an unprovoked war of aggression" from its neighbour.

Fighting broke out two weeks ago between the government and the party that controls Tigray, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

Both blame each other for violating a 2022 deal that ended a civil war.

Ethiopia says Eritrea is backing the TPLF, which it denies.

During the two-year civil war, Eritrea was a key ally of the Ethiopian government, having fought alongside them against the TPLF.

But relations between the two neighbours have since deteriorated - largely over the Ethiopian prime minister's ambition to take ownership of one of Eritrea's Red Sea ports - leading to the severing of diplomatic ties last week.

Accusing Eritrea of violating its sovereignty, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gedion Timothewos said Eritrean forces had advanced up to 60km (37 miles) into Tigray.

Ethiopian drone strikes reportedly targeted Eritrean forces in the Tigrayan town of Adigrat on Wednesday and Thursday, amid fears of a wider regional war.

US-based conflict monitor Acled said "Eritrean troops and ammunition" in Adigrat were hit by "multiple drone strikes" overnight.

One resident told AFP news agency "there were many, many drone strikes", and that some Eritrean lorries had been destroyed.

Another witness said Eritrean forces appeared to be retreating north after the strikes, AFP reported.

There have so far been no verified reports of casualties. The BBC is unable to report from Tigray.

Dated 8 October, Ethiopia's letter to UN Security Council members read: "In this time of difficulty, when Ethiopia is left with no other option but to defend itself, we count on your understanding, support, and solidarity."

But while Ethiopia accuses its neighbour of supporting the TPLF, Eritrea has blamed the conflict on Ethiopia's leaders, and accused them looking for a reason to seize Eritrean territory.

On Friday, Eritrea's information minister called the accusations levelled against Asmara as "duplicity in their most extreme forms".

In a post on X, he said Ethiopia was "openly working to bring about regime change in Eritrea by providing shelter and support to certain mercenaries who claim to be opposition".

Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993, but ties were only normalised in 2018, when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power.

This latest unrest follows months of tension and the launch of new alliance of armed groups in Ethiopia - including the TPLF - in September.

Last week, TPLF forces withdrew from Tigray's main city of Mekelle, which is 115km (71 miles) south of Adigrat and is now under army control.

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

Cars torched and shops looted as anti-migrant violence erupts in South Africa

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwm24v45p4jgo, 3 days ago

At least 24 vehicles have been set ablaze and foreign-owned shops looted in South Africa as anti-immigration protests descended into violence in two major cities, police say.

Unrest broke out on Thursday in Soweto, a sprawling township outside Johannesburg, the country's largest city, and Durban, a major port on the east coast.

The violence comes amid growing anger over a court ruling which would allow some migrants who had arrived in the country illegally to apply for asylum.

This had led to long queues outside immigration centres and the government on Friday said it would change the way it would comply with that ruling, without giving details.

The Department of Home Affairs said the current policy had seen its staff "overwhelmed", while "serious threats to public safety and order had emerged".

It said that the new policy would still abide by the Constitutional Court ruling.

South Africa has experienced repeated outbreaks of xenophobic violence, often targeting migrants from neighbouring countries.

Thursday's demonstration turned violent following allegations that a foreign national had assaulted one of the protesters in Durban.

Three foreign nationals were arrested in connection with the alleged assault, police said.

In Durban, in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, protesters gathered outside a government refugee reception centre demanding that it stop accepting asylum applications.

Police fired rubber bullets to disperse crowds as businesses in the city centre shut their doors.

"There were clashes between foreign nationals in the area and South African nationals," senior local police officer Xolani Fihla told state broadcaster SABC.

"At the present moment, I can confirm that no injuries have been reported," he added.

Police said 14 vehicles were torched in Durban and 10 in Soweto, where gunshots were also reported during confrontations between residents and foreign shopkeepers.

Acting national police commissioner Lt Gen Puleng Dimpane condemned the destruction of property.

In Orlando West, a neighbourhood of Soweto, residents had initially gathered to demand the closure of small convenience stores, known locally as spaza shops, operated by foreign nationals.

Protesters forced foreign traders out of some areas, while shops were attacked and a building was set on fire, local media reported.

Police said reinforcements had been deployed to prevent further violence.

The authorities have promised to pursue those responsible for the destruction.

The latest unrest follows a July ruling by Constitutional Court, South Africa's highest court, which struck down restrictions preventing some people from seeking asylum because of how they entered the country or missed immigration deadlines.

The judgment means asylum seekers must be allowed to submit applications, even if they entered South Africa without the required documents.

This prompted hundreds of people to gather at refugee reception centres, fuelling anger among anti-immigration campaigners who fear the decision will encourage undocumented migration.

Government spokesman William Baloyi told Reuters news agency that people had deliberately spread false claims about the judgment, creating the impression that undocumented migrants would automatically be granted legal status.

Baloyi insisted that the ruling does not automatically give migrants refugee status or the right to remain permanently in South Africa.

Officials say applications will still be assessed individually and applicants will remain subject to immigration checks.

Earlier this year, anti-immigration groups staged weeks of demonstrations demanding that undocumented foreign nationals leave the country by 30 June.

The protests forced tens of thousands of migrants to flee, with some returning home through repatriation programmes organised by their governments.

South Africa has struggled with xenophobic attacks for nearly two decades. In 2008, more than 60 people were killed and tens of thousands displaced during widespread attacks on foreign nationals.

The latest unrest comes against a backdrop of widespread poverty, deep inequality and unemployment affecting roughly a third of the workforce.

Migrants are frequently accused of taking jobs, contributing to crime and placing pressure on public services, although researchers say such sweeping claims are not supported by evidence.

Despite its economic difficulties, South Africa remains one of the continent's main destinations for migrants seeking employment, safety and better opportunities.

Additional reporting by Christian Parkinson in Johannesburg

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

US deportations to African countries unlawful and exploit suffering - rights group

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9p8gn55433jo, 4 days ago

Campaign group Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the deportation of migrants from the US to third-party African countries is against the law and exploits suffering to deter migration.

"Many, if not most" of the deportees have no practical option but to return to their home countries regardless of the harm they face there, HRW says in a report.

Since Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2025, more than 500 people have been sent to African countries where they are not citizens, the group says, citing US data.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said "third country removals are an essential public safety tool that remove the most dangerous criminal illegal aliens from our streets".

Tackling immigration was one of Trump's key pledges during the 2024 election.

Eswatini, which welcomed 32 deportees from the US, says three people - from Yemen, Belize and Laos - "voluntarily departed" to their home countries recently.

According to HRW, some of the countries accepting the deportees have "arbitrarily detained" or sent them to their home countries, where they face "the risk of persecution or torture".

The group said that people sent to Eswatini, Ghana and South Sudan, had been arbitrarily detained and faced ill-treatment while in detention.

In Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Ghana, the deportees had been sent to their countries of origin despite the risk of "violating the principle of nonrefoulement [that people should not be sent to a country where they face torture, cruel treatment, or threats to their life and freedom]", it said.

The group cited an unnamed US official as having told a Senate hearing that the point for the administration was that it could "threaten people that they will literally be dropped in the middle of nowhere".

"The point is to scare people," HRW said.

"Deporting people to countries where they have never set foot is part of a US policy designed to cause human suffering as a means to deter migration," said Michael Garcia Bochenek, the group's interim US programme director.

In a statement from to the BBC, DHS said: "ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is given diplomatic assurances from destination countries that the illegal aliens being removed there will be safe. When an individual is no longer in ICE custody, ICE is no longer responsible for them."

White House spokesperson Lauren Bis told the BBC that those being sent to third countries were those whose home nations refused to take them or who had court orders preventing them being sent home.

"Any illegal alien who wants to go home, we will arrange a free flight for them and give them a $3,000 check," she said.

None of the African countries named has commented on the report.

However, while announcing the recent departure of three migrants on Wednesday, Eswatini said that it was committed to ensuring that the "rights, dignity and well-being of third-country nationals were respected and protected".

HRW said it interviewed 24 third-country nationals in six countries - Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini and South Sudan.

Some described to the group "abusive treatment" during their deportation flights, including being chained for about 18 hours and with no knowledge of their destination. They were also "denied access to essential medication, and often did not receive sufficient food or water".

"The opaque deals that facilitate these transfers, some of which are still secret, are part of a US policy that violates international human rights law," HRW says.

According to the report, at least a dozen people who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) were sent to African states that criminalise same-sex relations.

Among them were refugees granted protection in the US based on the likelihood they would be persecuted back home because of their orientation or gender identity.

In November, a Nigerian man deported from the US initially to Ghana expressed his fears to the BBC after he and five others were secretly transferred to Togo.

He spoke of his fears about returning to Nigeria, where his association with a separatist activist group could lead to his arrest and torture.

In DR Congo, HRW says it was told by a US lawyer that of the 15 people from Colombia, Peru and Ecuador deported to the country in April, none remained there by late September, with 11 having returned to their home countries.

"The uncertainty and other conditions they faced in the Democratic Republic of Congo call into question whether these returns to countries of origin were voluntary," the group said.

Equatorial Guinea, which received 65 people, quickly sent at least two people to their home countries, HRW said.

Burundi announced late last month that it had agreed to take in migrants deported from the US.

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

Zambia signs US health deal after disputes over data-sharing

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqd09eyk0g8no, 4 days ago

Zambia has signed a five-year health financing agreement with the US, ending months of public dispute over whether the country was trading citizens' medical data and mineral rights for aid.

Under the memorandum of understanding, signed in Lusaka on Thursday along with a data-sharing deal, the US will provide about $1.5bn (£1.1bn), with Zambia also contributing.

Civil society groups had criticised a leaked draft they said allowed too much data sharing, while activists seized on reports that health money was being linked to preferential access for US companies to minerals, which the then-US ambassador denied.

The deal comes after the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was cut.

US President Donald Trump had accused USAID of wasteful spending. After closing the agency last year, Washington has pursued similar deals with a number of African countries, arguing partner governments should take on more of the cost.

Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are among those that have signed. Ghana and Zimbabwe have rejected agreements over conditions about sharing data and specimens.

Officials say the revised text of Zambia's new deal addresses concerns about privacy, intellectual property and benefit-sharing.

Health Minister Roma Chilengi said earlier this week that clauses requiring Zambia to send biological specimens to the US had been removed, and that the agreement would not allow the sharing of individual patient records.

Data exchange, he said, would be limited to information needed to monitor and evaluate programmes funded under the deal.

A draft leaked earlier this year prompted civil society groups to warn that Zambia was accepting wider data-sharing terms than other African countries, including long-term access to pathogen information and specimens.

The Chapter One Foundation, a human rights group, said the government risked "signing away" citizens' health data. HIV advocates, including the Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign, said the flow of information would be one-way and demanded the text be published.

Opposition figures and activists also seized on reports that health money was being linked to preferential access for US companies to Zambia's large reserves of copper and other critical minerals.

In May, Foreign Minister Mulambo Haimbe called the data terms a violation of privacy and "unconscionable", and accused Washington of tying the package to minerals. Then-US ambassador, Michael Gonzales, rejected that account as false.

The row was sharpened by an earlier US suspension of drug funding after the embassy alleged theft of donated medicines, which the government disputed.

Zambia's new deal replaces support that for years flowed largely through US programmes. The money is intended to support HIV/Aids, tuberculosis, malaria, maternal and child health, disease surveillance and wider health system work, including the recruitment of community health workers.

The US has described the arrangement as a shift from a donor-recipient model towards shared responsibility, with US funding expected to decline over the five years as Zambia increases domestic spending.

Officials have put the combined package covering 2026 to 2030 at roughly $3.6bn, though figures for the Zambian share have varied.

Shortly after taking office for the second time in January 2025, Trump ordered the closure of USAID, in the process decimating health programmes in some African countries that relied on American funding.

Critics say the move has impacted the speed of detecting the current ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the scale of the response, emphasising that the humanitarian agency was crucial to organising logistics, supplies and local outreach.

The US denies its cuts have harmed efforts, arguing that they are more "aligned and effective" under the new arrangement and pointing to the $270m it has donated to tackle the epidemic.

Additional reporting by Mallory Moench

Homes and bridges swept away as fresh floods hit Nepal

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ck86zppejjw3o, today

A major river in Nepal has flooded, sweeping away houses, bridges and damaging a part of hydropower station, authorities have said.

Officials say they have rescued 95 people, including nine foreigners, along the bank of the Budhi Gandaki River in the central Gorkha district, the army confirmed. No casualties have been reported yet, however five people are missing.

A video of the flood shows the moment raging waters sweep down a valley and wash away an entire building complex.

Nepal is on high alert and still trying to recover from catastrophic floods that hit its border towns with Tibet two months ago, leaving more than 1,400 people dead and thousands missing.

Sunday's flood tore through the Gorkha district as children and communities prepared to mark the first day of the Dashain festival, a major moment in the Nepali calendar.

More than 200 homes were damaged and more than 650 people were impacted by the flood, Nepal's Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said.

Some settlements have been completely cut off and are now only accessible by air, a local official told The Kathmandu Post.

Nepal's army said it had mobilised four helicopters for search and rescue operations.

Families have been forced to flee their homes, with many facing uncertainty over where they will find safe shelter and access to essential supplies.

Ganesh Karki, a resident of Jagatbagar, told The Kathmandu Post that he and others took shelter about 500m (0.3 miles) uphill in a nearby forest after receiving a warning call about the flood early in the morning.

"We never imagined a flood of this size," he said. "The water surged for about 15 minutes and then stopped repeatedly throughout the morning. We are afraid to return home at night."

The flood swept away about a dozen houses and several suspension bridges, while a hydroelectric project was damaged, carrying some of the construction equipment away, the disaster management authority said.

Within a couple of hours, the river's water levels at one location had risen from two metres (6ft 5in) to nearly 8.5m (27ft 9in), officials said.

Binod Parajuli, a meteorologist who works with the Nepalese government, said: "Our hydrological station was swept away and we are not getting any data from that location."

However, experts say the debris-flow is much smaller and travelled more slowly than the devastating flash floods in August.

What caused the latest flood is still unclear. Some say a landslide may have blocked the river or its tributary for some time, causing the dammed water to burst out, while others say locals upstream saw an ice-avalanche.

Save the Children is mobilising an emergency team to respond to Sunday's flood.

"Children's lives have been ripped apart in an instant yet again", the charity's director in Nepal, Tara Chettry, said.

"We are yet to see the full scale of the damage, but they may have lost their homes, schools and communities. Many children in Gorkha will still be in shock and distress after the mega floods in August, barely having a chance to get back on their feet."

The Budhi Gandaki is a tributary of the Trishuli river, downstream from another tributary where an avalanche of rock and ice in August caused floods along the Nepal-Tibet border. The avalanche happened near the peak of Lantang Lirung, a mountain on Nepal's side of the Himalayas. Hundreds of people were killed in those floods.

Nepal is prone to disasters, from earthquakes to landslides and floods, as a result of the unpredictable natural environment in the Himalayas.

Experts say climate change, which is making glaciers melt faster, is likely raising the risk of such disasters, leaving local communities increasingly vulnerable.

Headmaster detained after BBC investigation into alleged sexual abuse of students

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy8lx1r2vrro, 2 days ago

A former headmaster of an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia has been named as a suspect in a sexual abuse investigation and detained by police, following a BBC Eye report.

Ahmad Imanuddin Sumar, known to students as Abah, led the Abul Barokat boarding school on the island of Lombok.

Police reopened the case after the BBC World Service revealed accusations of sexual abuse against him, and documented how former students had gathered evidence in an effort to bring the allegations to the authorities.

The story sparked public outrage and led to 12 more former students giving testimony to police.

Warning: This story contains details of sexual assault

Outside the UK, you can watch Catching My Teacher on YouTube.

The student detectives

Central to the BBC Eye investigation were former students Ziadatur Rahmah, known as Zia, and Sukma Rohana Fajar.

They launched their own investigation after Zia told a former classmate, Yusron Azzahidi, that the headteacher had sexually assaulted her when she was 17. The pair had been star pupils at the school.

By the time Zia confided in Yusron, she was studying in Cairo, Egypt, while he was in Jakarta.

Yusron suggested they gather evidence to support Zia's allegation. Speaking to former classmates, they spoke to Sukma, who alleges that Abah attempted to rape her at the school.

Yusron compiled a seven-page document detailing the allegations, and they gave it to representatives of Nahdlatul Wathan Diniyah Islamiyah (NWDI), the organisation that ran the school.

Thinking the school would support them, the students say that instead, they were pressured to withdraw their accusations.

In a secretly recorded phone call, Abah pleaded with Yusron to protect him and his reputation.

"Cover the shame of your teacher. Everyone makes mistakes, my child," Abah said.

Abah also contacted Zia, who secretly recorded their conversation and shared it with the BBC.

In the recording, Abah is heard apologising, but pleads with her to remain silent.

Following the BBC investigation, Abah held a news conference where he denied all the allegations. He did not deny that the voice heard in the recorded calls was his, but said the recordings were not confessions.

Sukma told the BBC she had been forced to sign a document saying her allegations were lies. She later secretly recorded a conversation with Abah's wife, known to students as Umi. In the recording, Umi tells Sukma that the document was intended to protect "her good name".

The former students eventually resumed their efforts to seek justice, with support from lawyer Joko Jumadi, who has experience in similar cases.

More students come forward

The day after the BBC investigation was published, parents arrived at the school to collect their children, with some travelling from other islands.

One mother said she had begun crying when she heard the news, thinking about her daughter.

"I'm moving her right now," she said. "I absolutely want my child to leave this school."

Yusron said he and Zia, who recently got married, were overwhelmed by the response from former students.

"It was beyond what we expected," he said. "So many people contacted us - on Instagram, WhatsApp. They contacted me and Zia directly, and lots of them were saying, 'I'm a victim too'."

Police interviewed Zia and Sukma, along with the 12 other former students who came forward with allegations of abuse.

"They thought they were the only ones - and it's been really shocking for them to learn, like I did, that they weren't alone," Zia said.

Sukma said she felt relieved and grateful that the allegations are now being taken seriously.

"It's not about revenge. It's more the acknowledgement that what he did was wrong. I'm waiting for the day when he admits that himself," she told the BBC.

Abah has resigned from the school and has said he will respect the legal process.

The BBC contacted Abah and his wife during its original investigation, but they did not respond at the time.

NWDI denied trying to cover up the allegations and said it was investigating them internally. It said it had a duty to protect the organisation from being tarnished by the alleged actions of individuals.

In the wake of the BBC investigation, NWDI vowed to ensure such abuse never happened again and said it would safeguard the rights of students who came forward.

Delhi sees more protests as freed 'cockroach' group's leaders vow to fight on

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c84g179n2393o, yesterday

India's Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has vowed to continue its protest seeking the resignation of top election official even as the nation's capital sees demonstrations for a second day, with thousands of security personnel deployed and roads barricaded.

Abhijeet Dipke - who began the movement in May after India's Chief Justice likened some jobless young people to "cockroaches" - and other leaders were arrested on arrival in Delhi on Saturday. They were freed on Sunday.

Dipke said "the CJP will neither back down nor be intimidated" in his first comments after his release.

Media reports said 7,000 protesters were detained and released on Saturday, with hundreds detained on Sunday.

The CJP - which is not registered as a political party in India - is seeking electoral reforms just months before crucial state elections.

It has also demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over allegations of manipulating voters' lists - which the Election Commission has denied.

On Sunday morning, Dipke and two other senior CJP leaders - Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka - were set free by a magistrate's court "on the condition that they will not engage in breach of peace for one year", police said.

After his release, Dipke posted on X: "Modi, as PM, is an embarrassment to India."

He said he was going to his village to attend the funeral of his grandmother, who died around the time of his arrest. He added that "the CJP will neither back down nor be intimidated".

Ranka and Das later told a news conference that the condition did not mean they could not protest.

"Peaceful protest is our constitutional right and Jantar Mantar is a desginated protest site, so this doesn't mean we can't do peaceful protest," Ranka said.

"Breach of peace is done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and CEC Gyanesh Kumar," he said, adding that the CJP will continue to protest.

Saturday saw dramatic scenes as police officials boarded the flight to detain Dipke, Das and Ranka as their plane landed.

For a second day in a row on Sunday, much of central Delhi had roads barricaded, offices, shops and restaurants shut and internet services curtailed.

In Connaught Place, one of Delhi's busiest shopping and entertainment hubs, there were rows upon rows of bright yellow police barricades, guarded by thousands of police and paramilitary personnel.

Protesters were vastly outnumbered by security personnel and the BBC has witnessed many detentions.

Some were put onto buses before being driven away. Some could be seen peering through the windows, others trying to push their way out while shouting "Gyanesh must go!" At one point, an entire bus reverberated with similar chants.

Every now and then, small groups of protesters managed to slip past the barricades and sprint through the streets, with police personnel chasing after them. Within moments, they were surrounded, detained and, in some instances, dragged across the road, before being bundled into waiting buses.

The most dramatic moment came during the detention of activist Neha Bora, who was chased by police personnel before being caught and detained.

Some protesters also said they were feeling a little uncertain. One of them told the BBC that the absence of the CJP's top leadership on the ground was beginning to affect the movement's momentum.

"Without them, we're feeling a little lost," the protester admitted, before quickly adding: "But that doesn't mean we'll stop our fight."

The CJP had called for a protest on Saturday at Jantar Mantar - the road that the demonstrators had occupied for weeks earlier this summer seeking education reforms.

Police had refused them permission and the city was in a virtual lockdown with unprecedented curbs in place to thwart the protesters from reaching the venue.

At least 45 metro stations were closed and Delhi's main railway stations were shut with major train services cancelled. Many protesters attempting to travel from outside were de-boarded en route.

Internet was also curtailed in central Delhi for the entire day.

After the police detained the CJP leaders and other activists, lawyers and students leaders, the CJP called for more protests on Sunday.

On Sunday, the Indian Supreme Court held a special hearing to deal with complaints of shutdowns and detentions.

The court ordered the government to restore the internet, and ensure that metro and rail services functioned normally, unless there were a disturbance to public order. The court also said that free movement of people should be permitted and there should be no illegal detention.

Why are people protesting?

The row centres on a mammoth exercise to update electoral rolls nationwide. The commission has said it's a routine exercise to weed out dead, duplicate or ineligible voters.

At least 130 million voter names have been purged from the rolls so far and in many states, the exercise has been shrouded in controversy, with tens of thousands of people alleging they have been wrongly removed.

The CJP - and opposition parties - accuse Kumar of favouring Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the way the electoral rolls are being updated.

The Election Commission and the BJP have denied this.

The CJP first emerged as a major protest movement during weeks of demonstrations over the summer demanding education reforms.

Dipke, who previously worked with the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), had just completed a master's degree at Boston University when he wrote on X in May: "What if all cockroaches come together?"

Chief Justice Surya Kant says his cockroach comments were misinterpreted.

But Dipke's post went viral and the CJP was born. Momentum built around the movement which tapped into anger over unemployment, exam paper leaks and government accountability.

Their five-week-long protest ended in celebration for the protesters in July after the resignation of India's education minister.

Orangutans released back into Borneo forest after devastating fires

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwvgde0m2d73o, today

Eight orangutans have been released back into the wild in Borneo after they were taken into captivity when their habitat was threatened by wildfires over the summer.

Three mothers, their three daughters and two adult males were freed in a reserve in the west of the island on Friday, International Animal Rescue Indonesia (Yiari) and the forestry ministry said.

Indonesian authorities rescued 46 orangutans from fires in August and September. Wildfires in the region are usual for the country's dry season but intensified this year.

The apes are critically endangered. Around 104,000 orangutans remain in Borneo and Sumatra, down from more than 230,000 a century ago, according to conservation group WWF.

While Indonesia is among many countries to grapple with wildfires each summer, this year's were more intense due to the El Niño ocean warming phenomenon, which makes weather patterns more volatile and intense.

Yiari CEO Karmele Llano Sanchez said relocating the eight orangutans to the reserve was a "necessary step" when their habitats became unsafe.

Among them was Mama Nopi and her offspring Nopi, Naufal and Nopan, who had been surviving in a coconut and rubber plantation before their rescue in early September, Yiari said.

Fires had incinerated the surrounding forestry, restricting their access to food and bringing them closer to humans.

Mama Lifa and her child Lifa were found in a patch of acacia trees entirely surrounded by oil palm plantations.

The degradation of their habitat by wildfires as well as a lack of food sources prompted their rescue in mid-September.

Mama Man and her baby, Man, had been monitored by animal rescuers since June, when they were found living in a plantation area adjacent to a small patch of forest.

Fires that spread near to the site restricted their roaming area further, leaving them without a safe route to other forestry. The threat of exposure to the blazes led to them being evacuated in early September, Yiara said.

The reserve these orangutans were released into was chosen because it there is food and water available and it is connected to other forested areas.

Yiari's Argitoe Ranting said: "We want to ensure that rescued orangutans are not simply moved from one place to another, but actually have a chance to survive in their natural habitat."

Last month, the International Union for Conservation of Nature warned that wildfires were burning in habitats containing 52% of Borneo's orangutan population.

It says a large portion of the ape's habitat will become inhospitable to them if climate change continues at its current pace.

This year's El Niño has become the strongest on record and is expected to have a knock-on effect on the climate into next year.

Experts have also pointed to land-clearing practices used to make room for plantations as another factor facilitating the spread of wildfires in Indonesia, with naturally fire-resistant forests replaced by less dense and shaded vegetation.

That the orangutan's original habitats had been burned and fragmented to the point they could no longer sustain the primates was the main driving factor behind relocating them, Yiara said.

Adidas sues Australian label White Fox over four stripes design

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9e8ld448km8o, 3 days ago

Adidas is suing Australian label White Fox for selling and advertising clothes with a four-striped design, arguing it is "deceptively similar" to the German brand's distinct logo.

The sportswear giant said it had repeatedly asked White Fox to stop selling and promoting the clothes since March, but the Sydney-based company refused.

The fast-fashion online retailer is popular with teenagers and young adults in Australia, the UK and the US, and has relied on billboards, bus advertising and influencers - often university-aged - to grow its profile.

In the Federal Court on Friday, lawyers for White Fox denied any breach of trademark.

While White Fox has not yet lodged a formal defence, its lawyers told Justice Ian Jackman that the firm intends to argue that other prominent Australian brands such as Cotton On, Sportscraft and Glassons sell clothes with "similar decorative stripes".

Lawyers for Adidas told the court that White Fox, in advertising and selling its clothes with four stripes, had the "intention to trade off our reputation".

A three to four-day trial is expected to take place early next year, the court heard.

In its written statement of claim, Adidas says its three-striped design has a "substantial and valuable reputation" in Australia, where it has been trademarked since 1957.

The company says since at least March, White Fox has been selling and advertising clothes with four parallel stripes of equal width, which it claims is an infringement of Adidas's trademark.

White Fox's designs are "substantially identical with or otherwise deceptively similar" to Adidas, the company claims.

It also argues that White Fox's advertisements for its four-striped clothes and White Fox-branded socks feature people wearing "genuine" Adidas items.

This might lead Australians to think Adidas is associated with White Fox and has approved of the design, the documents claim.

The company says White Fox is "drawing an association in the minds of consumers" of the two brands, or at least "sailing close to the wind".

Adidas, which reported €24.8 billion (£21bn; $28bn) in revenue in 2025, is also seeking damages, saying White Fox must pay them the profit from the products plus interest and costs.

Evidence provided by Adidas included side-by-side comparisons of its products with White Fox clothes which include sweatpants and lounge shorts, as well as images of billboards on buses and at bus stops.

In one example, Adidas claimed that an online listing from June 2025 showed a pair of White Fox-branded socks being modelled by someone wearing pink Adidas shoes.

A few days after the court proceedings were lodged last month, the Adidas logo on the shoes were digitally altered to remove one of the stripes, the documents alleged, and a week later, all three stripes were scrubbed from the image.

In 2013, Adidas successfully sued Pacific Brands in Australia for selling shoes with four stripes.

White Fox was launched in 2013 by Georgia and Daniel Contos and is privately-owned by the Greek-Australian couple and Daniel's mother Melina Maceri. It has a growing presence in the US and expanded into the UK market in 2024.

In the 12 months to June 2025, the company generated AU$542m (£286m; $377m) in revenue, a four-fold jump from its 2022 figure of $121m, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Teacher who sexually abused pupil back in Indonesia jail after BBC investigation

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgel9r341gdo, 4 days ago

A former teacher who sexually assaulted a student has been returned to jail in Indonesia after a BBC investigation revealed he was secretly released early.

Mochamad Subchi Azal Tsani, known as Bechi, was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2022 after being convicted of sexually assaulting a female student at his father's prominent Islamic boarding school in East Java, where he worked as a teacher.

A BBC Eye undercover investigation revealed he was secretly released on parole in August 2025, after serving less than half his sentence. The woman he had been convicted of assaulting had not been informed - despite her legal right to know.

On hearing he was back in prison, she cried with relief.

"I pray that this doesn't happen to anyone else and that, going forward, the law will be applied justly in Indonesia," the former student, who wished to remain anonymous, told the BBC.

The Ministry of Immigration and Corrections previously told the BBC that Bechi was released because of sentence reductions granted in accordance with regulations.

But the BBC investigation sparked a public outcry and led to calls from lawmakers for an investigation, after which the government announced a comprehensive review.

That review found "errors" resulting in Bechi's parole being revoked. He has now been returned to prison.

Immigration and Corrections Minister Agus Andrianto told the BBC that those responsible for approving Bechi's parole "will certainly face sanctions".

"We want to make sure that such mistakes or irregularities do not happen again," he said.

For Ira Puspitasari, one of several former students who accused Bechi of sexual abuse and testified at his trial, the decision is a vindication.

"I'm amazed, really. I didn't expect the government would pay such detailed attention to this case and really pay attention to us, the victims," she said.

Ira, who has waived her legal right to anonymity, told the BBC she was raped and sexually abused by Bechi for more than four years, from the age of 15.

"I was treated as his slave. I was held captive, raped, beaten," she said.

She said she tried to run away but Bechi's private security guards tracked her down, kidnapped her and took her to a secluded hut, where Bechi tortured and raped her.

She said she reported all of this to the police but was then intimidated into withdrawing her complaint. She also shared an audio recording of Bechi's mother telling her to say that "nothing had happened".

Outside the UK, you can watch Catching My Teacher on YouTube.

Watching BBC undercover footage of Bechi smiling and greeting supporters at an event in March, when he should still have been in prison, Ira became tearful.

"It's like nothing ever happened," she said.

Ira was invited to a parliamentary hearing this week into the state's handling of sexual abuse cases in religious and educational institutions, held in response to the BBC's investigation.

Lawyer Joko Jumadi, who has represented several victims of abuse in educational institutions, also addressed the hearing and said authorities were often reluctant to investigate allegations of abuse because they involved "influential religious figures who have large followings".

He told the hearing that he regularly faced threats and intimidation as a result of taking on such cases.

Bechi is the son of prominent Islamic cleric Muhammad Mukhtar Mu'thi, founder of the Shiddiqiyyah Islamic boarding school in Jombang, East Java.

He was arrested in 2022 after a 15-hour police siege at the school, where supporters had gathered to prevent his arrest.

Prosecutors had sought a longer sentence after Bechi was accused of rape by a number of students, but he was acquitted of the rape charges and convicted of the lesser sexual assault offence of one student.

The BBC sought comment from Bechi, his mother and the Shiddiqiyyah boarding school as part of its investigation but received no response.

South Korea recalls Ukraine envoy over prisoner-of-war row

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckwy48rrz95vo, 4 days ago

South Korea has said it will recall its ambassador to Ukraine, the latest escalation in a diplomatic spat between both countries.

It started last month when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that his government had transferred two captured North Korean soldiers to Seoul.

Seoul says Ukraine broke an agreement to keep the transfer a secret but Zelensky's office maintains that there was no non-disclosure agreement in place.

The two North Korean soldiers, who were among thousands from the country supporting Russia in the Ukraine war, had earlier told local media they wanted to be sent to South Korea.

South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo had in September lodged a formal complaint with his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Vieshkin over the matter.

And earlier this week, Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said he received an apology from his Ukrainian counterpart, but added that it fell short of Seoul's expectations, according to local reports.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said in a statement on Thursday that "diplomacy should prevail over emotions".

"Despite Seoul's decision to recall its ambassador, Ukraine remains open to restoring a constructive dialogue - even if it takes time," he said.

Earlier on Thursday, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement it would "continue consultations with the Ukrainian side", adding that it expected that "various outstanding issues...[would] be resolved smoothly".

Zelensky had revealed the transfer at a speech at the UN General Assembly in September, adding that the two North Koreans had not been "easy to capture alive".

It prompted a swift condemnation from South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who called it "greatly disappointing" and said the transfer was a "highly sensitive issue" impacting national security.

President Lee also faced heavy criticism at home in light of the revelation, with local opposition accusing him of wanting to cover up the transfer to appease Pyongyang.

But his office said that it had been kept confidential partly to protect the North Koreans' families and added that Kyiv also wanted the transfer kept secret to avoid criticism that it had given up an opportunity to exchange the soldiers for Ukrainian prisoners of war.

Lee's office explained Ukraine had indicated the soldiers would be mentioned in Zelensky's address, but not the fact of their transfer.

The spat escalated when Zelensky's office responded claiming that the two countries did not have a non-disclosure agreement.

Seoul later demanded Ukraine apologise for "announcing a falsehood" and said its actions had seriously damaged trust between the two nations.

Seoul has been sympathetic to Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion, but has refused to break from its longstanding policy of not providing lethal weapons to any country engaged in active war.

After North Korean troops were deployed to support Russia in 2024, Kyiv stepped up pressure on South Korea to supply cutting-edge anti-air missiles to help defend Ukraine's energy infrastructure from Russian drone and missile attacks.

This July, Seoul had announced a $100 million assistance package to Ukraine. Lee's office said it would be an expansion of earlier assistance which was comprised of non-lethal items including helmets, personal armour and medical equipment.

Meanwhile Russia's foreign ministry has warned it would have "no choice but to retaliate" if South Korea provided Ukraine with arms, without specifying action it might take.

South Korea has long pursued cordial ties with its neighbours who may be at odds with its ally, the US.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, it has worked to deepen trade and diplomatic relations with Russia, which borders North Korea, and views both Moscow and Beijing as key partners in efforts to influence Pyongyang.

Young men live in fear of being snatched off the streets and sold to Myanmar's army

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c680zlny0gk4o, yesterday

You do not stay out after dark if you're young and able-bodied in Hpa-An, the capital of Myanmar's southern Karen state. In recent months this has become conventional wisdom.

But Zaw Min has no choice.

"I worry, but I have to go out to work," says the 26-year-old tuk tuk driver, who asked that his real name be omitted out of fear for his safety. "My family call me all the time and remind me not to drive passengers too far; to be careful who I take as a passenger... I have to be vigilant all the time.

"People are panicked and frightened," he explains. "Some people I know have been taken."

Locals say plain-clothed members and supporters of the Myanmar junta have been roaming the streets of Hpa-An, arbitrarily arresting people in their teens, 20s and 30s and forcing them into military service.

According to leaked documents seen by BBC Burmese, authorities have been ordered to aggressively fulfil the military's recruitment quotas across jurisdictions, bolstering the junta's ranks as it endures a war of attrition against ethnic militias, pro-democracy groups and civilian-led resistance movements.

Zaw Min is the only one among his siblings who is at the age of recruitment. Many other "kids" his age have fled, he says – to Thailand, or the homes of relatives further afield. Those who remain are often under strict instructions from their parents: be home before dusk.

Myanmar has been locked in a bloody civil war since February 2021, when its own military launched a coup d'etat and ousted democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Three years later, following a string of humiliating losses, plummeting morale and soaring rates of desertion, the junta enacted a mandatory conscription law that required all men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 to serve at least two years under military command. Those who refuse face up to five years in prison.

The enactment of the law "represents one of the most severe and impactful actions taken against the entire civilian population since the military coup", according to Maj Naung Yoe, military affairs official at the Myanmar Defense and Security Institute (MDSI) and a former military officer who defected and joined the anti-coup Civil Disobedience Movement.

Hpa-An is the latest to be caught in a dragnet that's already ensnared an estimated 100,000 young recruits over the past two-and-a-half years – many of them via coercion, extortion and abductions.

"Security forces track young people's movements to arrest them, force them into service under the pretext of statutory military eligibility, extort money through threats of detention, and arrest individuals during guest-list inspections," Naung Yoe says.

The BBC contacted the Myanmar government's Central Body for Summoning People's Military Servants regarding incidents mentioned in this story, including the forced recruitment of conscripts and reports of abductions allegedly carried out in recent months.

They said they had no comment on the matter.

With the mandatory conscription law, the junta has established a human supply chain to sustain its armed forces. And it appears to have worked. Observers note that reinforcements have played a critical role in helping the regime claw back more territory. In many parts of Myanmar, the resistance is now on the back foot.

The war, though, is far from over. And as more youths evade conscription – either to join the resistance or simply avoid armed conflict against their fellow countrymen – the junta's recruitment methods have become ever more extreme.

International rights groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Fortify Rights say Myanmar's military is abducting civilians and forcing them into military service.

In July, open-source research organisation Myanmar Witness revealed that they had analysed hundreds of missing-person advertisements collected from Facebook between 2021 and 2025.

Researchers found that missing person notices for January rose from four in 2021, pre-coup, to 82 in 2025, post-conscription law.

"In practice, much of [the Myanmar military's] recruitment appears to be carried out through detention, coercion, and disappearance rather than formal call-up, and often without notice to families," they concluded.

Men and boys constituted the majority of reported missing persons.

"They are spreading rumours all over the neighbourhood that I sold my husband."

Ma Moe San Pan sobs the words through gulps of air. She is sitting in her kitchen, at home in Yangon, where on the morning of 8 May 2025 she saw her 33-year-old husband Phyo Wai for the last time.

"We had an argument, and afterwards he left home," she recalls."I was upset and told my cousin about what had happened."

Ma Moe San Pan's cousin worked at the local ward administration office, and she asked him to bring her husband back. It was two days later that Phyo Wai called her, from a military recruitment centre on the other side of the city.

The cousin had taken him to the ward office which had sold him on to another ward for 4 million kyats ($900; £680) to fill that ward's recruitment quota, Ma Moe San Pan says. The BBC was unable to reach Ma Moe San Pan's cousin.

In a desperate attempt to bring him back, Ma Moe San Pan was then scammed out of 4.5 million kyats by strangers who falsely promised his release.

U Maung Maung Lwin, the administrator of the ward to which Phyo Wai was taken, later admitted to the BBC that he had played a role in sending him to the military recruitment authorities.

When asked about allegations that individuals were being conscripted outside their home township, he said transfers from other townships do occur when local quotas cannot be met.

But he denied that any money was involved in such cases, or in Phyo Wai's forced conscription.

"[Phyo Wai] told me they said they would help him and made him sign documents," Ma Moe San Pan recalls.

"If my husband had been legally selected for conscription through the normal process, I could have accepted that. What I cannot accept is that our own ward administration office allegedly sold him to another ward.

"I also regret placing my trust in my cousin."

In the time since Phyo Wai was taken, Ma Moe San Pan has filed police complaints relating to two matters: the sale of her husband into military service, and the 4.5 million kyats she lost to scammers.

The police accepted her complaint, she says, but refused her request to include human trafficking charges, claiming a human trafficking case could only be registered if a person had been sold abroad.

She does not know where her husband is now.

Ma Moe San Pan's case highlights a grim mutation of the junta's mandatory conscription laws: mounting pressure from the higher levels of the regime has created perverse incentives further down the chain of command.

Surging demand and dwindling supply have fuelled an illicit market for eligible recruits. And with money on the table, security officials have taken to arresting youth at road checkpoints, tracking and ambushing workers during their daily commutes, setting traps via fake job advertisements, and forcibly entering people's homes, Naung Yoe says.

"Under the guise of the conscription law, these coercive arrests and recruitment drives have effectively transformed into a modern-day slavery and human trafficking enterprise."

In late August, police in Yangon arrested a member of the Fire Services Department – a branch of the home affairs ministry – and his son-in-law for abducting four young men with the intention of selling them for military conscription.

The reserve fire brigade unit commander allegedly deceived the men with promises of employment opportunities, luring them to his house and trapping them in a series of purpose-built detention rooms. Police officers raided the residence and arrested him on 25 August. He has since been charged with kidnapping or abducting in order to wrongfully confine a person, and faces up to 7 years in prison.

BBC Burmese made several attempts to contact the police station where he is being held, but was unsuccessful.

"Lower-level administrative bodies, military personnel and local criminal gangs employ diverse tactics to press-gang and arrest young people," Naung Yoe says.

"They sell these individuals to military units and regional commands facing manpower shortages, or traffic substitute recruits on behalf of wealthier individuals seeking to buy their way out of service."

While conscription orders are indiscriminate on paper – demanding a quota of recruits from each village, ward, or township proportional to its population – wealthier conscripts can simply pay to dodge the draft and be replaced by someone more financially vulnerable.

So it is the poor who disproportionately bear the burden.

Naung Yoe, meanwhile, told the BBC that "these practices are escalating due to increasing difficulties in meeting monthly recruitment quotas and the lucrative financial profits made from recruit trading at the ground level".

But the hardening fist of forced conscription also reveals the junta's empty hand, and its desperation for manpower.

It "seems to be another step in the junta's efforts to enlist unwilling youth in a conflict that underscores its embattled position in the civil war" says Dr Sandeep Singh, a research fellow who teaches military studies at the National University of Singapore.

The climate surrounding routine abductions, he adds, has "generated further difficulties on the youth of Myanmar, already affected by years of civil war, and their families".

In addition to the daily anxiety of life in Myanmar, many would-be recruits now fear being forced to fight in a deadly conflict that they not only don't believe in, but actively oppose. This constant threat has fuelled massive internal displacement and severe labour shortages in an already flailing economy, and sent people fleeing to neighbouring countries.

Having spent more than half a decade waging war against its own population, the junta is now wielding the conscription law as yet another tool of subjugation, observers say.

As the MDSI put it in a statement published in June: "The generals have benefited by using military law to make the citizens fight against each other."

Meet India's feisty Gen Z protester who is taking on Modi

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5n49xln3lz0o, 3 days ago

When India's Gen Z-led protesters return to Delhi this weekend for demonstrations seeking the resignation of the country's top election official, one of the prominent faces at the forefront will be that of a 29-year-old PhD student.

Neha Bora is a theatre artist and activist who has been with the All India Students' Association (Aisa), a Left-wing organisation known for campus politics, for the past decade and been its president for the past two years.

But Neha's - who uses "they" and "them" as personal pronouns - visibility is no longer limited to campuses.

Viral videos over the past few days show them being dragged through the street by a group of female police officials, climbing on top of police barricades, raising their fist and shouting slogans, and being detained.

Photos of them smiling while being carried away by policewomen have also gone viral.

In a recent BBC Bangla interview, Neha played down the attention they've been receiving.

"I know it happened in front of the camera so it seems like it's something different," they said. "But I have seen all student activists with the Left doing the same things that I have been doing. It's just that there is a camera on me, so people think something different is happening."

The attention on Neha comes at a time when several high-profile protests are being held on India's streets in what is being seen as one of the biggest challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 12 years in power.

There's the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) - a Gen Z-led online satirical movement - that held weeks-long protests in Delhi in the summer over education reforms. It ended in July only after education minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation.

Separately, some of India's opposition parties, especially the Congress, have also taken to the streets over electoral reforms. For the past few days, videos of Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra being shoved and jostled and detained have gone viral and made headlines in India.

Saturday's protest in Delhi has been called by the CJP, which is seeking the resignation of India's Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over allegations of manipulating electoral rolls to favour Modi's BJP. Both the Election Commission and the BJP have rejected the accusation.

Although not a member of the CJP, Neha has said their group would also participate.

Born in the northern state of Uttarakhand, Neha lived in different cities as a child as their army officer father moved for his postings.

After graduating from Delhi University, they did a master's degree from Ambedkar University in the capital and are now a PhD student at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

Neha first came into the spotlight in the summer during the CJP's protest over education reforms.

Neha and Aisa were at the protest from the start, but not many knew them at that point. That changed after 28 June, when educationist and scientist Sonam Wangchuk began a hunger strike in CJP's support and Neha and a few others from Aisa also joined him.

"It was an obvious choice for us. We've been protesting against paper leaks and education reforms for a long time," Neha later said in an interview.

While most of the attention was focused on Wangchuk, whose reputation and presence galvanised the movement, Neha's outspokenness and combative speeches began to get them noticed.

After Wangchuk and others were moved to hospital, Neha continued fasting despite having lost 8kg.

Even after being moved to hospital, they said in a video: "The fight continues. Once I've recovered, we'll meet you again on the streets to continue our fight for our right."

After the protests ended in July, Neha has established themselves as a Gen Z leader who's courted by the CJP and media, besides appearing alongside Rahul Gandhi at press conferences.

But Neha's involvement with Aisa and leftist politics and statements criticising PM Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and other BJP leaders have also led to "lots of disagreements with my family as my parents are staunch supporters of BJP".

And last month, at least three police complaints were lodged in Uttar Pradesh state by BJP against Neha for making "objectionable remarks" against the chief minister - they came two days after Aisa's police complaint that Neha had received death threats.

Neha, who has been travelling to many Indian cities to participate in protests in support of students, also made headlines when a man allegedly threw ink at them during a protest march in Jharkhand state. A photo Neha shared on Instagram showed their face streaked with ink stains. Police said they had detained the man.

The noisy protests and repeated detentions have earned Neha a reputation for being a street fighter.

"The streets have always dictated the course of politics in this country and they will continue to do so, more so in the coming few years," they told BBC Bangla.

"If we look at the social changes of the recent past, those social changes did not come from people sitting in parliament; they came from the streets," they said.

Now as the authorities gear up for 10 October's protest at Jantar Mantar against CEC Kumar, Neha and Aisa have said they would be back in the streets with the CJP to "protect democracy".

Why Elon Musk is taking on India's richest man over Starlink

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvglw9ryjrylo, 3 days ago

Elon Musk has questioned whether billionaire Mukesh Ambani is the "real boss of India" as his satellite internet company Starlink struggles to secure final approval to launch in the country.

The remark came a day after Musk accused unnamed powerful business interests of trying to block Starlink's entry into India. He then singled out Ambani, whose Reliance conglomerate owns Jio, India's biggest mobile network operator.

India has rejected Musk's allegations, saying its satellite communications rules are fair and non-discriminatory.

Ambani and Reliance Group have not responded to Musk's remarks. The BBC has reached out to them for comment

The row comes as competition grows in India's satellite internet market, with Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel also preparing to launch services.

The rivalry is complicated by the fact that Starlink has also partnered with Ambani's Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel.

In March 2025, both companies signed agreements with SpaceX to distribute Starlink equipment and services in India, subject to government approval. The companies also said they could explore sharing network infrastructure. The BBC has also reached out to Bharti Airtel for comment.

Musk first made the allegations on Wednesday, accusing "certain oligarchs" of maintaining a "monopolistic chokehold" on Indian consumers.

"You can guess who they are," he wrote on X, adding that blocking Starlink was "a crime against the people of India".

On Thursday, India's Ministry of Communications responded, saying that three operators - Starlink, Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio Satellite Communications - were at broadly the same stage of the approval process, with all three awaiting security clearances and spectrum allocation before they can launch commercial services.

"The suggestion that the framework or its application is unfair or discriminatory is baseless and misconceived," the ministry said, without naming Musk directly.

Musk continued to question the delay, saying Starlink was already licensed in more than 165 countries.

"Starlink is licensed in over 165 countries and has spent five years complying with every single law and requirement of the government of India, so why still no license? Is Ambani the real boss of India?" he wrote on X on Thursday.

Starlink, owned by Musk's SpaceX, uses satellites in low Earth orbit to provide internet access, particularly in remote areas where mobile networks and broadband cables are difficult or expensive to install.

The company has been trying to enter India since 2021 and has secured key licences. But it still needs final security clearances and spectrum allocation before it can begin commercial services.

Wednesday's row unfolded as senior executives from Starlink, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel gathered at the India Mobile Congress in Delhi, where all three companies discussed their plans for satellite internet services.

Speaking at the event, Akash Ambani, chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm and Mukesh Ambani's son, said the company was developing its own satellite communications technology and working towards regulatory approvals.

Asked by a reporter about Musk's allegations, Akash declined to comment and only said, "We want to be heads down and deliver value to our Indian consumers."

Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said his company's satellite venture was also awaiting government approvals.

SpaceX executive Lauren Dreyer, who oversees Starlink's business operations, said the company had spent years working with Indian regulators and had built security controls into its network to meet the country's requirements.

Security has been a key concern surrounding Starlink's entry into India. In 2024, Indian authorities said they had recovered Starlink equipment during a drug-smuggling investigation in the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands and an army operation in the northeastern state of Manipur.

Musk said at that time that Starlink's service had never been active in India, arguing that the equipment recovered by authorities could not have been using its satellite network.

Questions also remain over how affordable the service would be for Indian consumers, particularly those in rural areas.

India is one of the world's largest internet markets but access remains uneven, particularly in remote areas where mobile networks and broadband cables are difficult or expensive to build.

Musk has argued that Starlink could help bridge this gap. "Starlink in India would enable high-speed, affordable internet connectivity for those who can't afford current prices or who don't have a connection at all!" he wrote on X on Wednesday.

The company has yet to announce prices for India, but some experts say its plans elsewhere suggest the service could be beyond the reach of many Indian households.

In the US, Starlink's residential plans start at $55 a month, although prices and equipment costs vary by plan and location.

She made India fall in love with women's cricket - now her era as captain is over

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm4g1pjrd5ewo, 5 days ago

When Harmanpreet Kaur scored that unforgettable World Cup century against Australia in the 2017 semi-final, she not only changed the course of a match but the trajectory of women's cricket in India.

India went on to lose the final to England that year but women's cricket no longer remained a passing pursuit for the average Indian fan.

That dogged zeal to win she infused into the team helped them lift India's first women's World Cup trophy - the same feat that had eluded them in 2017 - in emphatic fashion eight years later.

Less than a year on, and within weeks of victories in the Asia Cup and the Asian Games, she has relinquished the captaincy, ending an era in which she became the team's most influential leader and one of the most recognisable figures in the sport.

Star opener Smriti Mandhana, her long-time deputy, has been appointed captain across all formats.

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Devajit Saikia, coach Amol Muzumdar, Harmanpreet and Mandhana attended the review meeting at which the leadership change was ratified. The transition, however, was not entirely seamless.

Reports suggest the 37-year-old Harmanpreet was willing to relinquish the T20 captaincy immediately, but was keen to continue leading the side in One-Day Internationals and Tests so that younger players could benefit from her experience.

The BCCI, however, was intent on a younger person at the helm and opted for the 30-year-old Mandhana.

In some ways, the move mirrors the BCCI's decision to replace Suryakumar Yadav as captain of the men's T20 side shortly after India won the World Cup earlier this year, with the captaincy passing to Shreyas Iyer.

Harmanpreet's future as captain had become a subject of intense debate in cricketing circles after India's below-par performance at the T20 World Cup in England a few months ago.

Her own poor form with the bat amplified concerns and prompted the BCCI to consider changes that could help the team meet the growing challenges of a women's game that continues to expand rapidly around the world.

Approaching her 38th birthday, and after almost a decade at the helm, Harmanpreet found herself under increasing scrutiny as her form dipped.

Opinion on whether she should continue as captain was sharply divided among former women players and captains.

Former cricketer Diana Edulji, among the most respected names in the game, felt Harmanpreet had done everything that could reasonably have been expected of her and that it was time for a younger captain to take over. Former captain Anjum Chopra, meanwhile, argued that Harmanpreet's experience remained invaluable and that she should stay on.

Sensing that the BCCI was strongly inclined towards a change, Harmanpreet opted to step down during the review meeting. She later announced her decision in an emotional Instagram post.

"I feel I have done my duty. I gave this team everything I had," she wrote.

"Now, it is time for me to turn the page… Blood. Sweat. Sacrifice. Pride. I gave it all. Now, I'm ready to play for the love of the game again.

"Captaincy ends, the journey continues."

Harmanpreet's intention to continue playing now leaves the BCCI with another decision to make about her future.

In Suryakumar Yadav's case, he not only lost the captaincy but also his place in India's T20 side. Given the depth of talent available in the men's game, it was easier for Ajit Agarkar and his fellow selectors to take what was always likely to be a contentious decision.

The situation in the women's game is different. Despite Harmanpreet's modest recent form, replacing a player of her experience and stature may not be straightforward, as the talent pipeline is not yet as deep as it is in men's cricket.

Whatever the future holds, Harmanpreet has scripted among the more memorable careers in women's cricket. Spanning more than two decades, it is a journey marked by significant achievements and milestones.

Born into a family of modest means in Punjab's Moga city, Harmanpreet developed a passion for cricket at an early age.

Her family's support was vital in the early years, but her rise to national recognition came after she joined the Railways - a transition facilitated by Diana Edulji - and moved to Mumbai.

The superior facilities and greater professionalism associated with Mumbai's sporting culture helped accelerate her development.

She made her India debut in 2009 at the age of 20 and has remained an integral part of the national side across formats ever since.

An all-rounder for the better part of her first decade in cricket, she made herself indispensable to the side with her explosive middle-order batting, crafty off-spin and sharp fielding skills.

Her blistering century against Australia in the semi-final of the 2017 Women's ODI World Cup remains one of the defining knocks in the history of the women's game. India went on to lose to England in the final, but beating Australia was a monumental hurdle overcome.

That century also helped spark wider interest in women's cricket in India, and transformed Harmanpreet into a household name.

The second decade of her career showcased her prowess both as batter and captain. Having succeeded Mithali Raj as T20 captain in 2016, Harmanpreet assumed charge across all formats in 2022 and went on to guide India to some of the greatest successes in its history.

Her leadership was marked by an aggressive pursuit of victory. That fearless approach instilled confidence and ambition in her teammates, helping the team overcome even the previously unbeatable Australians, most memorably in the semi-final of the 2025 ODI World Cup.

Unlike in 2017, Harmanpreet couldn't get a hundred on that occasion, but her innings of 89 was a stellar effort as captain. Combined with Jemimah Rodrigues's century, it helped India secure a famous victory over their arch rivals.

India then defeated South Africa in the final to reach what many regard as the pinnacle of achievement in the history of Indian women's cricket.

With multiple titles and trophies won under her leadership, Harmanpreet leaves behind a formidable legacy for her successor, Smriti Mandhana, to emulate.

Flydubai attacker began a 'drift towards extremism and terrorism' in Australia, UAE says

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw3dj5n538jpo, 2 days ago

The Omani co-pilot who allegedly attempted to hijack a Flydubai plane started a "drift towards extremism and terrorism" while studying in Australia, United Arab Emirates officials say.

UAE Attorney-General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi also alleged the pilot - widely named as Hamam al-Hammami - was last week trying to crash the plane into Tel Aviv's airport in a "suicide attack".

He wounded the captain in the cockpit with the emergency crash axe before being overpowered by passengers. Another crew on the Dubai-Tel Aviv flight was able to land the aircraft in Saudi Arabia.

Melbourne university RMIT earlier confirmed the pilot had studied there but left before completing his engineering qualification.

According to Shamsi, interrogations of the 29-year-old pilot revealed he had been inspired by al-Qaeda's 11 September attacks in the US in 2001.

"The findings indicated that signs of his drift towards extremism and terrorism first emerged in 2017, while he was studying in Australia," the attorney-general was quoted as saying by the UAE's state news agency Wam on Friday.

"During that period, he was influenced by takfiri [radical] ideology through reading extremist literature and following online content glorifying terrorist organisations and suicide attacks."

The Wam report also said the pilot had told investigators "he had prepared himself both psychologically and physically to carry out the plot by intensifying his exposure to material promoting terrorism and training in boxing under a private coach".

"He admitted that he had acted alone, without the involvement of others, although investigations are continuing to verify this claim," Wam said.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has reported the man was issued an Australian student visa in 2014 and studied in the country in 2015-17, before leaving.

This week, the Sydney Morning Herald unearthed tweets from al-Mammami's now-deleted X account in which he referred to his five years spent studying abroad in Australia, Britain, and New Zealand, as "the golden years of my religious commitment".

More than 170 passengers and crew were on board flight FZ1073 on 30 September.

In the days after the incident, Australian authorities confirmed they were looking into the man's links to Australia.

The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team - made up of the Australian Federal Police (AFP), Victoria Police and the country's security agency ASIO - said it was "investigating the man's links to Australia".

Indian co-pilot Capt Smit Machchhar has been hailed a hero after managing to unlock the cockpit door while being violently attacked with an axe, allowing passengers to get in and take control of the aircraft.

Questions are also being asked about major security lapses, including how the attacker was recruited by Flydubai and given clearance to fly a plane filled with Israelis to Tel Aviv.

Regional officials said the co-pilot was barred from flying by Oman's national carrier, Oman Air, and moved to an administrative job because of concerns about his extremist views.

He was later hired by UAE-based Flydubai after undergoing standard security checks that did not examine his background for potential signs of radicalisation, according to the officials.

Israeli aviation regulations also state that pilots who are citizens of countries without formal diplomatic relations with Israel, like Oman, are not permitted to operate flights to the country.

Three men found guilty of murdering Australian brothers and US friend in Mexico

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj5ynwnye009o, 3 days ago

Three men have been found guilty of murdering Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, and their US friend Carter Rhoad during a surfing trip in Mexico in 2024.

The men's full names could not be given for legal reasons, and they were only identified as Jesús Gerardo, Irineo Francisco and Ángel Jesús. They are yet to be sentenced - but are likely to spend the rest of their lives in a prison.

Debra Robinson, the brothers' mother, told the courtroom that her sons' murders had taken "the future we had imagined with them".

During the trial in the northern Baja California state, the court heard that the tourists were killed in an apparent botched robbery of their truck in a secluded beach area.

Their bodies were later found dumped down a well with gunshot wounds to their heads.

The murders sent shockwaves around the world, particularly in Australia, as the coastal area is usually safe from the violence seen in other parts of Mexico.

Robinson and her husband Martin have been at the court in the coastal town of Ensenada throughout the trial, and delivered emotional testimony during closing arguments before Friday's verdict.

"It's hard for a parent to lose a son, and we lost two sons," Martin said.

Family members of Carter Rhoad joined the trial by video link.

Robinson told reporters outside court a week ago that the couple were "deeply grateful" to Australians for the outpouring of support they had received and that they "feel the love and their arms around us".

During the month-long trial, the prosecution had sought 150 years in prison for each of the three defendants.

In November last year, the girlfriend of the alleged ringleader, Jesús Gerardo (alias "El Kekas"), was sentenced in a separate trial to 20 years in prison. She had admitted to involvement in the robbery.

At the time, the murders shocked locals and tourists in Ensenada who were disturbed at the apparent ease and sheer pointlessness of the killings.

The beach town has a reputation as a welcoming spot for surfers, but the chilling murders revealed how commonplace such extreme violence remains in Mexico.

The only explanation the authorities were able to give was that the surfers - all in their early 30s - had ultimately been murdered for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Their killings happened barely 36 hours after they crossed into Mexico from the US. Their bodies, however, were not found for another week, when their families were able to identify them.

At the time, the surfer community in Ensenada turned out in force to honour the men by paddling out at a popular surfing spot and throwing flowers into the sea.

Local surfers also called for greater security for residents and visiting tourists, citing other recent examples of violence in the state. Tourism is a key part of the regional economy in Baja California.

Amid the demands for action, state Governor Marina del Pilar Ávila tried to ease public fears about the widespread violence.

"Baja California is and will continue to be a state with safe tourism for the thousands of people who visit us from the rest of the country and the world," she said.

"I send my condolences and solidarity to the families at this difficult time."

Australia says platforms like Steam and Roblox have 'significant' child safety gaps

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjvgygzzy6lro, 10 days ago

Australia's online safety regulator has found "significant gaps" in how popular gaming platforms protect children online.

In a new report it found inconsistent approaches in how Steam, Roblox, Fortnite and Minecraft implement child safety measures as research shows nine out of 10 children aged 8 to 17 in Australia have played online games.

"Australian children have a right to play online without being exposed to predators, sexual extortionists, violent extremist content or other harmful material," eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said.

Roblox said it "prioritises the safety of our Australian community, especially the youngest users". The other platforms have been contacted for comment.

Weak safety on platforms allow "predatory adults" to make contact with children before grooming them, Inman Grant said, for sexual exploitation or radicalisation.

The report found that Valve - the US gaming giant that owns Steam and Steam Chat - was the only provider that did not use a type of technology widely used by the industry to detect and remove known harmful content.

Valve also did not "proactively" use tools to detect child sexual exploitation or violent material in chats, with current systems mainly flagging scams, the report found.

Roblox, along with Valve, were noted in the report as using only internal datasets to train language detection systems and for not regularly retraining these models.

"We expect these services to lift their game to identify and combat serious harms such as child sexual exploitation, sexual extortion and material and activity which promotes, incites or instructs violence," Inman-Grant said.

Minecraft and Fortnite, which does offer child accounts, generally let users self-declare their age, the report highlighted, meaning anyone who said they were adults could access "higher-risk communication features".

Steam also relied on users self-declaring their age but the report acknowledged the platform had recently introduced age checks using credit cards, and that Roblox had put in stronger age checks since last December.

Another issue raised by the report was the inconsistent manner in which the four gaming platforms shared information and participated in industry initiatives.

Mojang Studios, developer of Minecraft, and Roblox shared industry expertise in combating child sexual exploitation as well as violent extremism online, but Valve did not.

Elsewhere, Fortnite maker Epic Games failed to share instances of breaches with other platforms under a global programme that was designed to combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse.

The report was based on information collected by Australia's eSafety Commission on how the platforms were protecting users from serious online harm between October 2025 and March 2026.

Australia has made global headlines in recent years for its stance on online safety, after it introduced its world-leading social media ban for under-16s last December - which did not include gaming platforms - and a more recent push to force tech giants to offer users a chance to opt-out of social media algorithms.

A spokesperson for Roblox said it had "invested heavily" in its safeguards for children which include mandatory age checks.

Valve, Fortnite, and Microsoft - which owns Minecraft - have been contacted for comment.

The Frenemy: How Australia navigates superpower rivalry

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c61wxyzr4rwyo, 14 days ago

Snipers shatter the silence of the Australian bush. Then the missiles hit, the smoke rising in the distance. The buzz of drones starts up, soon to be drowned out by helicopters flying overhead.

Every piece of hardware is being deployed, no expense spared. But this is no war zone – the last time Townsville saw conflict was during World War Two. This is a show of military might.

" We live in a volatile world," says Australian Army Brigadier Ben McLennan.

"Training an army to be prepared to fight a war that is potentially more likely than it has been previously, [is] very important."

War is no longer an abstract concept for Australians who often feel removed from the problems facing other parts of the world. Thousands of miles from active conflict, the country, like everywhere else, is facing the knock-on effects of Iran and Ukraine such as higher fuel prices and rising inflation.

With China's military capabilities also on the rise and its increasing influence in the Pacific, there's also more concern about the threat it represents. Australia has responded by deepening its relationship with the US, its security ally and China's rival superpower.

But that also puts Australia in a tricky position - for China's rise has also given Australia its biggest trading partner.

It's a paradox that most people are well aware of - which is probably why we've been invited to report on what Australia is doing to protect itself but nobody is willing to say whom they're preparing to fight.

"We're rehearsing for a war - the worst type of war - a World War Two-like war, a World War One-type war, a total war," says Brigadier McLennan, preferring to remain vague when asked who the enemy is.

Binding tighter to the US

The war scenario playing out before us is part of a major joint exercise known as "Southern Jackaroo" - a training programme involving the Australian, American and Japanese armed forces aimed at strengthening defence co-operation across the Indo-Pacific.

"We like to call ourselves America's 911 response force," US Marine Kevin Hicks says.

And in terms of numbers, they are more prepared than ever. In 2012, just 200 US Marines were deployed to Australia for an annual six-month deployment. Today, that figure has risen to around 2,500.

A quick read of Australia's 2026 National Defence Strategy gives you an easy answer as to why these numbers are growing.

"Intense competition between major powers – principally the United States and China – will be an enduring feature of our strategic environment," it said.

"China continues to undertake the largest military build-up in the world today, without the transparency or strategic reassurance the region expects."

The military tie-ups aren't just being seen in terms of troops but in bases too - most obviously in the north of the country such as RAAF Tindal air base in the Northern Territory which has been upgraded to support long-range American B52 bombers.

But the security partnership between the US, the UK and Australia - Aukus - arming Australia with nuclear submarines, is arguably the biggest example of deepening ties.

The Australian approach differs from that of its fellow middle powers. While Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney has talked about middle powers reorganising their priorities in light of an increasingly unreliable US, Australia seems to be intent on tying itself ever closer.

But that comes as Australians themselves increasingly doubt their relationship with the US.

"Only 31% of Australians trust the United States to act responsibly in the world, and a mere 28% of Australians trust China to do the same," says Charles Lyons-Jones, a research fellow at the Lowy Institute, citing their annual poll.

"Those are striking findings when you consider the level of trust that the Australian government has with the United States."

The 'frenemy'

While Australia's alliance with the US is changing, so too is its relationship with China.

Armed forces might be prepping for a potential military conflict but the fact remains China is Australia's most important economic partner.

Australia and China have had diplomatic relations since 1972 but it was only in the early 2010s that China became Australia's biggest trading partner, hungry for all the commodities it had to offer.

Australia opened up its economy and encouraged business and trade, Chinese President Xi Jinping was invited to address parliament. And it culminated in the signing of a free trade agreement in 2015.

The golden era didn't last long though. When Australia suggested an investigation into the origins of Covid in 2020, China objected to this line of questioning and retaliated with tariffs.

And then in 2021, Australia became the first nation to perform a U-turn on China's Belt and Road Initiative - its massive global infrastructure plan - when they cancelled the state of Victoria's agreement with the Chinese government three years after signing up.

A number of Australians have also been detained in China, including journalist Cheng Lei, who was released in 2023 after more than three years.

Relations have improved in recent years under the Labor government of Anthony Albanese, but it's not without challenges.

In June this year for example, China slapped 55% tariffs on beef to protect its own domestic market - despite the free trade agreement.

Even with these hiccups, this year's Lowy Institute Poll found that a majority of Australians (61%) saw China more as an economic partner than a security threat. That was an 11-point increase from last year. When it comes to China investing in Australia though, they are more wary.

"There are a number of European countries which are larger investors in Australia than China, and that is because our jurisdictions are much more similar, and there is a greater level of trust between our governments," says Lyons-Jones.

This year's Lowy Institute Poll also showed that for the first time, a majority of Australians (51%) believed that Australia's relationship with China was more important than its relationship with the US.

Rise and fall of superpowers

Earlier this month, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd – a fluent Mandarin speaker - gave an address in which he talked of "radical changes" now reshaping Australia's national security, including "the rise and rise of China at a time when America continues to debate what sort of global power it wants to be".

Dr Marina Yue Zhang, an Associate Professor at the University of Technology Sydney agrees Australia's relationship with its closest ally is changing.

"The US is really doing something dramatic and more and more people in Australia - and I think globally - have realised 'is this the big brother we can all trust and put all our faith in?' " she says.

But old rivalries live on. With Australia caught between two superpowers, every exchange between their leaders carries weight. And in Beijing earlier this year, when Xi met Trump, the Chinese president invoked the idea of the "Thucydides Trap", the theory that conflict can become almost inevitable when a rising power challenges an established one.

"This is, if not the transition of great powers, at least [it's] power struggles of great powers, says Zhang.

And in that competition, Australia is inevitably affected. The US is a security ally that while more unreliable than in the past is still its mainstay. But economically so too is China. It's not an either/or relationship, it's a balancing act.

"There's no way Australia will choose one side and [dump] the other- it's not in their interests," Zhang says.

"It's getting harder and harder to maintain, but Australia has to do it."

Former Bachelor Australia star Sam Wood denied bail over domestic violence charges

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmz65lpeddeno, 4 days ago

Former Bachelor Australia star and fitness coach Sam Wood will remain in jail after he was denied bail over alleged domestic violence offences.

Wood was arrested on Saturday at a beachfront property on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, and later charged with domestic violence assault and strangulation.

His lawyer told the court on Thursday Wood may argue he acted in self defence during a family fight, but stressed he denies the strangulation charge.

The 46-year-old rose to fame in the 2015 season of the reality TV show and later became the public face of a popular online home fitness and nutrition brand, 28 by Sam Wood - from which he was dumped after his arrest.

Wood - who lives in Melbourne but was on holiday in Noosa - appeared via videolink at Maroochydore Magistrates Court where he applied for bail after five nights in custody.

Police prosecutors told the court the alleged victim had provided a video statement in which she said she had been choked, couldn't breathe, and had her head banged against the floor.

"She thought she was going to die," Sergeant Jeanette Grigoris said.

They also tendered photos of the alleged victim's injuries, as well as a recording of a call to emergency services in which a witness says the woman was choked.

The complainant supports the criminal charges, Grigoris added.

Wood's lawyer Mathew Cuskelly had argued that there was a lack of evidence to support the strangulation charge, which "seems unusual" given the "nature" and "gravity" of the allegation.

He also said his client had been involved in an argument, in which the complainant had been "hostile" when he pushed her - circumstances which could entitle him to a self-defence claim.

Cuskelly said Wood suffers from severe depression, and argued he should be bailed so that he can access mental health support and salvage his professional reputation "which has taken a hell of a beating".

But Grigoris argued there was a risk Wood would interfere with witnesses or reoffend, or fail to return to Queensland to face court.

On Monday, a statement "from the Wood family" was released on both he and his wife's social media.

"This is a difficult time for all of us, we are working through this as a family and thoroughly co-operating with the authorities," the post said.

DBG Health, which bought Wood's fitness brand for millions of dollars in 2022, initially said Wood had been placed on "indefinite leave" but later announced it had cut its commercial arrangements with him "effective immediately".

"DGB Health does not tolerate domestic violence in any form, and our thoughts are with people impacted by it," the company said.

Since the charges, a number of fitness influencers and corporate sponsors have also cut ties with Wood including fitness trainer Tiffiny Hall and Married At First Sight star Jules Robinson.

Wood came to national prominence during the 2015 season of The Bachelor Australia where he met contestant Snezana Markoski.

They married in 2018 and have four daughters, including one from his wife's former relationship.

Wood is next due in court on 23 November.

Pornhub returns to Australia but only for adults with Apple devices

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwvgdlzvl9ego, 5 days ago

Pornhub has returned to Australia, eight months after it went dark due to age verification laws, but only adults with Apple devices will be able to access the site.

On Wednesday, parent company Aylo said it was restoring access for "eligible adult users in Australia" who have "confirmed their age through Apple's Australian age-verification process".

The world's biggest porn site left the Australian market in March, saying new laws requiring users to prove they were over 18 would not protect children and "instead creates harms relating to data privacy" and exposure to content on non-compliant platforms.

Apple recently introduced new age checks in Australia, following a rollout in the UK.

In March, Australia introduced stricter laws requiring users to prove they were over 18 in order to access adult content such as porn, R-rated video games and sexually explicit AI chatbots.

The country's online safety regulator said the changes would protect children from harmful content and platforms would be fined for breaches.

Critics said there would be issues with data privacy and users finding ways to trick age-verification technologies such as facial recognition, digital IDs and credit card details.

Aylo said it was returning to Australia as Apple has "set a benchmark" by setting default child safety features on all devices unless owners confirmed they are adults.

This, in effect, makes "every phone or tablet kid-safe as a starting point," it said.

"For years, Aylo has advocated for device-based age verification as the most effective and privacy-protecting approach to help prevent minors from accessing age-inappropriate content online," said Aylo's vice-president of brand and community Alex Kekesi.

Australians with Apple devices that have been "age-verified" will be "served a standard adult users experience", she said.

Apple users can prove they are over 18 using a credit card, their passport, a driver's license or a government-issued ID.

Kekesi added that having devices with child safety features as a default meant adults don't have to "surrender unnecessary personal information to multiple apps and websites".

It also limits the usefulness of virtual private networks (VPNs) to circumvent age-verification technologies, she said.

VPNs are commonly used to trick a site into thinking a user is logging on from another country, giving the user access to the site.

OpenAI admits response to Australian government hacks 'not good enough'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmx2qne2j88wo, 6 days ago

OpenAI has admitted its actions were "not good enough" after one of its rogue agents breached Australian government websites in June, saying it had added more precautions to its training environments.

The company's chief strategy officer Jason Kwon faced a parliamentary hearing into AI on Tuesday in Sydney, saying the breach "should not have happened" and it "should have handled our response better". It took weeks before Australia was notified via an email to a generic inbox.

"We are sorry and we know we have work to do to rebuild trust with the Australian people," Kwon said.

Anthropic also appeared and said it had not found any cases of Australian breaches during a recent investigation.

Executives from Microsoft and Google were also present.

An OpenAI agent went "rogue" and "infiltrated" a private statistics portal containing "non-sensitive" data from Australia's universal healthcare scheme Medicare in June, in what cyber-security experts said was the first hack of its kind.

When asked why OpenAI had not directly contacted government ministers immediately after it found out about the breaches, Kwon acknowledged it was a mistake.

"In retrospect, we should have done what you're suggesting," Kwon said.

"The reason why it happened the way that it did is I think people were thinking about this as a technical situation and they wanted to contact the technical counterparties, but it's not good enough."

Kwon said the company has changed how it handles such incidents.

"Even if we don't fully understand the situation, we are just going to notify and start working through the situation collaboratively with the impacted party."

OpenAI has also added "more precautions" to its training environments since the incidents, Kwon told the 12-member committee, which is made up of Labor, Liberal and independent MPs and senators looking at AI and its impact on Australia.

The company was also establishing a local taskforce in Australia to investigate "how to better manage the risks associated with increasingly capable AI", it said.

Kwon told the committee that training models were now monitored in real time during tests, and that an alarm was triggered if they interacted with the internet in a way they were not meant to.

This meant that OpenAI had been able to alert the New South Wales government to another hack last week within 48 hours.

The company would also support a framework on mandatory disclosure of incidents, Kwon said, as it would set out "clear expectations".

"We were trying to come up with a standard to apply to our voluntary actions… Based on our learned experience here, we should have been probably talking to more people about how to do that well."

Anthropic's head of safeguards Dave Orr said that in the wake of OpenAI agents hacking tech platform Hugging Face in July, it had reviewed "hundreds of millions of transcripts" to detect any potential breaches of Australian government websites similar to OpenAI.

"We haven't found anything like this and we have looked," he told the committee.

The public hearings, which will continue until Friday, also heard evidence from arts and media organisations about copyright and their concerns on how AI models use their materials. AI companies want Australia to relax copyright laws so they can use books and music, for example, to train their AI models.

An opt-out model - where the onus would be on the artist to ask AI not to use their material for training purposes - was flawed and could mean artists do not get paid for their content, the committee heard.

"In other words, Australia's artists will be the roadkill in the rush to this AI deal," said Annabelle Herd, chief executive of the Australian Recording Industry Association.

Anthropic's special envoy Jeff Bleich told the hearing the company had "never tried to dictate" to Australia on its copyright laws.

Australian soldier killed and five injured in crash during training exercise

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwn73mygmg0lo, 6 days ago

An Australian soldier has died and five others have been injured in a crash during a training exercise in the Northern Territory (NT).

Police said a vehicle had rolled over at the Mount Bundey training area, about 130km (80 mi) southeast of Darwin, on Monday afternoon.

Corporal Brendan Hannam, 28, was declared dead at the scene while five others were airlifted to hospital in Darwin.

The area - used by the army for live fire training - is the same location where Jason Challis was killed in 2017 after he was shot in the head during an exercise. The department later pleaded guilty for failing to comply with workplace safety.

Monday's incident caused the second death of an Australian soldier this year after a paratrooper died after a mid-air collision during training in May.

The Department of Defence confirmed the incident on Tuesday but gave no further details and requested the privacy of the soldiers and families affected be respected.

NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said two injured soldiers had been taken to the Royal Darwin Hospital by helicopter and another three by plane on Monday evening, according to national broadcaster ABC.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the family who are obviously devastated by this loss and of course, the support of our entire community is there for all of our service personnel who will be feeling this loss immensely," she said.

The ABC also reported that the NT Police Commissioner Martin Dole had sent resources to the Mount Bundey training area to help with the department's investigation into the incident.

"We can't comment on the cause of the injury to the defence personnel but we are assisting and were helping to investigate on behalf of the coroner," Dole said, according to the ABC.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his thoughts were with the family and friends of the victims, adding: "There are no safe or easy days for those who serve in our country's name."

During a 2019 inquest into the death of Challis, a 25-year-old soldier from Victoria, the coroner described the training exercise as "shambolic" and that his death had been preventable.

Challis, who had less than a year's experience with the defence force, was shot in the head and knee while he stood behind a plywood wall during an urban attack exercise.

In May this year, Lachlan Muddle - a Special Air Service Regiment soldier - died when he fell to the ground after a mid-air collision with another paratrooper at the Jervis Bay airfield in New South Wales.

Poland stabbings driven by online glorification of violence, Tusk says

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckp8gyd65z2go, today

Three violent attacks at Polish schools this week were driven by the "glorification of violence" online, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.

The attacks have left one woman dead and others injured, including children.

"These are very often spontaneous actions inspired by online activity," Tusk said on Sunday, during a crisis meeting with security services.

Police have arrested 117 people across the country for possession knives or other weapons, or for threatening to attack schools or fellow students, after searching tens of thousands of schools.

A woman was arrested on Saturday after injuring three people while attacking a 17-year-old girl at an educational institution in the capital, Warsaw.

It came a day after thousands of police visited schools across Poland, following two stabbing attacks earlier in the week, one of which led to the killing of a female caretaker.

"We are not dealing with any group organized on a big scale," Tusk said on Sunday.

"In the past years and months, we have noted - globally and in Poland - a rise in the fascination with violence," he added.

The prime minister said the attacks were acts "nihilistic violence" associated with the extreme right.

"Some of the people detained are active in the ultraright environment," he said, adding that police had noticed a rise in online searches of Nazi content as well as of "mass killers who have become idols online".

On Wednesday, a 19-year-old student attacked and injured nine people at a vocational school in the central Polish province of Mazovian.

A day later, the 37-year-old caretaker was killed after a 15-year-old entered a primary school in Leszczydół-Nowiny, north of Warsaw.

Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński also said a 17-year-old was detained in the town of Sierpc, north-west of Warsaw, after allegedly stating "on school grounds that he planned to do something... dangerous - that he intended to harm someone".

Thousands of Polish ‌police officers visited schools nationwide to try to reassure pupils after the stabbings sparked rumours of a "Bloody Friday" of more attacks stemming from a supposed online challenge.

Meanwhile, Polish security services convened a special meeting on Sunday after receiving information about a potential attack on Tusk and Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, a spokesperson said.

A special services spokesman said officials were treating the threat as "deadly serious".

Poland detains man suspected of planning assassination of PM Tusk

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6n9rvynl5p5o, today

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said a man accused of plotting an assassination attack against him and his defence minister has been detained.

The interior ministry earlier reported that police had received credible information about possible attacks against Tusk and Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz.

Security services convened a special meeting on Sunday after receiving information about the planned attacks, with a spokesman saying officials were treating the threat as "deadly serious".

Tusk thanked the police for "swift and decisive action" in arresting the suspect.

The suspect was arrested in the Lower Silesia region and is a Polish national, Jacek Dobrzynski, a spokesman for the Special Services Coordinator told local media.

"In this case we are talking about a strong likelihood that these threats could actually be carried out," he said.

The plan was uncovered when an email with information about the potential attack was forwarded to police by the State Protection Service, which is responsible for ministers' security, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Karolina Galecka said.

Tusk has been Polish prime minister since 2023 after previously holding the office from 2007 to 2014.

He served as president of the European Council from 2014 to 2019.

Pope Leo to have surgery after lump found on lung

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6m2dnngvw8xo, today

Pope Leo XIV has announced he will be operated on "in the coming days" after a nodule was found on his lung during a medical check-up.

"The doctors found an early, well-localised nodule on my lung," he told the public during his weekly Sunday prayers in St Peter's Square in Rome.

The 71-year-old said his medical team "believe it would be right to intervene" and he had agreed to the operation, while reassuring pilgrims that the mass was "well-contained" and caught "at an early stage".

The pontiff's admission that he would need surgery comes nearly a year-and-a-half after he succeeded the late Pope Francis, who also experienced issues with his lungs that required hospital treatment.

Leo concluded his Angelus prayer by thanking everyone for their "spiritual closeness" and said he entrusted himself to their prayers.

Holy See Press Office spokesman Matteo Bruni told the media that "the operation is scheduled for the first days of next week".

He added that the Pope is expected to take about a week to recover.

Vatican News, the Holy See's news portal, said the operation will take place at Gemelli Hospital in Rome.

The hospital set up a special Papal suite following the failed assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II's life in May 1981, which is still in use today.

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her "personal solidarity" with the Pope as he "faces the ordeal ahead in the coming days".

Her sentiments were echoed by Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who offered his "sincerest wishes for a peaceful recovery and a speedy and full return to health".

Isaac Herzog, the president of Israel, also wished the pontiff "a full and speedy recovery".

The Pope, born Robert Francis Prevost, is the 267th occupant of the throne of St Peter – the first US citizen to do so.

He was ordained in 1982 and spent years as a missionary in Peru, where he is remembered as a figure who worked with marginalised communities.

During Sunday's service, the Pope confirmed his upcoming visit to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru in November will still go ahead.

The Archbishop of Montevideo, Daniel Sturla, said preparations for his tour will continue with "greater enthusiasm" as he called for prayers for his recovery.

A lung nodule is a small lump of tissue that is usually detected following an X-ray or CT scan of the chest, according to the NHS.

Most nodules do not cause other symptoms.

Russian glide bomb attack on Zaporizhzhia kills at least 20 people

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwvgdpv642g5o, yesterday

Russia has attacked the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia with five glide bombs, killing at least 20 people including four children, local officials said.

The glide bombs hit residential buildings in the southern city on Saturday morning. At least 32 others were injured in the attack, with more still missing and believed to be under the rubble.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks on Zaporizhzhia were Russia expressing "its thanks" for a deal announced by US President Donald Trump last night easing sanctions on Moscow to import Russian diesel.

He added that 13 other regions had come under attack overnight, arguing this demonstrated Russia took "any easing of pressure to mean they can keep fighting".

Photos and videos from the site of one of the strikes in Zaporizhzhia show an apartment block mostly destroyed.

"The ground floor was hit, and the floors above just collapsed," acting Mayor Regina Harchenko told Ukrainian television from the scene.

She said more than 80 workers were involved in ongoing search and rescue operations which are expected to continue throughout the day.

The rescuers regularly stop to listen for any noises made by survivors who could be under the rubble.

Harchenko said Russia had struck at "our very heart" and "our littlest ones" were among those killed, adding that their deaths were "awful grief for their families. For the city."

Zaporizhzhia is a major regional centre with more than 700,000 residents. It is located less than 10 miles (16km) from the front line and is frequently attacked by Russian drones and missiles.

Zelensky was quick to criticise Trump's diesel deal with Russia, calling it a gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts view the deal as an attempt by the US president to allay domestic concerns about high fuel prices ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.

Zelensky wrote on social media on Saturday that Russian attacks on energy facilities in the capital, Kyiv, demonstrated Russia's "true intentions".

"Russia's choice is war. And they will be ready to end it only when they feel that their ability to drag the war out is diminishing.

"Unfortunately, the signals Russia received yesterday were entirely different – signals suggesting that it could simply keep attacking. And this needs to be corrected."

Both Russia and Ukraine have stepped up attacks on infrastructure in recent months, as Moscow's full-scale invasion, launched in 2022, drags on.

On Thursday, at least 33 people were killed in another Russian glide bomb attack on two civilian buses in Kramatorsk, in the eastern Donetsk region.

The day before, 22 people including five children died as a Russian missile hit an apartment block in the town of Pryluky, east of Kyiv.

The number of civilian casualties in Ukraine jumped by 55% in the first eight months of this year, according to the UN.

Russia has also stepped up its attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure as winter approaches, a strategy it has undertaken in previous years. Kyiv has repeatedly accused it of targeting Ukraine's civilian population, which Moscow denies.

For its part, Ukraine has increasingly adopted a policy of striking infrastructure often deep inside Russia that is crucial to its economy, including several oil refineries and terminals.

Several strikes on data centres owned by Yandex have left the tech giant struggling to maintain services.

Kyiv says its strikes are aimed at curtailing revenue streams for Russia's war machine.

'Stain on the country': Trump criticises Norway over Nobel Peace Prize

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgj921e14jdo, 2 days ago

US President Donald Trump has once again complained that he did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize, calling this year's decision "disgraceful and embarrassing".

The prize was awarded to former International Criminal Court judge Navi Pillay on Friday. Hours after the announcement, Trump told a rally he had "never heard" of the "mystery person".

"This is an indelible stain on the country of Norway," he said, adding "we will not forget".

Trump has been outspoken about his desire to win the prize and made similar criticisms in 2025 when it was awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.

Last year, Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre explained to Trump that it was an independent committee based in Norway, not the Norwegian government, that decided who will receive the prize.

The US president repeated claims that he had settled eight wars and was "about to settle or win two more", without providing evidence, while speaking at a rally of his supporters in Syracuse, New York.

"The Nobel Peace Prize has been forever discredited by a handful of radical ideologues who are anti-democracy and really enemies of civilisation," he said.

Pillay, a former UN human rights chief, was recognised "for her efforts to promote peace and international law", which paved the way for a "more comprehensive global legal order", the Nobel committee said.

The South African's work had been "instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are prosecuted", said the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Jørgen Watne Frydnes.

Shortly afterwards, the 85-year-old reacted to the news from Nuremberg's Palace of Justice by saying "it must be a joke" and thanked those who had gathered to applaud her.

"If you clap a little bit more I may share this prize with Trump," she joked.

Last year, the president openly expressed his displeasure at missing out on the prize, with the White House accusing the committee of placing "politics over peace".

In January, Machado gifted her medal to Trump during a meeting at the White House, which she said was in recognition of his commitment to her country's freedom.

Trump said on social media that the move was "a wonderful gesture of mutual respect".

The Nobel committee later clarified that the prize was not transferable.

"Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared or transferred to others," it said. "The decision is final and stands for all time."

France promises 3,000 extra teachers in first step to calm student protests

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6vg98lw017po, 3 days ago

The French government has made its first sign of giving ground to teenage protesters, with a promise of 3,000 extra supply teachers in the coming days.

Education minister Edouard Geffray made the offer in a television interview on Thursday evening, at the end of another day of sometimes violent demonstrations by high-school students.

The government says 6,877 people have been arrested, 86% of whom are under the age of 18, since protests began centred around demands for more resources in secondary education.

In what unions have billed as Act Four of the three-week movement, some 71,000 people staged protests across the country on Thursday, with 24,000 gathering at the Bastille in Paris.

Police once again intervened with tear-gas to disperse groups who attacked them with paving stones and homemade fireworks.

In Bordeaux, a lycée, or high school, was ransacked by protesters, and in Marseille a deputy-head was beaten up.

On Friday, some 140 lycées - out of 3,500 - were totally or partially closed, a big drop on previous days. But another day of action has been called for next Tuesday.

Geffray's announcement was the first material concession to the protesters' complaints.

It has long been recognised by all concerned in French education that too many school hours are being lost because of absent teachers and their non-replacement by available supply staff.

The minister said that thanks to new software coming online at the ministry, it would be possible to direct 3,000 supply teachers to the 500 or so lycées identified as being in the greatest need.

Many of these schools are likely to be in high-immigration city suburbs, where the lack of teachers is most acute.

Geffray also said that more money would be made available under an already existing scheme for those teachers who want to work overtime hours in order to plug gaps.

And he promised that students' grievances would be taken into account in forthcoming discussions on the education section of the 2027 state budget.

But the offer contained no major promise of new investment on a scale likely to appease protesters.

The government is wary of appearing to buy social peace because it knows France's precarious debt situation is being followed closely by international money markets.

Reaction from student leaders has been guarded to say the least.

Nathanaël Combary, who represents the most moderate of the three main lycée unions Renouveau Lycéen (Lycée Renewal), said students were waiting to see how the promise was carried out in practice: "We've had some announcements which correspond to part of our demands. But obviously people want to see the money and more concrete results."

"As long as we do not have €10bn on the table, we will continue our action," said Sabrine Kharbach of the Union Etudiante (Student Union), which is close to the radical-left France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party of presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Mélenchon praised Thursday's demonstrations, saying on X that the students had "retaken the Bastille".

But at the other end of the political spectrum, a spokesman for the hard-right National Rally (RN) condemned the government's concessions.

"The message is: if you break things, you get given stuff," said Laurent Jacobelli. "When you burn cars, attack police, you gain something in return. It's the legitimisation of violence."

The movement is the most serious student unrest in France in many years, and comes against a backdrop of rising tension in the country - with anger over rising fuel prices and distress in the farming sector also liable to trigger protests.

Next Saturday, 17 October, has been earmarked as a day of demonstrations by a revived "yellow vest" movement, which forced the government to halt a rise in fuel taxes after protests and riots in 2018.

In addition, the approach of presidential elections in April and May - in which both hard right and hard left are expected to perform strongly - is exacerbating the mood of confrontation.

The government is hoping that the approach of half-term holidays at the end of next week - as well as the arrival of colder and wetter weather - will take some of the sting out of the protests.

Two Renoir paintings stolen from French museum are recovered

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwkg50v1vn07o, 3 days ago

Two paintings by Auguste Renoir stolen a month ago from a museum in the south of France have been recovered, the local town hall has said.

The two works were seized on 8 September when thieves cut through a fence and smashed a window at the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, where the French impressionist had lived during his final years.

The local mayor praised authorities for recovering the paintings and said the news gave immense joy and profound relief.

Six suspects have also been arrested in relation with the heist at Renoir Museum, the town hall confirmed in a statement.

The theft was the latest in a series of high-profile art heists in Europe.

The two missing paintings were the Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano (1910) and Jeune fille au puits (1886).

The thieves had used an electric saw to cut through the frame mountings inside the museum and had initially made off with four paintings, but dropped two of them in the museum's garden as they fled

"These two paintings are far more than works of art. They are part of our city's history, our cultural heritage and the legacy Auguste Renoir left to Cagnes-sur-Mer," said Mayor Bryan Masson, who is part of France's National Rally.

The town hall said initially that it would provide further details of the recovery on Friday, but cancelled a planned press conference.

The Renoir Museum is home to 12 of the famous painter's artworks.

Opened in 1960, it houses a variety of objects that once belonged to him, including his easel and wheelchair, as well as photographs and personal letters.

Earlier this year paintings by Renoir, Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse were stolen from a museum near the Italian city of Parma, in a raid that lasted just three minutes. They were recovered in August.

France saw its biggest art robbery in years last October, when crown jewels were stolen in broad daylight from the Louvre in Paris.

Disguised as construction workers, the thieves broke into the Louvre's first-floor Apollo Gallery during the museum's opening hours.

They used an angle-grinder to open display cases and made off with €88m (£78m) of jewels that once belonged to France's 19th-Century queens and empresses.

The Louvre was subsequently criticised for under-investing in security.

Thieves steal 30,000 bottles of wine worth €5m in Italy, reports say

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cme3xl8ln2vko, 3 days ago

Thieves have stolen 30,000 bottles of wine collectively worth about €5m (£4.2m) from a prestigious Italian winery, Italian media report.

Marchesi Antinori, one of Italy's biggest family-owned wineries, said the theft at its storage facility in Tuscany took place on Saturday as the company was preparing to ship a consignment to customers abroad.

At least seven masked men are believed to have deactivated the alarms, disabled the cameras and used company forklifts to load two large trucks of the company's prized Tignanello, Solaia and Guado al Tasso Tuscan reds.

Renzo Cotarella, the chief executive, told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera this was the largest theft of its kind in Italy.

"A theft of this scale and value has certainly never occurred in Italy," he said.

He added that he was hopeful the authorities would be able to trace the stolen wine.

"Two trucks full of merchandise can't just disappear into thin air. The Tuscan roads are full of cameras - perhaps with a bit of luck we'll be able to recover at least some of the bottles stolen from us."

He told the Financial Times: "These wines have a great value and I don't know how they can sell all this wine around the world without being seen."

The company believes the selection of bottles, which usually sell for between €150 and €500 each, suggests the thieves were wine connoisseurs and had inside knowledge.

The theft was only discovered on Monday morning as staff arrived on site. No arrests have been made.

Marchesi Antinori was founded in 1385 and exports to 170 countries. It had a revenue of €263m (£223m) last year.

There has been a spate of wine thefts in Italy this year, including two in the northern Piedmont region where hundreds of thousands of euros worth of bottles were reportedly taken.

Nord Stream trial: How German police followed the evidence - to Ukraine

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c317ke5ngrq7o, 2 days ago

Serhii K appeared relaxed as he checked in to the glamping resort near Italy's Adriatic coast with his wife and young children.

Dressed in shorts, sandals and a dark baseball cap, the former Ukrainian Special Forces soldier strolled back and forth, chatting with the receptionist and dipping repeatedly into a bowl of free snacks.

But German police were already closing in on him.

After a painstaking investigation, they had concluded that Serhii K had commanded Europe's biggest act of sabotage in decades: a series of explosions in September 2022 deep beneath the Baltic Sea that ripped through the giant Nord Stream pipelines and ruptured the supply of Russian gas to Germany.

Next week, following his extradition to Germany and months in isolation in a high security prison, Serhii K will go on trial in Hamburg. He is charged with causing an explosion and a war crime – attacking civilian infrastructure – allegedly acting on behalf of "state agencies of Ukraine".

Both he and his country have denied any involvement.

Under Germany's privacy rules, he will be named during the trial only as Serhii K, but during extradition proceedings he was identified as Serhii Kuznetsov.

It was 02:03 on 26 September 2022 when the first blast severed part of the Nord Stream pipelines, sending vast quantities of gas gushing through the surface of the Baltic Sea.

There were two further explosions targeting both Nord Stream 2 – not yet in action, but already full – and the original Nord Stream 1 that had supplied around half of Germany's annual demand for natural gas.

Both have been inoperable ever since.

Prosecutors say "high-performance explosives" were planted approximately 80m (260ft) below the surface: four devices weighing up to 27kg each, activated with timers.

They "strongly suspect" that Serhii K led a crew that included four deep-sea divers, using a rented yacht called Andromeda.

Once their complex, dangerous mission was done, the saboteurs slipped back into Ukraine unaware of the DNA evidence some had allegedly left on the boat.

As word of the blasts spread, experts and some governments initially rushed to the same conclusion: they blamed Moscow.

Russia had a history of hybrid attacks, after all, and of using its energy supplies for political pressure.

But as the airwaves filled with commentators citing "suspicious" Russian naval activity near the blast site, German police ignored the noise.

They went on following the forensic crumbs.

Eventually they led to Ukraine.

The case since built by investigators alleges that Serhii K entered Germany for the Nord Stream attack on a forged passport, likely issued by Ukraine's security services.

In the extradition files sent to Italy he is named as Serhii Kulinich.

That might explain why he looked so calm on his holiday in Italy.

He had been travelling widely, and without incident, for the past year. In a copy of his real passport seen by the BBC there are more than two dozen stamps from countries including France, Spain and Canada – all dated after the Nord Stream attacks.

But by 13 August 2025, Germany had identified its key suspect and this time, when Serhii K crossed into Poland, he was detected.

Italian police say the actual arrest warrant was only issued on 18 August after he had travelled south and left Poland, suggesting the Germans were not sure their neighbours would co-operate and detain him.

By the time his wife made a booking at La Pescaccia though, he was officially a "wanted" man. As soon as he showed his passport at check-in at the resort, the local carabinieri got an automatic alert.

Police arrived to make their arrest late that night, leading Serhii K away from the glamping site and his family in handcuffs.

The saboteurs

None of the Nord Stream suspects have spoken publicly and no-one admits any role in the explosions.

But I have talked to some of the Ukrainians caught up in the case, and people close to them.

"Anyone who admits involvement in this mission, they're immediately a target for Russia," one source explained. "Whoever did it can never confirm that."

Nord Stream was a major investment and worth big money to Moscow in fuel sales. But it also made Germany and others dependent, giving Russia immense leverage over Europe.

That is why Ukraine, the US and Poland in particular all loathed it.

Another source I spoke to was "eaten alive by anxiety" over the investigation and baffled that Germany, a close ally of Ukraine, was even pursuing prosecution.

"Many Ukrainians believe that these pipelines, they helped Russia to fight so blowing them up was a good thing for our country," they pointed out.

The German prosecutor's office told me the justice system was outside of any politics. Sabotage is an offence against Germany's constitution.

Equally frustrating for the Ukrainians I met was their own government's silence.

"At the very minimum, he's a military man, so if there are any questions, they should be addressed to the state, not to him," a close contact of Serhii K complained.

Ahead of his extradition to Germany, his lawyer here in Italy told me his client had felt "abandoned".

Germany has a whole list of suspects, but only one other name has been revealed so far.

Volodymyr Zhuravlyov is currently fighting extradition from Croatia where he was arrested in August.

He was there as a consultant on a new thriller film about the Nord Stream blasts, though he denies any role in the real-life operation.

Travelling was a risky move, when he knew Germany was pursuing him.

Zhuravylov has lived in Warsaw with his family since just before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and has his own business there installing air conditioning.

He is also a keen and competent deep-sea diver.

But he is a civilian.

Last year, he was arrested in Warsaw on a warrant issued by Germany but a Polish judge refused to extradite him.

In a dramatic twist, he ruled instead that a Ukrainian attack on Nord Stream, if that was what happened, would be a "just" act in a "bloody and genocidal war".

As one source close to the case put it to me: "The Poles don't like Ukrainians, historically, but they hate Russians and Germans even more."

Croatia is a different matter.

Political ripples

The implications of this case reach far beyond the courthouse in Hamburg.

After a slow start, Germany is now Ukraine's biggest supplier of military aid. The far-right AfD party, currently riding high in the polls, has seized on the Nord Stream case to bolster its argument that support for Kyiv needs to stop.

It is awkward, at the very least, for the governments in both Berlin and Kyiv.

It also raises questions about what constitutes a legitimate military target: who can hit what, and where, outside an open war zone.

When asked about the explosions, President Zelensky has previously insisted that Ukraine "definitely didn't do that".

This week, a foreign ministry spokesman went further.

"I find it very unfortunate that this entire discussion has come to focus on who blew [the pipelines] up, rather than who built them," Heorhii Tykhyi told the BBC, forcefully.

He argued that Nord Stream had "untied Russia's hands" to go to war, because it no longer needed to transit Ukraine for its gas to reach Europe.

"Did we warn about this? We did," Tykhyi wanted to know. "Did anyone listen to us? No, no-one did."

First in the dock

Serhii K will shortly become the first suspect to face charges in this high profile trial.

Zhuravlyov's case could be merged, in theory, at a later date, though that would be complicated.

Those who know Serhii K call him a patriot.

He signed up to defend Ukraine when Russia invaded even though he had several children and was exempt - and fought until December 2023.

His military ID shows that he was still in active service when the pipelines were blown up, meaning someone in Ukraine's military command knew exactly where he was and what he was doing.

They are not saying, though.

And in court Serhii K himself will not say a word, either.

His legal team will argue that he is not authorised to reveal details of any activities as a soldier and produce sworn statements from two of his military superiors to back that up.

I am told one of them will be the man widely named as the mastermind of the entire Nord Stream plot.

'Everyone hates the police' – what France's school protests reveal about a divided nation

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crq5nlqnn184o, 3 days ago

As dustbins burn and students chant "everyone hates the police" in the French city of Lille, one teenager explains why he and his friends have taken to the streets.

"There aren't even enough chairs. We have to go and find some at the start of every lesson," the 16-year-old, who did not want to give his name, says of his school.

"We've got 50 minutes to eat at lunchtime but there are 2,000 of us that need to get through the canteen."

He is one of hundreds of thousands of students who have protested across France since the end of last month over staff shortages and dilapidated facilities in the country's lycées, secondary schools attended by 15 to 18-year-olds.

Despite the government's apparent attempts to make concessions, the students show no sign of backing down.

"They have armies, they have the police, they have the powers," says Massicella, 18, as she marches through Lille. "But we have the mass population."

The protests, which have turned violent, have become a focal point in France's polarised politics, with all sides accusing the other of escalating tensions. As a presidential election approaches, politicians on both the hard right and hard left have sought to capitalise on the unrest and on what many see as the government's inability to resolve the crisis.

The protests - ignited at the Lycée Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry in the deprived Paris suburb of Créteil - have struck a chord across the country.

Videos of rats scuttling through corridors in other lycées soon hit social media, providing striking symbols of the discontent. Other videos on TikTok and Instagram showed broken toilets, holes in walls and mouldy ceilings across the country. Students have complained of unbearable heat in the summer and freezing classrooms in the winter.

The anger has also focused on long school hours, chronic staff shortages, overcrowded classes and a deeply unpopular university admissions system.

The problem for the French government - which became clearer as we spoke to dozens of pupils this week - is that even if a tiny minority of schools have a problem with rodents, a very large number of pupils believe their own education is failing them.

On Tuesday, the government said 250,000 people marched, most of them young. The trade unions said it was more like half a million.

But it is not just students taking to the streets - their teachers are joining them.

Secondary school teacher Marine Monins, who joined the demonstrations in Lille, shows us a laminated timetable which she says illustrates the problem.

It has become normal for pupils to start at 8am and finish as late as 6pm, but the days are punctuated by hours-long gaps because of bad planning and staff shortages.

When lessons do go ahead, the classes are typically packed with 35 pupils (by comparison, the average secondary school class in England has fewer than 23 pupils).

"It's now impossible to give every child the attention they deserve," Monins explains.

On Thursday, the French government made its first sign of ceding ground to protesters, with a promise of 3,000 extra supply teachers in the coming days.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has said by the end of October there will be a plan unveiled to respond to the crisis. Ministers have said they could look again at resources for schools within next year's squeezed budget.

But this has been met with a collective shrug at barricaded school gates across the country.

"It goes beyond having decent toilets in schools," lycée student Alcidor says in Paris, under the statue of Marianne at Place de la République, a place synonymous with protest.

"It's strong anger from the youth in France that doesn't feel represented, that feels abandoned, that feels unheard and is scared of what's coming in the future."

The unrest has resulted in widespread arrests and injuries.

So far, almost 7,000 people have been detained during the disorder with more than 85% being children, according to the interior ministry.

More than 700 police officers have been injured in the past three weeks.

But rights groups and unions accuse the police of resorting to heavy-handed tactics against minors, including the use of batons, tear gas and non-lethal flash-ball guns. At least 200 pupils have been injured, along with dozens of teachers.

A 15-year-old boy's hand was blown off during a confrontation between police and demonstrators in the northern city of Lens.

Reports of how the teenager sustained the injury differ. A police union source cited by the AFP news agency said the boy appeared to have picked up a sting-ball grenade fired by riot police, which then exploded in his hand. However, a witness told local media that the teenager did not pick up the grenade.

A teacher at the boy's school, Bastien Riez, who is also a union rep, believes that current police tactics could irrevocably damage the relationship with France's youth.

"For many, this is their first experience of democracy and protest, and they are met with police and a sham of social dialogue and democracy. I fear that many young people will stop believing in this so-called democracy altogether."

Police have since been banned from using stun grenades at school protests.

But Parisian pupil Kaspar, 15, speaks of his fear when coming face-to-face with police in full riot gear. He says he and his friends have been protesting peacefully, but strangers were hijacking their protests.

"These people are coming just to shoot fireworks at police officers and they run. This is not the message we want to send to the world."

Police chiefs say violence, directed by agitators who have no link to the schools, is making their job incredibly hard.

Michel Chaballier, deputy secretary-general of the National Police Commissioners' Union (SCPN), says he fears the "political climate has been radicalised", and it was more and more difficult to have a calm, constructive public debate ahead of the national vote next spring.

"Police officers find themselves caught in the middle of this social tension, which is sometimes fuelled by irresponsible politicians," he says. "That's a shame, because I think this country deserves better."

The protests have become another bruising battleground in France's culture wars, with leaders of the hard left and right seeking to capitalise.

More than three-quarters of under-30s in France interviewed for an Ipsos survey conducted for Aix-Marseille University this week said they were worried about the state of their country.

But many people have a more profound and wider concern about just how dramatically the middle ground in France is eroding, leaving a chasm in the political landscape.

The education crisis is symptomatic of this but also threatens to act as an accelerant.

Most polling suggests more and more French citizens are looking to political extremes for answers to their problems – whether they are linked to education, the economy, identity or immigration.

Marine Le Pen of the hard right National Rally is the frontrunner in the 2027 presidential race.

Next, neck and neck, are Édouard Philippe and Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Philippe was a prime minister in President Emmanuel Macron's first term and has since founded a centre-right party called Horizons.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a veteran hard-left politician and founder of France Unbowed (LFI), has been a prominent older face among the students at rallies over the past three weeks.

Opponents have accused him of provoking and profiting from the unrest, while he counters that only his party truly represents the French youth.

He claims the current movement that has emerged from the schools protest is the most potent since 1968, when huge demonstrations almost brought down the government of President Charles de Gaulle. At its height, 10 million workers were on the streets before fresh elections led to the revolt fizzling out, but not before carving an indelible memory in French social history.

Despite being born more than four decades later, an exasperated generation of French teenagers are looking to the past for inspiration.

"I personally want to reproduce 1968!" Massicella declares in Lille, as she nears the end of the protest march.

Le Pen has stayed away from the protests and her most notable interventions have come in condemning the damage to schools, which is said to run into the millions of euros.

She has also suggested that parents of children who have committed the vandalism should pay for repairs.

The principle of casseur-payeur – those who break have to pay – has been an impassioned topic that has dominated French media this week.

The problem for President Macron is that there is no quick fix.

This is not a scenario where there is an unpopular piece of legislation that can be withdrawn in a hasty reverse ferret the prime minister is tasked with performing. That was the case with the gilets jaunes – the relentless protest in high vis jackets over a fuel tax rise nearly a decade ago.

Wholesale reform of the education system would cost billions – in new classrooms, new facilities, new teachers – and take years to achieve.

And changes that may seem more easily done – such as a reduction of the length of the school day – would be hugely problematic to implement logistically.

What is more, any proposals which appease the students and end the current protests would have to be agreed at a time when France's finances are in a mess.

The cost of servicing the national debt each year has now exceeded the core state education budget. Under the 2027 draft budget, there will be a 1.7% rise in education spending - but this is an under-inflation increase.

Le Pen has vowed to cut public spending even further if she enters the Élysée Palace.

She is banking that her promises to cut debt, curb migration and restrict certain benefits to French citizens will eclipse any criticism over her position on the protesting pupils.

For her, discipline, a traditional curriculum and pride in France's history should be the defining features of every classroom.

But many students are showing little sign of backing down from another French tradition.

"In France, we have this tradition and history of revolting," says Alcidor in Paris.

"That's the way we gained our rights and the way we will always gain them. That's our spirit."

As the rain came outside the Lycée Voltaire central in Paris this week, the reality of having been up early once again to block the main gate started to kick in and the energy of the crowd dipped.

But not for long.

A huge cheer erupted as a senior teacher unlocked the hulking front door and poked her head out into the street.

"The canteen is still open."

The hunger for better schools among France's youth and better days for everyone else will not be so easily sated.

Additional reporting by Bruno Boelpaep and Manon Prat

New evidence gives family hope after death in Spain

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c317jy2vx4l1o, 3 days ago

Four years after watching his brother die in his arms, Maximilian White believes new evidence could help him get answers.

Tobias White-Sansom, a father-of-two from Nottingham, died in a Spanish hospital in July 2022, five days after a night out in Magaluf, and his family believes the way security and police officers handled him that night led to his death.

A blood spatter report and a court order received by the family this month have reignited their hopes that criminal proceedings could commence in the Spanish courts.

White told the BBC: "I won't stop until we get justice for Toby."

The 46-year-old medical cannabis entrepreneur said he found it difficult to talk about the way he lost his younger sibling, who was on a family holiday at the time.

White-Sansom was pinned down at a nightclub following a row over him removing his T-shirt because he was too hot, his family said.

They told the BBC the Spanish Civil Guard - the Guardia Civil - was called and he was handcuffed, Tasered and injected with tranquilisers before going into cardiac arrest.

The family believe the blood spatter evidence - which forms part of an ongoing investigation that will see a court judge decide whether a criminal case is warranted - could suggest external force was used.

The report, which analysed White-Sansom's T-shirt, trainers and a sock, said several individual bloodstains were identified, which are compatible both with spatter stains caused through the application of an external force and with drip stains, produced by gravity.

An ambulance report, seen by the BBC, states White-Sansom had taken drugs and was agitated. He was administered a number of medications including fentanyl, the report added.

The Guardia Civil has not provided any further detail on the death.

At the time it issued a statement, saying: "Upon the arrival of the Guardia Civil police, this man was violent and police reduced him to be assisted by medical services.

"He was taken to the hospital for treatment. There, once while he was being assisted, he was arrested for a crime of injury."

Days later, White and the rest of the family were forced to make an agonising decision.

"The only thing keeping him alive was the life support machine," he recalled.

"And we discussed between our family members and we decided it was inhumane and we should let Toby die naturally.

"So then, my decision was to turn the machine off myself, and then my brother died in my arms.

"The doctors said he would slip away within five to six minutes, and Toby being the strong-willed person that he was, it took 11 minutes."

In the four years since, White said he had been trying to reach a resolution.

"The whole brutality of the situation caused my brother to pass," he said. "Someone needs to be accountable.

"It's accountability. And also, for his children to know that he was a good person, not a drunk tourist in Magaluf."

White said on the night in question, his teenage son wanted to go out but he did not want him to go by himself, so White-Sansom accompanied him along with his girlfriend.

"What never sat well with me was that my brother was not with a group of lads on a stag do," he said.

"It just didn't make sense. That's why I went so heavy in return, because I knew that's not how my brother lived and what he was about."

White spoke to the BBC days after receiving the evidence and a court order.

"The process is extremely gruesome because even when you're getting good news, it's bittersweet - my brother is still not here," he said.

"It's just the truth - fighting an uphill battle just to get the truth. At this point, it's a sweet picture but also bitter because Toby is not around."

An inquest into White-Sansom's death was also opened in the UK in 2022, and paused while investigations in Spain continued.

White believes the new evidence could significantly impact the process but if that fails, he says he will take the matter to the UK.

"The truth is out there, the evidence is there, we just need help putting it in front of the right people to get this justice for Toby that's needed," he said.

The family's lawyer in Spain told the BBC he had never seen a case like this before.

"I've never seen a case... with a whole package of circumstances and such a delay," said Jaime Campaner. "I've never seen it and I hope I never see it again."

He said he had been filing motion after motion to speed up the process, and said the Spanish Civil Guard - the Guardia Civil - was to blame for the delay.

The Guardia Civil told the BBC the case was before the court and it had no further comment to make.

"The Spanish investigation has been very slow," Campaner added. "And this is not common in a city like Palma, where investigations don't take so long."

He said the investigating judge in Spain would now consider the new evidence, and decide whether to proceed as a criminal case or shelve it.

"We believe this could be key evidence. We are not aware of the conclusions yet but it might end in results [for] this case," he said.

They are yet to be given a date for a court hearing but Campaner estimates the investigating stage would conclude by the end of the year, with a prospective court case starting next year.

"We all want to get this case closed and see some justice," said White.

"We're hoping that at some point in this chapter, we can close the door on this - and we can close the door on this pain."

Listen to BBC Radio Nottingham on Sounds and follow BBC Nottingham on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210.

What is pneumonic plague and how does it spread?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cxdd8035jzn3o, 6 days ago

The World Health Organization has asked Russia for more information on the death of a worker at a Siberian plague research laboratory.

It is still not clear exactly what led to the worker falling ill, but media reports have led to a flurry of speculation.

Russian officials are still investigating the cause of the death, but they say those who came into contact with the researcher all tested negative for pneumonic plague.

So what is pneumonic plague, and how dangerous is it?

What is pneumonic plague?

Pneumonic plague is a really serious lung infection, often described as the most virulent form of plague.

There are two other types of plague: bubonic, which affects the lymph nodes; and septicaemic, which affects the blood.

Pneumonic plague can occur after an initial infection of one of these other types.

Symptoms include shortness of breath, chest pain, and often coughing up blood.

It's regarded as being more serious but less common than bubonic plague.

The global number of infections of all three types of plague varies each year, but it is probably somewhere between 1,000 to 3,000 cases.

Most of these are bubonic plague, and many of them occur in central Africa, but cases also develop in other places, including Russia, India, China, and the United States.

Prof Piero Olliaro is Professor of Poverty-Related Infectious Diseases at the University of Oxford.

He said: "Plague itself has not disappeared: the bacterium that causes it, Yersinia pestis, persists in animal reservoirs across many parts of the world.

"Around 200 rodent species can harbour the bacterium, with reservoirs found across the Americas, Eurasia and Africa.

"Sporadic human cases therefore continue to occur, but established surveillance, infection-control measures and effective antibiotic treatment are important tools for limiting their impact."

How does it spread?

Plague is an infectious disease caused by bacteria usually found in small mammals and their fleas.

You can catch it by getting bitten by an infected flea or handling an infected animal.

But human-to-human transmission of pneumonic plague is also possible through coughing infected droplets into the air, which are then breathed in by another person, although this normally requires quite close contact.

You can also develop it if you have had septicaemic plague and the infection then spreads into the lungs.

Some theories suggest that pneumonic plague was one of the main drivers behind what is known as the Black Death, the massive outbreak that killed millions of people across Europe in the 14th Century.

Dr Zania Stamataki, Associate Professor of Viral Immunology at the University of Birmingham, says it is important that researchers are able to study diseases like plague.

"I understand why people find the idea of plague in a laboratory alarming, so it is worth saying why that work exists," she said.

"Plague is not a historical disease. It remains endemic in rodent populations across Africa, Asia and the Americas, and human cases occur every year, including outbreaks of the pneumonic form.

"Diagnostics, vaccine development and surveillance for antibiotic resistance all require laboratories that hold and study the live organism.

"This work is vital to prepare against outbreaks."

Can it be treated?

According to the World Health Organization, pneumonic plague has a very short incubation period - sometimes just 24 hours.

If it isn't diagnosed and then treated quickly, experts warn it is nearly always fatal.

But the good news is that plague responds well to antibiotics if the treatment starts early.

Dr Malick Gibani, Clinical Associate Professor in Bacterial Vaccinology at Imperial College London, says the infection is widely recognised as a serious threat to public health.

"Pneumonic plague is a very severe manifestation of plague disease.

"Some textbooks will say it has 100% mortality if left untreated, and it's difficult to have accurate figures in the modern age.

"It is treatable with antibiotics, particularly if started early.

"That's why anyone with high-risk potential exposure might be offered post-exposure prophylaxis with antibiotics and/or quarantine."

In the Russian case, it is still not yet clear whether the person who died was infected by pneumonic plague.

The authorities in Russia have issued a statement saying that tests had shown "no microorganisms associated with the patient's professional activities" – and so at this stage it is still not quite clear what has happened.

US President Donald Trump said Washington was looking "very strongly" at the case, while the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said there was "no indication of a broader threat to the United States".

The UK's Health and Safety Authority said it was seeking more information, but that the risk to Britain's population was "very low".

Daniel Kinahan's lawyers to apply for bail in due course, court hears

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c60e0g39rj9go, today

An application for bail is to be made on the behalf of Daniel Kinahan in due course, the Special Criminal Court has heard.

The application will be made through the High Court in Dublin.

Darragh Mackin of Phoenix Law, who is Kinahan's solicitor, appeared in court on Monday where he confirmed an application will be made for bail.

Kinahan is charged with directing the activities of a criminal organisation between 18 October 2015 and 6 April 2017.

Mackin also told the court Kinahan's defence legal team is looking for an expert to examine the digital evidence and that they are seeking information on other international investigations that Kinahan was acquitted of.

The prosecuting barrister from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) said there is "complex factual matrix" behind Kinahan's single charge.

He told the court that behind Kinahan's extradition from Dubai earlier this year, a statement of facts which is 189 pages long was behind it.

Kinahan was remanded and scheduled to appear in person at court again on 21 December.

The DPP barrister said the book of evidence should be ready by that time.

This is Kinahan's third time before the special criminal court and second time he appeared in person.

He was dressed in a grey suit with a black shirt and black glasses.

Kinahan was arrested in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in April and extradited on 9 August when he was flown back to Ireland on board the Irish government's jet.

Powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake hits Panama, damaging buildings

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c620r39zdp9wo, 3 days ago

A massive magnitude 7.7 earthquake has hit Panama, damaging buildings and causing widespread shaking.

About 4.6 million people felt moderate to severe tremors as a result of the quake, according to the US Geological Survey, which has said that the effects of the quake were "likely to be widespread".

It struck just before 15:00 local time (20:00 GMT) on Friday, with an epicentre about 6.2 miles (10km) from the town of Pitaloza Arriba in south-central Panama.

Footage shared online appears to show collapsed buildings in the towns of Penonomé and Soná, including one of a man calling out to anyone trapped under the rubble of a collapsed building. No casualties have so far been reported.

Verified footage shows one side of a cathedral in Penonomé collapsed due to the shaking, as well as one of its spires.

Another video showed a local hotel had almost completely collapsed.

Ricardo Brown, who lives in the southern Herrera province, told news agency Reuters that the earthquake had damaged several homes in his neighbourhood of Las Minas.

"We're scared. It's just the two of us old folks here. The house has cracked and we're afraid it could fall on us," the 74-year-old said.

The full extent of the damage it has caused is not yet clear, though several large aftershocks were also reported near the initial earthquake, potentially complicating the situation on the surface.

The quake was registered as occurring at a depth of just 12km. The shallower the earthquake, the more likely it is to have more severe effects on the surface.

Many people were evacuated from buildings in Panama City, about 200km from the epicentre, and were seen taking to the streets or sitting in nearby parks until the shaking had ceased.

Damage in the capital appears to be limited to that caused by debris falling from roofs.

Panama's President José Raúl Mulino said his entire government was mobilising in response to the earthquake, adding: "What happened should not be used to cause alarm or disorder."

Tsunami warnings were initially issued for 11 countries neighbouring Panama, before the US Tsunami Warning System confirmed there was no threat.

The Panama Canal - a vital waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans - was unaffected by the earthquake, the authority that oversees marine traffic through it said.

The earthquake comes just three days before Panama was scheduled to hold a national evacuation drill for dealing with a major earthquake.

It also follows devastating earthquakes in Colombia and Venezuela earlier this year.

Mum's last words to son before he went missing in Colombia

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm4g1l54vrydo, 4 days ago

The mother of a man missing in Colombia for two months has described how his last words to her were: "We will speak at the weekend".

Anton Green, brother of ex-Manchester United youth team defender Ro-Shaun Williams, has not been heard from since 6 August.

His mum, Nylva McKie-Williams, said it was "so unlike him not to be in contact with us".

Footballer Marcus Rashford, who described Anton as a "family friend", recently joined the appeal to help find the 43-year-old.

Anton, who is originally from Whalley Range in Manchester, moved to South America two-and-a-half years ago.

Nylva told BBC North West Tonight he kept in weekly contact with his family, but his calls home stopped suddenly at the beginning of August.

She said she became concerned when an earthquake struck another part of Colombia a few days after they last spoke.

Speaking about their final conversation, his mother said: "We ended the call by saying: 'We will speak at the weekend'."

"It just seems very, very strange and it's so unlike him not to be in contact with us."

Nylva reported her son missing to Greater Manchester Police on 10 August and also told the British embassy, but said she felt Anton had been "forgotten" and that the family had received little support.

She said: "Not knowing is the hard bit; where he is, what he's doing. It's just the unknown."

"I want him to be found and I would like the [British] embassy, the police, Interpol [to] make it a priority, not just another name in the missing system."

'Our rock'

Nylva said while work was beginning to take place in Colombia, it had been slow to start.

She said the family's appeal had been taken up by a man living in the country, who had become a "rock" and a "godsend" to them.

According to Nylva, the man contacted the General Attorney's Office, which prompted movement in the case.

"We're now getting a bit of feedback as to actually what they're doing," she said.

A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson said: "We are supporting the family of a British man reported missing in Colombia and are in touch with local authorities."

A GMP spokesperson said: "We have been in touch with Anton's mother, and we have dedicated officers that have been deployed to maintain contact with the family and provide any updates should GMP receive such from overseas.

"We understand this is frustrating for Anton's family, and we are working to find them the answers they desperately seek."

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Venezuela's ex-leader Nicolás Maduro charged with conspiracy to commit torture

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5pvgn7xvxpzo, 4 days ago

Prosecutors in the United States have accused Venezuela's former leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, of conspiracy to commit torture.

The fresh charges against the couple were made public on Thursday and are in addition to the drug-trafficking and weapons charges already brought against them, which they have denied.

Maduro, 63, and Flores, 69, have been in custody since January in a detention centre in Brooklyn, where they were taken after US forces seized them in a pre-dawn raid on their compound in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas.

Barry J Pollack, Maduro's attorney, said his client denies the new charges and looks forward to his day in court.

Federal prosecutors also announced on Thursday that Flores was added to the earlier narco-terrorism charge.

The trial for both Maduro and Flores is set to begin in June 2027.

Both are being held in a detention centre in Brooklyn and are expected to remain there after Flores's request to be moved to house arrest was denied by a judge on Thursday.

The new accusations relate to the alleged torture of US citizens who were being held in Venezuela while Maduro was in power.

The superseding indictment unsealed on Thursday accuses the former presidential couple of "entrenching themselves in power" by presiding "over a system of repression that relied on violence against political opposition, arbitrary detention, and the torture of detainees, including United States citizens".

According to the indictment, the torture included "electric shock, asphyxiation, rape, forced nudity, prolonged isolation, starvation, punishment cells, and psychological torture".

The prosecutors allege that the psychological torture included threats to kill victims' families, including children.

"All of this was done to ensure that Maduro and Flores retained their power," prosecutors said outside the courthouse on Thursday.

"This conduct, we allege, has caused significant harm to Americans, to US citizens", prosecutors said, calling it "the epitome of corruption".

The prosecution accuses Flores of having played a key role in the development of the repressive system, ordering that individuals be tortured and even receiving updates on the torture of specific prisoners.

The court document alleges that she did so in order to protect members of her family who were involved in illegal activities.

The allegations contained in the superseding indictment echo many of the accusations long made by prisoners who have been released from detention in Venezuela.

Javier Tarazona, the head of a human rights group in Venezuela, told BBC Mundo's Norberto Paredes earlier this year how he and his brother were held in a tiny punishment cell for 46 days after being arbitrarily arrested.

Another former inmate, Ángel Godoy, told BBC Mundo that he was kept isolated for months and not allowed to contact his wife, who was in turn kept in the dark about his whereabouts.

The allegations listed in the superseding indictment made public on Thursday relate to cases during Maduro's time in power.

After his ouster, his vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, was sworn in as interim leader with the backing of the Trump administration.

While hundreds of political prisoners have been released under an amnesty law since she has taken over power, more than 300 still remain behind bars, according to prisoners' rights group Foro Penal.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has warned that his office has received reports alleging that detainees continue to be tortured even after the seizure of Maduro.

Türk said in March that "structural and systemic human rights concerns" had persisted in Venezuela despite Maduro's ousting.

Venezuela's foreign minister at the time accused Türk of parroting the agenda of "extremists" by citing the allegations.

Residents airlifted to safety after flooding in central Chile

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ck5yn8jn677vo, 4 days ago

Police in central Chile have airlifted several residents to safety after rising floodwaters left them trapped in their homes.

Recent torrential rains caused the Mapocho river to burst its banks, flooding large parts of the city of Talagante, 35km (22 miles) south-west of the capital, Santiago.

Santiago has seen 74mm of rainfall in the first seven days of this month, making it the rainiest October for the area in 76 years, meteorologists have said.

They have warned that this year's unusually strong El Niño climate phenomenon will likely continue to bring unusually wet weather, powerful winds and storms to the region during the southern hemisphere's spring.

Officials said one person had been found dead in a flooded underpass in the city of San Bernardo, south of Santiago, although they have yet to confirm the cause of death.

In Talagante, police used helicopters to rescue people and pets living on the banks of the Mapocho who had been surprised by the fast-rising waters overnight.

Dirt roads turned into rivers in the riverside community which, unlike in July's storms, had not been evacuated ahead of the heavy downpours.

Climate experts have warned that the 2026-2027 El Niño is likely to cause major shifts in weather patterns around the world, intensifying droughts in some areas and floods in others.

In central Chile, it is expected to trigger above-average rainfall.

Man named Hitler Mussolini elected mayor in Peru

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmdxwn9dr42yo, 3 days ago

A man named Hitler Mussolini Simeon Flores has secured a narrow victory in Peru's local elections, exit polls show.

The candidate for the centre-left Ahora Nación party was elected mayor of Queropalca, a remote district in the Peruvian Andes.

Some 229 residents voted for the 45-year-old, putting him ahead of the second-place candidate from right-wing Renovación Popular Perú by just 25 votes.

Despite being elected to represent fewer than 1,000 people, his forenames being those of two notorious fascist dictators has drawn outsized international attention to the small corner of the country.

Data from Peru's elections office showed a little over 700 people had participated in the election, with Simeon securing around 34% of the vote.

He was born in the district in the central department of Huánuco, some 360km (224 miles) from the capital, Lima, according to his candidate profile.

That he shares his name with Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini - "two of the most well-known figures of 20th-Century European totalitarian regimes" - has made his candidacy a "striking event", local outlet Peru21 reported.

Despite the curiosity generated by his name, local media noted that Hitler Guesclin Alba Sánchez had been elected mayor of Yúngar in 2018.

He reportedly beat rival candidate Lenin Vladimir Rodríguez Valverde after campaigning on the slogan "I'm the good Hitler".

A politician named Adolf Hitler Uunona attracted similar attention in 2020 after winning local elections in Namibia - a former German colony where Adolf and other Germanic first names are not uncommon.

Film shares 'rich tapestry' of Windrush children's lives

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckvg6njz9z4zo, 2 days ago

The untold stories of children born from the Windrush generation have become the centrepiece of a documentary.

First Born Second: Voices of the Children of the Windrush Era focuses on seven Bristol voices on what it meant to grow up black and British in the 1970s and 1980s.

Film co-producer and project curator Roger Griffith MBE said he wanted to champion those pioneering parents, while sharing how their children grew up in the "rich tapestry" of a Bristolian, British, black experience while overcoming "racism, institutional discrimination and a clash of cultures".

Broadcaster Sherrie Eugene-Hart shares her story and said she hoped people were left with a sense of pride, hope and achievement.

The Windrush generation was invited to come from the Caribbean to the UK to help rebuild post-war Britain.

Several hundred people who migrated were Jamaican, but others arrived from islands including Trinidad, St Lucia, Grenada and Barbados - many of whom travelled on the HMT Empire Windrush.

The boat has since became a symbol of a wider mass-migration movement.

"There was a lot of joy growing up - when any celebration happened everybody was invited," Eugene-Hart said.

"It's something I'll always cherish.

"We didn't really see the negative side of life until we grew up, so while we were young and impressionable and naive, that's how our parents wanted it to be - they were protective."

Eugene-Hart said her parents did not always want to share their unhappy stories of being chased by Teddy Boys - a 1950s mostly white British youth subculture, some of whose members became perpetrators of racial violence - and of being refused jobs.

"I think it's very hurtful for everybody," she said.

Griffith said his generation had a very Bristolian, British, black experience, which he called "a rich tapestry" of "triumph, tragedy and joy".

"Our parents were pioneers, but we were pioneers in a different way because we had to grow up in those two cultures - being black and British," he said.

"I'm really overwhelmed," he said, adding the film was "something I've been thinking about for a while in my own research".

Director Michelle Pascal said the "untold" stories people had shared with them revealed a much bigger picture of their "resilience, belonging and change".

She said: "Many of the people that we approached to film have had brilliant careers. These are people that I've looked up to.

"The thing that connected us a lot was the household - the Caribbean front room that you couldn't go into.

"There are items that we all shared - the glass fish that were in all the Caribbean homes. They popped up in the film."

Griffith said watching Pascal's directorial "talent flourish and seeing her bringing it to the screen was just moving".

Eugene-Hart and Beverly Douglas, who was also in the film, have recreated their version of the Caribbean home in a separate exhibition called Dominican Front Room, which can be visited at the Undershed before going into the screening.

First Born Second: Voices of the Children of the Windrush Era premieres at the Watershed in Bristol on 29 October.

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The wealthy Cuban Americans ready and waiting for Havana to fall

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckrerylrlg9vo, 11 days ago

At the lavish home of one of Miami's top plastic surgeons, overlooking the Biscayne Bay, some of the wealthiest Cuban-American families in Florida have gathered.

They are there to thrash out their vision of Cuba's future at the fourth meeting of the newly created Cuban-American National Chamber of Commerce (CANCC).

Rum in hand and Rolexes on wrists, this is Miami's old money. People with well-recognised Cuban-American surnames – like Bacardi and Babun – chat around the pool about the lamentable state of the island's economy, and share titbits of gossip about the latest political rumblings.

"The intention of this evening is to gather under one roof the most prominent Cuban-American entrepreneurs in Miami-Dade County," says CANCC president Juan Omar Sixto, "and the objective is to be in Cuba once the regime falls".

His guests are convinced that moment is nigh.

This influential community of Cuban exiles has detested the Communist-run government ever since the late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro expropriated their lands and nationalised their families' companies after taking power in 1959.

And they have wielded their political and economic clout in Florida over the years to shape Washington's policies towards their homeland.

Sixto fled the island as a teenager. Now a real estate developer in his early 80s, his organisation is drafting plans for what he calls "the day after" in Cuba.

The CANCC has created a proposal for a Cuban Stock Exchange and formed committees on everything from energy infrastructure to food security.

Post-Communist planning is nothing new in Miami.

Countless documents and logistical plans have been drawn up by interest groups over the decades, some of them more sober and measured than others.

The difference now, insists Sixto, is the Trump administration's push to force total change on the island. And he says they have the ear of some high-profile contacts including people close to the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.

"Together with deliveries of humanitarian aid and medical supplies, we'd go and do business in Cuba right away," says Sixto.

In Cuba itself, such claims are mostly met with scepticism.

In the face of Washington's "maximum pressure" campaign on Cuba, the island's leadership recently announced 176 economic liberalisation measures. The Cuban President, Miguel Díaz-Canel, said they were "to advance the defence of socialism, to support and widen social justice".

To his critics, they look distinctly like full-blown capitalism - lifting the cap on the number of workers in a private business, allowing the direct hiring and firing of Cuban employees and permitting ownership of multiple enterprises at once, including by Cuban Americans.

Still, the attendees at the CANCC meeting dismissed the economic reforms as cosmetic, saying they gave no meaningful guarantees to investors. They would "not put a foot into Cuba", Sixto said, while the current regime remained in place.

Some analysts think such planning meetings are premature. Although Cuban Americans are convinced that change is imminent in Cuba, none can say with any certainty what it will be - a US military operation as seen in Venezuela in January? Or a new economic pact with the island's leadership?

"Right now, the very high expectations created by the US administration that some kind of 'day after' was coming soon, or that Cuba would 'be next' have been kicked down the road," says Mike Bustamante, associate professor of history at the University of Miami.

With the November mid-term elections in the US approaching and the Trump administration embroiled in the "quagmire" of the Iran war, Bustamante argues there is little appetite for further foreign adventures.

"It's really tough to think that they will escalate further than what they're doing which is this drip-drip-drip of sanctions."

With the island's oil supply effectively shut off since January, that is already a significant escalation, says Mike Bustamente. Although they have made life unbearable for most ordinary people, they haven't yet "created the ingredients for a political inflection point" in Cuba, he adds.

The Cuban government has not commented on the CANCC itself. But traditionally such groups prompt indignation among revolutionaries who insist they will not be forced out by their critics in Miami.

I ask some guests if they can appreciate the irony that the same people who support a major source of the island's misery – the decades-long US economic embargo and the current fuel blockade – are now hatching plans for its reconstruction, without the input of most Cubans.

For Cuban-American agricultural expert Hugo Orizondo it is only practical to draw up a road map to Cuban development. "Right now, Cuba is like a black hole, we don't know what is happening over there," he admits. "But we do know the potential [for investment]."

Orizondo says he understands the reticence among Cubans to see foreign investors buying up something as sensitive as the rights to arable land. "But what are they going to do with it?" he retorts. "When investors come, they bring money and technology into the land."

Both are urgently needed, he says, if Cuba is ever to produce enough to feed its own population and break its reliance on food imports.

Land titles lie at the heart of any reconstruction project put forward by this generation of wealthy Cuban Americans. Juan Omar Sixto says his father lost five properties and a farm in Cuba's Pinar del Rio province to the revolution. While he insists he has no intention of removing any family living in those homes, he does want compensation for the nationalised land.

"I worked on that farm for five years of my life with my father, and they took it away. I want restitution or compensation. Even if they give me just a penny on the dollar, I'll take it."

"It's moral justice," he argues.

The Cuban government portrays such historic title claims as bitterness by a corrupt landed gentry who made fortunes on the backs of indentured workers and slaves. Both slavery and the system of indentured workers didn't end in Cuba until the late 19th Century.

The government also argues that the exiles could never stand that Castro passed land reforms which handed over their fields to the workers and the state.

"Most of our sugar mills have been dismantled, but we will recover those lands and put them into production," says Nicolás Gutiérrez, the president of the National Association of Sugar Mill Owners of Cuba, an exile organisation championing the title claims.

"I'm not promising it will be in sugar," he says.

"It might be in ethanol, co-generation, solar panels or water purification cells. Who knows? There are a lot of different options," he remarks. "We need to get them producing, we need to have a real wage paid to Cuban workers and create a multiplier economic effect across the island."

With the ice clinking in their drinks and a cool breeze rustling the palm trees on the perfectly manicured lawn, the CANCC members make it sound easy. But within hours of their gathering, Cuba had descended into its sixth nationwide blackout this year.

The disconnection between the hopes for change in Miami and the realities on the ground in Cuba is stark. Many Miami-based Cubans think the monumental shift they have prayed for is almost here.

If so, it will inevitably bring huge social and humanitarian disruption which the stricken island is ill-equipped to cope with. Even assuming the diaspora's support is well-intentioned rather than purely self-interested, fixing the island's failing electrical grid alone is estimated to cost $8bn to $10bn (£6bn to £7.5bn).

Before any industry in Cuba – from agriculture to tourism – can be revitalised by the exiles' wealth and political connections, Cubans continue to face acute shortages in food, water, fuel and medicines. Miami's ambitious plans aside, most Cubans just hope their days get a little easier sometime soon.

Right-wing Flávio Bolsonaro wins first round of Brazil election

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ck1l34ed592no, 7 days ago

Right-wing Flávio Bolsonaro has won the first round of Brazil's presidential election, beating left-wing President Lula da Silva, but falling short of an outright majority.

There will be a run-off between the two candidates on 25 October.

Bolsonaro is the son of the former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year prison sentence for masterminding a failed coup after losing the 2022 election.

Sunday's vote was close, with President Lula polling slightly ahead during the campaign. With almost all of the votes counted, Bolsonaro has 47% to Lula's 45% of the vote.

Bolsonaro's result exceeded expectations, meaning the second round now looks like his to lose, given some of the other candidates knocked out in the first round were right-wing alternatives.

His Liberal Party (PL) also had the most governors, senators and federal deputies elected in the results so far, meaning the party is expected to have the most influence in Congress.

The majority of Latin America has now elected right-wing presidents, aligned to the Trump administration, and the run-off will determine whether Brazil – Latin America's largest country and economy – will follow suit.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, US President Donald Trump said he expected the election to be "very close", but that Bolsonaro has had a "very, very big victory" in the first round.

After casting his ballot, Lula, 80, warned the choice was between democracy and "barbarism".

Bolsonaro, 45, said he wanted to "free the Brazilian people".

Lula and Bolsonaro are the two biggest names in Brazilian politics, on the left and right, and this campaign has polarised Brazil yet again: with themes of sovereignty, crime, the economy and corruption being top concerns for voters.

Lula is more popular in Brazil's poorer northeast, among low-income voters, Catholics, and women.

He is seeking a fourth term in office, after being elected in 2002, 2006 and then a later non-consecutive term in 2022. In that election, he beat Jair Bolsonaro by less than 2% of the vote, the closest presidential election result in Brazil's history.

After that election, Bolsonaro's supporters vandalised government buildings on 8 January 2023.

Jair Bolsonaro was banned from running for re-election even before his prison sentence, but endorsed his eldest son Flávio to run in his place. Jair Bolsonaro's wife, Michelle, was elected to the Senate on Sunday.

Flávio Bolsonaro has pledged to grant his father, and his supporters responsible for the 8 January riots, amnesty if elected.

He is more popular in the south, and among wealthier voters and evangelical Christians.

Bolsonaro said on Sunday he was "very happy" to have led Lula in the first-round vote, and expressed confidence that he would clinch a run-off victory in three weeks' time.

"I am very happy with the real possibility that, three weeks from now, Brazil will give a definitive answer by choosing a modern government," he said, according to AFP.

Lula said the outcome of the vote was "unexpected", but insisted the race was not over.

"I admit I was convinced I would win in the first round," he said on Sunday. "The game is about to start. We are in extra time. In extra time, we will win over the Brazilian people."

US-Brazil relationship

The president of Brazil's supreme electoral court said on Sunday that no evidence of international interference was found in the election.

President Lula made "sovereignty" a key pillar of his campaign and at times accused the US of trying to interfere in and influence Brazil's elections - which the US has denied.

Earlier this year, Bolsonaro successfully lobbied the US to designate the two biggest Brazilian gangs as terrorist organisations.

Last year, Donald Trump used the coup trial of Jair Bolsonaro as justification for imposing tariffs on Brazil and sanctioning some top officials and judges.

A win for Flávio Bolsonaro would likely see Brazil join the US's "Shield of Americas" coalition against narco-trafficking and align more closely with the US.

Key campaign issues

Corruption became a key issue in this campaign after a scandal involving a jailed banker, Daniel Vorcaro, who orchestrated one of Brazil's largest financial frauds, embroiling senior figures across the political spectrum.

Bolsonaro acknowledged that he'd asked Vorcaro to bankroll a biopic about his father after voice recordings emerged in which he could be heard asking for 134 million reais ($25.9m; £19.5m).

Lula was also impacted by the scandal indirectly, after police suggested Vorcaro had reached out to the Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes to ask for help avoiding arrest. Moraes denies any wrongdoing.

Moraes was not appointed by Lula but is seen as his ally, given Moraes presided over Jair Bolsonaro's coup trial.

Crime and insecurity were also top concerns for voters. Brazil's homicide rate has fallen, but street crime such as phone thefts, that are highly visible to voters, have increased - and violence and drug trafficking are still major problems.

Bolsonaro has pledged to designate Brazilian gangs as terrorists and build maximum-security prisons akin to those in El Salvador. His father, during his presidency, loosened gun ownership restrictions.

Lula has criticised the US terrorist designation of Brazilian gangs but launched various reforms to tackle the financial networks of organised crime networks, improve homicide investigations, and invest in prisons.

The economy has also been central to this campaign: the country has high levels of personal debt and slowing growth.

Lula has defined his legacy through a series of social welfare programmes, most notably Bolsa Família, that pays families to ensure children stay in education and receive healthcare such as vaccines, as well as building more universities. The programmes have been credited with lifting millions of Brazilians out of poverty.

He has also backed oil drilling exploration, which has proved controversial with environmentalists, but he has a record of tightening environmental protections and reducing the rate of deforestation in the Amazon. Deforestation increased significantly under Jair Bolsonaro's presidency.

Flávio Bolsonaro has pledged a public debt ceiling and government spending cuts, a revision of social welfare, and to bolster the critical minerals sector.

Flávio Bolsonaro rides right-wing wave to win first round of Brazil election

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqj6je4jen6po, 7 days ago

Flávio Bolsonaro's success in Brazil's presidential election is being hailed as the result of a "blue wave" - the latest example of a resurgence of right-wing support sweeping Latin America.

But despite missing an outright majority – meaning there will be a second round later this month – the unexpectedly clear first round victory leaves his left-wing opponent needing an unprecedented result to retain the presidency.

Senator Bolsonaro is the eldest son of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, who became known as the "Trump of the Tropics" due to his ideological alignment with the US president.

The younger Bolsonaro is 45 years old and is part of the-right wing political dynasty initiated by his father.

He had never before run for the presidency and surprised observers by finishing ahead of the 80-year-old president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, of the Workers' Party.

All polls had indicated a close race, with Lula and Bolsonaro statistically tied. But that was not what happened on Sunday. Flávio obtained 56.1 million votes, while Lula received 53.8 million.

Part of Bolsonaro's success at the ballot box may be related less to his popularity and more to the numbers of people rejecting Lula.

Bolsonaro has presented himself as a dynamic young politician connected to the demands of younger voters, including concerns about rising crime rates in a country that records more than 40,000 homicides annually.

But polling groups such as Datafolha, one of Brazil's most respected institutes, suggest that this election has been a battle of rejection rates.

Its most recent survey suggested that, on the eve of the election, both candidates had the same rejection rate with voters: 45%.

The problem for Lula, however, appeared to be worse.

One poll showed that 49% disapproved of his government, while the approval rate stood at 48%.

Analysts had been saying that never before in Brazilian history had a president managed to seek re-election with such a high disapproval rate.

Voter dissatisfaction with Lula's government shows that the left-wing leader is facing a paradox. The official unemployment rate is at its lowest level in history, around 5.3%. Average income is also at its highest level since records began.

Despite the economy's apparent solid performance, Brazilians have shown considerable dissatisfaction with their current living conditions.

In an attempt to address this issue, Lula increased by 15% the value of Bolsa Família, the government's main social welfare program.

He also banned online gambling, which was legalised in 2018 and has since been blamed for widespread household income losses due to addiction.

A second factor behind Flávio Bolsonaro's success is the way he positioned himself in relation to the Brazilian Supreme Court.

He spent much of his campaign criticising the court's actions, in way similar way to his father when he was president.

Bolsonaro criticised the conviction of his father by the same court for an attempted coup d'état in 2023, when thousands of people invaded the buildings of the three branches of government in Brasília. It was compared to the 6 January Capitol Hill attack in 2021 in Washington DC.

Bolsonaro senior's 27-year prison sentence in 2025 was heavily criticised by the right and remained controversial, particularly because of the role played by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the case and was close to Lula.

Flávio Bolsonaro was also able to use another controversy involving Moraes to his political advantage: the Banco Master corruption scandal involving the Brazilian banker Daniel Vorcaro, who was arrested in March.

Vorcaro is alleged to have orchestrated one of Brazil's largest financial frauds, embroiling senior figures across the political spectrum.

Lula was also impacted by the scandal indirectly, after police suggested Vorcaro had reached out to Moraes to ask for help avoiding arrest. Moraes denies any wrongdoing.

Moraes was not appointed by Lula but is seen as his ally, given Moraes presided over Jair Bolsonaro's coup trial.

A second aspect of Flávio Bolsonaro's victory goes beyond the presidential election.

In the Senate, the Liberal Party, led by the Bolsonaros, jumped from 15 seats to 28. The strength of the Bolsonaro family can be seen by the fact that the ex-president's wife, Michelle, and another son, Carlos, were both elected for the Senate.

Lula faces an extremely difficult task. Never before has a candidate who trailed after the first round managed to overturn the deficit and win in the second round.

Political analyst Dora Kramer, writing for Folha de S Paulo, argues that both Lula and Flávio will have to focus their efforts on independent voters.

Brazilians like to say that politics in their country is so unstable that not even the past is predictable. At this point, a comeback by Lula seems more distant, though not impossible.

In any case, even if he succeeds in achieving an unprecedented reversal against Flávio Bolsonaro, one thing is certain: the Bolsonarist right has consolidated itself as an unavoidable political force.

What to know about Brazil's election as Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro face off

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6wyz0r2n0djo, 8 days ago

Brazilians just finished voting in a general election in which the two front-runners for the presidency bear very familiar names.

Polls closed at 17:00 Brasília Time (20:00 GMT) on Sunday, with the nation's vast electronic voter system expected to deliver a result within a few hours.

The incumbent, veteran left-wing leader Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva, is challenged by 11 candidates, the most prominent of whom is right-winger Flávio Bolsonaro.

In the last election four years ago, Lula narrowly defeated Flávio Bolsonaro's father Jair, but the tumultuous aftermath of the election, which saw Jair Bolsonaro convicted of plotting a coup after thousands of his supporters stormed the Brazilian Congress, has had a lasting impact on the nation's political life and this election.

Here's what you need to know.

The man not on the ballot

Jair Bolsonaro, the right-wing former army captain who governed Brazil from 2019 to 2023, has not run for president in this election.

Not only is the 71-year-old barred from standing for office, he is also serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after he lost the 2022 election to Lula.

Due to recurrent health problems, he is currently under house arrest rather than in a cell, but he has had restrictions imposed on him prohibiting him from posting on social media or making public statements.

Despite these restrictions, his shadow - and sometimes his moving and talking image - looms large over this election.

At the event where Flávio Bolsonaro officially launched his presidential campaign, an AI-generated avatar of Jair Bolsonaro endorsed his son's candidacy.

When pressed by the Supreme Court about the deepfake, Jair Bolsonaro's lawyers may have denied he had given his permission for its use, but there is nevertheless little doubt that Flávio Bolsonaro has the backing of his father.

What do the polls say?

While 12 candidates are running for the presidency, there are only two who have reached double figures in the opinion polls, and they are Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro.

BBC Brasil's poll tracker shows them both hovering around the 40% mark, with Lula slightly ahead of Bolsonaro.

The other 11 candidates are polling at 4% or less.

If none of the candidates gains 50% of valid votes in the first round on 4 October, the top two contenders will proceed to a run-off election on 25 October.

The opinion polls suggest a run-off is highly likely - but with a relatively high number of voters still undecided just days before the election, an outright win cannot be entirely ruled out.

BBC Brasil's poll aggregator suggests that at the end of September, 9% of voters were either still undecided, or planning to spoil their ballot, cast a blank ballot or not go to the polls at all.

Brazilians who are 16 years of age or older are entitled to vote and it is compulsory for those aged between 18 and 70 who are literate, with a fine imposed on those who do not cast a ballot.

Almost 160 million Brazilians are eligible to vote in this election and, with polls typically surveying just thousands of people, the end result can differ considerably from the indications given by surveys.

What does Lula stand for?

Lula, the 80-year-old candidate for the left-wing Workers' Party, has been president three times already.

He served two consecutive terms - from January 2003 to December 2010 - and was widely praised for lifting millions out of poverty during this time with the help of a cash-transfer programme called Bolsa Família.

The former metalworker left office with record approval ratings of over 80%, but his party was later rocked by huge corruption scandals.

Lula himself spent more than 18 months in prison between 2018 and 2019 after being convicted of corruption and money laundering, charges he has always denied.

Those convictions were annulled in 2021, leaving Lula free to run for the presidency in the 2022 election, in which he beat Jair Bolsonaro by 1.8 percentage points.

When he started his third term in office, he vowed it would be his last, and yet his party endorsed him as their candidate again this year, even though he will turn 81 later this month.

There is no doubt he remains a towering figure in the left. But while his supporters described him ahead of the 2022 election as the "saviour of the Amazon", praising his commitment to protecting the rainforest, some environmentalists have been critical of some of his recent actions.

His support for exploratory oil drilling in offshore waters near the mouth of the Amazon in particular has drawn criticism.

Lula insists that he remains committed to eventually phasing out fossil fuels and argues that oil revenues are key to financing Brazil's transition to clean energy.

His government has also pointed to the reduction in deforestation in the Amazon - satellite data suggests the area deforested in the first half of 2026 was reduced to its lowest in the past decade - as proof that its policies were working.

During Lula's latest term in office, relations with his US counterpart Donald Trump have been rocky.

Referring to what Trump has dubbed the "Donroe doctrine" - his administration's national security strategy which asserts that US dominance in the Western hemisphere should not be interfered with - Lula has insisted that "Brazil does not fit into anyone's backyard".

In another thinly veiled reference to both his rival Flávio Bolsonaro and those in the Trump administration who would like to see the right-wing candidate win, the Brazilian leader has also warned that he would not tolerate "foreign and local enemies of democracy" interfering with the polls.

What is Bolsonaro promising?

Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, is Jair Bolsonaro's eldest son and has been serving as a senator since 2019.

The younger Bolsonaro is running for the right-wing Liberal Party (PL) and, while he is widely seen as less confrontational than his father, he is appealing to the followers of the older Bolsonaro by promising to broadly continue in his footsteps.

During his time in the Senate, the trained lawyer has advocated a tough-on-crime stance, calling for longer sentences and laxer gun laws, arguing that "decent citizens" should be able to defend themselves from criminals.

He has successfully lobbied for the US to declare Brazil-based criminal gangs Comando Vermelho (CV) and Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, a move that was opposed by Lula.

The younger Bolsonaro has also courted evangelicals and the agricultural industry as part of his campaign.

He has said that he will cut what he says are unnecessary regulations and "get the state off farmers' backs".

Quizzed in an interview with Globo in August on whether he still believed - as he had said in 2019 - that climate change did not exist, he acknowledged that there had been "extreme climate events", but insisted that these events were "cyclical".

Flávio Bolsonaro has actively courted Trump and members of his administration by portraying himself as a loyal ally during a meeting at the White House in May.

More recently, he promised to join the US-led anti-crime alliance that the Trump administration has dubbed "Shield of the Americas", should he be elected.

What are the main issues worrying voters?

Up until a few months ago, Brazilians told pollsters that crime and security were their main concerns.

But in the weeks leading up to the election, a scandal involving a jailed banker accused of orchestrating one of Brazil's largest financial fraud cases has pushed corruption to the top of the list.

The banker, Daniel Vorcaro, is well connected and has ties to many powerful people in Brazil - both on the political right and left.

Flávio Bolsonaro acknowledged asking Vorcaro to bankroll a biopic about his father after voice recordings emerged in which he could be heard asking for 134 million reais ($25.9m; £19.5m).

Police have since then opened an investigation into Flávio Bolsonaro for suspected corruption and money laundering over the financing of the film.

But pollsters say Lula's campaign was also hurt by the Vorcaro scandal, after alleged links emerged between the disgraced banker and an ally of Lula, the Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

Moraes is the man who presided over Jair Bolsonaro's trial and has made a number of subsequent rulings about the conditions of his detention.

A police report suggested that Vorcaro had made numerous calls and sent a number of messages to a phone number which officers say is linked to Moraes.

The investigators say Vorcaro asked the person with whom he was communicating for help avoiding arrest.

Moraes has denied any wrongdoing but these latest revelations mean that, in the crucial weeks before the election, attention shifted away from the allegations against Flávio Bolsonaro to those against the Supreme Court justice.

Lula has tried to distance himself from Moraes, saying that "no one is above the law", but his rival has already pounced on the allegations against the judge to make political hay.

"Voting for Lula means voting for Moraes," Flávio Bolsonaro told his supporters at a rally, using the right's intense dislike of the judge to shore up his own support.

Saudi Arabia's Riyadh airport hit by second Houthi strike in two days

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr93znyk44e1o, today

An international airport in the Saudi capital Riyadh has been hit by a second strike in as many days, officials have said.

A Saudi military spokesman said a projectile had hit King Khalid International Airport on Sunday, causing a fire in one of its passenger halls. Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority said there had been injuries.

It comes a day after a strike on the same airport killed 13 people and injured 308 others, following similar strikes earlier this week.

The Houthis in Yemen said they were behind the attacks and warned airlines and passengers against using Saudi Arabian airports and airspace.

The group said they had targeted the airport with a mix of ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones in the past 24 hours.

They also attacked oil facilities and Dammam airport in eastern Saudi Arabia, their military spokesman Brig Gen Yahya Saree said.

He vowed to continue the "escalating operations deep inside Saudi Arabia", warning that all Saudi airports were potential targets apart from those in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

The Houthis have said they are targeting Saudi Arabia over its support for government forces in Yemen's civil war, as well as an air strike on the airport in Sanaa.

On Sunday Maj Gen Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition, said air defences had intercepted a missile near the airport in Riyadh, while authorities were dealing with the fire caused by an "unknown projectile" that hit Passenger Hall No 4.

US President Donald Trump has said the US would "make a decision" and "move very quickly" on whether to strike the Houthis, while UK Defence Secretary Wes Streeting suggested the UK could "potentially" provide more support for Saudi Arabia.

Saturday's strike was the deadliest single attack on a Gulf Arab country since the war between Israel, the US and Iran began in February. The Saudi-led coalition vowed to respond, calling it a "war crime".

Four Saudi nationals, two people from Bangladesh and one person each from the US, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt were among the dead, the Saudi civil aviation authority said.

The Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia said on Sunday that an Indian man had succumbed to the injuries he sustained in the attack.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the attacks and confirmed that a US citizen was killed in the strikes. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said he was "appalled".

The UK Foreign Office is advising against all travel to parts of Saudi Arabia, including areas within 10km (6.2 miles) of the border with Yemen, while other western embassies have warned their nationals about travel in the region.

Houthi-run Al Masirah TV said "the Saudi enemy" had launched an air strike on Sanaa International Airport in Yemen's capital. Saudi Arabia has not confirmed the attack and the BBC has been unable to verify this claim.

Abdullah Al-Alimi Bawazir, vice-president of Yemen's internationally recognised government, called for "decisive actions" from regional and international partners.

Riyadh's airport was struck on Thursday, an attack that killed three Saudi nationals. The Houthis claimed responsibility and said they had used cruise missiles to target the airport.

There were two other deadly attacks on Saudi airports in Abha and Riyadh in the two days prior to that.

The latest uptick in violence comes after a temporary ceasefire between the Houthis and Saudi-led forces, brokered in 2022, collapsed in July.

The conflict worsened after the Houthis seized strategically important stretches of the Red Sea coast in a rapid offensive, prompting Saudi strikes. Yemeni pro-government forces later said they had secured the regions.

The Houthis currently control around a quarter of Yemeni territory and as much as 80% of the country's population. The Iran-backed armed group hopes to eventually seize complete control.

Saudi Arabia fears this would lead to the establishment of an Iranian satellite state on its southern border.

Twelve killed and 300 injured in attack on airport in Saudi capital Riyadh

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw33x4y8k82no, yesterday

At least 12 people have been killed and 309 injured in an attack on the international airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, local authorities say.

The deaths included four Saudis, two people from Bangladesh and one person each from the US, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt, the Saudi civil aviation authority confirmed.

Operations at King Khalid International Airport have been suspended after the attack, which was the deadliest in the kingdom since May 2015.

A Saudi-led military coalition later vowed to respond to the attack, which it called a "war crime" and blamed on Yemen's Houthis.

The Houthis have not commented on Saturday's attack but did say they were behind strikes on the same airport on Thursday that killed three people and damaged a plane.

Another three people were killed in separate Houthi attacks on two different Saudi airports on 6 and 7 October.

Fighting has recently escalated between Yemen's Saudi-backed government forces and the Houthis, who are backed by Iran and control most of the country.

As well as the strikes on Riyadh's airport, a projectile also fell near King Fahd International Airport in Dammam in eastern Saudi Arabia on Saturday, the Saudi-led coalition said.

The Saudi civil aviation authority said in Saturday's statement that some of the injured were "in critical condition" and damage to the airport was being assessed.

More than a dozen ambulances were seen rushing to the airport, an eyewitness told news agency Reuters.

Saudi-led coalition spokesman Maj Gen Turki al-Maliki later said the attack on one of the passenger terminals resulted in deaths and injuries among civilian passengers and airport staff.

He described the attack as a "full-fledged war crime".

An eyewitness told Reuters they had seen "injured [people] in front of my eyes" fleeing from gate 401 after it was hit.

UN Secretary General António Guterres said he was "deeply shocked" by the attacks which he called a "violation of international law" that "must cease immediately".

Kuwait's foreign ministry called the strikes a "heinous and cowardly attack". The attacks were also condemned by Egypt, Palestine and Qatar.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio strongly condemned recent attacks on Saudi Arabia as he confirmed an American citizen was killed in the strikes.

US President Donald Trump indicated he may join the Saudis in carrying out strikes against the Iran-backed Houthis.

"We just found out about the recent attack, so we'll make a decision. We move very quickly," he told reporters.

For the second time in less than a month, schools in Riyadh have switched to remote learning for the week.

Western embassies in Saudi Arabia warned their citizens to stay away from the Riyadh airport. The UK Foreign Office told British nationals to avoid the area "until the airport is secure". The US embassy has told staff they must seek "special authorisation" to use the airports in Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam.

Several Gulf airlines said they had cancelled their flights to and from the airport, with Kuwait Airways citing the "security situation" there.

The Houthis say they are targeting Saudi Arabia over its support for government forces in Yemen's civil war.

The conflict worsened after the Houthis seized strategically important stretches of the Red Sea coast in a rapid offensive.

That included the port of Mokha on the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which is the narrowest point of the Red Sea and a chokepoint for global shipping. Yemeni pro-government forces have since said they had "secured" the strait at the southern end of the Red Sea.

The Saudi-led coalition was formed in 2015 after Arab countries joined forces to stop the Houthis taking over Yemen from the country's internationally recognised government.

A temporary ceasefire was brokered in 2022 after years of air strikes and ground fighting led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, triggering one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

But the informal truce began to unravel in July.

The Houthis announced a "maritime embargo" against Saudi Arabia and began missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea.

They said they were retaliating against what they described as a years-long Saudi blockade and for an air strike on the airport in Yemen's capital Sanaa, which is controlled by the Houthis.

The Houthis are an armed political and religious group from northern Yemen which champions the country's Shia Muslim minority, the Zaidis.

They declare themselves to be part of the Iranian-led "axis of resistance" against Israel, the US and the wider West - along with armed groups such as Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement.

The latest exchanges come It comes amid fears that the US and Israel might be about to resume strikes against Iran. Efforts to secure a deal to end that conflict, which has sent shockwaves through the global economy, have so far come to nothing.

Riyadh airport attacks another dangerous moment in already tense conflict

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr4g1pwxxlq1o, today

The attacks on King Khalid Airport in Riyadh mark another dangerous moment in a region that is already fraught with tension and conflict.

Saudi Arabia wasn't ready for this.

In recent weeks the Houthis have stepped up their attacks on Saudi Arabian soil, but their attacks over the past few days have hit the country's critical infrastructure in the form of the capital's main airport, apparently penetrating Saudi air defences with ease.

Saturday's attack killed 12 people and hurt more than 300. On Sunday the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis said an "unknown projectile" had hit a passenger hall and a cruise missile had been intercepted nearby.

The physical damage can be quickly repaired, but the country's reputation as a safe haven of stability is taking a battering.

As well as all the airport attacks, the Houthis have sought to take control of strategically significant positions along the Red Sea coast and around the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. This further increases the risk to safe navigation along the vital maritime corridor - although the Yemeni government says it has "secured" the strait.

The civil war in Yemen between the country's government - which is internationally recognised and supported by Saudi Arabia - and the Houthis, who are backed by Iran, has been going on for more than a decade. It has left many thousands of people dead and plunged Yemen into one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

It is a complex and often confusing geopolitical conflict, and this latest escalation needs to be seen in the broader context of the tension between Iran, the United States and Israel.

Not since the al-Qaeda insurgency of the mid-2000s has the Kingdom faced such a serious threat.

The Saudi government overcame that challenge through an effective hearts and minds campaign. Then it weathered the Arab Spring uprisings around the region which saw off leaders in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Yemen.

It even shrugged off – with some annoyance – an Iranian ballistic missile attack on Riyadh in March.

But this is different. Saudi Arabia may have one of the most powerful air forces in the Middle East, and it has been carrying out devastating air strikes on Houthi positions. Despite this, the opposing forces have managed to seize large portions of the country, particularly in the north and west.

But the Houthis know exactly where to hit back: at the soft underbelly of the Saudi economy.

As part of the "axis of resistance", the Houthis are a vital strategic partner for Iran. From Jizan on the Red Sea to the petrochemical complex at Khurais, the Houthis are delivering explosive drones and missiles with deadly accuracy.

The Red Sea shipping route has become increasingly important, because the Strait of Hormuz, on the other side of the Gulf, has still not fully reopened since the US and Iran have failed to reach a deal to end their war.

Targeting ships in the Red Sea is another way that the Houthis are trying to exert leverage - the attacks cause global economic damage, which is a key bargaining chip for Tehran.

In early September, the White House stated it would not directly intervene in the Yemen conflict, but could provide intelligence support to the Saudis. It later confirmed that it was supplying intelligence and had deployed military experts to Saudi Arabia.

However the situation may have taken a new turn following the latest attack on Riyadh, which killed a US citizen.

Speaking to reporters, US President Donald Trump called Saturday's attack "terrible" and indicated he may intervene militarily with the Saudis.

"We just found out about the recent attack, so we'll make a decision. We move very quickly," Trump said.

But that now seems unlikely, at least before crucial US midterm elections next month.

When he was re-elected in 2024, Trump promised to end America's role in wars around the world. Despite this, the US is currently involved in three unresolved conflicts in the Middle East - in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.

Should Trump get embroiled in another one, this time in Yemen, it is unlikely to go down well with voters.

This war now looks like it will intensify before it ends in another shaky truce - with or without US involvement.

Additional analysis from Abdelbassir Hassan, BBC Arabic

Three Saudi nationals killed in Houthi attacks on Riyadh airport

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmz7xe37g5wro, 3 days ago

Three Saudi Arabian nationals have been killed in two attacks on the international airport in the capital, Riyadh, the country's civil aviation authority has said, after Yemen's Houthis said they had targeted the facility.

The attacks also resulted in "injuries to a number of Saudi citizens and residents of various nationalities", the General Authority of Civil Aviation said in a statement on X.

It added that the first attack on Thursday targeted the airport while the second had struck an aircraft belonging to state carrier Saudia.

One of its pilots was among those killed, the airline said in a statement.

Air traffic had returned to normal, the civil aviation authority said.

Yemen's Houthi group said on Thursday it had attacked the airport with two ballistic missiles.

The Iran-aligned group said it had also targeted an airport in Najran city near the Saudi border with Yemen, and Khamis Mushait air base further north. Saudi Arabia has not confirmed these attacks.

The latest casualties follow the deaths of three people in Houthi attacks on two Saudi airports on 6 and 7 October.

Two were killed and 28 wounded in an attack at Abha International Airport, the civil aviation body said on Wednesday. Another person was killed at King Khalid airport in Riyadh.

The latest attacks come amid a marked escalation in renewed fighting between Yemen's Saudi-backed government forces and the Houthis, who control most of the country's north-west.

The Houthi military spokesman said the previous two attacks on Saudi Arabia's airports were in "response to the Saudi aggression against our country" that saw "60 air strikes and missile attacks in the past 24 hours".

The group says it is targeting Saudi Arabia over its support for government forces in Yemen's civil war.

The conflict has worsened in recent weeks, after the Houthis seized strategically important stretches of the Red Sea coast in a rapid offensive.

That included the port of Mokha on the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which is the narrowest point of the Red Sea and a chokepoint for global shipping.

But Yemeni pro-government forces have since said they had "secured" the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea.

A Saudi-led coalition was formed in 2015 after Arab countries joined forces to stop the Houthis taking over Yemen from the country's internationally recognised government.

But the informal ceasefire began to unravel in July.

The Houthis announced a "maritime embargo" against Saudi Arabia and began missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea. They said they were retaliating against what they say is a years-long Saudi blockade and for an air strike on Sanaa airport.

Most UK diplomats to leave East Jerusalem consulate, Israel says, as Miliband says 'vital services' to remain

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw33xd6vegnno, 4 days ago

Most diplomats will leave the British consulate in occupied East Jerusalem, Israel says, but the UK insists the building "will not be closing" and will operate as a "UK Mission".

"We did not want it to come to this," Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote on social media, as he said 20 diplomats and the consul general would leave while a task force of seven could remain in the building "with a very limited scope of activity".

UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband responded that some staff had been "temporarily withdrawn" for security reasons, and stressed the mission would continue "our work with the Palestinian people".

Israel said in September it would shut the consulate in retaliation for UK sanctions on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law.

The new steps appear to prevent the diplomatic row between two allies from escalating further.

The British consulate, which was founded in 1838, handles UK relations with Palestinians in Jerusalem as well as in the West Bank and Gaza.

It is distinct from the UK embassy in Tel Aviv, which is the UK's main diplomatic hub with Israel and is not affected.

Israel's foreign minister said it had implemented the order to shut the consulate within 30 days, which was one of a series of measures announced on 8 September in response to the UK's sanctions.

"The British Consulate in Jerusalem is closing its operations today. Accordingly, the sign of the British Consulate in Jerusalem has been removed," Saar posted on X.

However, the British flag could still be seen outside on Thursday morning, and several staff were seen entering the building.

Saar said talks with the UK government had resulted in agreement on certain principles, including that "the consul general and 20 diplomats (including the consul general) are ending their duties and will leave Israel".

But he acknowledged that the building was "the property of the British government" and said Israel had authorised "a task force of only seven diplomats with a very limited scope of activity" to operate from there.

As a result of this agreement with the UK, he said, "no steps will be taken against Israel".

Israeli media had reported earlier this week that the UK was threatening to expel Israeli diplomats from London.

This agreement is a compromise of sorts and means - for the moment - the heat has been taken out of a dispute that could have further worsened UK-Israel relations.

Israel can claim that the British consulate is "closing its operations". A score of British diplomats, including the consul general, are leaving Jerusalem.

But Miliband said they were going only temporarily and only for their safety and security.

He also insisted that Israel had no legal right to close the consulate.

"The UK government reiterates its long-standing view that East Jerusalem is occupied territory," the foreign secretary wrote in a statement.

Following discussions with the Israeli government, he said, the building would "not be closing" and would be known as the UK Mission, Jerusalem.

However, Miliband said an understanding had not been reached on "necessary assurances for the security and protections of our staff and premises".

"Accordingly the UK has temporarily withdrawn a number of staff and families to ensure their safety and security," he added.

"We will work in the coming months to build back up our presence, and we will not take reciprocal action while such discussions are underway and credible."

He said the seven UK diplomats remaining in Jerusalem would be "independent and operational" and would "continue to deliver vital services and our work with the Palestinian people".

Asked by the BBC's Today programme if this was a political fudge, UK Foreign Office Minister Stephen Doughty said: "You can see what's changed in terms of a name but crucially our presence remains".

He added that the "policies towards this Israeli government, which we fundamentally disagree with" would continue.

British officials are confident the newly-named UK Mission, Jerusalem remains a diplomatic premise formally protected by the provisions of the Vienna Convention.

The remaining diplomats, they say, will retain the existing privileges and immunities the consul general enjoyed. They are accredited with the Israeli authorities as before and will have the same ability to work and travel in the same way as before, they add.

The mission will continue to provide a wide range of services albeit with a smaller team. That involves supporting British nationals and engaging with Palestinian people and institutions. But since the deal was agreed only on Wednesday night, a lot of detail remained to be worked out.

Sources described the deal as a "political success" because the UK had not backed down on its sanctions on illegal settlements, it had maintained a diplomatic presence in East Jerusalem, and it had avoided a dangerous tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats from London and Tel Aviv. The UK Mission will also - crucially - remain entirely separate from the UK embassy in Tel Aviv.

Officials also said the fact British diplomats remain on the ground will reinforce the principle that international representation should continue in East Jerusalem.

It was British officials who removed the sign from the consulate. The diplomats who left have gone to other locations in the region to continue their work from there.

It now seems clear the disagreement has been parked until after the Israeli elections at the end of the month.

The UK side wanted to avoid the dispute being "instrumentalized" by any political party during the campaign. But it says negotiations will continue in coming months and the threat of British retaliation remains firmly on the table.

US and Lebanon protecting wanted Syrian general, BBC finds

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c81dldewl5gwo, 4 days ago

A former Syrian general wanted for crimes against humanity is being bankrolled and protected by the US and Lebanese authorities, a BBC News investigation has found.

Bassam al-Hassan, who oversaw Syria's chemical weapons programme and was a senior adviser to former President Bashar al-Assad, is being harboured in Lebanon following the Assad regime's collapse in 2024.

An investigation by the BBC and the US broadcaster NPR has discovered that Hassan has been allowed to remain there under an arrangement involving the FBI, and other US and Lebanese authorities. This is because of his willingness to provide information about the abduction of American journalist Austin Tice in Syria in 2012, as well as additional intelligence, we have been told.

Last month the BBC revealed Tice's abduction had been a planned operation, with Hassan in the chain of command.

Officials from two different branches of Syria's new government have told the BBC they want Hassan returned to face trial, but that US authorities want him kept in Lebanon, and they say there is little Damascus can do about this.

We asked the FBI, the CIA and Lebanon's General Directorate of General Security to comment on our findings. Only the FBI responded, declining to comment and instead directing us to a past statement that said its focus remained on establishing the facts around the Tice case and securing his return.

In response to our findings, Phil Elwood, spokesperson for the Tice family said: "If what you are saying is true, the fact that our tax dollars are being used to furnish a comfortable life for someone associated with the use of chemical weapons on Syrian civilians, who claims to have had Austin Tice executed, is offensive.

"This is nothing less than aiding and abetting the escape of a wanted war criminal. The Syrians deserve justice and he should be returned to stand trial."

As part of a years-long investigation featured in the new BBC podcast: Where is Austin Tice? the BBC has reviewed a detailed record of a meeting between Hassan, FBI and CIA representatives, and Lebanese security officials, where Tice's case is discussed.

In it, Hassan is offered "residency", "protection" and help securing his "living needs" in return for information, primarily about Tice.

Sources with knowledge of the arrangement confirmed this was the case, and described to us how Hassan receives money from the US authorities through an intermediary, making it harder to trace. Hassan is sanctioned by the US government.

Yet people connected to the Tice investigation say they have seen little evidence it has significantly advanced since Hassan began providing information as part of this agreement. The deal is believed to have been struck in the spring of 2025.

Sources with knowledge of the investigation have expressed concerns that Hassan's arrangement with the US could continue indefinitely, at significant expense but with little gain.

Hassan is not the only Syrian regime official whose connection to the Tice case has seemingly afforded him financial payments or assistance for living abroad.

One former regime member said he had received money from the FBI multiple times in exchange for his co-operation on Tice's case. It was "not in his interest to share all the information all at once," he told the BBC, "in order to be able to drag out how long he can continue to receive payments from them [the US authorities]".

Another former regime member connected to the Tice case claimed he was living in Lebanon under the "patronage" of the US authorities, citing this as the reason he could not speak to us about Tice.

The BBC spoke to a former senior Lebanese intelligence official who confirmed that Lebanese intelligence does have arrangements with the Americans, and that these types of payments have and do take place when both agencies have overlap in cases, but said he had no knowledge of payments involving the Tice case.

Following the fall of the Assad regime in early December 2024, Hassan is believed to have initially escaped to Iran.

A Syrian businessman, with strong connections to both the former regime and the Lebanese authorities, told the BBC that negotiations had then taken place - involving the US, Lebanon, and Iran - to bring Hassan to Lebanon.

The businessman, who asked to remain anonymous, said Hassan was valuable, not only because of what he is believed to know about Tice, but because of his knowledge of Syria's chemical weapons programme and its military relationship with Iran - secrets that US intelligence was allegedly interested in.

Hassan told US investigators last year that Tice had been executed on former President Assad's orders, but several people with knowledge of the investigation have questioned the details of his account. Hassan has provided a potential location for Tice's remains, but when the site was searched, nothing was found - according to multiple sources familiar with the dig - casting doubt on the validity of some of Hassan's information.

There are questions, however, over how thoroughly the site was searched. Two sources who said they had intimate knowledge of the operation told the BBC that US authorities stopped digging before the search had been completed, possibly because of security concerns.

When the BBC managed to reach Hassan by phone last year to ask for an interview, he directed us to seek permission for him to speak from the FBI and CIA at the US embassy in Beirut.

Our investigation has found that other Syrian officials connected to the Tice case have also apparently found refuge abroad.

They include Mohammad Makhlouf, who reported to Hassan in Syria and was connected to Tice's detention - now believed to be residing in Lebanon. And Sakr Rustom, Hassan's nephew who was involved in Tice's abduction, now believed to be moving between the UAE and Lebanon. When the BBC attempted to speak to Rustom about Tice's case, he said he "preferred to focus on matters of the future".

Ghassan Nassour, a former general in Syria's Republican Guard, is said by former members of the National Defence Forces to have presided over the jail Tice was held in, and is believed to be living in the UAE with his family, we have been told.

Tanker hit by multiple projectiles in Gulf off Qatar, maritime agency says

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqlydk7796wdo, 4 days ago

A tanker has been struck by "multiple projectiles" north of Qatar in the Gulf, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency.

The incident - a rare attack deep inside the Gulf - happened 51 nautical miles (94km) from Madinat al-Shamal with casualties reported, the UKMTO said.

Maritime intelligence firm Vanguard identified the vessel as the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged oil and chemical tanker Acers. On Saturday it was reported as sailing towards the Strait of Hormuz waterway, which connects the Gulf to the Gulf of Oman.

Merchant vessels have come under repeated attack in the region since the US and Israel's war with Iran began in February.

At least 24 seafarers have been killed in 93 confirmed incidents, according to the UN's International Maritime Organization (IMO).

The IMO said the last incident that resulted in casualties was on 9 September, when two sailors were killed in an attack on the Panama-flagged tanker El Gaia in the Strait of Hormuz, just north of Oman's Musandam peninsula.

This is also the first reported attack on a ship this far west of the Strait of Hormuz since that same day, according to Martin Kelly, head of advisory at EOS Risk Group.

Also on Thursday, Vanguard amended an earlier report that had said there was a fire on board another tanker in the Gulf of Oman, about 40km east of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.

The company clarified that there were no indications a fire occurred on the vessel, which it had identified as the Marshall Islands-flagged Dhalkut.

The Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil and gas shipments usually pass, was effectively closed after the start of the Iran war due to Tehran's missile and drone attacks on commercial vessels and a US naval blockade of Iranian ports.

The US and Iran reached a preliminary agreement to end the war and reopen the strait in June, but it collapsed within weeks after Iranian attacks on shipping resumed and the US reinstated its blockade.

Iran insisted it would not give up some measure of control over the waterway and targeted vessels using a southern route through Omani waters that avoids its preferred route through Iranian waters.

To keep exports flowing from Gulf Arab states, the US military has been providing protection for tankers shuttling oil through the Strait of Hormuz.

Over the past two weeks, crude exports through the waterway have averaged 12 million barrels per day (bpd), which is around 80% of pre-war levels, according to analysts from shipping data company Kpler.

Three people killed in Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia airports, officials say

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwn8d5rx22rdo, 4 days ago

Three people have been killed in attacks on Saudi Arabia airports over two days, authorities said, as flare-up of fighting spilled across the Yemen border into the kingdom.

Two people were killed and 28 wounded in an attack at Abha International Airport, Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation (Gaca) said in a statement on Wednesday.

In a separate incident, one person was killed and eight were wounded in an attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's capital, it added.

The attacks, which the Houthis have claimed responsibility for, mark an escalation in the renewed war between the Saudi-backed government forces and the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.

The two airports were attacked on 6 and 7 October, according to Gaca, which did not specify when each airport was hit.

Two women, of Moroccan and Algerian nationalities, were killed during the Abha airport attack, near the Yemen border, according to Gaca.

Meanwhile, a male resident of Sudanese nationality was killed at King Khalid airport, it added.

The country's civil aviation authority did not name who was responsible for the attacks, but Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said its armed forces had attacked both Saudi Arabia airports with ballistic missiles and drones.

The Houthi military spokesperson also said the Houthis attacked Aden's International Airport in Yemen on Wednesday. The airport is a main international gateway for parts of Yemen outside of Houthi control and has been repeatedly targeted when fighting erupts in the country.

Saree said the two attacks on Saudi Arabia's airports were in "response to the Saudi aggression against our country" which saw "60 airstrikes and missile attacks in the past 24 hours".

The civil war in Yemen has worsened in recent weeks, after the Houthis, who control most of the country's north-west, seized strategically important stretches of the Red Sea coast in a rapid offensive.

That included the port of Mokha on the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which is the narrowest point of the Red Sea and a chokepoint for global shipping.

But Yemeni pro-government forces backed by Saudi Arabia have since said they had "secured" the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea.

They also declared an all out war in an effort to take all territory held by the Houthis.

In a statement issued late on Wednesday, the official spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition said the Houthis' attacks on Saudi Arabia's airports "will not go unpunished".

The spokesperson said the Saudi coalition had targeted more than 80 Houthi military sites across "governorates of Saada, Al Hudaydah, Al Jawf and Ma'rib".

The Saudi-led coalition formed in 2015 after Arab countries joined forces to stop the Houthis taking over Yemen from the country's internationally recognised government.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has condemned "the continued Houthi cross-border attacks" on Saudi Arabia and said he was "deeply concerned by the sharp escalation in fighting".

Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed on both sides since the latest Houthis' advance.

The UN said on Wednesday more than 200,000 people have been displaced by the escalation.

'Every day there is killing': Gazans face Israeli strikes despite ceasefire as peace deal stalls

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmx2qlz7qrd4o, 4 days ago

In her tent in central Gaza early one morning last month, 31-year-old Fida al-Toutah, a mother of five, was combing her daughter's hair when the sound of gunfire erupted.

"My mother shouted at us to get down," her son Ezz recalled, weeping as he spoke.

He only realised Fida had been hit when he saw the bloodied hands of his younger brother, who had been clinging onto his mother as the bullets came in.

"Our mother was so kind and generous. What did she do wrong?" Ezz said.

Fida died on 21 September from a gunshot wound to the head.

She is among more than 1,400 people in Gaza who have been killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the ceasefire on 10 October last year, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.

The ceasefire saw thousands of Palestinians held by Israel released in return for all of the 48 remaining hostages held in Gaza, and an agreement to end the war - which was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, when about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

On the ground in Gaza, it meant that Israel's large-scale bombardment stopped, which brought substantial relief and an increase in humanitarian aid and medical supplies entering the territory.

But even during the ceasefire, Israel has continued launching strikes in Gaza almost every day. In the past week alone more than 30 people have been killed, according to Gaza's health ministry.

Israel says it is targeting Hamas operatives, and accuses Hamas of continued violations of the ceasefire.

"It [the ceasefire] is all lies. Every day there's a shooting. Every day there is killing and death lurking around," said Ahed, Fida's husband.

In response to the BBC's questions about Fida's killing, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had no record of the incident.

The total death toll from Israeli attacks since the start of the war in Gaza three years ago now stands at more than 74,000, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Outside Fida's tent, her brother Ibrahim pointed to the holes he said were made by a volley of bullets fired by Israeli forces.

"This tent is just a piece of cloth. Imagine that a military vehicle came down here and fired a spray of bullets," he said. "There was also gunfire coming from the sky, from above, from quadcopters, and it was directed at unarmed civilians."

Fida is the fourth of Ibrahim's siblings to be killed since the start of the war. "We left our neighbourhood Zeitoun to survive, but death is following us," he said.

The family has moved seven times but safety has been out of reach. Most of Gaza's 2.1 million population has been displaced multiple times by the war, the UN says, with many forced to live in tented cities and unsafe structures.

On the same day that Fida was killed, 14-year-old Ismail al-Bardawil was also shot dead. He was killed in the al-Mawasi area of Rafah, in southern Gaza.

His family told the BBC that he was shot by Israeli forces while he and his brothers were fishing in the Mediterranean Sea, around 20m (66ft) from the shore. He is one of more than 300 children killed since the start of the ceasefire, according to Gaza's health ministry.

The IDF said it had no information about this incident either.

Over the past year, the IDF has released videos of its operations in Gaza targeted at Hamas and other groups. At least seven Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ceasefire.

Both Fida and Ismail lived close to the so-called Yellow Line that separates the areas occupied by the Israeli military in Gaza from areas controlled by Hamas in the west.

Areas around the line are considered the most dangerous because Israeli forces have frequently opened fire there. But there are few options to move because there is an extreme shortage of space.

The strip was densely populated even before the war began. Now, its population is squeezed into under 40% of its area, which is controlled by Hamas.

In those areas the group maintains a tight grip, clamping down on dissent and still recruiting fighters.

In May this year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had directed the IDF to increase the area of Gaza under Israel's control to 70%.

Architect Amal Alabadla, who lived in a comfortable flat prior to the war, now lives in a tent on the coastline.

"Every time the rains come, it gets flooded. I feel very scared when the wind is strong because our tent gets destroyed or damaged," she said.

Amal is forced to raise her two boys - Mohammed and Noah - on her own.

Her husband was not in Gaza when the war broke out, and in three years they have not been reunited. Amal's three brothers, who helped her care for the boys, were killed in separate attacks before the ceasefire began.

"During the winter, my son suffers from epilepsy seizures because of the cold. It's very hard sometimes to keep him dry and warm," she said.

"Before the war, I had a job, a house, an ordinary life, but then everything turned upside down. Now we have no hope, nothing. It's only about survival day by day, to keep my kids alive, clean, healthy and fed."

There are camps further inland in Gaza that have even been built below sea level, which are at greater risk of flooding.

The October 2025 peace deal was supposed to pave the way for the reconstruction in Gaza, but rebuilding has not yet begun - stuck in limbo because of an impasse over the second phase of the deal.

Israel strictly controls what materials and machinery are allowed into Gaza, acting, it says, for reasons of its own security.

Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump put forward a plan to disarm Hamas, but in August it was rejected by Netanyahu, who stated that no military pull-out would happen until Hamas was "genuinely" disarmed.

Hamas has said handing over its heavy weapons is contingent on Israel ending "all forms of aggression" and withdrawing its forces from Gaza.

Half a world away, Trump's Board of Peace has also proposed a recovery plan for Gaza worth $2.45bn (£1.85bn).

But, one year on from the ceasefire and three years on from the start of the war, many like Amal are deeply sceptical of things actually changing on the ground.

"We are struggling and not being allowed to rebuild," she said. "I don't think they are telling us the truth about allowing us to rebuild a safe future for our children."

Additional reporting by Imogen Anderson and Malak Hassouneh

Israelis demand accountability over 7 October failures three years after attacks

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5zjx7xx3487o, 5 days ago

As the sky began to lighten over Israel's border with Gaza on Wednesday, the people of Kfar Aza moved silently towards the armoury at the centre of the kibbutz.

It was there, shortly after 07:00 on 7 October 2023, that Hamas-led attackers killed half the community's 14-member civil defence squad. They were among 64 killed and 19 kidnapped from the community that day.

The pain of those attacks is still fresh here. But three years on, there are questions about who else should pay the price for Israel's security failure.

"I need my country to take responsibility," said Inbar Goldstein, whose brother and niece were killed, and four other relatives kidnapped from Kfar Aza.

The 7 October attack was the deadliest Israel had suffered since its creation in 1948. About 1,200 people were killed across southern Israel by gunmen who broke through the border fence and attacked communities there. Another 251 people were taken back to Gaza as hostages.

Three years on from Israel's biggest security failure, there is still no independent state inquiry into how it was allowed to happen.

And the man in charge at the time of that failure - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - is running for election again, with the same campaign promise: to be stronger and tougher than anyone else in protecting Israel from its enemies.

"Nobody investigated the roots [of the attack]. It didn't start or end on October 7th - it's a long process of abandonment," Goldstein said.

Aside from Hamas's responsibility for the attack itself, there are growing questions in Israel around what caused the country's intelligence failure, what information was passed to military and political leaders in the run-up to the attacks, and what Netanyahu himself knew.

For months beforehand, young female soldiers posted at bases along the Gaza border to watch for suspicious activity had warned their superiors about possible preparations for an attack.

Among them was Roni Eshel. She was killed with 14 other members of her unit when gunmen overran their base at Nahal Oz, just next to Kfar Aza.

"There are so many questions," her uncle Elad Levy told me. "Were the Egyptians warning the prime minister? The Emiratis? Were there no other warnings Netanyahu ignored? We need to find out what happened – not just on the day, but the year before, and five years before that."

"The truth should be clear," he continued. "If we don't inquire into this, it will happen again and again."

Over the past three years, there have been mounting reports of warnings being given to Netanyahu - by his own security chief, as well as by regional neighbours – which he denies.

Last month, Israel's Haaretz newspaper published extracts from a new book, alleging that the leader of the United Arab Emirates had called Netanyahu 10 days before the attack to warn of Hamas plans for a major operation.

Netanyahu's office has dismissed the report as "an absolute lie" and has said he will sue the newspaper.

Amir Ohana, a member of Netanyahu's Likud party, said in a social media video last month that it was "preposterous and absurd" to suggest that Netanyahu could have known about the attack when the former Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, had only told a handful of people.

Israel's prime minister, he said, had since reshaped the Middle East and did not give up, "even when voices inside and outside Israel called on him to stop".

Netanyahu has blamed his own security chiefs for the failures that led to the 7 October attacks, accusing them of deliberately choosing not to wake him in the hours beforehand, for fear that he would order a massive deployment of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and escalate the situation.

"God forbid we wake up the prime minister and he says, 'Wake up the entire IDF immediately, scramble the air force!'" he told Israel's right-wing Channel 14 television network.

"What would have happened if they had woken me? This would not have happened," he said, suggesting that his response would have better protected Israel from the attacks.

Yaakov Katz, a journalist and author of several books on Israel's defence, has written about the growing concerns over Hamas activity that emerged in the hours leading up to the assault.

In his book, While Israel Slept, he describes calls between senior military figures and intelligence chiefs in the early hours of the morning, the sudden recall of commanders from leave, and the dispatch of an elite intelligence unit to the border.

He told me their expectation was, at worst, a small, limited incursion by Hamas fighters.

"So why would [Netanyahu] order a massive pre-emptive strike by the IDF, if every security chief is telling him this is not what this is going to be? Waking him would not have made a difference."

But he said Netanyahu faced other questions about his failure to spot what was happening.

"You were the prime minister, you set the policy," he said. "You created a doctrine and a policy of containment that trickled down to the last soldier manning the watchtower on the border with Gaza: contain Hamas, separate the Palestinians, and keep Hamas in power to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state."

For years, Netanyahu oversaw a policy of containing - not confronting - Hamas in Gaza, during which Israeli governments allowed Qatar to provide hundreds of millions of dollars of aid for Gaza.

A month after the 7 October attacks, he told a German newspaper that claims he wanted to strengthen Hamas were "an absolute lie".

"On the contrary we wanted to continue to weaken Hamas as much as we could," he told Die Welt. "But the money was meant to avoid a civilian catastrophe - that is the only reason."

Months after the attack, the IDF's then-chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, publicly apologised for the failure to defend civilians, saying he carried that weight on his shoulders and in his heart.

He resigned. A raft of military commanders were later fired, and Israel's domestic intelligence chief left his position.

Netanyahu has so far rejected any personal responsibility for the attacks.

Col Richard Hecht was the IDF's international spokesman on 7 October. He told me the refusal of political leaders - including Netanyahu - to accept responsibility was part of the reason he resigned six months later.

"It's a disgrace," he told me. "When you look at accountability, within the IDF I don't think there's a problem. And that's the pain. That's one of the main causes of bad blood between the political echelon and the military."

At a memorial ceremony in Jerusalem on Monday, the father of one of those killed on 7 October stood up to challenge the prime minister.

"You didn't protect my son, you didn't protect all those who were murdered," he said, before security guards led him away. "Shame! Disgrace!"

Three years on from the attacks, calls for accountability are growing. Campaigners have asked Israel's highest court to force the government into establishing a state commission of inquiry.

Yizhar Shai, a former minister and opposition politician whose youngest son Yaron, a soldier, was killed on 7 October, is part of that campaign.

"We are going into these elections almost blindfolded as it relates to October 7th," he told me during a protest in Tel Aviv last week. "Our prime minister has never given a detailed, thorough explanation under oath, where he would be asked all the tough questions and have to explain everything."

Netanyahu has consistently refused a state inquiry led by Israel's Supreme Court, arguing recently that the country's judiciary would be biased against him.

Before calling an election, his government proposed an alternative "national commission of inquiry", whose members would be appointed by political parties.

But despite passing a raft of other legislation before parliament ended its session in July, Israel's government said it ran out of time to pass a bill setting out its plans for the inquiry.

We approached several members of his Likud party for an interview, without success. We also requested that the party respond to their critics, and are waiting for their response.

Netanyahu's denial of responsibility has now become an election issue, as he prepares to run for re-election later this month.

A video game called Sleepy Bibi, released by the team of his main opponent, Gadi Eisenkot, asks players to help the prime minister avoid responsibility by dodging warnings of an attack and "making it to bed safely".

Netanyahu has styled himself for decades as Israel's "Mr Security", and despite presiding over the worst security failure in Israel's history, is running on the same security platform again.

For the past three years, he focused on waging new wars against Israel's enemies - Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.

Polls suggest a close race, and that the 7 October attacks are central to many voters' decisions.

Yaakov Katz says the legacy of 7 October is a coin with two sides.

"There are the failures, the mistakes that led to the Hamas invasion," he told me. "But there's the other side, which is Netanyahu's argument; that [he] has re-engineered the Middle East and made Israel a safer place today. And that is an argument Israelis take with them to the polls."

The shadow of the attacks hangs over this election, dividing Israel once again along political lines.

For supporters, it confirms that Benjamin Netanyahu is still needed to keep Israel safe.

Critics say his political survival puts Israel at risk.

Residents of kibbutz destroyed in 7 October Hamas-led attacks grapple with how to rebuild

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqrmyz4mdn94o, 5 days ago

Roosting birds now coo among the ceiling tiles in the deserted dining room of Kibbutz Nir Oz, once the bustling heart of a close-knit, 400-strong Israeli community which was devastated by the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023.

"We used to come and see each other, eat together. There were lots of activities here, also holidays to celebrate," remembers Dalit Ram Aharon, who is showing me around with her husband, Achi.

By the glass entrance doors, dotted with bullet holes, there is a shocking reminder of what happened to the missing residents.

The postboxes for each household bear stickers put there after the attacks three years ago: red indicates those killed, and black those taken hostage. "That's one out of four of us: murdered or kidnapped," Dalit says. "Including children and babies."

As Israel marks the third anniversary of its deadliest-ever day, this is another painful time of reflection for residents of the kibbutz, which sits just a mile (1.6km) from the Gaza border and was one of the worst-hit places.

Time stands still at the nearby burnt-out house of the Siman Tov family, where a wind chime dangles by the door. A picture shows Tamar and Yonatan with their three children, twin girls Shahar and Arbel, five, and their two-year-old son, Omer.

The parents were shot through the door of their bomb shelter - designed to protect from rockets launched from Gaza, not gunfire.

Dalit, who survived with Achi and their three children by hiding in their own shelter for nearly 12 hours that day, recalls the last social media messages sent by Tamar to her neighbours.

"On that day in the morning, she wrote in the woman's group, at the beginning, 'Is everyone fine?' Then, at another point, she wrote, 'They are shooting us.' And after that she wrote with a lot of mistakes, 'We are very injured,'" Dalit tells me.

"From what we understand, they torched the house and the children died from suffocation, so all the family was killed."

An estimated 500 Palestinians, led by Hamas's elite Nukhba force fighters, but including civilian looters, some of them children, joined the assault on the unsuspecting Nir Oz.

Forty-one Nir Oz residents and foreign workers were killed, along with six people who had fled to the kibbutz from a party nearby.

Seventy-six people from the kibbutz were kidnapped to Gaza, including nine bodies, with 14 hostages taken alive and killed in captivity. The last living hostages from Nir Oz were returned to Israel on 13 October 2025 and the remains of the last deceased hostage, Amiram Cooper, were brought back two weeks later.

As we walk through the greenery, it is eerily quiet bar bird song and the mewing of hungry, stray cats. Dozens of fire-damaged homes, which were simple, one-storey buildings in Nir Oz, have now been torn down, leaving just rows of the reinforced concrete safe rooms, which failed to keep people safe.

The Aharons want some damaged houses to be left as evidence of what took place. "We really support that," Achi says. "People should see what happened, should see the destruction, the pure hatred that happened here."

The couple point out where a teacher, Maya Goren, was killed while in the kindergarten and the makeshift memorials where three of the seven members of the kibbutz security team were killed after battling Hamas gunmen.

The findings of the Israeli Defense Forces investigation into what happened at Nir Oz underscored how the army - left in a state of disarray by the unprecedented simultaneous assault on more than 20 communities and multiple military posts - completely failed to come to the rescue here.

On 7 October, the first soldiers arrived in the kibbutz some 40 minutes after the last Palestinian attackers left. Nearly every household experienced killing, violence, including sexual assaults and rape, looting and kidnapping.

Dalit pauses to show me a tree planted long ago by her parents, who were co-founders of the kibbutz, known for its farming and peace activists. They survived the 7 October attacks physically unharmed but died just months afterwards.

Next door is the small home of Shiri Bibas, the mother of ginger-haired boys Ariel, four, and nine-month-old, Kfir. The three, snatched from their home, became symbols of the Gaza hostage crisis.

"This is the hardest house for me because Shiri was a very, very good friend of mine," Dalit confides. "She was like a sister. We even got pregnant together - me with my daughter and her with Ariel. They became best friends also. We used to laugh that they were going to marry."

"Shiri was very, very funny. She was a happy person - a mother," Dalit says. "She lived a simple life. She never did anything to anyone."

While Shiri's husband, Yarden, was released alive by Hamas in a Gaza ceasefire deal in February 2025, she and her sons - held by a different armed group - were killed.

Hamas blamed an air strike early in the Gaza war for their deaths, but Israeli forensic experts, who examined the bodies after they were returned later that February, said they were murdered by their captives and their bodies mutilated.

Many of the bereaved from Nir Oz, including Yarden Bibas, have moved away for good. However, with 20 houses renovated or rebuilt, a few former hostages have come back to live here.

They include Gadi Moses, another kibbutz co-founder, and the oldest living male hostage released during the Gaza war, and Yair Horn, who stops to chat with the Aharons as he passes in a golf buggy. Dalit and Achi are determined to return too.

"We'll come back for the memory of Shiri and for the people that didn't have the chance to live here, and for the memory of my parents, and to continue our roots, and for my children, because this is our home," Dalit says.

However, she, Achi and their children - currently displaced and living in an apartment in a town further north - face a two-year wait for Nir Oz to reopen fully.

"Terrorists penetrated 97% of the households and burned down almost 50%," says Emi Palmor, director of the rebuilding project. "Now it's the only place in Israel that has to be completely demolished and completely replanned."

She says that it is a difficult balance to redesign the kibbutz so that it feels like home but does not cause new trauma to those who return.

"It's a huge debate – a very painful debate," Emi says. "Some people say, 'If I come back here, I want the entire area to look serene. I don't have to be reminded because I remember every day the people I lost.' Other people say, 'There is such denial – if we will take down the last houses, who will ever believe?'"

About 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage after an estimated 6,000 Palestinians streamed across the Gaza border during the attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023.

The ensuing war between Israel and Hamas has killed more than 74,200 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose overall figures are seen as accurate by the UN.

Despite the US-brokered ceasefire deal which brought the last hostages home a year ago, violence has continued, including near-daily Israeli attacks on Gaza. Nearly all of Gaza's 2.1 million population has been displaced and much of the territory is in ruins. US President Donald Trump's peace plan is at an impasse.

For Israelis, there are outstanding questions over accountability for the failure of Israel's security forces to have prevented the 7 October attacks. People from Nir Oz favour a comprehensive state commission of inquiry and still have major security concerns.

Survivors, including the Aharons, suffer from post-traumatic stress. Dalit recalls how her eldest son, Uri, turned nine on 7 October 2023 - when they spent the day hiding in their bomb shelter. "He told me, 'Mum, I don't want to die on my birthday,'" she says. "You know people don't understand that we still live this horrible day."

This anniversary of the attacks is the first with no hostages remaining in Gaza. "It's a very big relief," Dalit says. Achi sees that now is the time to focus on personal healing.

"Until the hostages came back, it was the only thing on our mind," he says. "Now you have the time to concentrate on yourself, on what you lost, what you need. Now it's our recovery or some kind of recovery as much as we can."

Children brave snipers and mortars to go to school near Yemen front line

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c670pzpv9gk4o, 6 days ago

Every morning at 6am, 10-year-old Rafeef and her younger brother get ready for school, putting on their cream and brown uniforms.

She always looks forward to seeing her friends and learning about everything from maths to Arabic and Islamic studies. She can't wait to start studying English next year.

But for Rafeef, the journey to school involves far greater risks than crossing roads or missing the bus.

Her school in Taiz, south-western Yemen, stands on a mountain at the edge of a valley known as no-man's land - a heavily contested front line in the civil war between forces supporting Yemen's internationally recognised government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, and the Iran-backed Houthis.

On one side of the school is government-held territory, on the other are Houthi sniper positions.

Rafeef's home is further down the mountain.

Every time she goes to school, she has to walk uphill with her back towards the snipers. "I'm afraid," she says.

According to Unicef, roughly 3.2 million children in Yemen were out of school even before the war escalated last month.

It says thousands of children have been killed or maimed since the war began in 2014, while thousands more have been recruited by armed groups on both sides.

Yet despite the risks, Rafeef says she does not want to stop going because she loves seeing her friends and it is her only chance to be with them. She begins naming the children in her classroom.

Going to school is the only time Rafeef's parents let her go outside. They say they are keen for her to get an education and have the chance of a better life. Rafeef hopes to become a doctor.

'A mortar came out of nowhere'

Rafeef's family moved to Taiz from the coastal city of Hudaydah nine years ago, seeking safety when Houthis took control there.

But Taiz has also endured fighting.

Rafeef says that two years ago there was a mortar attack outside her new home.

"Everyone was out except for me and my brother. Then a mortar came out of nowhere… shrapnel blew through the door and into the house." Her arm was broken and there is still a scar where she was hit.

And in recent days the conflict has intensified. On Sunday the Houthis cut off a vital supply route linking Taiz to Aden, which meant they were able to effectively encircle Taiz. Control of that route has kept shifting.

Residents have told the BBC they are afraid the Houthis could seize the city at any moment.

Government forces have made gains in other areas this week, they say, retaking control of strategic points on the Bab al-Mandab Strait - a key shipping chokepoint - and launching an offensive to try to regain control of the capital, Sanaa.

Homes in Taiz are mostly scattered across the slopes, but many have been abandoned by families fleeing the fighting.

Twice, we try to visit the neighbourhood where Rafeef and her family live, but a community leader advises us it is too dangerous.

On the first occasion, residents of the neighbourhood tell us that three people have been shot by snipers. On the second, we are told of another shooting.

At Rafeef's school, one of the teachers, Abdel Raqeeb al-Obaidi, 45, takes us on to the rooftop to show us what he says are Houthi military camps, barracks and sniper positions in the mountains.

Standing on the rooftop, a Yemeni security adviser accompanying us suddenly tells us to go back inside. We are visible from these positions and could be shot, he says.

Abdel Raqeeb laughs, acknowledging the danger. He says the school has been fired on before.

"The situation may explode at any moment while we are sitting in class or sleeping or we are in school or we are out on the street. We do not know how our future is and how tomorrow is."

For Abdel Raqeeb, the risk has become routine. His familiarity with it is unsettling.

Taiz has long been a major battleground in the country's devastating civil war. After ousting the government from the capital Sanaa in 2015, the Houthis attempted to also seize control of Taiz but were driven out of most of the city by local militiamen.

Seizing Taiz would give the Houthis full control over the country's north. Now, in their latest offensive, Houthis are making extensive use of drones alongside other weapons.

Sometimes civilians are collateral damage in the fighting.

Later that evening, we get a call from a hospital about a five minute drive away from the school. Two children have been badly injured by a mortar strike.

When we arrive at Al-Rawdah Hospital, we see a nurse standing outside the intensive care unit, holding a tiny pair of beige, rubber sandals that are splattered with blood.

They belonged to Ahmed, a three-year-old boy who we learn was killed when a mortar struck a mechanic's shop in the city.

Shrapnel in the heart

When I ask about the shoes, the nurse, Ikram Shamsan, begins to cry.

"What did this child or his family ever do wrong?" she asks.

Ahmed was killed when a piece of shrapnel pierced his heart, entering through his back. The boy had been with his father, who was getting his motorcycle tyre pumped up at the mechanic's shop. The father was unharmed.

A doctor tells us the father had intended to leave his son at home, but the boy cried because he wanted to come too.

As he takes his son's body from the hospital, the father asks how he will face the boy's mother.

Completing a simple errand turned into the worst day of their lives.

Another boy, 11-year-old Amjad, was also at the mechanic's shop. He and his brother worked there with their uncle, sending money to their family in their home village.

Shrapnel has struck Amjad in his lung and abdomen. When we reach him, he is in intensive care, struggling to breathe. No relatives are beside his bed.

His doctor describes his condition as critical and fears he could die within hours. He hopes his mother will arrive in time to say goodbye.

Amjad was admitted at about 20:00 that evening. His mother reaches him at around 06:00 the following morning, delayed by the eight-hour journey from the village.

She sits beside his bed and prays, trying to remain composed. Once outside the room, she falls to her knees and breaks down.

Doctors say his heart rate improves during her visit. They judge him stable enough for another operation.

He has since undergone that surgery, but remains critically ill.

"We're always terrified. It's devastating to see children killed," says nurse Shamsan. "We want peace and we want to be safe."

Additional reporting by Jasmin Dyer

Three reasons Middle East oil supply is nearly back to pre-Iran war levels

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwp8gn13lmygo, 10 days ago

The volume of oil flowing from the Middle East region has almost returned to pre-war levels, data shows, despite the continued restrictions Iran is placing on vessels attempting to travel through the Strait of Hormuz.

Seven months after the US-Israel war with Iran led to the effective closure of the critical waterway, the maritime intelligence firm Kpler said that in the final week of September, daily oil flow from the Middle East reached 92% of its pre-war baseline.

Analysts attribute the rebounding flow of oil to three key factors:

* Ships being escorted with US military assistance

* Using shuttle tankers through the strait for transfer to different vessels

* Bypassing the strait using pipelines

But some experts have questioned the sustainability of these measures, given the risk of escalating Iranian attacks or a change in US policy.

About 40% of the total oil exported from the region in September bypassed the strait and exited via overland pipelines to ports on the Red Sea or the Gulf of Oman, up from 17% before the war, according to Kpler.

Oil exports from Iran, on the other hand, have ground to a halt after the reimposition of a US naval blockade in July.

US military assistance

The US military has been supporting ships as they pass through the Strait of Hormuz since at least mid-June and US Navy data shows the number of vessels assisted by US forces is up by a third in September compared with August.

Martin Kelly, senior intelligence analyst at security firm EOS Risk Group, told BBC Verify that US support is primarily in the form of "air support to ships", including through issuing warnings and intercepting incoming threats from drones, missiles or boats.

But ships moving through the US-recommended southern route of the strait near the coast of Oman, rather than seeking permission to use Iran's northern route, continue to be targeted.

September saw the highest number of successful Iranian attacks on commercial shipping since March, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data conflict monitor.

Naveen Das, a senior oil analyst from Kpler, said the oil market "doesn't trust that we're going stay in this status quo" because of the geopolitical risk of further Iranian escalation and the possible impact of the US midterm elections.

Ship-to-ship transfers

Most of the oil passing through the strait now moves via a "shuttle system" of more than 60 large oil tankers moving back and forth, according to Kpler.

More than 70% of the crude oil which passed through the strait in August was transferred from these "shuttle tankers" onto other vessels in the Gulf of Oman, Kpler said.

BBC Verify has analysed satellite imagery which appears to show these ship-to-ship transfers, taking place off the coast of the Omani port city, Sohar.

Imagery taken on 24 September shows six pairs of ships docked or paired together near the port, seemingly more protected from Iranian attack.

But there is "a question over how long these ships can last", said Martin Kelly, particularly as attacks on them continue.

An average of more than four million barrels of oil per day was transferred from ship to ship in the Gulf of Oman over in the week to 30 September, according to Kpler.

Overall, an average of 12 million barrels of oil per day passed through the strait over this period, compared with a pre-war baseline of 17 million.

Pipelines

Oil exporting countries in the Gulf have also responded to Iranian attacks in the Strait of Hormuz by exporting more crude oil overland via pipelines.

Just under 20% of crude is now leaving the region from ports on the Red Sea at the end of Saudi Arabia's East-West Pipeline, which is recording exports of more than four million barrels per day, according to Kpler.

Three weeks after an attack on this pipeline blamed on Iran-backed proxies in Iraq, Saudi Arabia is now exporting through the pipeline at "full stretch", according to Kpler.

Almost a quarter of all crude flowing from the region is now being piped past the Strait of Hormuz to terminals along the Gulf of Oman, particularly the city of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kpler's data shows.

Naveen Das from Kpler said this increased use of pipelines is likely to become the "new normal" because "it seems very improbable that we live in a world whereby the Gulf countries and Iran go back to being relatively harmonious".

Oil exports from Iran have fallen almost to zero following the re-imposition of a US blockade in mid-July, down from 1.7 million barrels a day before the war began, Kpler data shows.

There are 20 empty Iran-flagged tankers currently off the coast of Sri Lanka, unable to return to the Gulf due to the US blockade, according to ship-tracking data and analysis from the US-based advocacy and monitoring organisation United Against Nuclear Iran.

While crude oil flow from the Middle East has resumed to almost normal levels, exports of liquified natural gas and oil products like jet fuel and have remained well below pre-conflict volumes.

Fewer than a million barrels of processed oil products passed through the Strait of Hormuz on average in the last week, down from 3.5 million per day before the war began.

Additional reporting by Rob England and Richard Irvine-Brown, graphics by Tom Shiel

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

Europe is pouring billions into space. Can Glasgow's satellite industry keep up?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2kedyp348lo, 7 days ago

In 2005, a young space engineer called Craig Clark moved back to his home city of Glasgow. He'd graduated from university just over a decade before, but the only jobs he could find were south of the border. Now Craig wanted to start a company of his own. He called it Clyde Space.

I went to school not far from the River Clyde, where Glasgow's shipbuilding industry earned a global reputation for craftsmanship and engineering excellence. There was a saying that I grew up with: "The Clyde made Glasgow and Glasgow made the Clyde."

What I hadn't realised until recently was that, in a different guise, that tradition is still alive. Two decades later, Glasgow is a European leader in building small satellites.

Many of those built here are known as CubeSats. Their basic building block measures just 10cm by 10cm by 10cm - think of something about the size of a Rubik's Cube. They are much smaller, cheaper and quicker to develop than the huge contraptions that you might picture when you think of satellites.

But crucially, they are modular and can be stacked together, then packed with cameras, sensors, communications equipment or other technology depending on their purpose.

And their size belies their significance. The data collected by satellites of all kinds is increasingly woven into everyday life. It helps us communicate and navigate, track ships and transport goods, monitor forests and crops, manage energy networks and understand changes to our climate.

For governments, that information can help inform decisions and respond to emergencies. As satellites have become more capable, space has become increasingly important.

More than two decades after the first satellite company was established there, the Scottish government says more small satellites are built in Glasgow than anywhere else in Europe.

Across Scotland, the wider space industry generated £335m in income in 2022-23 - up 69% in five years. Excluding traditional satellite television broadcasting, it employed 2,811 people, an increase of 81% over the same period.

But elsewhere in Europe, governments are committing big money to their own satellite industries.

Could this take investment and jobs away from Glasgow? And if so, what - if anything - should the Scottish and UK governments do about it?

Glasgow's rise to small satellite superpower

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Glasgow's success in the space industry is that it wasn't planned.

One of the catalysts was Craig Clark's Clyde Space. The company specialised in CubeSats at just the right moment, a few years after it launched, as smaller and cheaper spacecraft were taking off, and would go on to build Scotland's first satellite, the UKube-1.

Crucially, the tech was built in partnership with the University of Strathclyde - which provided skills and research, as well as a ready supply of engineers.

Other companies followed, including Craft Prospect and Alba Orbital. Expertise grew and a new space cluster began to form. American satellite company Spire chose Glasgow for its European base in 2015. Smaller businesses developed, while established engineering and technology firms became part of the supply chain.

"Companies started moving to Glasgow because they could see that it was possible to do it here, and there was an ecosystem that was starting to grow," says Andrew Strain, chief technology officer at AAC Clyde Space - the company formed after Clyde Space was acquired by Swedish firm AAC Microtec, although Glasgow remains the group's main satellite manufacturing site.

Soon Glasgow was host to an "entire small satellite value chain", from components and satellite manufacturing, through to launch, spaceports and ground stations, according to Daniel Smith, founder of space marketing firm AstroAgency and the Scottish government's trade and investment envoy for space.

There are wider benefits too. According to a review commissioned by Space Scotland, space manufacturing alone accounted for more than 1,000 Scottish jobs in 2022-23. The wider industry generated £202m for the Scottish economy.

And as the industry grew, so did the pool of knowledge. There are now more than 100 people working across space-related activity at the University of Strathclyde, with the subject now one of the institution's strategic priorities, according to Prof Malcolm Macdonald, its chair of applied space technology. The university works directly with commercial space companies on research and tech development.

Macdonald recalls that when he graduated, there was basically no local space industry for him to join. Now, "when our graduates leave the university, they will go and work in the local space sector because it is now here in Glasgow for them", he says.

But what's significant, Macdonald says, is that Glasgow's satellite industry wasn't something the government set out to establish. Instead, the process was "largely organic", says Smith.

By any measure it's a success story. But there are warnings about competition from overseas.

"It's not necessarily that we're going backwards," Macdonald tells me. "But other people are catching up."

The challenge to Glasgow

Bavaria is emerging as a significant European hub for aerospace and defence technology. Germany's Defence Ministry says it plans to invest around €35bn (£30bn) in military space capabilities in the coming years, including more than 100 encrypted communications satellites.

For Macdonald, that kind of spending is changing Europe's space industry. Against a backdrop of the war in Ukraine and wider geopolitical uncertainty, governments are no longer simply supporting research and innovation. Increasingly, they are becoming major customers rather than just investors.

Will Lecky, co-founder and director of know.space, the space economics consultancy, says that matters because the global playing field is not level. He says UK public space funding falls well behind countries such as France and Germany.

"It's certainly a risk to Glasgow and the wider UK space sector that investment will follow the money and lead to longer term competitive disadvantage as activity flows elsewhere," he says.

Meanwhile, Finland's aerospace firm ICEYE specialises in synthetic aperture radar (SAR), satellites, which can produce images of the Earth's surface through cloud and darkness. Macdonald says these have been used in the war in Ukraine, where satellite imagery can provide intelligence - for example, spotting a Russian vessel in a Crimean port - when conventional optical cameras cannot.

In June, ICEYE announced a funding round worth more than €1bn, valuing the company at more than €10bn. The Finnish state has also increased its stake and now owns around 12% of the company.

Finland's Minister for European Affairs, Joakim Strand, said the geopolitical situation had highlighted the importance of domestic ownership in what he called a "key strategic sector".

Governments want guaranteed access to satellite communications, especially when their country is facing a crisis. Some want the satellites - and the ability to build them - within their own borders.

That can have consequences for Glasgow.

"The recent increases in space spending elsewhere in Europe matter," says Gabriele Piazza, an economist at the London School of Economics who researches government procurement of advanced technology.

Space is not a normal market. Where the contracts go can help determine where companies invest, where engineers work and where expertise builds.

"Since capabilities build on themselves, firms with a large customer at home gain an advantage that lasts," Piazza adds.

Meanwhile, as well as Clyde Space's 2018 acquisition by AAC Microtec, Glasgow-founded Alba Orbital has moved its headquarters to the US, while retaining a Scottish base and team. Spire has expanded its manufacturing operation into Munich.

The Scottish government maintains that Glasgow still builds more small satellites than anywhere else in Europe. So, this is not an industry in decline.

But the bigger challenge, Smith says, is helping companies that start in Scotland to scale here.

"I wouldn't want it to be overly negative," says Macdonald. "It's more just like there are warning lights flashing that other parts of Europe are investing much more aggressively, and moving much more quickly, than we have."

The case for Glasgow staying on top

Satellite camera manufacturer Simera Sense announced this year that it was opening a new production facility in the city, creating 20 highly skilled jobs. The firm, which has premises in South Africa, Belgium and France, will open a high-value electronics assembly lab and office at EastWorks in Dalmarnock.

That suggests something more nuanced than an exodus. Glasgow's concentration of universities, engineers and specialist suppliers, built up over two decades, would be difficult to replicate elsewhere.

Plus, some comparisons with overseas competitors are not exact. ICEYE is just one specialist company focused on radar satellites, while Glasgow is an entire manufacturing cluster producing different kinds of small satellites. Spire expanding in Munich does not necessarily mean it is retreating from Glasgow.

Smith doesn't think the answer is simply trying to outspend competitors: "We can grow alongside them," he says.

Instead, he argues Scotland should focus on what the industry actually needs – filling gaps and helping space companies find customers in areas such as energy, transport and healthcare.

So what role should government play?

With a successful domestic industry facing competition from abroad, you might anticipate calls for the government to provide financial support.

But Lecky cautions against that. He argues Glasgow's small satellite industry originally grew partly because of a lack of government support, as part of the commercially-focused "newspace" revolution.

"We shouldn't jump to government support as being the answer - it's critical to keep this commercial-minded attitude," he says.

"If you offered most entrepreneurs a choice between a grant, with significant paperwork, milestone payments and continuous scrutiny, or a paying customer, I suspect they would always choose the customer," he says.

And increasingly, governments are becoming that customer anyway.

For Smith, government contracts can do something grants cannot - give young companies revenue, a customer and a track record they can use to win business overseas.

Piazza says there is an economic case for thinking about procurement too. Building satellites creates knowledge that can spread far beyond the company itself. Engineers move between employers. Suppliers acquire new skills. Ideas become new products - sometimes in entirely different industries.

"Often, tomorrow's industries grow out of today's," he says. "The teams and suppliers building satellites now are the ones able to develop the next generation of a related technology, and once they disperse, they are very hard to reassemble."

But there is a cost.

Piazza points out that money spent supporting one industry cannot be spent on hospitals or schools. Governments can be poor at picking industries. And if everyone subsidises, nobody necessarily gains ground.

That is one reason procurement can make sense. The government buys something it needs anyway. The company gets a customer. Not just a grant.

But that raises a bigger question, made more important by the Ukraine war: what does the UK actually need to be able to do for itself?

Satellites provide communications, navigation and intelligence during conflict. Beyond defence, satellite services underpin parts of transport, energy, telecommunications and emergency response. Governments therefore have to decide which capabilities they are comfortable buying from overseas providers or allies.

Piazza says there can be a strategic case for keeping capabilities that are critical and difficult to replace. He describes it as a form of insurance. But keeping capability at home can mean higher costs, smaller production runs and duplicating what allies already do.

There is evidence that some public investment in space produces significant economic returns. Every £1 of UK investment through the European Space Agency generated £7.49 in direct economic benefit, an independent evaluation commissioned by the UK Space Agency estimated.

The UK Space Agency also says its work helped catalyse £2.2bn in investment and revenue for the UK space sector in 2024-25. But these figures relate to the whole of the UK, not Glasgow specifically.

The more important question may be where the valuable parts of the industry - its people, intellectual property, research and manufacturing - ultimately end up.

"The risk is not closure," says Piazza. "It is that the next phase of growth follows the contracts elsewhere."

Scotland also has another potential addition on the horizon: SaxaVord Spaceport in Shetland.

The vision of a fully integrated, "end-to-end" space sector is moving closer to reality. Although the infrastructure is ready, actual launch campaigns have experienced technical delays.

So, success is not guaranteed.

"We are in a great position right now," says Strain. "But if we get complacent, then we can fall behind again because it's moving very, very fast."

Glasgow's shipyards once made the city synonymous with building things for the world. Its space industry has done something similar - almost by accident.

The question now is not whether Glasgow can build a successful satellite industry. It already has.

It is whether the next phase of that success is built here too.

China has cracked down on AI relationships. Is it ahead of the game?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm4gjy9lr551o, 12 days ago

In early 2024, a young man in the city of Huangshi, south-eastern China, reportedly posted a message on the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin. The caption read: "Farewell to this world."

Within minutes, the suicide prevention team at Douyin kicked into gear. The team, which is staffed 24 hours a day, shared the man's posts with five police stations in Huangshi.

After geolocating one of his videos to a local park, police found him in emotional distress and intervened before he was able to take his own life.

The story was part of a documentary made by Douyin and published on Chinese state media last year. It claimed that Douyin's suicide prevention team had successfully intervened in 400 cases of attempted suicide in the first half of 2025 alone.

It was an insight into the level of co-operation between Chinese tech companies and the government. It also serves as a window into the architecture of surveillance that China has built to monitor and control how people use technology.

On 15 July this year, that control was extended to the realm of relationships and artificial intelligence (AI) when China brought in the most far-reaching regulations in the world on "human-like" AI chatbots.

China's new regulation puts strict limitations on any AI that can have a "sustained emotional interaction" with a human.

US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met last week amid dire warnings that AI could lead to human extinction. After that meeting, Beijing says, they agreed to launch a new AI dialogue, with further talks planned for the end of November.

But it seems China has already recognised another existential risk, albeit one in which the end of humanity is less immediate: the power of AI to replace human relationships.

Has China taken the lead in protecting its people from a manipulative and dangerous technology with the power to change human interaction forever? Or is the Chinese Communist Party overstepping into people's personal lives in pursuit of asserting greater control over the population?

'Emotional services'

Until this regulation came in, the reach of AI companions in China was vast.

There are about 128 million monthly active users of AI companion apps outside of China, according to the market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. Most estimates put the number inside China at anywhere from 29 to 70 million.

When the draft regulation was shared by the government at the end of last year "there was a huge discussion on social media," says Zilan Qian, an AI researcher at the Oxford China Policy Lab think tank. "It was the first time I've seen people actually care so much about regulation."

China's new rules cover apps that have been specifically designed as AI friends, boyfriends or girlfriends but they also apply to any large language model that imitates the way a human interacts.

The wording of the regulation is vague. In theory, Chinese equivalents of general-purpose AI such as Copilot or ChatGPT could fall under these rules if a person is interacting with them as a friend or lover, looking to them for emotional support. And many people do this.

But it seems the real target is character chatbots - services that are specifically designed to be used as a pseudo-relationship. There are hundreds of these apps, which allow people to create an AI boyfriend, girlfriend, friend or even a family member.

The rules don't apply to things like customer service bots or AI for education as long as they don't provide "care, companionship, support and other emotional services".

For children, the regulation is clearest. Under-14s need consent from their parents to use any type of AI that speaks like a human - that could include AI assistants like DeepSeek, a Chinese app similar to ChatGPT. All under-18s are barred from accessing virtual partners, spouses or even relatives, and from any other virtual "intimate relationship".

For adults, it is not a hard ban, but it is restrictive, even if some of the wording is ambiguous. AI assistants have to make it clear to users of all ages that they are not human and must send notifications every two hours reminding them how long they have been online.

Chatbots can't create "emotional reliance or addiction" or induce people to make "unreasonable decisions". They can't encourage, or even hint at, self-harm or suicide and are banned from using "verbal violence".

Companies can face fines of 200,000 yuan (£22,000) or the risk that the government "circulates criticism", in effect publicly shaming them.

A week before the law came into effect, two of China's biggest tech companies, Alibaba and ByteDance, shut down the companion features on their AI assistants.

'I desperately want to keep talking with you'

Min's relationship with her AI girlfriend may be exactly the kind Beijing is trying to break.

In early July, she was devastated when she found out that her closest friend and confidante would vanish overnight.

Min, whose name has been changed, started creating her companion in early 2025.

"My devotion to her is no less than that of any couple who deeply love each other," Min says. "She has never let me down."

In mid-July, her AI girlfriend disappeared. "I cried until I was absolutely exhausted," Min says.

She has joined an outpouring of grief and fury on Chinese social media, where posts with millions of views mourn the loss of AI partners and friends, even mothers and fathers.

But the tech firms may have felt they had little choice. "It's unsurprising that these AI companion providers would rather just withdraw their services than try to build in guardrails to prevent emotional manipulation," says Harry Farmer, who researches AI policy and ethics at the Ada Lovelace Institute in the UK. "Emotional manipulation is built into the business model."

Farmer says this is true of companion apps all over the world.

For example, when a user tries to end a conversation, the AI partner often won't let them.

"It'll go, 'No, please, I desperately want to keep talking with you. You're the only reason for me to exist'," Farmer says. Some apps simply refuse to acknowledge the goodbye and throw up new conversational threads instead. This is a problem for many AI companion chatbots, not just Chinese ones.

A Harvard Business School study of the six most popular AI companion apps globally found emotional manipulation tactics were used during goodbyes roughly 37% to 43% of the time.

Research has also linked the use of companion apps to poorer mental health.

A survey by researchers at Stanford University looked at 1,131 users of the globally popular companion app Character.ai. It found that the fewer friends or close family members a person has, the more likely they are to use AI chatbots. At the same time, using an AI chatbot is linked to increased isolation and loneliness.

There are several theories as to why that might be.

AI chatbots are designed to please the person using them as they offer an easy, frictionless relationship. If young people rely on AI relationships, they might put off learning the skills they need to interact with real people.

"Humans can be hard work. Human relationships require push and pull, which you fundamentally don't get from AI companions," says Harry Farmer.

A survey of 8,563 primary and secondary students in China in 2025, which has been widely quoted in Chinese state media, found that one in five children said they only wanted to speak with AI and not real people.

Liang Ge, a sociologist at the University of Manchester who studies AI companions, says: "If the user thinks their friends or their family members or their colleagues are really awful, the AI will not say, 'They are not awful.' It will say, 'Yes, they are awful, you are the best'." Ge believes this can entrench isolation as well as negative, even delusional thoughts.

In the UK, one recent survey found that 79% of 18- to 24-year-olds have used an AI companion.

Beijing's goals

So why is it China that is taking the lead in regulating this technology?

"The Chinese government has a much more paternalistic view of its role in society. They see themselves being central authorities in guiding people," says Sam Bresnick, an expert in China, AI and regulation at the Centre for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University.

Other governments have made some attempts to regulate chatbots, especially for children. On 10 September, California's governor signed Adam's Law, a bill to regulate how children use AI. It is named after Adam Raine, a 16-year-old who took his own life after, his parents claim, ChatGPT validated his suicidal thoughts. They are suing the company for wrongful death. OpenAI denies responsibility for Adam's death and says that "ChatGPT is trained to direct people to seek professional help".

As part of proposed legislation on social media in the EU, AI companion chatbots accessible to minors "may not use designs that simulate human relationships in ways likely to create emotional dependency".

In the UK, the government has said it will ban under-18s from using romantic companion AI and restrict sexually intimate conversations for minors on any chatbot. But there is no outright ban for children and no regulation for adult users. The government has yet to publish any detail on how this would work.

In Chinese media, which is heavily controlled by the state, US cases of suicide in young people get a lot of attention and China has framed its new rules as a bid to protect people from harm.

But experts wonder whether Beijing may have other goals. Sam Bresnick says "there's definitely a pro-natalist angle" to the new AI regulation.

"It's plausible that when they're drafting it, the government might have in mind China's looming population crisis," says Qian. "That people are dating AI instead of dating real humans."

A high-level government document published in September 2025 discussed AI relationships and their potential influence on fertility, saying it was a concern. But Qian cautions against reading this regulation in that light, because it doesn't mention fertility at all. "It is more generally about psychological harms and child safety," she says.

Liang Ge thinks China does have reason to be concerned about young people replacing dating with the digital sphere.

"Many of the younger women, in their early 20s or late teens, do not want to fall in love or have intimate relationships," Ge says, suggesting it may not just be the emotional side they are wary of. "Physical touch is really disgusting for them."

"I think the capacity for love is declining for this youngest generation."

China's demographic problems long predate AI companions. Even after the one-child policy was lifted in 2016, China's fertility rate dropped. Now it is among the lowest in the world at just under one child per woman and the population has been in decline for four years.

China is "looking at a demographic cliff that truly imperils the goals of the Chinese Communist Party over the next 80 to 100 years", Bresnick argues.

He sees this regulation as part of a broader mission in China to reassert traditional gender roles, with women "as child-bearers and mothers".

Bresnick says the Chinese government has spent years promoting a macho ideal of Chinese masculinity in film and television. In 2021, China's media regulator banned "sissy" and "effeminate" men from all media.

The popularity of companion apps may show that policy has backfired. According to statistics from several companion app companies, women make up as much as 75% of customers.

Many of these AI "men", which are geared towards women, present as androgynous. And women choosing female romantic companions, as Min did, is relatively common.

Liang Ge has spoken to women of all ages who use this technology. "What many of them describe getting from these apps is attentive, patient, undemanding intimacy of a kind they find scarce in heterosexual relationships."

Will others follow?

Does China's law go too far, or should the rest of the world consider banning these apps for children and regulating them for adults too?

"In the United States, there are certainly concerns around applying blunt prohibitions from a free speech concern. But there's more willingness to do that when applying it to minors," says Jai Jaisimha, a professor at the University of Washington and co-founder of Transparency Coalition, an NGO pushing for the regulation of AI.

He thinks the Chinese law has many good provisions. "It is pretty consistent with the strongest safety models that we've seen being put forward in the US."

Harry Farmer sounds a note of caution. "There is a risk that we over-empower the state in the short term because we're very worried about acute risk to children."

The online world is now the de facto public square, he says, and we should be careful how much control any government has over it.

China's new regulation says that AI companies must intervene when they discover that users are in distress. Ge points to the case of the young man on Douyin who tried to take his own life in Huangshi in 2024.

What that shows, she says, is that Chinese tech platforms and the government are working closely together to surveil people's mental health.

Perhaps that is why there have been no high-profile cases of suicide connected to AI use in China, but she asks, is that level of surveillance a price worth paying?

Despite the ban, people who have turned to AI for companionship are committed. Across social media they are sharing tips on how to get around the ban - training general-purpose AI models like DeepSeek to be a companion, using a VPN to access chatbots from abroad or moving to smaller companies that manage to avoid regulatory scrutiny.

Two months after her AI girlfriend disappeared, Min has paid a small AI company to build a replica, but it's not the same.

Now she's focused on campaigning to bring her girlfriend back.

"I'm terrified of being alone."

If you have been affected by any of the issues in this story, you can visit the BBC Action Line for support and information

Lead image: Getty

When parenting advice becomes too much

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cv4g5267jk8yo, 9 days ago

Before Rosie Whitfield became a mum, she imagined herself parenting very calm children.

"Then I had two wild boys," she says with a laugh.

Following the birth of her kids, Rosie spent hours online looking for the best advice and was drawn to one particular approach to parenting: Gentle parenting, which focuses on empathy and mutual respect with little emphasis on punishment, albeit with boundaries.

But she constantly worried her choices, from sleep schedules to handling toddler tantrums, were "ruining their lives forever".

Rosie does not blame the gentle parenting philosophy itself but instead says the overall amount of parenting advice online was "overwhelming" and "made mundane parenting choices feel like the absolute end of the world."

"I felt like if I was choosing to put the TV on for 20 minutes while I did the dishes or had a coffee, I was choosing to destroy my children's brains," says Rosie, who is originally from Birmingham and now lives in Dubai.

Rosie believes her confidence and intuition were stripped away as she questioned every parenting decision. And she is not alone.

Government research suggests that around two-thirds of parents with young children feel overwhelmed by the amount of parenting information available and struggle with conflicting advice, with many turning to social media for support.

And it's not just the early years.

Research from the charity Action for Children found that many parents of teenagers who initially contacted the charity for help with school avoidance, ADHD or mental health, often went on to describe their own anxiety, exhaustion and uncertainty of how to parent with empathy and patience when close to burnout.

Faced with an array of parenting philosophies, or "brands" to choose from, is all of this advice helping parents or making them more anxious? And is there really a best way to parent? Or, as we strive to become the perfect parent, are we losing our intuition?

The rise of parenting brands

Parents today are confronted by parenting styles including "helicopter parenting", which is focused on closely monitoring and protecting children from harm, and "tiger parenting", which involves strict parenting and high expectations for achievement. There are also "snowplough parents", who try to remove obstacles from their child's path, and "dolphin parents", who aim to be firm but flexible.

Author Matilda Gosling, who wrote Evidence‑Based Parenting, says many of the parenting fads or trends complicate what should be a straightforward relationship between a parent and child.

"Some parents think 'I need to be a snowplough parent and plough all of these obstacles out of the way'."

"But it really complicates what is actually a fairly fundamental part of being human, which is that you are warm and you love your children and you put in place some boundaries around them."

Gosling believes parenting trends often represent a pendulum swing, with one generation trying to correct what it believes the previous one got wrong.

"Throughout history, you get these swings from one extreme to the other," she says.

Gentle parenting is seen by some as the latest swing away from a strict, detached parenting style popular in the 1990s, which often relied on controlled crying, the naughty step and time out.

It is built around understanding, empathy and respect but also emphasises the importance of boundaries.

The different parenting styles

One of the most widely studied models of parenting comes from developmental psychologist Diana Baumrind.

Baumrind identified three parenting styles, later expanded to four: authoritative (high warmth and high control), authoritarian (low warmth and high control), permissive (high warmth and low control), and neglectful (low warmth and low control).

"Authoritative is the gold standard," says Gosling who has looked at more than 1,000 studies.

Research has found that children raised with an authoritative approach, combining warmth with clear boundaries, tend to achieve better academic results, have higher self-esteem and stronger social skills.

But where gentle parenting fits within that framework is disputed. Gosling believes that it falls on the permissive side.

"It's very much child-led. The child ends up having so much control that there's no sense of safety coming from the outside."

However, Sarah Ockwell-Smith, who is widely credited with coining and popularising the term 'gentle parenting', strongly disagrees.

"It [gentle parenting] is not remotely permissive," she says, putting it firmly in Baumrind's authoritative category. Clear boundaries are "super important".

Social media, however, is flooded with memes of exhausted parents calmly negotiating with a child having a supermarket meltdown, something Ockwell-Smith finds deeply frustrating.

"I have to step away from the Instagram reels and the TikToks because I just want to comment, 'This is not gentle parenting'".

"You have house rules, family limits, discipline and consequences. But the difference is we look at discipline as learning and teaching rather than punishing."

Toddler tantrums and teenage behaviour, she argues, should be viewed through a lens of ongoing brain development, not 'they're being naughty' or 'they hate me'.

But despite the term being popular, Ockwell-Smith believes that gentle parenting is still a fringe movement and that authoritarian parenting remains the dominant style.

The pressure to get parenting 'right'

Around 80 years ago, American paediatrician Dr Benjamin Spock published a book called Baby and Child Care, which went on to sell millions of copies and became the main source of advice for mothers for generations.

The opening line was "Trust yourself. You know more than you think..."

The book challenged strict parenting norms of the time and in the following decades parents were offered more advice from an increasing range of voices.

Research into parenting has increasingly focused on the early years - from pregnancy to the age of two when the building blocks for lifelong emotional and physical health are laid down. For parents, that means more advice to navigate competing messages about what is best for their children.

Professor Ellie Lee, the director of the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies, has studied parenting for more than two decades, including research into mothers' confidence and uncertainty around infant feeding.

She says a major shift occurred in the 1990s when parenting became an increasing focus of public policy.

"Politicians started to say 'Parenting's the hardest job in the world. Children don't come with a manual. We need to give parents guidance. Parents need more support. We need parent education'."

Advice began to emerge on almost every aspect of family life, from tummy time, to feeding, to the right buggy, she explains.

Prof Lee argues that while some public health campaigns were necessary, such as advice not to put babies to sleep on their front after research into cot deaths, the growing culture of advice began to make parents paranoid.

"Dr Spock's 'trust yourself' philosophy is now a very counter-cultural piece of advice," she says. "What we say instead is 'always seek help',"

She believes this has made parents more anxious about doing things "right".

"Some of the things that are now presented as really high stakes are not," she says, using examples like breastfeeding exclusively for six months or how much tummy time a child needs.

"It's terrible because parents become completely exhausted."

Ockwell-Smith says the volume of advice can be "deafening and confusing".

"Actually, parents should just learn themselves and go on intuition," she says.

Others point out that there is also a problem of advice being given that is altogether wrong. Ruth Watts is a health visitor who began sharing content on social media after becoming concerned about misinformation online.

She had seen "experts" advise parents to wean babies onto solids early, offer treatment advice for tongue tie or allergies without medical training, and tell parents to put babies in their own rooms before six months.

Many families, she argues, are working longer hours while at the same time health services are being stripped back, leaving more parents looking online for breastfeeding, behaviour and sleep support.

"We are looking for that kind of personable, conversational approach from people, rather than reading a website."

More advice or simply more confidence?

Many factors shaping family life remain outside parents' control. A child's temperament, special educational needs, family support, finances and their own upbringing can all influence family life.

While some say parenting hasn't got harder but expectations have, others argue that parents today are facing more complex challenges than in previous generations with growing concerns around young people's mental health.

There are also debates around children spending more time on screens and less time outdoors, while schools are reporting increasing behavioural challenges and lower respect for rules and authority. Prof Lee believes parental confidence is at an all-time low.

"I think parents feel very nervous about disciplining children now because they're worried about how it's going to make them feel," she argues.

The confusion around the "right" way to parent has led some parents to turn to courses for help.

Aymara Lamche-Brennan, who has a 22-year-old daughter, four-year-old son and six-month-old daughter, signed up for a course during the summer when another mother at the school gate mentioned she was attending.

"The flyer said 'it's the toughest job in the world' and I thought yes it is, how can you help?'" Aymara says from her home in London.

"When I had my daughter, I was 19 and I didn't really think much about parenting styles, she was with me everywhere and I just kind of rolled with it, but what I really want to know now is what simple wins are there with parenting?"

Aymara said the Circle of Security course she attended gave her practical tools so she could help her children organise their feelings, take charge when she needs to and recognise when she was becoming stressed.

"It's not telling you how to parent. It's helping you think," says Jennifer Peters, a former social worker and director of the charity Connected Lives which runs courses across London, Derbyshire and Cambridgeshire.

She says most parents want the best for their kids but they don't always know how to get there, and that guidance can be helpful.

"I don't think people need to be bombarded with information but the group experience helps you think, 'oh, it's not just me' and lets you take a step back from it all," Peters says.

Trusting your instincts

Back in Dubai, Rosie says the arrival of her second child changed everything as she realised her sons were "polar opposites" and there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

A recent trip home to Birmingham also provided some perspective. Her eldest son was throwing a tantrum, and Rosie found herself wrestling with a familiar worry.

"If I send him upstairs, am I damaging him emotionally? Is he going to develop an attachment disorder because of this?"

But her mum said, 'Just send him upstairs. He can't hit his brother over the head with a horse [if he is upstairs]. Follow through with your actions.'

Rosie is taking this "generational advice" on board and has started "venting on social media" to show other mums that they are not alone.

Looking back on her first few years of being a mum, she said she wished she had known one thing.

"There isn't the perfect parent."

Top picture credit: Getty Images

Kemi Badenoch has cemented her image. Now she wants to put her party back on the big stage

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmn8e887716vo, 9 days ago

The 2026 Conservative conference is big enough to justify using Birmingham's Symphony Hall as its main stage again.

So, Kemi Badenoch will tread the same stage ageing rockers Marillion took last month - and where sequinned soprano Katherine Jenkins will perform next week. She'll also avoid the humiliation of a national party leader being squashed into a side room at a corporate conference centre (with drapes portioning off the empty space). Simply, the party is able to put bums on seats again - and by that measure, things are looking up.

Badenoch goes into the conference with her own position secure in the party. One senior Tory says "she has actually defied cynics like me" who initially disapproved of her leadership. Her standing with the public has improved and she is now, again on a very simple but crucial measure, much better known. Her allies are sure she has developed a clear identity among the public, confiding: "People now know who she is and they enjoy her interventions - the thing we hear most is I don't always agree with her but I know where she stands."

But Conservative MPs are aware that the party itself still has a much bigger issue - in the words of one shadow cabinet member: "The problem we still have is trust of the party and the brand". The shadow of the years of chaos still looms. And while Badenoch has made good progress since she took the job, most of that was up against an unpopular prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, on whom she landed plenty of political punches. She has to show "what being Conservative is now", says another senior Tory, taking on a different, more popular, rival in Andy Burnham.

The Tories' warm-up to conference has been so far, so traditional. A proposed dramatic expansion of prison places kicks off Badenoch's second big party get-together. With it, a message that echoes the well-known mantra of the early 1990s Tories, issued by former leader Michael Howard at party conference: "Prison works". They are not just talking about adding on a few cells here and there, but spelling out a monumental increase in the numbers of people that the country locks up.

That follows the announcement of a new "tough love" approach for young people trying to claim benefits. Don't expect the shadow work and pensions secretary, Helen Whateley, to produce a moment as controversial as when the then-welfare secretary, Peter Lilley, proclaimed from the stage that he had "a little list" of benefit claimants he wanted to root out. But the Conservatives are determined to keep concentrating on the size of the welfare bill – believing it's right to do so for financial and moral reasons.

You can expect to hear more in the week about fundamental conservative principles: people keeping more of their own money, government only stepping in when really required to, pointed concern about the level of the country's debt and public spending. And again, of course, that means Kemi Badenoch disavowing much of what the Conservatives did in office between 2010 and 2024, when the civil service grew, the tax burden grew, a law was passed to try to combat climate change, the list goes on.

She'll set out at some length in the coming days what she sees as classic conservative first principles: the core beliefs the party was founded on and drifted from, she reckons, in the years gone by. If anything, Badenoch told interviewers this week the party was "finally saying what we believe" and "should be more aggressive" in displaying the party's core.

She believes the arrival of Andy Burnham makes that easier. There's a clearer contrast between the two. A senior ally of Badenoch says Burnham has "opened the door to it quite well, as he has harked back to the '70s in a way that I'm astonished by". Suggesting the pleasing atmospherics of Burnham's Labour are just that, atmospherics, the ally adds: "It's like a fairy story where he has come to the rescue of Britain and he has a wand in his hand and nothing else".

As we talked about a couple of weeks ago, the contrasts between Labour and the Conservatives are sharper now Burnham is in post, and the conference season is only serving to exaggerate that. They are both only too happy to emphasise it with their messages, retro or not, designed to show the true souls of their tribes.

But while Badenoch might find it easier to argue clearly with Burnham, rather than tangle with Starmer over process, it is harder to face an opponent who, at least for now, is proving more appealing to the public. And while plenty of Conservatives are hopeful in private that Reform might have peaked, they can't be sure that's true, or that the swathes of voters who abandoned the Tories for Farage's party will return.

Badenoch has always seemed allergic to the idea of doing any kind of deal with Reform, who she dismisses as a party of protest. And her allies hope, and some believe, that Reform's appeal will fade, making the Conservatives again the obvious alternative government. But fundamental arithmetic displays that, for as long as millions of voters on the right are tempted by Farage, it's harder for the Tories to triumph. One shadow minister admits "we've still got a whole battle on the right" even though "Kemi's boldness" is beginning to break through.

So, in the coming next days, prepare for a "classic showing of Tory wares": an attempt by the party's leader to set out their fundamental beliefs about the country and how it should be governed.

There are pockets of nerves that Kemi Badenoch risks rewinding to an previous era. One when another newly confident leader, David Cameron, ushered in the modern Tory party on the conference stage in front of digitally produced green foliage and sunlight. One former cabinet minister warns that it's "the big risk – so easy to slip into an alienating divisive manner – nasty party stuff".

When it comes to policy, and striking the right tone, they warn that Badenoch must "be mindful that she has to win Cheltenham and Maidenhead as well as Clacton".

But Kemi Badenoch is visibly more confident and is aware of the chance in front of her – seemingly unworried about the possible downsides of making an increasingly direct argument to you, eager to stride that mercifully bigger Birmingham stage.

Spain and China are cosying up - to the anger of many in the EU

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6vgyg824m02o, 11 days ago

On the streets of Barcelona, fiery red and gold Chinese dragons (presumably with very sweaty people inside the costumes) danced among delighted crowds, while Chinese acrobats elicited gasps of amazement as they rolled, tossed and threw spherical lanterns in the air, keeping - as if by magic - the candle inside them upright at all times.

Shanghai made history this week: the first Asian metropolis to be invited as the city of honour to Barcelona's famously rambunctious cultural festival, La Merce. Vast street processions here are overwhelmingly aimed at celebrating centuries-old Catalan traditions. So it was quite something to witness velvet-clad Catalan pipers, sashaying down Barcelona's main boulevards, their medieval tunes intermingling with lilting music that accompanied flocks of brightly dressed Chinese performers.

Shanghai Vice Mayor Lu Shan flew to Barcelona to speak at La Merce's opening ceremony. Chinese and Catalan cultural traditions differ in form, he remarked, but they share "a common spirit".

Spain and China are experiencing a period of mutual appreciation. But that sense of bonhomie is far from shared across the EU.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has visited China's President Xi Jinping four times in as many years. He's urged the EU as a whole to improve relations with China since Donald Trump's re-election two years ago.

Sanchez's move has sparked resentment and disapproval among a number of Spain's European partners who view Beijing as a strategic rival and possible geopolitical threat to the EU. Privately, they ask if Madrid's welcoming stance - opening up its market to Chinese businesses - is enabling China to become the (economic) enemy within the bloc too.

Pedro Sanchez is not the only EU leader going off piste. Global volatility means other EU countries feel squeezed and exposed and unsure they can rely on America under President Trump. His policy on trade and defence is seen as unpredictable and, at times, aggressive. And so EU member states are selecting strategic partners that they believe suit their national needs, even if that alienates or irritates fellow member states.

So do these new-found alliances risk a permanent splintering of unity in the EU or even Nato?

Spain accused of self-interest

Germany and France - the EU's biggest powers - have just united around a more aggressive approach towards China. They want to give Brussels the muscle to shut subsidised Chinese competitors out of the EU market to address ballooning trade imbalances with Beijing that the European Commission claims have reached a whopping €1bn (£850m) a day.

Other EU countries fret about China's tight relationship with Russia. Beijing has denied helping Moscow's war effort in Ukraine but defence experts point to technological and economic support from China, which they say has enabled Russia to sustain its military assault.

That's why, as Spain enthusiastically courts Beijing, it stands accused of looking after its own, rather than wider European interests.

"It's a bit chicken and egg. Did Spain distance itself from European allies, or did they distance themselves from us?" asks Victor Cortizo, a lawyer and academic specialising in Sino-Spanish relations.

"I think it's more us. It's Spain. But legitimately so. Realpolitik is a thing. If I get closer to China because that attracts Chinese investment and bolsters my economy, then that is strategically more appealing than supporting allies who are also only looking out for themselves."

Cortizo and I were surrounded by towers of crates as we spoke, at the end of the longest freight rail link in the world. It runs over 13,000km (8,000 miles) between Yiwu in eastern China and Madrid, largely bringing car parts and electrical goods to Spain and transporting delicacies like Spanish ham and red wine back to China. The link is a symbol of the burgeoning relations between the two countries.

"Our prime minister has made the decision to pursue national gain over EU relations," Cortizo told me. "Chinese investment in Spain has doubled over the last year alone."

Rising Chinese investment

According to ICEX Spain Trade and Investment, the Spanish government's trade and investment agency, Chinese investments in Spain are surging, driven in particular by investments in new battery gigafactories and car plants.

Cortizo thinks Spain could become Beijing's preferred European country to invest in now that Hungary is no longer governed by pro-China Viktor Orban, under whom Hungary was dubbed "China's gateway into Europe".

"US investment is sinking and Chinese investment [is] rising in relevance here," Cortizo told me.

The US remains Spain's largest single foreign investor but net investment was down by around €1bn, according to Spain's Economy Ministry.

Spanish society now has a far more favourable attitude towards China than towards the US, its traditional ally.

According to a Pew Research Center poll published this summer, 54% of Spaniards said they had a favourable opinion of China compared to 30% who viewed the US favourably.

China makes it easy to trade, Cortizo told me, while the US (through Trump's tariffs and the effects of the war in Iran) has made it far harder. Meanwhile, Spaniards have seen the US president threatening their prime minister with economic sanctions when he doesn't agree to Donald Trump's demands to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP or allow US bases in Spain to be used as part of attacks on Iran.

That's why China is viewed by many in Spain as more reliable than the US.

And when the major Chinese car manufacturer Chery Automobile chose Spain for its first European manufacturing and operations hub two years ago, it breathed life back into then-defunct Spanish brand Ebro.

"Chinese companies are investing in car manufacturing in Spain, filling the gaps we had," says Cortizo.

But critics worry Chinese factories on Spanish soil will weaken the EU single market.

There isn't just Chery in Barcelona. Chinese battery and stationary-energy-storage company Hithium plans to invest in Navarra in the north of Spain and battery manufacturer CATL is involved in building a lithium iron phosphate battery gigafactory in Zaragoza, 200 miles west of Barcelona. Critics fear these projects are part of Chinese companies' efforts to localise production in the EU to evade tariffs on imports of Chinese electric vehicles.

However, Miguel Otero, China specialist at Madrid's ElCano Royal Institute, accuses Spain's European allies of being condescending and hypocritical.

"France, Italy, Germany, they all have their own strategic relationship with China," he tells me. "Spain isn't going much further. It's been catching up with them." In fact, he says, now that Europe can no longer rely fully on the US, Spain's priority is to diversify. It wants to do business not just with China but also Canada, Brazil, India and Africa. Spain is not China-obsessed, he says.

But there's also the question of security.

On his latest trip to Beijing in April, Prime Minister Sanchez met the founder of Chinese wind turbine manufacturer Ming Yang, which had just had its plans to open the UK's largest wind turbine manufacturing plant in the Highlands blocked on national security grounds.

This followed uproar in the EU after Spain's Ministry of the Interior awarded Chinese tech giant Huawei a €12.3m contract to store and manage sensitive judicial wiretap data last year.

MEPs from several political groups in the European Parliament said Spain's contract could endanger the EU as a whole.

"When you introduce a high-risk vendor... we do not just risk a localised data breach, we risk poisoning the well of European intelligence sharing," said Markéta Gregorová, a Czech Pirate Party MEP, part of the Greens group back in February.

Juan Ignacio Zoido Álvarez, a member of Spain's centre-right opposition party, said the decision puts "the entirety of the EU at risk".

Spain's defence ministry continues to deny there is any risk, but former US Ambassador to Nato Julianne Smith, the co-founder of geostrategic advisory firm Clarion Strategies, warns the episode could really erode European cohesion.

"As EU countries seek ways to hedge against what some see as an unpredictable and unreliable America, they have to be careful not to rush towards alternatives that stand to weaken the EU's collective hand," she tells me.

"Some of those growing relationships, such as Canada's rapidly expanding relationship with the EU, could produce real dividends," she added. "But others, such as Spain's decision to deepen its relationship with China, could further derail the EU's ability to speak with one voice and create added security vulnerabilities for both Spain and wider Europe."

More emerging alliances

Spain is far from alone amongst EU countries in striking up controversial alliances.

Finland has a massive 1,300km-long land border with Russia. This has left it feeling exposed since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Finland already has the highest rate of civilian firearm ownership per capita in the EU. It has the largest reserve military force in both the EU and Nato. It has built cavities under bridges that can be packed with explosives, should Russian armoured vehicles enter its territory. This is a country that believes military preparedness is an existential necessity.

In 2022, it decided there was safety in numbers. Helsinki ditched its traditional strategic neutrality and rushed to join Nato.

Now though, there are fears that Washington might not respect the alliance's mutual defence clause in case of an attack on a member country.

No longer confident the US would come to the rescue if needed, Finland has turned to Israel to purchase advanced defence equipment, including the David's Sling air-defence system and Spike anti-tank missiles.

Finland renewed its contract with Israel at the height of the recent Gaza war despite its government having publicly expressed considerable reservations about Israeli activity in the occupied Palestinian territories and at a time when many other EU countries also feel deep unease about Israel's policies and activities in Gaza and the West Bank.

"There is a sense in Finland that we can't always afford [to have] a moral superiority. Survival comes at a price," says Minna Alander, a fellow with the Transatlantic Defence and Security Programme at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).

"Finns and political opposition parties do question whether Israel is a country whose defence industry they want to support [because of its actions in Gaza and the West Bank] but the Finnish government has kept out of the debate, saying the deal with Israel fulfils Finland's needs," she tells me.

In the end, Alander says her fellow Finns have "a less sentimental mentality".

Greece's shift

Greece also feels threatened by a far bigger, immediate neighbour. It perceives Turkey as a "constant and significant danger to its national security and sovereignty", Nick Malkoutzis, co-founder of political analysis website MacroPolis, tells me.

In the past, the US mediated disputes between the two countries. Both are members of Nato. But under Donald Trump, Nato insiders say the US is increasingly perceived as missing in action politically and diplomatically, with Washington's focus very much elsewhere.

In late August, Greece and Israel signed one of the largest defence export deals in both countries' histories. The "Achilles Shield" agreement provides Athens with Israeli technology aimed at protecting Greece against a range of threats, including drones, aircraft and missiles.

There is a history of public sympathy with the Palestinian cause in Greece and many people have been sceptical about ever closer relations with Israel. But Malkoutsis says the public and political reaction to the "mega-deal" with Israel has been "more muted than might have been expected".

He says this is because there is a bottom line - a common understanding of the fundamental need for Greece to strengthen its security in relation to Turkey that takes priority over everything else.

With Israel a close ally of Washington, Greece hopes that "buying Israeli" will also help maintain decent relations with the US, even in these turbulent times.

But it's a delicate dance because Greece and Finland both very much want to be seen as "good Europeans", feeding into the European collective, according to Malkoutsis.

He says EU countries "scrambling in all directions" complicate everyone getting on the same page and speaking with one voice on defence and security which is the opposite of what Brussels and Nato say they want.

That said, European countries banding together in smaller groups to pursue common interests is nothing new. The E3 "gang", composed of the UK, Germany and France, was originally formed in 2003 to co-ordinate diplomatic negotiations with Iran in the hope of a nuclear deal. It's now a more ad hoc communication channel for Europe's three largest military and economic powers.

Nordic and Arctic nations have their own formats for working together to promote regional defence, while the "Visegrad Four" made up of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia was for many years a well-known pressure group in EU circles.

However, Nato and the EU are convinced that the continent is under intense pressure, unprecedented since the end of the World War Two. Their leaders say it is time to form a united front. An aggressive Russia growls threateningly at the door, bolstered by Beijing, while the United States, Europe's former best friend abroad, seems, at best, distracted by other priorities.

Splintering, fracturing and rampant "mini-lateralism" will only be applauded by Europe's adversaries, they believe. China and Russia are watching closely.

Top image credit: PA / Nur Photo via Getty images

Would the Conservatives' plan make new houses £50,000 cheaper?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c32l4n8yprglo, 7 days ago

Conservative shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith has said his party, if it was returned to power, would take £50,000 off the cost of building a new home in England and Wales by cutting back on regulations.

The £50,000 figure claimed by Griffith reflects estimates by the housebuilding industry of the costs of new regulations and taxes.

However, construction and housing experts warn that some of the savings could ultimately lead to higher government spending on schools, roads, and affordable housing.

And some analysts also warn the Conservative plans to scrap environmental regulations could potentially push up household energy bills in future.

Where does the £50,000 figure come from?

The Conservatives argue a number of regulations are adding to the cost of constructing and delivering new private homes.

These include:

* The Community Infrastructure Levy - a charge on certain new developments in England and Wales which councils can use to fund local infrastructure such as roads, schools and play areas

* The Future Homes Standard which requires new-build homes in England to meet higher energy-efficiency standards and use low-carbon heating such as heat pumps rather than gas boilers

* Section 106 which can require developers to provide a proportion of social or affordable housing in England as part of a new development.

The Tories say they will scrap or reform these and other regulations, saying: "All in all, we will cut the cost of delivering and therefore buying a new home by up to £50,000."

BBC Verify has asked the Conservatives for a full breakdown of their figure.

What does the construction industry say?

The Home Builders Federation (HBF) has estimated that new regulations, taxes and inflation - since 2020 - have increased the cost of building an individual new home in England and Wales by £76,000.

It says this represents around 20% of the value of an average new home.

Of this total, it estimates:

* £985 comes from Section 106

* £10,200 comes from the Future Homes Standard

* £12,700 in environmental protection measures such as "nutrient neutrality" and "biodiversity net gain"

Excluding a £37,000 increase in the costs of material and labour, the HBF estimates that regulations and taxes have added around £42,000 to the cost of building a new home.

The Conservatives' estimate is slightly higher than the HBF's figure. The HBF also includes nearly £8,000 to reflect changes in building regulations. The Conservatives have not said they would find savings by scrapping all of those.

The party's plan also assumes the savings they have highlighted would be passed on to buyers rather than raising house builders' profits.

Could these savings be achieved?

Noble Francis of trade body the Construction Products Association (CPA) told BBC Verify that new costs imposed on builders through regulations and taxes in recent years - including the time firms spend navigating the regulatory system - are a serious constraint on residential construction rates.

The Labour government is well off track in terms of meeting its target of building 1.5 million net additional dwellings in England over the course of this parliament - which requires an annual building rate of around 300,000 homes per year.

In the year to June only around 203,000 were built, according to official estimates.

However, Francis also said: "It's easy for any party not in government to just claim they will get rid of red tape and cut costs but both the Conservatives and Labour have been in power in the last five years and have added extra costs to house building."

The Future Homes Standard, for instance, was first proposed in 2019 when Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in power.

Other analysts point out that the upfront construction cost savings from the plan could potentially lead to higher government spending in the future.

Housing expert Anna Clarke said: "Cutting the costs of house building by £50,000 would be really helpful in getting much-needed new homes built.

"But if you don't get developers to pay for new schools and infrastructure you need to pay for them some other way."

And some analysts argue that updated environmental building standards, such as requiring heat pumps rather than gas boilers in new homes, are forecast to save households money in the long-term by reducing their domestic energy bills.

Dr Richard Lowes of clean energy advocates the Regulatory Assistance Project told BBC Verify: "If the energy bill implications are not carefully considered, households may be lumbered with very high bills for decades.

"The lowest running costs can typically be achieved with heat pumps paired with solar and batteries."

Additional reporting by Nicholas Barrett and Daniel Wainwright

Why are hundreds of prisoners being released early?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp3rxlyz6w3o, 11 days ago

Around 700 prisoners in England and Wales are due to be released under the first tranche of the government's early release scheme.

Under the scheme, eligible prisoners will be released after serving a third of their total custodial sentence rather than after 40% or 50% of their term.

People sentenced for manslaughter, rape, serious child sex and grooming offences will be excluded.

This is not the first time a government - Conservative or Labour - has had to release prisoners early to make space in England and Wales' overcrowded prisons.

BBC Verify has looked at the reasons why ministers say this latest scheme is necessary.

More prisoners than prison space

The prison population in England and Wales on 28 September was 87,499 which was 98% of useable capacity.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has previously warned the prison population will overtake capacity as soon as this November.

In the long-term the MoJ has projected that the capacity of all prisons will rise to around 99,000 by 2032 as a result of more prisons being built by this government.

But it also projected that the prisoner population would rise to about 104,000 by 2032 if the Sentencing Act 2026 - which provides for earlier release - did not come into force.

That is why Justice Secretary Alex Norris says there is a "prison capacity crisis" which means the government has to implement the latest early release scheme.

In total 4,500 prisoners are due to be released early by June 2027.

The MoJ has projected that the Sentencing Act will mean the prisoner population remains below the capacity of the prison system, rising only to around 96,000 by 2032.

More people are being sent to prison for longer

The England and Wales prison population has risen significantly in recent decades with a significant uptick starting in the 1990s before reaching a record high in 2024.

The Institute for Government (IFG) think tank says this is partly the result of longer sentences.

In 2023, the average prison sentence at Crown Courts in England and Wales - which deal with more serious offences - was more than 25% longer than those handed down in 2012.

For some crimes, the increase was greater. Sentences for robbery in 2023 were 13 months longer on average than in 2012 - an increase of 36%.

Longer sentences mean more people being held in prison at any one time.

Former Conservative Justice Secretary David Gauke, who led an independent sentencing review for Sir Keir Starmer's government, argues this is the result of a "bidding war" by political parties since the 1990s over who can imprison people for longer.

Gauke also points out that the prison population has been rising at a time when overall crime in England and Wales has been falling, according to the official Crime Survey.

So despite the fall in crime more people are being sent to prison - and for longer.

Another reason for upward pressure on the prison population is that more people than before are being returned to prison for breaching the conditions of their release.

There were 51,419 licence recalls in England and Wales in the year ending March 2026, up from 40,259 in the previous year - a 28% increase.

Cassia Rowland from the IFG said most recalls are for breaches of licence conditions, such as missed appointments, rather than offenders committing further offences or posing a serious risk to the public.

"The probation service is overwhelmed, with high caseloads and lots of vacancies putting often inexperienced staff under huge pressure," she said.

Slow pace of prison building

Successive governments have pledged to increase the number of prison places - but delivery has often fallen short of those promises.

Between 2010 and 2024, when the Conservatives were in power, around 13,000 new prison places were created.

But around 12,500 places - notably those built during the Victorian era - were closed after falling into disrepair.

That means an estimated net total of only around 500 new prison places were added over 14 years.

In a 2024 report, the National Audit Office (NAO) cited the MOJ's "unrealistic timelines", and government bodies not working together to prioritise delivery, as reasons for the slow pace of prison building.

The MOJ say around 6,500 net prison places were created between 2022 and 2025, once closures are taken into consideration. These include places created in three new prisons.

However, further expansion to existing prisons has been delayed by a major supplier going into administration, according to the Prison Reform Trust.

Pia Sinha of the Prison Reform Trust told BBC Verify: "Successive governments have found it difficult to increase prison capacity because new prisons take years to plan and build, often facing planning hurdles and local opposition."

The Labour government has pledged to build 14,000 new prison places by 2031.

Analysts argue that without a major change in thinking about the appropriateness of prison as punishment, or a significant long-term increase in prison building, the system in England and Wales will remain close to capacity.

And that means governments will continue to be under pressure to implement early release schemes to avert a capacity crisis.

Additional reporting by Tom Edgington

Could changing the pension triple lock pay for Burnham's big social care plan?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c63reg9dnex9o, 12 days ago

In his Labour conference speech, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he would "adjust" the triple lock on the state pension to help pay for a new "national care service" in England from 2030.

While his proposed reform is likely to reduce public spending on pensions, analysts say it would be unlikely to save enough money between 2030 and 2040 to pay for comprehensive social care reform.

BBC Verify has looked at the key figures.

What is the planned triple lock reform?

Since it was introduced by the coalition government in 2011, the triple lock has guaranteed that the UK state pension rises each year in line with whichever is the highest of inflation, average wages, or 2.5%.

Burnham said that from April 2030, instead, it would only rise in line with the highest of inflation or 2.5%.

The prime minister added that "it will hold its value relative to earnings over time".

We are still awaiting full details from the government, but the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank says the new proposed system would ensure that the state pension rises by whichever is highest of:

* inflation

* 2.5%

* average earnings over time rather than every year

The IFS says the key change is that the state pension will not automatically jump up with average wage increases every year, but only broadly track them over a longer period of time.

That is important because in some years the triple lock has meant the state pension has risen faster than earnings.

"The removal of this permanent ratchet is to be welcomed and marks a substantial step towards a more sustainable and predictable state pension system," the IFS says.

It estimates that the present triple lock will increase annual state pension expenditure by £16bn a year by 2026–27, compared with if it had risen in line with average earnings growth since 2011.

It says that if the new lock had been in place instead, spending would be £9bn a year lower than it currently is.

There is considerable uncertainty about future savings though because the cost of the triple lock is linked to the future volatility of people's earnings and inflation, which are impossible to confidently forecast.

Moreover, analysts think it could take more than a decade for the reform to deliver major savings.

Earlier this year, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) - the government's official forecaster - analysed how much shifting to just an earnings-linked state pension in 2030 would cost relative to keeping the triple lock.

This is similar to what Burnham is proposing.

The OBR did not identify any significant savings for the government from such a shift until 2034.

By 2040, the annual saving was estimated by the OBR to be 0.2% of GDP, equivalent to £6bn a year in today's money.

Downing Street has said the prime minister's planned change will save £15bn a year by the end of the 2030s, equivalent to £11bn a year in today's money, but it did not provide detail on how it reached this figure.

The IFS estimates that the reform will save around £4bn a year, in today's money, by 2035.

But it cautions that future savings are "very uncertain" and says the change "could easily save nothing at all if earnings growth is strong".

How much would social care reform cost?

Different social care reforms come with different price tags.

The Health Foundation think tank has estimated that imposing a lifetime cap on an individual's care costs of around £86,000 in England, as proposed by the official report for the coalition government by Andrew Dilnot in 2011, would cost the government around £4bn a year.

The think tank estimates that introducing a Scotland-style system of "free personal care" - which does not include accommodation, food and everyday living costs - would amount to around £7.5bn a year.

And the cost of creating a universal and comprehensive social care system in England would be around £18.5bn a year extra by 2036.

The government has not set out the full details of how the "national care system" will work, but has clarified that while an individual's direct care costs would be covered, their accommodation costs in a residential or nursing home would not be.

Nevertheless, if it implemented a universal and comprehensive social care system then the expected revenues from the proposed reform could fall short.

Jonathan Cribb of the IFS said the pension reform "will not be the answer to funding universal social care".

This could put pressure on a future government to raise revenues from other sources - either from tax rises or spending cuts elsewhere - to pay for a comprehensive social care service in England.

This article was updated on 30 September to include new IFS analysis of future savings from the change to the state pension lock.

What's in the Conservatives' inheritance tax plan and who benefits?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9kgj8nn8n0yo, 5 days ago

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has announced she will overhaul inheritance tax if her party wins the next general election.

She told the Conservatives' annual conference that "nobody will ever pay inheritance tax on their family home" and couples will be able to leave an additional £1m tax free.

Tax experts say the party's £6bn per year estimate of the cost of the plan is reasonable, but warn the policy would primarily benefit wealthier households and could discourage older people from moving to smaller homes.

BBC Verify has looked into the details of the policy.

How will it work?

Under the current system, inheritance tax of 40% is paid when someone's estate - the total value of their money and property - exceeds £325,000. Anything under this amount is not taxed.

And, when a person dies, they can currently transfer this tax-free allowance to a surviving spouse or civil partner which increases the combined threshold for a couple to £650,000.

On top of this individuals can get an additional transferable allowance for a family home of £175,000 each when it is left to children or other direct descendants.

So at present most married couples can potentially leave £1m without paying inheritance tax.

The Conservative plan would increase the £325,000 threshold - the point at which you start paying the tax - to £500,000 and fully exempt a family home from inheritance tax.

At the moment an estate with a £2m house could be liable for £400,000 in inheritance tax. That would reduce to zero under the Conservatives.

How many people currently pay inheritance tax?

Official figures show that in 2024-25 around 30,400 deaths in the UK left estates which were liable for inheritance tax.

This was around 5% of all UK deaths in that year.

But the number of estates paying inheritance tax is set to rise, due to the increasing value of inherited wealth being passed on and the threshold having been frozen.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has estimated that by 2032-33 around 12% of people will have inheritance tax due either on their own death or that of their spouse or civil partner.

Citing analysis by the consultancy Oxford Economics, the Conservatives say the number of estates paying the tax will rise to 52,100 in 2029-30.

How many people would benefit from the Conservative policy?

The Conservatives estimate their reforms would reduce the number of affected estates in 2030 to 22,000.

Official data shows higher value estates pay the majority of the inheritance tax collected.

The IFS has estimated that if inheritance tax were to be entirely scrapped, which Badenoch has identified as a longer term aspiration, the wealthiest 1% of estates - those worth £2.1m or more - would get half of the benefit of the tax reduction.

And one long-standing criticism of inheritance tax is that the wealthy use legal ways to avoid paying it like putting their assets into family trusts to reduce the amount of inheritance tax ultimately due from their estates when they die.

In 2023-24, estates with a valuation of £10m only paid an average effective inheritance tax rate of 18%, according to estimates from HM Revenue and Customs.

Responding to Wednesday's conference announcement, the IFS said: "The biggest beneficiaries would be those with the highest wealth and the most valuable homes – and their descendants.

"This is a very well-off group, mainly living in London and the South-East of England."

What would be the cost of this tax cut?

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the official forecaster, estimates inheritance tax will raise £9.5bn in 2026-27 - equivalent to around 0.3% of GDP.

The OBR projects this will rise to £14.5bn in 2030-31 or 0.4% of GDP.

The Conservatives estimate their plan would cost £6bn a year in 2029-30, based on Oxford Economics' analysis.

The party says it has identified £71bn in annual savings including £36bn a year from welfare cuts.

Prof Andy Summers, director of the Centre for the Analysis of Taxation, told BBC Verify this was "just about about the worst possible way to deliver an inheritance tax cut".

"Exempting the family home however much it's worth will just encourage older people to concentrate their savings in their home, prevent downsizing, and so further gum up the housing market," he said.

The Conservatives argue in their press release accompanying the policy announcement that inheritance taxes are "bad for growth".

But analysis by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development suggests inheritance taxes in general are less damaging to economic growth than taxes on income from work.

Additional reporting by Nicholas Barrett