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A deal to end fighting between the US and Iran is "scheduled to get signed" on Sunday, US President Donald Trump has said - but Iran has cast doubt on the timing.

In a post on social media, Trump also said the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route, would be "open to all" following the deal.

Pakistan, a key mediator, also said finalisation of the deal was expected within 24 hours and they were "preparing for the electronic signing".

Before Trump's comments Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei expressed caution saying: "We will have to wait and see about the exact date of the signing of the memorandum of understanding, although it will not be tomorrow."

In Saturday's post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: "The Deal is scheduled to get signed tomorrow, and immediately after it is signed, the Hormuz Strait is OPEN TO ALL."

The US president also stressed that the deal would be "A WALL TO NO NUCLEAR WEAPON!"

In an apparent reference to Iran's enriched uranium stockpiles, Trump added that "at the appropriate time, when all is calm, we will go in and get the Nuclear Dust", adding it would later be destroyed.

For decades, Iran has been accused by Western countries of trying to build a nuclear weapon. It has denied the accusations saying its programme is for peaceful purposes - to generate electricity and for research purposes.

Trump also warned that if things would not "work out quickly, easily and smoothly", Washington had "the ultimate alternative, hopefully never to be used again!"

Earlier on Saturday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that "we are closer to a peace deal than ever before".

"With finalisation likely expected in the next 24 hours, Pakistan is preparing for the electronic signing of the peace deal immediately after, followed by technical level talks next week," Sharif wrote on X.

On Friday, Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi also said that a deal with the US was close.

The agreement envisaged an end to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, he said.

Araghchi told Iran's state TV that the deal included reopening the Strait of Hormuz and also the lifting of a US blockade of Iranian ports.

However, he said talks on Iran's nuclear programme would begin later.

US officials have confirmed some of the details of the agreement, saying economic benefits for Iran would depend on Tehran meeting its obligations.

Previous reports from the US had suggested Lebanon may not be part of this deal - with Iran reportedly insisting on it.

The war began with US and Israeli strikes across Iran on 28 February, prompting Iran to attack Israel and US-allied states in the Gulf - as well as effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route for the world's oil and liquefied natural gas.

New York Knicks win NBA championship for first time in over 50 years

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c78yw4zw19do, today

The New York Knicks have won the National Basketball Association championship for the first time in over 50 years.

The Knicks clinched the title against the San Antonio Spurs, 94-90, in the fifth game of the best-of-seven series.

While the game was in Texas, New Yorkers took to their hometown streets in droves to watch and celebrate the milestone moment for the team, its fans and the entire city.

Ahead of the game, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a social media post that the city was working with the Knicks to host watch parties outside Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall and Wollman Rink.

"As we celebrate, be responsible, look out for one another, stay safe, be smart, and make this a night that reflects the very best of our city," the mayor said.

His call for safety came after a few instances of violence in New York City against Spurs fans, including one assault that landed a fan in the hospital and another in which a fast food worker wearing a Spurs jersey was attacked, according to local reports.

Both Knicks and Spurs players have condemned the violence and harassment.

Ahead of Saturday's Game 5, fan travelling to San Antonio from New York to attend the game were in a frenzy about possibly getting locked out of the arena.

In a note on its website for the game, Ticketmaster said purchases by those living farther than 150mi (241km) from the San Antonio arena would be cancelled and refunded without notice.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul posted on social media: "Knicks fans finally get within one game of a championship and their reward is having their tickets canceled?"

But Ticketmaster assured fans that no tickets purchased on its platform "have or will be canceled".

Switzerland to vote on plan to cap population at 10 million

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx23kz7e76po, today

Can a country put a fixed limit on its population? That is the question Switzerland will be answering on Sunday when voters go the polls to decide on a proposal to cap their population at 10 million, a move that has exposed divisions about immigration in the Alpine nation.

The move is backed by the right-wing Swiss People's Party, which describes it as a "sustainability initiative" aimed at easing pressure on housing, public services and the environment. However some voters see this as the party's latest anti-immigration move.

Dubbing it a "chaos initiative", the government, other political parties, business leaders and trade unions argue it will deprive hospitals and hotels of much needed staff, and damage hard-won relations with the European Union, leaving non-EU member Switzerland isolated in a very risky world.

Switzerland's population has grown rapidly since 2002, when it stood at 7.3 million. Now it is 9.1 million, 27% of whom are Swiss residents who were born abroad.

Switzerland's system of direct democracy means all major decisions are taken via the ballot box. Campaigners simply have to gather 100,000 signatures to ensure a nationwide vote.

Many voters are concerned by overcrowded trains, expensive apartments and rising health costs.

The latest opinion polls indicate this could be a very close vote.

They suggest voters are inching towards a no vote by a wafer thin margin, with 52% opposed - but polls remain divided, with 45% saying they are in favour of the proposal and a significant number of voters still undecided.

Helin Genis and Nils Fiechter have a good deal in common, but their diametrically opposed views on limiting the Swiss population are indicative of the polarised nature of this referendum.

Both are young local politicians from immigrant families. Genis is 31 and Fiechter is 29. Genis's parents are originally from Turkey, while Fiechter's mother is from Canada and he holds dual citizenship.

"We have lost control," complains Fiechter, who represents the Swiss People's Party in canton Bern's parliament. "Unchecked immigration is leading to Switzerland no longer being Switzerland."

He believes Switzerland's problems, which he says include a "housing shortage, gridlocked traffic, overburdened schools and strained social services", are a direct result of immigration.

Genis, who is a Social Democrat elected to Bern city council, dismisses these arguments as scapegoating.

She tells BBC News: "It is not migrants who determine rent levels. It is not migrants who raise health insurance premiums. Nor is it migrants who make political decisions on housing, infrastructure or social investment."

Viewing problems '"through the lens of migration does not lead to solutions, but to division", she adds.

For voters who have not yet made up their minds, a key question is how exactly a population cap would work.

Putting a hard limit on the number of residents is not a measure any other country has tried, although China, through its now abandoned one-child limit, did try to slow population growth.

The Swiss proposal says the population must not exceed 10 million before 2050, and orders the government to take measures once the figure of 9.5 million is reached.

Such plans could include limiting the number of people granted asylum in Switzerland, and ending family reunification rights for foreign workers.

If the 10 million cap were to be reached, international agreements which Switzerland has signed up to, including the EU's free movement of people, would have to be terminated.

This prospect has caused alarm at Switzerland's business association, Economiesuisse.

Its chief economist Rudolf Minsch says that if the motion is passed, Switzerland "could face challenges in our relations with the European Union".

That is because Brussels has long warned non-EU members that they cannot simply cherry-pick the advantages of the EU's single market, and wriggle out of commitments like free movement of people.

"The EU is still by far the most important trading partner for Switzerland," explains Minsch, adding that is it is "in our interest to have stable and clear relationships with our main trading partner".

Swiss employers are also worried about labour shortages, and losing access to a Europe-wide pool of skilled workers.

Half of all those who work in Switzerland's hotels are immigrants. Hospitals and care homes are also reliant on foreign workers.

The Swiss People's Party argues that immigration to Switzerland is simply fuelling an ever-increasing demand for more hospital beds and more places in schools, and that limiting immigration would ease the pressure.

Opponents say this is unrealistic, pointing to 20% of the Swiss population now being over 65.

Young workers, and young taxpayers, are required to staff and fund the needs of an ageing population – and Switzerland is not creating those young workers itself, they warn.

Jon Pult, a member of parliament for the Social Democrats, says his biggest fear about a population cap is being "alone in this unstable and dangerous world".

Switzerland, like its neighbours in Europe, is spending more on defence, and despite its neutrality, is planning closer defence ties with its neighbours.

It has been affected by rising fuel prices because of both Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the conflict in Iran. It has also seen its products hit with punitive US tariffs.

Switzerland could jeopardise its treaties with the EU, and possibly lose goodwill from Brussels along with them, Pult warns.

Fiechter dismisses this as fearmongering, saying he is "certain that the EU will not allow this to happen", and arguing that the agreements with Switzerland are "entirely in the EU's own interest".

But fear of isolation may be a deciding factor for some voters.

The Swiss were horrified when Washington slapped 39% tariffs on Swiss goods, and an agreement to get them lowered to 15% has still not been finalised.

Now, posters urging voters to reject the population cap show a leering US President Donald Trump, with the shadowy profiles of Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping behind him.

"Break with Europe, at a time like this?" the poster's headline asks.

Fiechter insists capping the population is all about protecting a way of life.

He said: "Anyone who loves Switzerland, whether with or without a migrant background, wants it to remain a place worth living in, safe and prosperous. That is exactly what this initiative is about."

But Genis cannot see anything positive about it: "The key question is not how to exclude people... [it is] how we create enough affordable housing, ensure good working conditions, and invest in a strong public service.

"That's why I am convinced this initiative does more harm than good to Switzerland."

Vincent's parents 'never say he's good enough' - so he turned to a middle-aged couple online

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpq3dnr5vlzo, today

During mealtimes, Vincent Zhang, a tech worker in Shanghai, has a habit of whipping out his phone to check on his "virtual parents": a middle-aged couple online, armed with an endless stream of warm words for their imaginary child.

In one of their most popular videos, the pair coos to the camera. "Are you tired from work and study lately? Don't push yourself too hard. Mum and Dad know that you have endured a lot."

In the comments, many call the couple mum and dad, telling them about their lives and asking for birthday blessings.

With nearly two million followers on Douyin – China's version of TikTok - Pan Huqian and Zhang Xiuping are among a niche group of content creators called "virtual parents".

They have exploded in popularity, drawing young Chinese followers who feel increasingly squeezed between the pressure of succeeding and the expectations of their families.

"My parents are never the ones who tell me not to drive myself too hard or that I am already good enough," says 33-year-old Vincent. "But virtual parents will ask me whether I am happy today."

The vlogger, Pan, says he has felt the impact of his videos on viewers. He told Douyin in a 2024 interview that he understood some of their pain because he too had a difficult childhood.

At the age of 14, he says he left home to become the family's breadwinner after his mother was paralysed: "I left home for 33 years, and my parents have never said a word of encouragement."

Pan says he was determined to create a different family atmosphere after his daughter was born, making sure that he always told her that he loved her. His daughter regularly features in the couple's videos.

All of this resonates with Vincent. The Shanghai-based web developer says he finds the weekly calls with his parents stressful.

They often criticise his career choice because they believe a government job would be more stable. And they ask him when he's bringing a girlfriend home.

"From the moment the phone call begins, all my actions and choices are wrong, and something to be corrected by them."

Zhao belongs to a generation of Chinese youth who have grown up during an economic boom, after their country became the world's second-largest economy.

Their grandparents lived through gruelling crises - famine in the 1950s, and the violent purges of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s - and their parents grew up in a country that was still emerging from those shadows as it opened up to the world.

Zhao's generation, however, enjoyed stability, prosperity and a far better standard of living.

But China has also become much more competitive and in recent years, especially in the wake of the pandemic, youth have been hit hard by a sluggish Chinese economy.

Unemployment rates among young people have hovered at more than 15% for years – a trend that has worried the government despite its efforts to downplay it.

More and more young people talk about feeling burnt out, question the point of staying in the rat race and, in some cases, feel bruised by their parents' tough love.

So much so that some state media have tried to steer the discussion online towards traditionals concepts of filial piety, urging young people to be more understanding of their parents.

But Vincent is unconvinced: "I can understand my parents' difficulties, but I have my own generational trauma too."

There seems to be a wave of reckoning among young people in China about parenting - a subject that can be just as emotive anywhere else in the world.

The discussions range from people frustrated with controlling parents, to those exhausted from the pressure to excel academically or heed advice in the name of "filial piety".

The exasperation runs so deep that it has inspired viral memes called "gourd soup literature". The name comes from a one-minute skit in which a son politely refuses a bowl of gourd soup from his mother but eventually he gets blamed for being ill-tempered.

For many young people, the skit captures a familiar dynamic: their wishes are ignored by parents who claim to be doing things for their own good.

Zhao Xuan, 28, who tells the BBC that her parents dispensed so much "gourd soup literature" that she has muted her family group chat.

In the past, she would lament to her friends while trying to understand her parents' behaviour. Now she turns to memes because the humour helps her.

"I did go to a therapist, but I gradually realised that crying wouldn't solve the problem," Zhao says. "My mom wouldn't change, so I could only change my own mindset, which is to treat them with the same attitude, as if it was a joke."

For Vincent, his "virtual parents" remind him of a more uncomplicated time.

Recalling a recent video by Pan and Zhang about a supermarket visit, he says, "I really miss the days when I was little and would go grocery shopping with my parents ahead of the Spring Festival. We have not had this kind of conversation, which comes with no social pressure, for a long, long time."

Vincent realises that because the content has become so popular, it is also commercially successful.

"I know these vloggers are probably mass-producing now and are probably signed with companies," he says.

And he wouldn't argue with the fact that it is far easier to console and dispense advice to virtual children - and yet he finds some comfort in the trend.

"I believe that a little bit of warmth is better than nothing."

Top image by Andro Saini of East Asia Visual Journalism

UK armed forces intercept Russian shadow fleet in Channel, PM says

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyek039l2vo, today

British armed forces have intercepted a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker in the English Channel the early hours of Sunday morning, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

In an operation lasting six hours, Royal Marine Commandos and specially trained law enforcement officers from the National Crime Agency boarded the vessel, supported by the RAF.

The vessel, Smyrtos, will be held and monitored off the south coast of England as investigations continue, the MoD said in a statement.

Sir Keir Starmer said: "This successful operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fueling Putin's war in Ukraine that we will not let them hide."

Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis said: "Russia relies on its shadow fleet to fund their conflict in Ukraine and our interdiction delivers a blow to Putin's illegal war."

The operation was supported with aircraft from the Maritime Air Group, an RAF P-8 aircraft, as well as HMS Sutherland and HMS Ledbury.

Russia has been operating a "shadow fleet" of tankers with obscure ownership structures to evade international sanctions imposed on its oil exports.

Responsible for carrying 75% of Russia's sanctioned oil, the shadow fleet of over 700 vessels provides a critical lifeline for the Kremlin, the MoD said.

The UK has already sanctioned more than 500 vessels.

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

You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.

Cage fights at the White House: What to know as Trump hosts UFC

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c892xnwg5vlo, today

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is heading to the White House on Sunday, becoming the first ever professional sporting event staged at the US presidential residence.

About 4,300 people are expected at the invite-only mixed martial arts event on the South Lawn, with another 85,000 expected at a nearby fan zone.

A lawsuit failed to halt the event, but hot weather and thunderstorms forecast to sweep across the city on Sunday could dampen the spectacle.

The event coincides with President Donald Trump's 80th birthday, which is also Flag Day, and is part of celebrations for America's 250th anniversary.

The seven-bout card was arranged between Trump and his longstanding friend Dana White, UFC president.

The UFC spent about $60m (£45m) on the event, including $700,000 for grass repairs afterwards on a lawn that hosts the annual Easter Egg Roll.

The centrepiece is the "Claw" - a 92ft high metal structure that looms over the octagon and many of the seats. It weighs 600 tonnes.

'Greatest show on Earth', Trump says

A total of 14 fighters will compete in back-to-back fights, ending with the main card between Georgian-Spanish lightweight Ilia Topuria and American Justin Gaethje.

The action begins at 20:00 EDT (midnight GMT). It will be screened exclusively on Paramount+, which is run by Trump ally David Ellison. Last year, UFC signed a $7.7bn deal with the Netflix rival streaming service.

The ultimate winner may be UFC - making it to the White House is a fist-pumping brand boost for a sport that was once shunned by sponsors and venues and denounced as "human cockfighting" by a US senator.

Administration officials - including Trump - have repeatedly praised the event, with the president referring to it as "the greatest show on Earth" and comparing the Claw to the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week lauded the UFC as the "definition of American soft diplomatic power" and announced the launch of a private-public partnership to use the UFC as a diplomatic tool.

Lawsuit sought to get the fight cancelled

Just days before the fight, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of two Virginia residents - a Vietnam veteran and a local civic activist - to try halt the event.

The legal action, filed by the Public Integrity Project, a self-described anti-corruption law firm in Washington, argued the event was "deeply corrupt".

It cited a lack of approvals for the weigh-in at the nearby Lincoln Memorial and President Trump's close personal and financial ties with Dana White and the UFC.

But on Friday, a judge denied an emergency injunction to stop the fight - a ruling welcomed by the White House, which described the lawsuit as "frivolous".

Americans aren't thrilled about UFC fight

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday, however, suggested many Americans were sceptical of the event.

The survey found that only 16% of Americans believed it appropriate to hold the UFC fight at the White House, compared to 46% who thought it inappropriate.

Only about a third of Republicans approved of the plan.

The UFC fight is one of several marquee events planned to mark the 250th anniversary of the country, which will also include an IndyCar race around the National Mall later this summer and a "Great American State Fair" in July.

Weather could cast a cloud on fight

The weather could cause delays during the event on Sunday, with thunderstorms forecast in Washington DC.

It's going to be a hot and humid day on Sunday in the nation's capital, with mid-afternoon temperatures peaking at around 91F (33C), according to forecasts.

As the heat and humidity builds, scattered thunderstorms are expected to develop through Sunday afternoon and into the evening, with the risk of lightning, downpours and wind gusts of over 50mph (80km).

The summer humidity in Washington often attracts an unpleasant number of insects.

A news conference for the event at the Lincoln Memorial on Friday was briefly delayed over "inclement weather" and fans were urged to seek shelter.

Why the US economy keeps defying the odds

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy031el03po, today

In Dresden, in east Germany late last year, the final car rolled off the assembly line at Volkswagen's "Transparent Factory", built to showcase the pinnacle of European industrial power. Thousands of miles away in Spartanburg, South Carolina, a different German giant, BMW, is running its biggest plant in the world.

The contrast between the two plants helps explain a puzzle economists have been debating for a while: why has the American economy continued to outperform so many of its peers, despite facing the same global shocks?

Over the past few years, much of the developed world has buckled under a succession of shocks. Trump's sweeping tariffs have disrupted global trade. Mass deportations are changing labour markets. And conflict in the Middle East has sent oil prices lurching.

Many economists expected those pressures to weigh heavily on the US. Instead, the economy has continued to grow at a steady pace. Inflation has proved stubborn at times, but the combination of weak growth and persistently rising prices that many feared hasn't happened.

Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, argues the trade war itself became the strongest proof of American resilience.

"The own goals that the Trump administration has imposed on the US with respect to trade and immigration are probably the single best example of the underlying dynamism of the American economy," he says.

Faced with a sudden tax on foreign components, US corporations didn't accept lower margins, they invested harder.

"CapEx (capital expenditure) right now is 13.9% of US GDP," says Brusuelas. "That should be slowing, given the mix of supply and demand shocks the economy is absorbing, and it's not."

Instead, much of that pressure has been offset by a notable rise in productivity. The broader US economy has continued to expand at an annualised rate of around 2%.

Energy markets offer another explanation. The war in the Middle East has pushed oil prices higher, a development that historically would have posed a major threat to US growth. But the shale revolution fundamentally altered America's exposure to energy shocks. Over the past two decades, the US has become one of the world's largest oil and gas producers, while businesses have steadily reduced their reliance on petroleum.

"The development since the early 2000s of fracking in the United States, alongside the evolution of alternative fuels, has created the conditions where oil's contribution to GDP per unit has fallen by half over the past 50 years," says Brusuelas.

The difference with Europe is clear. While the US has focused on flexibility, embracing fracking and letting prices respond to the market, Europe has relied on long-term contracts and interconnected supply networks to guarantee energy security. That approach left many countries exposed when Russian gas supplies were cut after the Ukraine invasion. And given the current tensions in the Middle East, that vulnerability remains.

For Rebecca Christie, senior fellow at the Brussels think tank Bruegel, the divergence is not just about policy choices but about cultural attitudes towards risk.

"Americans are very solutions-oriented and much more comfortable with taking a short-term risk in service of a long-term advantage. Europe as a culture is risk-averse."

She says she was at an event where the EU's own commissioner for financial services said in Europe people don't talk enough about the risk of not taking risk.

Even the difference in how businesses and retirement systems are structured reflects this divide. In much of Europe, companies rely heavily on bank loans for financing, and workers' pensions are often tied to guaranteed insurance contracts that cap both losses and gains.

"If you finance your business with a bank loan, you don't have the same flexibility that you do if you sell shares or attract venture capital," says Christie.

In the US, companies can tap investors and the stock market for financing. That flexibility, even with its ups and downs, gives American firms an advantage over state-backed European models.

Still, Christie is careful to note that resilience at the macro level can mask genuine pain below it.

"The US is a land of very high inequality," she says. "If you're struggling, you are really going to have a hard time because the labour market is not adding piles of new jobs, things are getting more expensive, many cities have housing crises."

Her deeper worry is that inequality hits a tipping point. "Even then having the dollar and fairly stable banks won't help if you have a real jobs crisis in the real economy."

So far, there is little evidence of that. In fact, American employers added 172,000 jobs in May, smashing expectations.

But new inflation data this week, showing consumer prices rising at their fastest pace in three years, suggests the limits of America's resilience may be approaching. Prices in May were 4.2% higher than a year earlier, up from 3.8% in April.

America's economy may be outperforming many of its rivals. That does not mean it is immune. Higher energy prices, stubborn inflation and widening inequality all pose risks that could erode the country's current advantage.

Even so, compared with many other advanced economies, the US continues to look robust. Its combination of flexible markets, rapid investment, abundant energy, and tolerance for risk has helped it weather shocks that have strained its peers.

As Brusuelas puts it: "It's the cleanest shirt in a very filthy laundry."

Norway braces for verdict in rape trial of crown princess's son Høiby

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd95xvk4vn2o, today

When three judges in courtroom 250 deliver their verdict at Oslo District Court early on Monday, Marius Borg Høiby - the son of the crown princess of Norway - will find out the extent of his sentence.

Høiby, 29, will appear via video link because of unspecified health reasons, almost three months after his trial came to an end on 40 charges, including four counts of rape. He denies the most serious offences but admits some of the lesser charges involving drugs and traffic offences.

Prosecutors say he should be given seven years and seven months in jail, whereas his defence lawyers believe he should serve a year-and-a-half.

Høiby, whose mother married into the royal family when he was four, has been in custody since the start of February.

Police detained him shortly before the trial began on suspicion of assault and violating a restraining order involving an ex-girlfriend.

Repeated attempts by his lawyers to have him released have failed.

Crown Princess Mette-Marit is very ill, and only last week an appeal court turned down a bid for Høiby to be allowed out so he could be with her. She has been placed on a lung transplant list little over a week ago, and has since been seen visiting her son in prison with Crown Prince Haakon.

Theirs is a picture of a family in turmoil. Mette-Marit's doctors have made clear the general rule for anyone placed on the transplant list is because they believe the patient has only a year to live.

There is profound sympathy for the crown princess as this extraordinary case draws to a close. The mood is rather different from the start of the trial, which was shrouded in public anger because of a series of revelations that documented her three-year friendship with disgraced late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

She has halted public engagements and now wears a nasal tube to help her breathe.

But that sympathy has not put an end to questions surrounding the future of the royal family, which for months has been in the middle of a perfect storm. There is little Norway's popular King Harald, 89, and Queen Sonja can do.

Høiby was never a member of the royal family but the boy nicknamed "Little Marius" did grow up alongside his royal siblings, and a substantial jail term would cast a shadow over all of them.

Throughout the trial, Norway's future king and queen kept their distance from Oslo district court, and Crown Prince Haakon tried to balance "support for Marius in the situation he finds himself in" with understanding for the women giving evidence in the case and their families.

The four women that Høiby is alleged to have raped were able to maintain their anonymity and photos of them and the defendant were banned by the court.

But the court decided that anonymity did not extend to a former girlfriend and well-known influencer, Nora Haukland, who he denies abusing, as well as hitting and choking her.

As the only identifiable woman in the case, footage of her leaving court after giving evidence naturally hit the front pages.

For a high-profile trial reliant on court sketches, Haukland's was one of the few faces the public was able to see.

The prosecution alleges the four rapes took place when the women were either asleep or incapacitated following consensual sex with Høiby, who denies the charges. Intercourse was involved in one of the alleged rapes.

Prosecutors are seeking three years in jail for one rape charge, and two years each for the other three, although Norwegian sentences do not run consecutively.

In this case it will not necessarily be clear how the judges come to a total sentence, explains May-Len Skilbrei, professor of criminology at the University of Oslo.

Prosecutors are seeking convictions on 39 of the 40 charges, and a number of the counts involve psychological as well as physical abuse of ex-girlfriends.

Several of the charges relate to one woman in particular, who became known as the "Frogner woman", because of the upmarket area of Oslo where she lives.

Høiby has partly admitted serious bodily harm and abuse in her case, but he denies "sexually offensive filming" of either her or any other women without consent.

The charges he does admit to involve trafficking 3.5kg of marijuana, driving without a licence and reckless driving, and one count of breaking a restraining order.

A few days before the verdict he was moved to Ila prison and detention centre outside Oslo.

As he will hear the sentence on Monday via video link, there is unlikely to be any of the drama from early on in the trial when he broke down in tears opposite the judges, blaming his excesses on his "extreme need for affirmation" and the fact he was "known for being mamma's son".

His reaction on screen will be visible only to those inside the courtroom and two overflow rooms.

The verdict will bring an end to a story that dates back to Høiby's initial arrest in August 2024, but it does not solve a family problem that was identified in a TV interview more than 20 years ago by King Harald's late elder sister, Princess Ragnhild.

Høiby was six when she said of the crown prince and princess: "When they have a child, poor Marius will be nothing."

And the wider scrutiny of the royal family will not go away.

"Things cannot go on as they are, they just can't. This is an institutional crisis, and it's a huge crisis of trust," says Peggy Simcic Brønn, professor emirata at BI Norwegian Business School and a specialist in reputation and public relations.

"There's going to be furore internationally in this coming week and, if they just cover their heads and run away, it's just going to compound it."

Finding the right response may prove even harder now, with Mette-Marit's health failing.

The future king and queen did try to react to public pressure in March over her friendship with Epstein between 2011-14. But some commentators felt her TV interview raised more questions than answers, when she said she "didn't know he was a sex offender or a predator".

There will be no more joint interviews for now, and there will be no celebration in August of their silver wedding anniversary, either.

The royal house says the next update on her condition will only take place once a lung transplant has taken place.

Many Norwegians will look to Crown Prince Haakon to take a lead.

But he has curtailed his engagements to be with his wife. He did not travel to Stockholm on Saturday to attend the king and queen of Sweden's golden wedding anniversary, and on Friday he did not attend the regular cabinet meeting with King Harald.

Any focus on rebuilding the reputation of the royal family may have to wait.

Nigerian author accuses hospital of stalling review into her son's death

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgk6jzkr0xvo, today

Prominent Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has accused a hospital in Lagos of obstructing an inquest into the circumstances surrounding her baby son's death.

A coronial inquest into the death of her 21-month-old son, Nknau, at Euracare hospital in January had been due to start in April, Aidichie said.

The author now alleges that Euracare has "stalled and muddied and obfuscated" over the inquest and has requested Nigeria's Federal High Court block the inquiry.

The BBC has approached Euracare for comment. An investigation panel set up by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria had previously found a possible case of medical negligence against the hospital.

Adichie recently published a letter on social media which she had sent to the hospital's director in April.

It was her first public comment since the death of her son, who was one of twin boys born in 2024, using a surrogate.

"If Euracare cares about the truth, then why create delays and distractions and now, finally, try to stop an inquest," she wrote in her post.

Explaining why she posted the letter, she wrote: "The ultimate and utter loneliness of grief is that only you can know the true depth of your despair.

"I long for, at least, peace to mourn, but Euracare Hospital has robbed me even of that."

In her letter, Adichie said that the hospital noted her son's death was from bacterial meningitis, to which she responded: "There was no medical evidence to make such a claim on his death certificate."

Adiche and her family have accused Euracare of negligence, saying medics denied Nkanu oxygen and gave him too much sedation, causing a cardiac arrest.

The hospital has expressed its "deepest sympathies" over the death but denied wrongdoing, saying its care had been in line with international standards.

In the letter, she accuses the hospital of providing incomplete medical records, which she described as "strikingly unprofessional", adding that "one was inaccurate".

According to submissions made to the court by Adichie's legal team, Nkanu had initially been admitted to Atlantis Hospital in Lagos with what was described as a worsening but mild illness.

Plans had been made to transfer him to the United States for further treatment at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital, before the toddler was referred to Euracare for a pre-flight inspection, including an MRI and a spinal tap, or lumbar puncture.

Nkanu died on 7 January after undergoing the various diagnostic tests at Euracare hospital.

Adichie has authored multiple award-winning novels including Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) and Americanah (2013), and has recently hosted panels of world leaders, including former US Vice-President Kamala Harris while she was promoting her autobiography and ex-Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel.

She lives in the US but was in Nigeria for the Christmas holidays.

Armed men kidnap high-ranking security official in Haiti

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz9le087414o, today

Armed men in Haiti have kidnapped the defence minister's chief of staff, the highest-ranking official to be kidnapped in the violence-wracked Caribbean country in recent years.

Top security official James Boyard, who is also inspector general of Haiti's police, was seized in the island's capital Port-au-Prince on Thursday.

Both the Associated Press news agency and the New York Times confirmed his abduction via sources, with the newspaper adding Boyard's wife and six-year-old daughter were also taken.

A ransom has been requested, according to the New York Times, who cited a person familiar with the case.

Boyard, a highly respected security expert, is chief of staff to Mario Andrésol who was appointed in March.

He was tasked with helping rebuild Haiti's armed forces.

Diego Da Rin, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, told AP news agency kidnappings are increasingly occurring in areas of Port-au-Prince once considered safe.

He added gang members have been kidnapping people with double nationalities and targeting public officials, which could mean they are trying to seek higher ransoms or possibly dissuade authorities from attacking gang-controlled areas where hostages are held.

Gang violence has ravaged the Caribbean country for years and the multinational police force sent to contain it has struggled to enter areas where gangs hold sway.

So far this year, gang-related violence has resulted in at least 2,310 deaths, 1,106 injuries and 99 kidnappings, according to the United Nations earlier this month.

It has also caused record levels of displacement with nearly 1.5 million people without a place to live, according to the latest figures released by the UN migration agency.

Woman seriously injured in shark attack at Sydney beach

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3ryw807133o, today

A woman has been seriously injured after being bitten by a shark at a beach in Sydney, police have said.

New South Wales Police said emergency services were called to Coogee Beach in the east of the city on Saturday morning.

The woman, 35, was "pulled from the water by members of the public who commenced first aid", police said, and suffered "serious arm and leg injuries".

She was then airlifted to hospital by helicopter. Several beaches in the area were closed as a precaution.

Attack eyewitness Nicola Logan told Reuters news agency that she saw a "massive pool of blood" in the water, then "a lady kind of motioning to swim, lots of splashing, and then a ski paddler was out trying to bring her in".

It comes after a male diver died last week after being bitten by a suspected 4.5m (14.8ft) shark south-east of Perth, Western Australia.

In May, a father-of-two who was killed by a shark near Perth.

Shark attacks around Australia are more common than in many other parts of the world, though they are often not fatal.

Since records began in 1791, there have been almost 1,300 recorded shark attacks in Australia, with more than 260 of them resulting in death.

Popular swimming and surfing spots in Australia tend to have measures to protect against shark attacks.

Why is football called 'soccer' in the US and Canada?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyexj7dggpo, today

Football is life for millions of fans around the world, but in two of the co-host nations of the 2026 World Cup, they tend to call it by a different name.

In the US and Canada, it's known as soccer. But why? And does that word annoy other football-loving nations?

"When I was a child in England, the word 'soccer' was perfectly acceptable," Stefan Szymanski says.

The emeritus professor at the University of Michigan, who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, says the debate around "football" versus "soccer" struck him as strange.

"I started asking my friends: 'Do you remember? Maybe it's a false memory. Was it ever a problem?' I began talking to people about it. And the consensus was that in the 1970s there didn't seem to be any issue with that word."

Szymanski's interest turned into research.

He explains that, in its early days, football was a very "posh" sport.

"The people who founded the Football Association in England in 1863 were Oxford graduates who had attended elite public schools," he said.

The game played under Football Association rules became known as "association football", wrote John M Cunningham in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

The name also helped distinguish it from another popular sport: rugby.

"There were two games: one called rugby football, at that time, and the other called association football," says Szymanski.

Brekker, rugger, soccer

Among wealthy university students in the 1880s and 1890s, there was a habit of shortening words and adding "-er" to the end, creating a kind of slang.

"So instead of saying 'breakfast,' they would say 'brekker'."

Applied to rugby, they would call it "rugger."

So how did the word "soccer" emerge?

There is a theory, Szymanski says - though he cautions that "no-one is entirely sure".

It appears that these inventive students took "soc" from the middle of the word "association" and added "-er," producing "soccer".

"Obviously, no-one knows for certain, but what people are sure about is that it comes from Oxford. There are many documentary sources confirming that it was a word coined by students there."

Soccer spreads to Canada, the US and more

Sports historian Andy Mitchell has pointed to "at least" three examples of "soccer" or "socker" appearing in school magazines in late 1885 in different parts of England.

"My intuition is that 'soccer' and 'rugger' were already being used verbally and had appeared in print earlier that year (1885) in another, as yet unidentified, publication," Mitchell wrote on his blog Scottish Sport History.

Over time, the "socker" variant fell out of use, while "soccer" remained.

The word began travelling to other continents at the same time the sport itself was spreading, and soccer is now often used in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada.

In the United States, "football" refers to American football.

"It's all connected," says Szymanski. "The American version evolved from rugby, but it also has elements of soccer."

"They're like close cousins - and that's why American football became popular around the same time the word 'soccer' was coined, in the 1880s and 1890s."

While British newspapers preferred "football", they continued using "soccer" well into the 1980s, according to analysis by Szymanski and his colleague Silke-Maria Weineck.

Over time, however, "football" became the dominant term.

Szymanski said the two terms come up when he teaches classes at university: "Something Americans tend to do is apologise when they use the word 'soccer' and say, 'Sorry, I meant football,' because they think the British are sensitive about it.

"And they're right - some are.

"I think it's very polite of them to apologise, but I tell them: 'It's an English word - feel free to use it.'"

'It's all they're talking about': Scotland gripped by World Cup fever

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c78ydv8er7no, yesterday

Seconds after Kenny McLean's shot from the halfway line hit the back of the Danish net last November, Andy Munro's children asked him a question.

"Why are so many people crying?"

The Ayrshire dad-of-three may have had a few tears to wipe away himself, and he wasn't the only one.

Scotland's 4-2 victory over Denmark booked the first World Cup appearance in 28 years for the men's national team and unleased waves of emotion across the country.

Eight months later, and as Scotland prepare to face Haiti in the early hours of Sunday, feverish anticipation appears to be taking hold.

From parties of thousands watching in large arenas to school kids setting alarms for the 02:00 BST kick-off, excitement, nerves and dreams linger on every street.

Lucy McEwan is a 25-year-old teacher in Glasgow, who plays at amateur level with Linlithgow Rose.

"People don't really get behind the World Cup unless your country's involved in it, and for the first time in a lot of people's lives we are involved in it," she says.

"I think everybody's super, super excited. You can see the kids are so hyped up as well about it.

"Our department actually got the FIFA Panini sticker book this year, and all the kids are coming in, trading their stickers with us.

"Everyone just seems so excited about it."

Lucy says she will be staying up for every game Scotland play, meaning her classes might have a bleary-eyed teacher on Thursday 25 June - the day after Scotland play Brazil in their final Group C match, with a 23:00 kick off.

Many pupils might have the same issues too.

Andy Munro lives in Dunlop, Ayrshire, and has three children - Harry, 14, Keir, 12 and Adam, 10.

All three boys are football fans who worship John McGinn, and none have seen the men's team take part in a World Cup.

"The timing of the Haiti game is causing some challenges, " he laughs.

"I think we will go to bed about eight, and then wake up around half one to watch the game - and then the boys are all playing football on Sunday morning too. So we will see how it goes.

"It's all they're talking about."

In Peterhead, pupils at Clerkhill School have made their own World Cup song, written by teacher Diane Pert - who says she put aside her jealousy at having to work while her husband flies to America for the games.

They aren't the only ones feeling musical - dozens of singers and bands have released songs to try and capture the national mood.

Signs of excitement are everywhere, and not just in the obvious pubs and supermarkets.

Chip shops and hairdressers in Glasgow's Anniesland have Saltires draped across windows, banks in Dumfries have inflatable footballs stuck on walls next to cash machines.

Bear Scotland, who look after the country's roads, named one of their gritters "Snow Scotland Snow Party", complete with someone dressed up as a kilt-wearing polar bear.

Local authorities have got in on the act too, with East Renfrewshire Council re-naming themselves East Robbo-shire Council in honour of Scotland's captain Andy Robertson - who comes from the area.

In Dumfries, one of the most colourful shows of support for Scotland is outside Kings coffee shop, with flags fluttering above its outdoor tables.

Owner Mark Smith said: "Even as we were installing them, people passing by started cheering, getting excited, even singing football songs.

"There's definitely a buzz in town. We're hearing people talking about our chances, and reminiscing over past World Cup attempts."

While 28 years have passed since the men's team reached France 98, in recent years Steve Clarke's squad have made it to two European Championships and the women's side qualified for the 2019 World Cup.

However, interest in 2026 appears to be on another level.

JD Sports says it has sold around twice as many Scotland kits as it did for the 2024 European Championships. The strip is currently the retailer's biggest seller in both the UK and the US.

Pop-up Scotland shops offering official merchandise can be found in the likes of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stirling.

An employee in Glasgow told the BBC that retro kits were among the biggest sellers, along with a T-shirt saying "We'll Be Coming 26" - popular among Tartan Army members travelling to America.

Those not going on a transatlantic trip are instead booking tickets for pubs and other venues, which are expected to be rammed to capacity.

Places more used to holding gigs, like SWG3 in Glasgow and the Beach Ballroom in Aberdeen, are screening watch parties of matches.

The country's biggest venue, the OVO Hydro, is expecting thousands of supporters and says it will have the biggest screen in the country.

"We have waited almost 30 years for Scotland to return to the biggest stage in world football, and we wanted to put the team on our stage for fans who haven't been able to make the trip across the Atlantic," says chief commercial officer Debbie McWilliams.

For pubs the World Cup offers a potential bonanza, after late licensing hours were allowed by nearly all local authorities.

Liam Logue runs Greens Sports Bar in Dumfries with his wife Cas and is expecting the pub to be packed with Scotland fans.

"We've sold 240 tickets - we originally sold 200," he said.

"Ever since we sold out we've had every man and his dog messaging us, so we probably could have sold another 100."

The current feeling is not totally new for some supporters, but rather something which has been missing for years.

With the exception of USA 94, Scotland reached every World Cup from 1974 to 1998.

For fans who grew up in that era there was an expectation that they would be there, even if the tournaments themselves inevitably proved agonising.

"I was 18 during France 98, and I decided not to go," recalls Graeme McNay, who lives in Glasgow.

"I remember thinking to myself that I would definitely go four years later, or the one after that if we did not qualify.

"You took it for granted Scotland would be at the World Cup. I didn't expect it to be another 28 years!

"There was a point when you started to wonder if you'd ever see us there again."

Tens of thousands of Scotland fans heading to the US, and the atmosphere has been building in Boston as the Tartan Army sets up camp.

Graeme has travelled to America with friends for the Haiti and Morocco games. As someone who can recall the infamous likes of a 1-0 defeat to Costa Rica in 1990, his excitement is mixed with nerves.

"I'm a bit of a pessimist so I'm worried we'll trip up against Haiti," he says.

"It's always the ones you expect to win that end up a banana skin, like Costa Rica or Morocco in 1998.

"But Steve Clarke will keep us grounded and hopefully we finally get out the group."

Optimism is running high elsewhere, though.

A worker at the pop-up store in Glasgow recalls a conversation with the parents of one very young child who was "used to Scotland winning all the time now" - a far cry from some of the dark days fans have endured over the last 28 years.

And anyone seeking positive vibes need only look a few yards from the national stadium, where adults cried last November as the final whistle went.

A mural of Scott McTominany's spectacular overhead kick which opened the scoring against Denmark is painted on a nearby wall.

Lindsay Hamilton has run walking tours around the area for several years, taking in the three different places where Hampden Park has been located.

In recent weeks though, she has noticed a change.

"There's been such a buzz around the World Cup, with folk giving their predictions and sharing their own personal stories from all the previous near misses."

Other murals of McTominany and McGinn have popped up elsewhere in the country too.

For Lindsay, the mural brings back emotions - and like the rest of the country, she is hoping for more to be made this summer.

"It brings a smile every time you see it."

How can you watch the Scotland v Haiti game?

Tartan Army feels the heat in Boston as World Cup kicks off

Our sons are playing for two different countries

Find your local World Cup hero with our postcode lookup

For your ears only: How music brought the new James Bond game to life

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8wn864q46o, today

"Save your lips, because they are a finite resource."

Abbey Road studios, November 2025. Conductor Matt Dunkley is testing the limits of the London Chamber Orchestra's brass section.

They've got just one half-day session to record 32 minutes of music for the new James Bond video game, 007 First Light. And that means four hours of non-stop puffing and blowing.

"It's mostly action music, so if you hate us by the end of it that's totally understandable," composer Alexis Smith warns the musicians as the day begins.

Smith has been working on the score for the past two years with his co-writer Joe Henderson (the son of Sherlock actress Una Stubbs).

Today's the day it comes together, as 24 musicians breathe life into the music they penned in their cramped east London studio.

"The things you can do with software orchestral instruments nowadays is amazing," says Smith.

"We absolutely need that as we're mocking things up, but then you come here and you have the best brass players in the world... It's mind-blowing."

As the session starts, the duo – who go by the name The Flight – can't suppress their smiles.

"Take that to the bank," whispers Henderson after a the first run-through.

In the Bond universe, the music is almost as important as 007 himself.

Monty Norman's surf guitar riff and John Barry's sweeping orchestral scores spawned an entire genre of spy music – full of minor key suspense and piercing stabs of trumpet.

If you're one of the three million people who've already bought First Light, you'll know how successfully The Flight have tweaked that template for Bond's latest escapades.

The game presents an original take on the secret agent's origin story. When we first meet him, he's a tender-footed Navy aircrewman, thrown into a terrifying hostage rescue in Iceland.

His instincts are impeccable, but he's yet to acquire the sophistication of Ian Fleming's character, much less a licence to kill.

Because he's nowhere near achieving 007 status, The Flight reserved the big musical cues for later, and scored the scene like a movie.

"My favourite bits of the Bond films are always the opening sequence, so I really enjoyed the Iceland mission," says Smith.

"It's set in this dark, craggy, bleak landscape, and we had the permission to be really electronic and avant-garde. That was really nice, to go somewhere people aren't expecting us to go."

As the game progresses, Bond is recruited by MI6 and familiar sounds creep in.

The Flight had permission to use classic movie motifs, including John Barry's theme from On Her Majesty's Secret Service, anchoring the game in a pre-established universe.

"We were very lucky," says Henderson, "because trying to write a new theme or a pastiche is never going to be as cool.

"The main James Bond theme is one of those things that everybody knows," agrees Smith. "You couldn't do a sound-alike of that. It would be terrible."

Even with that scaffolding, the scale of the Bond project was daunting.

The Flight have won multiple awards for games like Alien: Isolation, Assassin's Creed and the Horizon series.

But with a background in pop and electronic music (their credits include Bjork, Mel C and the Freestylers), an orchestral suite was a big step.

"It was a huge thrill but also nerve-wracking, because it's quite a responsibility," says Henderson.

"You don't realise until you're working on Bond how much a part of you it is."

Smith says: "The pressure comes from all those Boxing Day afternoons, sitting on the sofa with your dad, watching the old films.

"And even if you're going to have something like this, which is a new angle on the franchise, it's still got to live with all those other great scores as well."

The peril of Bond's handlers changing

Notably, First Light was the last project supervised by Bond masterminds Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson before they gave creative control to the franchise's new owners, Amazon MGM Studios.

The shock departure came in the middle of production, and the composers briefly worried the project was in jeopardy.

"The email chains all changed overnight," remembers Henderson.

"It reminded us what a big deal James Bond is - because that news was everywhere," says Smith.

"My family would see that in the newspaper and go, 'Oh, is your game still all right?'

"That doesn't happen when you're working on other game franchises."

First Light isn't set in a specific time frame, but the script references "His Majesty's Secret Service", placing it during King Charles' reign.

That gave The Flight permission to leap back into the techno sounds of their formative years, especially in an early nightclub scene.

Later, when Bond is whisked to Vietnam, the orchestra swells with suave panache, immersing you in the action before 007 has even uttered a quip.

But at Abbey Road, the main concern is a combat scene, where the hero finally breaks cover and engages the enemy.

Unlike a film score, the music requires multiple branching paths.

"You may be sneaking around, you may be being chased, you may be fighting," explains Smith.

"And the music that you hear depends on how well you're doing as a player."

"If you've finished the fight because you've achieved all your objectives, it'll be a different ending than if you just run away," adds Henderson.

"That's what's fun about interactive music," says Smith. "That little puzzle of not everything happening exactly the same every time."

As the session draws to a close, energy starts to flag.

"Can you bear to do one more of those, ladies and gentlemen," pleads Dunkley, "while there's still blood left in your top lips?"

In the control booth, mixer Daniel Hayden suggests the high notes are taking a toll.

"If it was down a fifth, it'd be easier," he observes.

"Yeah, well, I love F sharp," laughs Smith.

The trumpeters valiantly persevere but, by the end of the day, everyone's wrung out.

"We had to do a lot of music very quickly, so we're tired and emotional," says Henderson, "but the band were incredible."

"My least favourite thing in music exams was sight-reading, so these guys are just amazing," adds Smith. "They need one take to get the feel, and the second take sounds perfect."

Thanks in part to The Flight's music, the game is so cinematic that fans have been petitioning for voice actor Patrick Gibson to play Bond in the forthcoming, Denis Villeneuve-directed film.

The potential for a real-world crossover puts Smith in a philosophical mood.

"It's funny," he says, "because on a computer game, often the only thing that's actually real is the music."

Russian families use AI to 'resurrect' loved ones killed in Ukraine

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy24v72n19o, today

Rousing orchestral music plays over a video of a snowy Moscow street dotted with billboards celebrating an end to the war in Ukraine.

"The Special Military Operation is over," one fictional billboard reads, using the Kremlin-approved term for its war on Ukraine. "Our heroes are coming home."

Underneath, a beautiful, airbrushed woman pushing a stroller turns to see a man in military uniform and throws her arms around his neck in tears.

The 15-second AI-generated clip was posted on Instagram by a popular blogger with the online name Katya Jin, and the couple appear to be modelled on her and her husband.

In reality, like tens of thousands Russian soldiers, he disappeared at the front. His fate remains unknown.

AI-generated photos and videos featuring Russian soldiers have gained popularity on social media since mid-2025. They are most often posted by relatives of Russian servicemen fighting in Ukraine.

In nearly all of them, the soldiers are controversially portrayed as heroes defending their country and loved ones.

Ukraine and the destruction caused by Russia's invasion is usually absent, and judging by reaction online many Ukrainians who have seen the videos have been appalled.

For some grieving families, AI content provides a way to mourn their loved ones; in some cases, deepfakes featuring deceased people are used at funerals.

Responses online to such clips are sharply divided: some say they were brought to tears, while others see the practice as unethical and deeply disturbing.

Very little is yet known about the long-term psychological and social impact of this technology on the grieving process, says Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska, a researcher at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge.

"Creating 'deadbots' of Russian soldiers or deepfakes of fallen Russian soldiers returning from Ukraine is extremely complex and ethically difficult to assess in a clear-cut way," she says.

BBC Russian approached Katya Jin for comment, but she did not respond to our questions. Whether by coincidence or not, after we first reported her story, she removed her AI-generated content from Instagram and TikTok.

Until recently, she regularly posted AI videos to her 10 million TikTok followers and 50,000 Instagram followers, often alongside tutorials explaining how to make them.

Her own family's story became part of the sales pitch, and viewers could then order similar videos featuring their own loved ones.

Dozens of people said they wanted the same kind of content featuring deceased relatives. They just needed to submit photographs of themselves and their loved ones, and AI would then animate the material following specific prompts.

A couple can be shown in a specific setting or pose, and cinematic flair can then be added to the fake image. Heartfelt farewell letters can also be mocked up and placed in the hands of a deceased relative.

Many of the videos focus on soldiers killed at the front - a subject Russian authorities generally try not to draw attention to.

Usually these clips follow a set pattern: a man in uniform embraces his loved ones, then slowly walks up a staircase into a blue sky, often surrounded by angels. In others, the "ghost" of the dead soldier appears to embrace his family from heaven.

'You should be ashamed'

Anna Korableva from Kamensk-Uralsky, a town east of Yekaterinburg, began making AI-generated videos with her sister in May 2025.

The aim of her "Farewell video" project, she says, is to help people cope with "unfinished farewells" and give them a chance to "embrace" husbands, parents and children again.

"In the first months of working on these videos, I cried almost every day," she told the BBC. "Over time, I learned to separate my emotions from work. I try to focus on the technical side, to make sure the video turns out beautiful and worthy of someone's memory."

According to Korableva, most requests come from the families of soldiers killed on the battlefield in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.

Although the Russian government does not share reliable casualty figures, the BBC, together with Russian news outlet Mediazona and a team of volunteers, has so far verified the deaths of at least 225,000 Russian soldiers in the war.

The real death toll is believed to be much higher.

Other AI-generated videos circulating online feature Russian soldiers who are still alive and on the front line. In some clips, women wrap their husbands in angel wings, symbolically shielding them from harm.

Unsurprisingly, these videos – in which Russian soldiers are portrayed as defenders and angels - provoke outrage among Ukrainians who encounter them online.

"You should be ashamed to show your 'heroes' who went to earn blood money by killing our children," one Ukrainian commented.

International generative AI tools have become difficult to access from Russia, and many have struggled to create such content themselves - turning instead to AI creators like Katya Jin and Anna Korableva.

In Russia, AI-generated military-themed photos and videos can cost between 200 roubles (£2) and 10,000 roubles (£100).

The quality varies. In some videos, the AI generates figures without limbs or produces grotesquely distorted faces.

As production costs are low, some creators have been able make substantial profits.

One AI-creator, Ulyana Lebed, who is also married to a Russian serviceman, has told the BBC she earns between 150-200,000 roubles (£1,500-£2,000) a month – roughly double the average monthly wage in Russia.

To some, this practice is akin to cashing in on grief.

"Be careful that loss doesn't come knocking at your door. Some subjects should not be touched — but you just wanted to make money," one user wrote beneath an AI-generated video of a dead Russian soldier.

Dubious value of AI-generated content

These AI soldier videos are part of a broader global "digital afterlife" industry, says Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska.

Posthumous avatars are already being used in museums, courtrooms and political campaigns. So, she sees it as unsurprising that this technology becomes even more popular during wartime, when "death and loss are dominant themes".

Ethically, the political context makes such videos "deeply problematic", she says, and on a psychological level, she believes it is unclear whether AI visualisations help people deal with grief or deepen it instead.

"In a sense, we are all in the midst of a technological and cultural experiment," Nowaczyk-Basińska says.

Some who commissioned AI videos featuring deceased loved ones have told the BBC the clips did little to ease their pain.

"Could technology help me accept that I will never hug my son again? No. It's an illusion," one woman said.

"Psychologically, no, of course it didn't help - how could it?" said another woman, who had purchased an AI-generated photo of her late husband for his headstone.

However, she did hang two other AI-generated images in her bedroom.

And others suggested the videos provide a sense of connection – even if it was part of a fantasy, or virtual world.

"Thank you, AI, for this opportunity to be with my loved one," one Russian woman wrote beneath a "farewell video" of her husband. "Soon, it will be two years since you've been gone."

The night people in Belfast fled their homes because of racist violence

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgjxxz0mp8o, yesterday

Dozens of young people, masked and dressed in black, are burning bins in the street and thick black smoke fills the air.

The sound of sirens grows louder as fire crews and ambulances arrive.

A woman is shouting through a letterbox to friends inside a house: "The pastor is here, I promise you it is safe."

This is north Belfast on a rainy Tuesday night, and it is chaos.

The same scenes are playing out in other parts of Northern Ireland, where anti-immigration protests are being held.

Many of them are peaceful but others have been hijacked by people intent on violence and destruction.

I was part of the crew sent to the Crumlin Road, a predominately loyalist and working class part of Belfast, to report on the situation there.

When we arrive, the police are keeping a bit of distance, watching but also trying to avoid becoming a target.

We had been holding back from approaching the trouble until it felt safer, having been told at the other end of this long stretch of road to "leave, or you'll be next".

Being a journalist, particularly a BBC journalist, this is nothing new during times of heightened tension.

We move up towards the two streets of terraced houses which have become the focal point of the disorder.

Two cars have been set alight, and homes are also burning. There's real concern about potential injuries, and the risk of a gas explosion.

The torrential rain forces many of those who had gathered to disperse.

Our team is trying not to get in the way, as we step over the fire hoses while also avoiding debris and broken glass.

Fire officers want us to keep a distance, but we need to document what is happening on the streets of Belfast.

I speak to the woman who is shouting through the letterbox of a house with smashed windows. She tells me her friends are inside, and they are trapped, terrified. The house behind theirs is on fire.

A group of African women are led to safety - one of them collapses into the arms of firefighters. The ordeal of the last few hours has taken its toll. She is placed into the back of a waiting car; the others are able to walk to the vehicle.

Pastor Jack McKee, from the nearby New Life City Church, is part of the rescue mission. As he is tending to those members of his congregation he has helped to safety, I take the opportunity to speak to him. He is furious.

"These members have been with us for 20 years. They've been put out of their home," he tells me.

"They are good Christian people and they are getting put out just because they are black.

"You are hurting innocent people here. There are men, women, and children living in fear.

"I am angry. I am disappointed that this is the response of people in our community."

McKee doesn't expect them to return to the place they've called home for many years.

I have covered disorder in Northern Ireland for more than a decade now, including last summer when rioting erupted in Ballymena.

I have watched the police come under attack, a leisure centre being set on fire, and I have heard racist language used by people of all ages.

This week was the first time I witnessed people fleeing from their homes after being targeted because of their ethnicity.

The disorder was sparked after footage of a knife attack in north Belfast on Monday night was shared widely on social media.

Hadi Alodid, a 30-year-old originally from Sudan, appeared in court on Wednesday charged with attempted murder over the attack which left the victim, Stephen Ogilvie, with serious injuries.

I was also sent to Antrim and Ballymena this week to cover the protests there and it is important to say that they passed off peacefully.

The disorder was restricted to pockets of Belfast and other towns, but the whole of Northern Ireland suffered with schools and shops closing early, and public transport shutting down.

I return to the Crumlin Road on Wednesday - it is quieter but the air is still toxic from all the burning.

An end-of-terrace home has been completely gutted, the ceiling has collapsed and even from a distance, you can hear the water running through this shell of a house.

It became clear to me that only certain houses on these north Belfast streets had been the target of arson and criminal damage.

I knew from colleagues reporting from other parts of the city that masked men had gone door to door, intent on targeting those they believed to be from other countries.

I am invited into the house of an Indian man who has lived in the UK for 25 years; the last four in Northern Ireland.

He apologises for the mess inside, as he packs up his life to leave this place. He was too afraid to let us identify him.

The car outside his home was targeted and he tells me he didn't sleep on Tuesday night.

"It was horrible, it was like a war zone. Everything was burning," he said.

"I work full-time. I pay my taxes. I do everything for this country. I am British."

In the short term, he is not sure what to do. If he and his family stay in the house, he is afraid the rioters will come back, but he is also scared in case they are stopped as they make a run for it.

"We are trying to leave Northern Ireland, to take the ferry to the mainland and hopefully we are safe there as we have friends and family there," he adds.

"I have never, ever experienced this."

Over the past week, schools have reported fewer pupils attending, as families from ethnic minority communities keep their children at home.

Healthcare staff have been threatened. One nurse was confronted by masked men and chased while she was walking into work.

Her union said she had done nothing wrong apart from having a "different colour of skin" to the majority of people who live in Northern Ireland.

Despite this, the union said, she "bravely" continued with her shift at the hospital.

A Sudanese woman who came to Northern Ireland as a refugee in 2016 says her community is "terrified".

Twasul Mohammed and others have been helping some of the families who were forced out of their homes.

"When the attack happened on Monday night, we knew this would be coming," she said.

"Everyone is terrified, we are keeping our kids at home. I haven't sent my kids to school since it happened and everyone is worried and tearful."

Those responsible for causing this fear, and forcing people out of their homes, may be in their own homes now.

Those victims who do not have a place to call home this weekend are wondering where to go next.

As Trump turns 80, what's it really like to work as an octogenarian?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm20vyxppneo, today

In February, Arthur Rose stepped into his office as an internist doctor for the last time after practising medicine for over 65 years.

His retirement was a birthday gift to himself on his 95th birthday, partially inspired by his brother who passed away at 95 during the Covid pandemic.

"The job was really not pleasing me anymore," he said. "I just wasn't getting that same kind of exhilaration."

Rose, a Michigan native, is part of a growing population of Americans who are working well past the typical age of retirement, which in the US is 67.

Chief among them is President Donald Trump who is turning 80 on Sunday, making him the second oldest leader of the US behind Joe Biden, who left office aged 82. Trump is also one of the oldest world leaders, according to Pew Research data.

Working late in life is not for the faint of heart, say experts.

A new phase of life

The percentage of those 65 and older who are in the workforce has quadrupled since the mid-1980s, according to Pew Research Center, with about 19% of the age group holding a job.

They work in a range of positions, including high-powered jobs like lawmakers, presidents and company executives. This year, 24 members of Congress were older than 80, including Senator Chuck Grassley, the oldest lawmaker at age 92.

Several factors may be leading more people to work into their later years, ageing experts said. For one, more people have access to health care, meaning more Americans are making it to their 80s.

For some, the move may be financially necessary, as the cost of living in the US continues to rise. A recent survey conducted by Indeed Flex, a job search site, says almost 30% of retirees are considering part time or temporary work. Over 60% of those who are say the rising cost of living is a factor. But about half also attribute it to a desire for more social interaction.

Another reason, perhaps, is a change in attitude about age, and what can be accomplished, said Gordon Lithgow, a professor with the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.

"I hope that people are beginning to think, it's really who's qualified for the job, it's not what age they are," Lithgow said. "There's no question that people can function well into their 70s and potentially their 80s as well."

For Harriet Newman Cohen, a 93-year-old matrimonial lawyer who still goes to court and just wrote a memoir, some of the most interesting and rewarding years of her life have been her later decades.

"Working has kept me young, vigorous, energetic, knowledgeable, fun," said Cohen, who has represented celebrities in their divorces, including former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. "I just can't imagine living any other way."

Health considerations

While being older often means being more experienced at one's job, some think it can be a liability if serious age-related illnesses - like cognitive decline and general loss of stamina - get in the way.

The issue of ageing is what eventually led Biden to drop his re-election bid in the presidential race against Trump in 2024. After a dismal debate performance, prominent Democrats raised worries about Biden's cognitive abilities and called on him to leave the race.

Some lawmakers and members of the public have also raised concerns about Trump's health as he turns 80.

At a congressional hearing this month, Democrat Ted Lieu showed a series of videos which appeared to show the commander-in-chief dozing off in meetings, saying it showed "something very wrong".

Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the line of questioning "absurd" and said he had never seen Trump fall asleep in public. "On the contrary, the guy doesn't sleep, which is a big problem."

Trump's physician has said the bruising regularly seen on the president's hands is down to "minor soft tissue ‌irritation related ⁠to frequent handshaking in the setting of aspirin use for cardiovascular prevention".

After a medical exam two weeks ago at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Trump's doctor said the president was in "excellent health".

Capt Sean Barbabella went on to say that the president's "demanding daily schedule, including multiple high-level meetings, public engagements and regular physical activity continues to support his overall well-being".

But rest can be critical for an older person working in a stressful environment.

The effect of life stressors - such as sleepless nights - can actually be detected in cellular activity, Lithgow said.

"It's actually real biological stress, and it accelerates ageing," he said. "Chronic stressors daily can have a really ravaging effect on people."

Lithgow said sleep was one of the most important factors, as it turns on molecular processes that initiate repairing and recovery in the body.

Cohen said one of her secrets to longevity is sleeping more than eight hours a night, as well as being an avid reader and conversationalist. Her family has always worked past retirement age, including her grandmother, who died while in her 80s in a hallway of the building she owned on her way to fix the plumbing in a tenant's apartment.

"I always knew I would work forever," she said, adding that her work has allowed her to be generous with her family and travel when she wants.

Cohen's career in law - including the new firm she founded with her daughter at age 88 - has given her a sense of purpose, which Lithgow said can often be a benefit for people working in their later years.

That purpose is what drove Rose to keep practising medicine for so long. What he loved most about his job was seeing patients, some of whom started coming to him when they were teenagers and stayed well into their adult years.

"They were still coming to see me 50 years later, which shows you what a bad job I did," he joked.

Rose said the thought never occurred to him to retire earlier because he liked what he was doing, and because he felt like his patients and society were relying on him as a physician.

"I guess I felt that no one could do without me," he said.

Besides a sense of purpose, Lithgow said other factors that can help guard against ageing are good diet, exercise and rest.

But the strongest protectors against accelerated ageing, he said, are a person's income and availability of resources, including health care. Genetics, meanwhile, don't play too much of a role.

"If you start with an ability to access the best possible healthcare, then you're already having an advantage over the vast majority of people," Lithgow said.

Rose remains in good health at the age of 95, though he does not know what sets him apart from many of his peers who never made it to that age, let alone practising medicine.

"I really haven't the faintest idea as to what I've done," he said. "I don't smoke. I have a schnapps every now and then."

Rose said his patients for the most part did not know how old he was, or they did not seem to care. But some were shocked to find out about the 95-year-old doctor.

"The reason is I haven't aged," he said. "I don't look any different."

How Myles Smith turned five years of therapy notes into a debut album

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1dy5xvwrgvo, today

The day before I speak to Myles Smith, the singer posts a message on Instagram.

The release of his debut album, My Mess, My Heart, My Life, is being delayed by a week.

Smith's reasoning is strikingly honest. After years of touring and "constantly moving", he says he was close to burning out and wanted to make sure he could fully appreciate the moment he had spent years working towards.

In many ways, the decision reflects the album itself.

Built in part from five years of therapy notes, the album finds Smith revisiting moments of struggle, recovery and, as he puts it, "all the sort of messes in between".

And it arrives after a whirlwind few years for Smith.

At 28, the Luton born singer-songwriter has become one of Britain's biggest breakthrough artists in recent years.

Blending folk-infused pop songs with anthemic choruses, he has built a reputation for emotionally open songwriting.

"Take my heart, don't break it, love me to my bones," he sings on 2024 hit Stargazing, a plea for connection that went on to become the best-selling British song of that year.

Since then, Smith has won the Brits rising star award, made the Time 100 list of influential people, and amassed billions of streams.

Yet for all the milestones, this debut album presents an artist less concerned with achievement and more focused on unpacking the experiences that shaped him pre-fame and turning them into a body of work.

"It was fun. It was intriguing. It was cathartic. It was a bit of everything, honestly," Smith says of that process.

One of the album's most candid moments comes on a track called Sertraline.

Named after the antidepressant medication, the song tackles mental health and masculinity.

'I'm reflective of such a beautiful culture'

Smith is thoughtful on the subject and is keen not to "hyperpolarise the issue", but says it is important for him to be open about his own experiences.

"It's really important in my role as a British artist, but not only as a British artist, as a black male in this space to be able to be vulnerable, to be able to be open on tracks."

Growing up, he was inspired by artists such as Labrinth, who he calls an "early example of someone who looks like me and sounds like me and is open and expressive of his emotions".

At the same time, Smith is wary of being treated as an exception.

"I don't like to be seen as exceptional," he says. "I'm reflective of such a beautiful culture with such a vast array of talents."

Rather than viewing his success as unique, he hopes it can help create opportunities for others.

"If anything, it should be showing that there's millions of Myles Smiths who exist, and hopefully now there's more of a ladder and a pathway for that to be seen."

For an artist whose music is built on emotional openness, it would be easy to assume that sharing personal stories comes naturally.

But Smith admits there are still some songs he writes purely for himself.

On Grandma's Place, he turns his attention to family, childhood and loss, revisiting memories of a place he describes as a refuge growing up.

That song was so personal that, for a time, he was not convinced it would make the album.

"Sometimes I write songs like that and they just sit on a hard drive because they are for me," he says. "But this one just felt super right."

Although My Mess, My Heart, My Life was pieced together across dressing rooms, hotel rooms, tour buses and studios over three years, Smith says he relied on a close-knit group of collaborators throughout the process.

Among them was producer Peter Fenn and songwriter Gabe Simon, who co-wrote Grandma's Place.

"I only feel free and open when I'm with my friends," he says.

Among those he now counts as friends is Niall Horan. The former One Direction star is the album's only credited guest artist, appearing on Drive Safe.

But friendships with Horan and artists such as Ed Sheeran are rarely just about music.

"I feel like with Niall and Ed the friendship is really awesome because none of the conversations are ever really about work," he says.

'I'm still the same Myles I was three years ago'

Those conversations have become increasingly valuable to Smith as his profile has grown.

"Ed said this comment to me one time: 'As you get bigger, and as you get more famous, you don't change, the people around you do.'

"To me, I'm still the same Myles I was three years ago, five years ago, 10 years ago," he says.

While Smith may still see himself as the same person he was before the success arrived, the speed of his rise is hard to ignore.

In 2024, he took to the BBC Introducing stage at Radio 1's Big Weekend in his hometown of Luton. Within a year, he had graduated to the festival's main stage, returning again this year to a packed crowd in Sunderland and sharing the moment with Horan.

But while much of My Mess, My Heart, My Life looks backwards, it does not stay there.

The latter part of the album moves towards something more hopeful.

Songs such as Nice To Meet You, Gold and Stay (If You Wanna Dance) shift the focus from reflection to optimism and being present in the moment.

"It was important to end the album, and particularly this project on a high," he says.

"I feel like I always try to mirror my music with my live shows and my live shows are always about taking people on an emotional journey and then sending you home happy."

It is that sense of hope which lingers on as Gold closes the album.

"Even though I may appear miserable for a lot of this album, I genuinely always walk with hope and I walk with joy at the end of the day," he says.

Popular US movie critic Gene Shalit dies aged 100

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cddl612l35ro, yesterday

Wisecracking veteran US movie critic Gene Shalit has died aged 100, his family has confirmed to his former network NBC.

The moustachioed reviewer became known for his playful humour, celebrity interviews and animated reviews in his personalised segment Critics Corner on NBC's flagship morning programme the Today show.

Shalit's family wrote that he "passed away peacefully today after 100 years of an amazing life". No cause of death was provided.

"The 'TODAY' Show was an extraordinary era for him," his family said in a statement shared with NBC News.

Shalit became a popular fixture in American households from the 1970s through to his retirement in 2010, stylistically standing out with his thick-framed spectacles, polkadot bowties and frizzed hair, suffusing his segments with pun-filled wordplay.

Marking his 100th birthday earlier this year, the Today programme compiled a montage of famous celebrity interviews over his years, including Hollywood stars like Carol Channing and Liza Minelli, and director Steven Speilberg.

Presenters remarked that he would eke out personal confessions and emotional reactions from his guests through his skilful questioning.

He also interviewed the leading cast of Star Wars, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill, at the crescendo of the sci-fi franchise's popularity in the 70s.

Prior to his TV career, Shalit was a senior film critic for Look Magazine, and continued to spend years penning columns in the New York Times, Ladies' Home Journal and TV Guide.

In 2002, his book Great Hollywood Wit was published, an anthology he wrote features a "glorious cavalcade of Hollywood wisecracks, zingers, japes, quips, slings, jests, snappers, & sass from the stars", as teased on the front cover featuring a caricature in his unique likeness.

Shalit planned to write a book titled Procrastination is a Full Time Job upon retiring from the Today show, according to his network profile. It was never published.

Trump's name being removed from Kennedy Center after judge order

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yzd4dgxw4o, today

Workers have begun removing US President Donald Trump's name from the front of the Kennedy Center in Washington, a day after the court deadline for its removal.

The president's name had been added to the performing arts venue unlawfully, a federal judge found last month, ordering it to be taken down by Friday 12 June.

Crews erected scaffolding on Friday as onlookers gathered into the evening, though thunderstorms delayed the work until early on Saturday.

A last‑minute attempt by the Trump administration to pause the order was rejected by the judge.

The case stems from a broader legal dispute over the renaming of the cultural institution, which US law designates as a memorial to President John F Kennedy.

In the early hours of Saturday, workers hung long tarps from the structure, obscuring the removal of the letters.

Some onlookers chanted "take it down", according to the BBC's US partner CBS.

US District Court Judge Christopher Cooper ruled in late May that the venue in central Washington DC cannot be renamed without congressional approval.

He also blocked the centre's temporary closure during upcoming proposed renovations.

An appeals court declined to intervene immediately, allowing the removal to proceed pending further arguments.

The Trump administration had argued that changing the centre's name could create confusion if the decision were later overturned.

The US president announced the addition of his name to the institution, among other rebranding measures across the nation's capital, last year.

In February 2025, he replaced several trustees on the centre's board and appointed himself as a trustee before being voted in as the arts centre's chairman.

Does the UK have a blind spot on UFO sightings?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3929kk7gdjo, today

After more than four decades in the cockpit, retired pilot Chris Crowther has seen just about everything the skies can offer.

Over a 42-year career, he logged an extraordinary 22,000 flying hours on routes around the globe.

But one incident has puzzled with him for nearly half a century.

It happened in 1978, as Crowther, who lives near Wroxham, Norfolk, was piloting a light aircraft on approach to Norwich Airport.

In a split second, he says, something crossed his path – something he still cannot explain.

Decades later, the memory remains as vivid as ever, raising a question that continues to intrigue aviation professionals and the public alike: what exactly are we seeing in our skies?

"We were coming across The Wash at 7,500ft (2,300m) when Eastern Radar [a joint civilian/military air traffic control centre that existed until 1988] called up and said, 'We've got unidentified traffic, opposite direction, fast moving... height unknown,'" Crowther recalls.

"We looked up and in that split second, something went past our starboard wing tip, so fast it was very hard to define, but I still have the image in my mind of what looked like a dozen dark objects, perhaps the size of a football... something like that, that went winging right past our wing tip... and then they were gone."

Crowther did not report this sighting, but his account is far from unique. In recent years, sightings of claimed unidentified flying objects (UFOs) – now more commonly referred to as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) – have shifted from the fringes of public curiosity into mainstream discussion.

Nowhere has this shift been more pronounced than in the United States, where the government has released a tranche of declassified documents and military pilots, intelligence officials, and whistleblowers have come forward under oath to share their experiences.

Their testimony has described encounters with objects capable of manoeuvres far beyond known human technology, alongside claims of secretive crash retrieval programmes.

While scepticism remains, the growing official acknowledgement has helped fuel global debate and renewed interest in the phenomenon.

Film director Steven Spielberg has returned to the subject, which he first explored in 1977's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with his new movie Disclosure Day.

It imagines a world on the brink of the revelation of proof that non-human intelligence exists and has been hidden in plain sight.

Unlike the US, the UK currently lacks a formal, centralised system for recording or investigating UFO sightings.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) once operated a dedicated UFO desk, assessing reports for potential threats to national security.

However, it was shut down in 2009, largely due to defence budget cuts.

Since then, there has been no official mechanism for the public – or even trained observers, such as pilots – to report unusual sightings.

For some, that represents a worrying blind spot.

David Jon, a former National Crime Agency officer based in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, has made it his mission to address what he sees as a growing gap in national security and scientific understanding.

He runs the SEPI (Supernatural, Extra-terrestrial, Paranormal Investigations) Agency, an independent organisation dedicated to researching UAPs and paranormal incidents and is actively campaigning with a petition for the government to establish a national reporting office.

His agency has 32 UFO cases from across the world on its books, two of which are still open.

He says he and his team use police-style techniques in their investigations, and that while most sightings can be explained, about 20% cannot.

Jon argues the issue is being taken far more seriously elsewhere, particularly in the US, where dedicated Pentagon units now analyse reported UAP encounters.

He believes the UK risks falling behind in understanding potential threats – or opportunities – linked to UAPs and is calling for closer collaboration with international partners.

"I want the government to take this subject seriously and put some money behind it," he says.

"People are now more empowered... people have a 4K camera in their pockets these days, so we are capturing a lot more evidence but there's nowhere to report them to.

"It doesn't mean our airspace is not experiencing the same things [as the US]; indeed, I'd argue we've had a lot more incidences here in the UK that need proper investigation."

While misidentified aircraft, atmospheric phenomena or even advanced military technology account for many sightings, others remain stubbornly unexplained.

The Rendlesham Forest incident of December 1980 is often described as Britain's most well-documented UFO event.

Over a series of nights, US Air Force personnel at twin bases in Suffolk reported seeing strange lights in the forest, along with what some described as a landed craft of unknown origin.

The incident prompted official investigations and has since become a cornerstone of UFO research in the UK.

In the 1990s, Nick Pope, a civil servant working at the MoD, was tasked with examining such cases to determine whether they posed any risk to national defence.

Pope spent years reviewing reports and interviewing witnesses, including those connected to Rendlesham.

Although he often emphasised that most sightings had conventional explanations, he acknowledged that a small percentage remained unexplained.

Pope wrote extensively on the subject of UFOs and, diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, continued to speak publicly.

He spoke to the BBC shortly before his death in April.

"This wasn't lights in the sky, this was a landing; British and American witnesses, multiple military witnesses," he said of the Rendlesham Forest incident.

"This is a defence and national security issue... People use the phrase 'drone' very loosely these days but there is no getting away from the fact that military bases have been directly overflown by these things, and it's not unreasonable for the British people to want some answers."

Despite these accounts, the official government position remains cautious.

The MoD maintains that no reported sightings of extraterrestrial intelligence, UFOs, or UAPs have ever indicated a direct military threat to the United Kingdom.

That stance offers reassurance but not necessarily answers.

An MoD spokeswoman said she was not aware of any point within the government for reporting such sightings, but added: "If the public are concerned about use of the airspace, they could contact the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority)."

A CAA spokesman said: "To our knowledge, there is no active monitoring of this taking place in the UK and the CAA has never been involved in any such activity.

"A lot of the 'unidentified flying objects' we see reported are unmanned aircraft systems (drones).

"Where people have airspace concerns these should be reported to the CAA... and safety concerns can further be reported via our website.

"There are also Airprox reports which cover reported near misses or objects close to aircraft to further encourage air safety."

In February, the BBC reported that an MoD Police investigation into drone sightings over US airbases in Norfolk, Suffolk and Gloucestershire in 2024 had not identified any suspects.

Prof Chris French, emeritus professor at Goldsmith's College, London, is a UFO sceptic.

"The vast majority of sightings don't have any kind of national security implications and also don't have any kind of relevance to the idea of ET (extraterrestrial) invasions," he says.

He says there are research bodies to which people can report sightings, he sees no need for government involvement.

"As a scientist, as a psychologist who's interested in these types of phenomena, the more data the better, as far as I'm concerned," he says.

"But I can see that from the point of view of the government, when resources are tight... they are probably not going to fund any kind of organisation to do this."

For pilots like Crowther, and researchers like Jon, the question is not just whether these phenomena pose a threat, but whether enough is being done to understand them at all.

With no official reporting structure, they fear many sightings risk going unrecorded, their details lost to time.

Crowther would welcome more openness on the subject.

"I think if not, people's imaginations run wild and I think we would all like to know exactly what is going on," he says.

As interest in UAPs continues to grow internationally, pressure may yet build on the UK government to revisit its approach.

In the meantime, incidents like the one Crowther says he experienced remain unexplained.

And for those who say they have witnessed them, the mystery is far from over.

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Healey wanted UK to join global defence bank, BBC told

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce8jyd85ejeo, yesterday

Former defence secretary John Healey was privately pushing for the UK to join an international investment bank to raise more money for defence spending, BBC News has been told.

Allies of Healey claim the Treasury tried to shut down negotiations for the UK to join the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB), an idea spearheaded by Canada.

In his resignation letter Healey said there were "credible ways" to fund extra defence spending, including "working multi-nationally".

Treasury sources indicated to the BBC the chancellor had been looking at ways to fund defence with countries aside from the Canadian suggestion, including discussions with Poland about a "Multi-Lateral Defence Mechanism".

The DSRB, which aims to help member countries fund defence projects at low costs, is expected to be officially launched at a Nato summit next month.

Countries wishing to join will be asked to contribute an upfront investment of around £870m.

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney, who has been pushing the idea on the global stage, is said to be keen for the UK to join the project.

Ministers have been mulling it for months but the chancellor is thought to have been unwilling to pay.

Healey resigned as defence secretary on Wednesday, saying the amount of money attached to the government's upcoming Defence Investment Plan fell "well short" of what was needed.

Sir Keir Starmer told the BBC on Friday he had made "hard-edged" choices on defence spending, including asking government departments to make cuts to help pay for it. The Defence Investment Plan has yet to be announced.

Healey said Number 10 and the Treasury were prepared to give around £10bn in additional money in this plan, around £18bn less than what military chiefs have reportedly asked for.

It is understood Healey believed joining the DSRB could have helped bridge a funding gap as well as supporting British businesses in the defence sector.

A group of defence-focused Labour MPs have been lobbying ministers to look more closely at the DSRB for months.

One advocate of the UK joining the bank said it was likely that the up-front cost would have to be paid for by borrowing.

Earlier this week Chancellor Rachel Reeves indicated she was not in favour of borrowing more money to increase defence spending.

The Canadian High Commissioner to the UK told Politico Gordon Brown, who is advising the prime minister on global finance, has held direct talks with Carney about the DSRB.

Supporters hope it will lead to direct low-cost lending to governments as well as credit guarantees for commercial banks that give loans to defence companies.

But some in Whitehall have raised concerns the model being offered would be more likely to benefit smaller economies with lower credit ratings.

The Treasury has been contacted for comment.

The nuclear challenge at the heart of Trump's Iran negotiations

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqj1zxv1jyeo, today

The US is confident that a deal to end the war with Iran will be signed in the next few days, a senior Trump administration official has said.

The agreement could reopen the Strait of Hormuz in return for the US lifting its blockade on Iranian shipping.

While officials say the deal will also lead to the destruction and removal of Iran's enriched uranium stockpiles - a key component of nuclear weapons - the technical details are still being worked out.

If and when an agreement is signed, it will likely be judged against the 2015 nuclear agreement negotiated by the Obama administration and other nations, which was abandoned by Trump during his first term.

Trump's 'nuclear dust' plans

Uranium is a naturally occurring radioactive element. It contains special properties that can be used to fuel nuclear power plants, but also help develop nuclear weapons.

However, it needs to be "enriched" first, a process that involves increasing the concentration of uranium-235 isotope - the essential component of nuclear fuel.

Since the war started on 28 February, Trump has repeatedly said Iran needs to surrender its stockpiles.

"They're going to give us the nuclear dust", he said on 29 March.

He reiterated this in an interview with NBC on 7 June, saying: "If we make a deal now we're friendly, we'll all go together. It'll be our equipment. We'll take it out and destroy it, whether it's onsite or whether we take it offsite."

Iran, however, has previously said "zero enrichment" is a red line and a violation of its rights.

The fate of Iran's uranium stockpile was central to the 2015 nuclear agreement - the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - which imposed strict limits on Iran's enrichment activities.

"The number one issue that was running at that time was whether Iran was going to go for building a nuclear weapon", former JCPOA lead negotiator Baroness Ashton told BBC Verify.

When it was introduced, the Obama administration declared that the JCPOA would prevent Iran from building a secret nuclear programme and that Tehran had agreed to "extraordinary and robust monitoring, verification, and inspection".

In exchange, the US agreed to lift sanctions against Iran, including on oil, trade and banking.

Under the deal, Iran could only keep a small amount of monitored, low-enriched uranium.

It had to reduce its stockpile by 98% (to 300kg; 660lbs), could enrich only up to 3.67% purity and limits were placed on its centrifuges - the machines used to enrich uranium.

Low-enriched uranium - typically 3-5% purity - is enough to produce reactor fuel required for a nuclear power station, but weapons-grade uranium needs to be at least 90% enriched.

The breakdown of the 2015 deal

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, reported that Iran was complying with the agreement until the US withdrew from it in 2018.

"The deal was remarkably successful," argues Kelsey Davenport from the Arms Control Association (ACA), a national nonpartisan membership organisation.

"Any move to nuclear weapons, any deviation from the JCPOA's terms would have been detected," Davenport told BBC Verify, noting that both the IAEA and US intelligence repeatedly assessed Iran was complying.

In an April 2018 report, the US Department of State said Iran was "transparently, verifiably, and fully implementing the JCPOA".

However, when President Trump announced the US withdrawal from the agreement in May 2018, he called it a "horrible, one-side deal that should never, ever have been made".

He said it failed to address Iran's ballistic missile programme, that the inspection requirements lacked mechanisms "to prevent, detect, and punish cheating" and that Israeli intelligence showed Tehran's "history of pursuing nuclear weapons".

Jacob Olidort, chief research officer at the America First Policy Institute, says Trump was right.

"All of these issues were completely pushed to the sidelines, completely deprioritised and not included in the arrangement", he told BBC Verify.

Baroness Ashton, who negotiated the deal on behalf of the UN Security Council, rejects this.

"There was always a criticism that we should have covered all kind of things. But the critical question was, 'Could we prevent any fear that Iran was going to build a nuclear weapon?' And we did that."

"There was plenty of opportunity afterwards to talk about other issues, ballistic missiles, drones etc. And indeed the Trump administration in its first term could have done that," she adds.

"If President Trump felt that the deal was inadequate, then the answer was to build on it, not to rip it up."

Olidort says the time-limited nature of the deal meant Iran could have eventually pursued a nuclear weapon.

"It was always made explicit in the deal that the terms of the deal would expire… The sunset clauses in effect nullify their effectiveness," he argues.

Davenport says that because some limits on the uranium enrichment level and stockpile size were only set for 15 years, "by January 2031, Iran could theoretically expand its enrichment programme".

But many other features were permanent, including IAEA safeguards, she said, adding: "There was still a whole host of other provisions that would have provided assurance that any move in that direction [towards a nuclear weapon] would have been quickly detected".

Lifting sanctions

Money has been a recurring theme of Trump's criticism, taking aim at former President Barack Obama multiple times.

"Obama signed that stupid deal where he paid them billions, and billions of dollars. He thought he could bribe them," he told NBC on 7 June.

Under the JCPOA, Iran gained access to billions of dollars in previously frozen assets and benefited from the lifting of international sanctions.

Baroness Ashton, however, says sanction relief was a necessary requirement to secure the agreement.

"If you sanction someone because they're doing some behaviour and they change the behaviour, then by definition the sanction cannot stay."

Olidort argues lifting sanctions helped Iran fund its conventional weapon programmes in addition to its nuclear one.

In the years after the US withdrew from the agreement, Iran began to accelerate its uranium enrichment programme.

In June 2022, the IAEA assessed that Iran held 43.1kg (95lbs) of 60% enriched uranium.

The US and Israel attacked Iran's facilities in June 2025, which American officials said significantly set back the prospect of Tehran building a nuclear weapon.

At the time of the attacks, the IAEA estimated Iran had obtained 440.9kg (972lbs) of ⁠uranium enriched up to 60% purity.

The head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, told the Associated Press in April that the majority of Iran's highly enriched uranium (roughly 200kg; 440lbs) was likely located in underground tunnels at its Isfahan nuclear complex, about 273 miles (440km) south of Tehran.

Grossi said inspectors had been unable to verify the site since the conflict began.

"We haven't been able to inspect or to reject that the material is there and that the seals - the IAEA seals - remain there," he said.

Grossi added the the IAEA also wanted to inspect Iran's nuclear facilities at Natanz and Fordo.

Nuclear negotiations

In a Truth Social post last month, Trump declared his envisaged deal would be "far better" than the JCPOA.

While the exact terms are unclear, Davenport argues Iran will expect to benefit economically from any agreement and that Trump may attempt to resist any comparison with the JCPOA given his past criticism of sanctions relief.

"Iran is not going to agree to a deal that does not include sanctions relief and assets or access to its frozen assets. Tehran has made very clear that those are key issues", she says.

Trump will likely want to show he secured concessions that Obama could not, she adds. That could include a temporary suspension of enrichment and the disposal of Iran's existing stockpile.

"He's going to point to two factors to claim victory, that he cleaned up a mess that he'll say accelerated under Biden and he got what Obama couldn't, which was a multi-year suspension".

However, Davenport also points out that Iran's nuclear programme is very different from the one negotiators faced in 2015 - due to the apparent destruction of most of its enrichment capacities - making it hard to draw direct comparison with the JCPOA.

Olidort believes the US is negotiating from a position a strength and does not see a deal being weaker than the JCPOA.

Iran "is in a much more weakened state from... its capabilities perspectives, but also the state of different proxies in the region".

While the details of any agreement remain unclear, Baroness Ashton argues that military pressure alone is unlikely to secure a lasting settlement.

"All I can say is in my experience, the way that negotiations work is that people have to feel that they've got enough to make it worthwhile participating in that negotiation".

Farmer reported to RSPCA for herding own sheep

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz6vpp27790o, today

A Devon beef and sheep farmer has shared his confusion after he was contacted by the RSPCA for "sheep worrying" while moving his flock from one field to another.

Tom Trueman, 42, who farms near Buckfastleigh, said the incident happened on a Sunday in May while moving the animals across the yard before some broke free and ended up on a road.

He said: "I sent the dog out to round them up and bring them back home. Then, about two weeks later, I get a letter from the RSPCA. A dog rounding up sheep might look like it's sheep worrying - if it's not a collie dog with a farmer next to it."

The RSPCA said it "was unable to discuss complaints about specific people and what action may have been taken".

Trueman said he contacted the animal welfare charity, which told him there was "no need to worry" after he explained the situation.

"We think it was genuinely someone who was, unfortunately, rather ignorant and didn't realise that a black and white collie rounds up sheep," he said.

"The trouble is, there's a definite gap between rural and urban nowadays.

"People don't seem to understand what a farmer actually does."

Trueman urged anybody who thought they had witnessed a sheep worrying incident to stop and ask the person involved.

He said: "In this instance, I was with the dog. If the dog's on its own in a field of sheep, rounding them up, there's no one nearby, then that would be sheep worrying.

"In this instance, when someone like me who looks like a farmer is there with a dog, you'd think it would be obvious."

The RSPCA said it was "so grateful" to people who reported suspected animal suffering.

It said: "We would like to reassure people we will always look into and, if necessary, investigate any complaints made to us about animal welfare.

"A lot of the time issues will be dealt with by advice and education and it is not always appropriate to publicise this information for legal reasons."

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

Emergency by-law approved after octopus surge

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c30ynj1pmj8o, yesterday

A vote has been passed for an emergency by-law to cut the number of larger boats fishing for octopus.

The Cornwall Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (IFCA) wanted emergency rules to cap the size of vessels using pots to catch octopus, to protect the crab and lobster fishery.

In a meeting at County Hall in Truro, the authority passed the by-law nine votes to five.

The by-law, which prohibits multihull vessels more than 10m (33ft) long and monohull vessels more than 12m (39ft) long from using pots to fish for octopus within the Cornwall IFCA district, should become law on 1 July for a year after application to Secretary of State.

A report warned the surge was "adversely affecting local crustacean stocks" by drawing more crabs and lobsters into the same areas.

Regulators said larger vessels were moving inshore and deploying up to 2,000 pots which risked making crustaceans easier targets for octopuses which preyed on shellfish.

Sam Davis, Cornwall IFCA's chief officer, said the by-law would help "reduce the impact" of fishing on crabs and lobsters which also live in the same environment as the octopus.

"Those vessels we are talking about are very capable, they can fish in all weathers, throughout the year and inside and outside of the six-mile limit," Davis added.

"It's reducing the impact of the pots that they are putting on the ground for octopus, on the crab and lobsters themselves.

"There is a lot more work to be done here, we need to move forwards to look at other ways of managing fishing effort that apply not just to the bigger vessels, but the smaller ones as well."

The report also said there were concerns that some fishers had used undersized crabs and lobsters as bait instead of returning them, placing "further pressure on crab and lobster stocks".

Lack of permits and reporting for octopus fishing made it harder to manage the growing pressure, it added.

Octopuses are increasingly making British waters their home, attracted by warmer sea temperatures, researchers have said, after the population of the species surged in 2025.

Fishers in Devon and Cornwall have been landing record amounts of octopus at strong prices with one day's catch earning a record £500,000 in Brixham.

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.

Why the economics make this the craziest World Cup ever

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpv32417nlwo, 2 days ago

Football World Cups are rarely completely politics-free but never has the beautiful game navigated a geopolitical high-wire act of this kind. The main host is at war with a participant, whose team must commute in on match days from another country.

Add to that the quite astonishing coincidence of the US, Canada and Mexico, the three co-hosts of the 2026 World Cup, being in the midst of an epic trade war. Indeed, in the period in between the opening ceremony at the Estadio Azteca, and the final in New Jersey's MetLife Stadium, the three will be renegotiating the USMCA, the North American free trade area.

Donald Trump is extremely focused on the tournament, its sponsors and the impact from his return to the White House last year. The US president has even joked that his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election had the great benefit of allowing him to return for this World Cup, and the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.

After renewed hostilities between Tehran and Tel Aviv, Trump was rather direct in calling for an end to attacks. And as the minutes ticked down towards the tournament's kick off on Thursday night, he appeared to call off new air strikes and seemingly promised that a deal to end the war was close at hand. Earlier in the day he had vowed to hit Iran "very hard". As ever with Trump, much can change very quickly.

He has already controversially accepted a Peace Prize from FIFA, before initiating the war with Iran that has led to a significant global energy and economic shock. There is even a chance the US and Iran could play each other in the knockout stage on the weekend of the US' 250th independence celebrations.

Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, has previously called for ceasefires during World Cups. If the World Cup helps quicken the pace of moves to de-escalate, there could be a material impact on energy prices, supplies and the world economy.

Whether the World Cup can actually influence the world's major economic conflict, who knows. But make no mistake - there is another part of the economic jigsaw that is happening right in front of the eyes of football fans worldwide. It's a complete shakedown of football's economics and also one of the most visible examples of how some of the world's major economies increasingly operate.

Squeezed fans

"Football is nothing without the fans," the legendary late former Scotland World Cup manager Jock Stein once said. Some fans however at the globe's biggest party will have paid previously unheard-of amounts for what may turn out to be dead rubber games, while forking out roughly the normal ticket price just for the commuter train to get to the stadium. Witness the New Jersey Transit train ticket - normally $12.90 return, but $100 for the tournament.

The fans are being squeezed like never before because this is a very different tournament economic model to what has gone before. For a start, it is largely taking place in borrowed American football stadiums (a quarter of the games are in Canada and Mexico), with the US oval ball sport leaving its mark, perhaps indelibly.

This tournament turns the beautiful game into the bountiful game, for organisers FIFA. This could be the most impactful World Cup ever in economic terms, but not for the conventional reason of driving economic activity among the host nations or sparking feel-good spending among those back home in countries that enjoy a good run.

Instead, it is a case study of what is known as the K-shaped economy within the world's traditional advanced economies - where different groups within society experience very different financial outcomes - which when plotted on a graph show one line going diagonally upwards (as on the letter K) and another diagonally downwards (again as on the letter K).

And it is based on a type of attempted economic revolution in the pricing mechanism that clearly does value a certain type of fan more - those on the diagonally upwards line of that graph. It's important to say FIFA has a very different view of things and stresses those bountiful ticket revenues will be redistributed Robin Hood-style to develop football in the world's poorest nations.

The biggest tournament

This tournament is very, very big. The biggest stadiums, the largest number of games by far because the tournament has been expanded from 32 to 48 teams, it will probably have the highest global TV audience of any event ever, and it occurs across the largest mass of land, from Vancouver to Mexico City, ever seen. It is feasible that the winning team will have had to travel a distance the equivalent to the diameter of the Earth.

Then there are the prices. In comparison to the cost of watching elite level football in any other setting, the prices being charged to attend are beyond astronomical. Five-figure dollar amounts for the final, $1000 being the rough typical price for a ticket for one of the more attractive looking group games at the start of the tournament, and even the "bargains" costing a few hundred dollars, for a non-prestige match.

This is a goldmine of economics.

And it is the largest scale trial of an attempt to change the pricing mechanism for events such as this. The use of dynamic pricing, adjusting prices higher and higher in respect of rising demand, has been seen in music concert tickets, and some sports events, but never on this scale.

They may call the game soccer in America, but this is definitely American Football economics. In the NFL, seat pricing is designed for yield management - revenue maximisation is prized above the act of selling out the stadium. US sport is priced at the luxury top end, and so much so that the stadiums are mostly shrinking in capacity, rebuilt for many billions with hospitality suites and lounges where once there was seating.

The supply of these experiences is limited by the length of the season - in the NFL you have just nine home games, roughly half the number of major European football leagues and so in the NFL every game counts even more.

Dynamic pricing, especially of hospitality tickets, has provided the method for teams to squeeze the revenue hard, especially as under NFL rules, the massive TV revenues have been split more equally than in football. With all 11 US World Cup venues being NFL stadiums, American football is leaving its mark on its rather different namesake.

This is all very different to previous tournaments. An essential part of the logic of hosting had been to help catalyse new infrastructure including transport and stadium builds and rebuilds.

2026 sold itself as an asset-light tournament that would avoid costly white elephants such as Miyagi in Japan, Cape Town's Green Point in South Africa, and the $300m Manaus stadium in the middle of the Amazon. The costs had often been met by host-country taxpayers' capital budgets. In turn, those countries had calculated the investments were worthwhile exercises as nation branding in a more global world. But all three stadia struggled to attract enough post-tournament regular use.

2026 has mainly reversed that logic, with a small exception for Mexico. FIFA has rented the stadia, mostly paid for by American Football fans, and then aggressively maximised revenues with US-style pricing. Whereas previous tournaments had large building costs paid for by taxpayers and borrowing, 2026 costs are instead being paid for by the attendees. And the revenues raised will soar, from the increased number of games, size of stadiums and of course these incredible ticket prices.

How much revenue will be raised from tickets and hospitality is unclear. It was initially forecast to more than treble, rising from $929m at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to more than $3bn. Richard Sheehan, economics professor and sports finance expert at the University of Notre Dame, believes the total ticket and hospitality revenue for this years tournament could top $7bn, a seven fold increase. He assumes ticket revenue per match will not just double from the $15m at the last World Cup, but increase nearly five fold to $71m.

It could be a bonanza for the lucky host cities, the stadium owners, the teams and players, but probably not. Unlike USA '94, the cities are not sharing in this soaring ticket revenue. The stadiums have been rented for a fixed sum. The prize money is set. The cities face having to fund the costs.

Alan Rothenberg, who led the USA 1994 World Cup organising committee, explained to the BBC World Service: "It's structurally entirely different. So you really can't compare it. In 1994, FIFA kept the international marketing and TV revenues and then turned the entire tournament over to the US Soccer Federation, which in turn created a separate entity to run it.

"So we had one entity in this country run by us. We were given some attractive sponsorship categories and licensing opportunities as well as ticket opportunities to sell."

In 2026, some of the cities have responded by trying to recoup the security and transport costs of hosting the tournament. The price of transit trains from New York was increased tenfold, before being slightly cut to $98. The Boston train link costs $80. Parking a car? Official rates range up to $175, even $225.

It is a world away from the free transport offered to ticket holders at tournaments in Qatar in 2022, Germany in 2010, Japan in 2002 and France in 1998. In Japan, local volunteers lined routes from the bullet train stations to the stadiums with locals bowing to the fans, feeding them, and on a few occasions after last trains had departed, paying for their taxis home.

After a backlash, FIFA points to the release of some tickets, at lower price points, such as $60, to be distributed by national associations. The most remarkable new development has been the attempt to incorporate the secondary market, touting (or scalping as it is known in the US) within the FIFA ticketing system. Almost all fans can relist their tickets for sale with no upper limit at all, with FIFA taking a 15% cut from both seller and buyer. There have also been tickets allocated through a crypto-linked digital collectible system built on FIFA's blockchain. FIFA says they are extracting the ticket tout or scalpers' premium and claiming it for itself and the global football community.

The billions of dollars in extra cash are going initially into FIFA's reserves, with that promise to distribute its funds to the global football family. FIFA points to such grassroots funding helping to allow Cape Verde to qualify for this year's competition thanks to improved infrastructure and grassroots development of the game. It tends to distribute these development funds equally to the 211 member associations, meaning tiny Montserrat gets a windfall from FIFA worth 2.5% of its annual GDP, or $500 per person. The equal distribution model has existed since the 1990s, and was supercharged by FIFA President Gianni Infantino as part of his election pledge. It is driven by the one-country, one-vote system, which has also been used to select the World Cup hosts from this year on.

All that was before dynamic pricing took off. If Needham's estimates are correct, FIFA's average $3.9bn annual revenue now exceeds the World Health Organization budget and is around the same as the UN's core budget.

"What you're seeing now for the World Cup is probably the first real introduction of dynamic pricing at its most dynamic, in its most complete form… basically FIFA is taking all the scalping possibilities and moving them all in-house."

For now, the pricing means it is unclear exactly how much revenue will come in, but a very large pot of money is being created by the ticket prices. In theory, this money will be welcome by the vast majority of smaller nations who will never qualify for the World Cup or send fans to pay the ticket prices, but who form the electorate for FIFA presidential elections and host nation decisions. The Golden Goose is shimmering right now in terms of value.

But as the World Cup's doors open, there is a risk from this extreme commercialisation.

Will the stadiums be full? Will there be armies of fans from the 48 nations creating the kind of atmosphere that would have satisfied Jock Stein? Will FIFA have to repeat what happened at its Club World Cup last year, and slash prices for tickets as low as $11 to fill seats? On this note, what isn't clear is whether the FIFA dynamic pricing model is prioritising maximising revenue or ensuring all tickets are sold.

Last month, Infantino told an economic conference that "we have to apply market rates" and that football had to adapt to this "very special market". It is obviously, however, a choice to allow unlimited resale prices, and choose repeated aggressive rounds of demand-led price increases.

A very different model

The European model taken by the likes of back-to-back European champions Paris Saint-Germain, is very cheap season tickets at either end of the ground behind the goals, with extraordinary corporate pricing for the seats nearer the halfway line. The idea is that the corporates will be attracted in part by the spectacle and noise of the ultras behind the goals in the cheap seats. The risk for the World Cup is that all that is lost.

There are some signs that the World Cup pricing model is facing a backlash. There have been falls in resale prices for low demand games - two tickets with a face value of $620 (£471) could be bought for £171 on FIFA's own resale site - 64% cheaper.

Few of those $98 tickets were sold on that New Jersey train. Authorities in New York, New Jersey, California and in the EU began looking at complaints about ticketing strategies. "A gauntlet of confusion, fake scarcity and impossibly high prices," according to NJ Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, chief prosecutor for the state hosting next month's final. Whether the state has any jurisdiction over a Swiss-based "non profit" is unclear. FIFA have declined to comment.

The open question is whether FIFA has pushed this experiment in pricing to a breaking point. It seems unlikely that the fans in the host cities of the next World Cup in 2030 in Spain, Portugal and Morocco, will tolerate such prices. British and Irish authorities have already ruled it out when they host Euro 2028, when Europe's top footballing nations compete against each other. It comes at a time when AI could enable the next big innovation in pricing services - personalised prices for different individuals, based on their data.

Some Premier League clubs are dabbling with pricing a selection of seats dynamically to boost revenues. It cuts across the traditional model of a loyal fan purchasing a fixed price season ticket. If this FIFA experiment appears to succeed, it could embolden the US NFL-linked owners of many European Clubs to attempt to price tickets similarly, especially to fund new stadiums.

The K-shaped economy

The US NFL model has been applied to an event that is owned by the world. The US "K-shaped" economy - with boom for the richest top 10% driving as much as half of all consumer spending, according to analysts Moody's, but stagnation and retrenchment at other income levels, may be on display in the stadiums. Dynamic pricing is a technology which seeks out that 10% and prices what may have been once a mass experience for ordinary working people to a tech boom fuelled niche.

The wider hope for many host nations is that more traditional feel-good effects boost consumer confidence and investment the football. Research has shown some effects, especially for well-performing host nations, and negative impacts on stock markets when teams are knocked out. There were some signs in the latest US jobs figures of tens of thousands of new jobs being created especially in hospitality, linked to the World Cup. The overall boost to the economy will be limited, however, by the sheer size of the US economy and its AI investment boom. Jordan vs Algeria may struggle to distract San Francisco from its current role birthing multi trillion AI stock market flotations.

Rahm Emanuel, Mayor of Chicago, the major US city that withdrew as a host of the World Cup, appears to feel vindicated by the decision. FIFA took all the ticket revenue from the hosts, and there are grumbles about hotel bookings in some host cities actually being well down. Many of the host stadia would have been full with rock concerts were it not for the football.

On the face of it, the economic impact in the US of a tournament renting existing stadiums, for which the vast increase in ticket revenue is mainly being diverted to FIFA, may be limited. The potential for economic benefit focuses on a boost to consumer confidence. In the UK, decent runs for England and Scotland may be just the tonic after years of never-ending political and economic crises. Retailers and hospitality are certainly preparing for bumper sales.

Around Russia 2018, analysts Kantar calculated that there were an extra 13 million supermarket visits as people stocked up at home. But there is also the possibility that Britain's productivity challenges will not be helped by the late-night kick-offs. Next Monday has already been announced as a Bank Holiday in Scotland to help the nation with the 2am start for the Tartan Army game against Haiti.

For many it will be a welcome escape from the relentlessness of the news, even if the curiosities of the Trump White House could, in fact, offer a wider economic opportunity.

It is a very different world economy, and this shapes the backdrop to this feast of football. FIFA is conducting a consequential and controversial pricing experiment that could change the game. Meanwhile a highly unusual World Cup might just take the edges off our new world disorder. It's a hope rather than an expectation, but that is a feeling familiar to any English or Scottish football fan.

Top image credit: IMAGN IMAGES/Reuters Connect

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The big numbers behind the UK's newest theme park

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly045jgqj3o, today

The government approved plans in December for Comcast NBCUniversal to build its first theme park in the UK.

Six months later, the resort has an official name, a logo and a growing workforce.

Construction has now started on the multi-billion-pound Universal United Kingdom Resort, which will bring themed "lands", rides, restaurants and a new hotel to the heart of Bedfordshire.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves says the project creates "opportunity and long‑term prosperity for Britain", bringing jobs and "joy" to the region, while Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy says it "puts rocket boosters under our entertainment industry".

Once open, it is predicted to become the biggest tourist attraction in the UK. There are already some big statistics behind it, so what can we tell from the numbers released so far?

The resort

* 476 acres (193 hectares) of land in Kempston Hardwick have already been purchased for the park, with an option to acquire additional land up to a total of 700 acres (283 hectares). For comparison, Alton Towers in Staffordshire has around 550 acres (223 hectares) of rides, gardens and visitor space. Universal Orlando Resort's main campus is approximately 541 acres (219 hectares), covering four parks.

* 115m (377ft) is the tallest ride that Universal UK could build, according to their planning consents. That would be roughly equivalent to a 35-storey apartment block. The UK's tallest ride is currently Hyperia at Thorpe Park in Surrey at 72m (236ft). The tallest rollercoaster in Europe is Red Force in Spain at 112m (367ft) and the tallest overall ride is believed to be a drop tower at Hansa-Park in Germany at 120m (394ft).

* 8.5 million people are initially expected to visit the resort each year, growing to 12 million in time. According to the Themed Entertainment Association, Alton Towers had the most visitors of any UK theme park in 2024 at about 2.5 million, with Legoland Windsor a close second. The most visited tourist attraction in the UK is the Natural History Museum with more than seven million annual visitors.

* 500 rooms will be provided in the resort hotel.

* 2031 is the year the park is due to open to visitors.

* Every seven minutes a shuttle bus will leave from Milton Keynes Central to Universal UK, according to MP Emily Darlington.

* Four trains per hour are expected to stop at Stewartby station, a few minutes' walk from the resort, once East West Rail opens in the early 2030s. Visitors will also be able to use a new station being built on the Midland Mainline at Wixams, connecting passengers from Leeds to London.

The jobs

* 20,000 jobs are expected to be created during the construction phase of the theme park, including engineering and technical positions.

* 8,000 more are promised once the park opens, including in "hospitality, technology and creative".

* 4,200 businesses have expressed an interest in being involved in the park, according to the chancellor. The company asks those registering to specify where most of their recommended workforce for the project live, with "local to Bedford" and "within the region" as the first two options, ahead of UK, Europe and finally worldwide.

* 100-plus people from the UK have already been employed to work on the project.

* 33,000 people have expressed an interest in employment opportunities.

* 80% of the overall workforce at the theme park is expected to come from Bedfordshire and neighbouring counties, with Universal stating "local focus is important."

Comcast NBCUniversal said: "For Bedford, this is not just about a theme park arriving nearby. It could mean new career paths for school leavers, college students, apprentices, tradespeople, hospitality workers, performers, engineers, project managers, security professionals and people already working in tourism or leisure."

The UK government said: "Universal had committed to world-class training opportunities for the next generation of its workforce, including through a range of apprenticeships and internships.

"This aligns with the government's work to unleash the potential of the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor and lay the foundations for Bedford to become an innovation hub."

The money

* £50bn is how much the resort is expected to contribute to the UK economy between now and 2055.

* £5bn is what Comcast NBCUniversal will spend on constructing the resort, with a further £1bn over the first decade of operation.

* £1.3bn from the UK government will be spent on "regional and local community infrastructure to ensure the park can operate successfully, with improved transport links for local residents and visitors from across the UK and abroad".

As part of its £1.3bn investment, the government will provide a grant of £400m through the exceptional Regional Growth Fund and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will provide a grant of £438m to invest in new community infrastructure.

It said "these grants will only be paid once Universal has completed the community infrastructure (in the case of the DCMS grant) and officially opened the theme park and resort".

The remaining investment will come from the Department for Transport and be used to upgrade the A421 and Wixams station, which it said "will provide wider resilience and improved connectivity within the region at an expected cost of £474m".

A Conservative councillor for Central Bedfordshire has raised concerns that the government investment in infrastructure is not sufficient to ensure local communities are not negatively affected.

Sue Clarke said: "In this one small area, we have Universal theme park, East West Rail and another 5,000 homes approved, and nobody is looking at joining these together and what the cumulative impact is of all these major projects in one place.

"Universal means East West Rail needs to run more trains than we were expecting, and it'll close more roads than we were expecting and there'll be a big knock-on-effect for us."

In Oxfordshire, where there are plans for a new theme park and rail freight interchange, concerns have also been raised about the impact.

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India's 'blue gold' starts a new drinks industry

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdrpe4vly5mo, 2 days ago

A desert plant changed the life of Masapalli Venkatesh.

His 10-acre farm in Kandukur is on the Deccan Plateau, which covers a large part of southern and central India. There he grows tomatoes, peanuts and corn.

But in 2010 he was approached by traders looking for a very different crop - the cactus agave americana.

For him and his fellow farmers the agave cactus was just a "stubborn, valueless weed" - planted as fencing to keep wild animals off their crops.

But it is also part of the family of agave plants that feed the $15bn (£11bn) global market for tequila and mezcal.

In Mexico, blue agave is farmed in the state of Jalisco to supply the tequila industry. Only plants from select areas of Jalisco can be used to make tequila.

Unlike in Mexico, where vast plantations dominate the landscape, nobody grows agave commercially in India - at least not yet.

Instead, Indian farmers and entrepreneurs collect and process agave that grows wild.

For some, like Venkatesh, it's a welcome source of extra income - earning it the name "blue gold".

These days Venkatesh ranges across an area of 100km (60 miles), co-ordinating villagers and farmers.

"By combining the yields of multiple farms, I ensure a steady, high-volume supply that distilleries are willing to pay a premium for," he says.

Harvesting agave plants is a skilled job.

The most important part of the plant is the heart, known as the piña because it resembles a giant pineapple.

Skilled workers reveal the heart by chopping off the spiky leaves. But getting the timing of the harvest right is crucial.

Once the plant decides to bloom, it channels its entire reserve of accumulated sugar upward into the stalk in a matter of days.

If the flower blooms, the sugar is completely depleted, making the piña useless for alcohol production.

"Gatherers must accurately identify the exact pre-blooming window to harvest the plant at its absolute peak sugar capacity, making the timing of the harvest incredibly narrow," says Rakshay Dhariwal, founder of the distiller Maya Pistola Agavepura.

Once harvested, the clock starts ticking. The piñas must get to a pressure cooker within 24 hours, where the sugars can be extracted.

"Any transport delay can risk ruining the batch. If it takes longer than 24 hours, the internal sugars begin to rot and ferment unpredictably, destroying the delicate flavour profile needed for premium spirits," says Dhariwal.

And transportation is not straightforward, as agave suppliers are scattered across vast distances in states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh.

"Brands like us cannot simply order from a centralized farming cooperative. We rely on networks of local aggregators to scout, negotiate for, and harvest individual patches of semi-wild agave growing on marginal lands or rural property boundaries," he says.

It's all helping to meet a rising demand for agave spirits. According to Dhariwal, the Indian market for agave spirits is growing at a rate of 31%.

"It's only been a few years now, that India's finally caught the tequila bug," says Vikram Achanta, co-founder of 30 Best Bars India.

"Producers are beginning to experiment with it seriously, and there's a consumer base today that is far more open to exploring new spirits than before," he says.

Aqave drinks are unlikely to replace whisky, India's favourite spirit, he says, but they could carve out a market.

"New brands are interesting examples of early experimentation, especially in how they're working with wild agave from the Deccan Plateau and beginning to shape what an Indian agave identity could look like. It's still early days, but they're helping move the category from curiosity to something more credible," he adds.

Desmond Nazareth is a pioneer in the Indian agave spirit industry. His company, Agave India, launched India's first homegrown agave spirit in 2011.

"What started as kitchen experiments eventually became India's first craft agave distillery after nearly 12 years of research and experimentation," he says.

"We were making Indian agave spirit long before the market was ready for it. It was a craft business way ahead of its time."

Now he's taking a scientific approach to developing the industry.

"We have taken satellite images of areas where agave already grows successfully, then matched those environmental patterns with nearby regions to identify more suitable land. That's important because agave grows for 9–13 years. If you plant in the wrong area, you lose a decade," he says.

With growing demand is there a danger that India's wild supplies of agave will become depleted? Not for at least five years, and probably longer says agricultural expert, Miguel Braganza.

He points out that India's domestic industry is still tiny, with just one plant for processing agave hearts, which belongs to Nazareth's Agave India.

Also, the wild agave plant is very good at propagating itself.

"When you look at a wild agave, you aren't just looking at a single plant. Beneath the soil, the mother agave is incredibly busy. Throughout her 10-to-20-year life, she secretly sends out long root-runners into the earth," says Braganza,

And those roots are the source of future plants.

"Every few feet, a mini-clone of herself pops out. Those baby plants grow their own roots and become independent plants, slowly forming large agave colonies over time. So one plant can naturally turn into dozens of plants across an area without any human help,"

India's wild supply of cheap agave plants is far from ideal, points out Indian entrepreneur Sree Harsha Vadlamudi.

Unlike farmed plants the wild plants are "geneticially inconsistent" he says.

"That means sugar yields fluctuate... and that means alcohol output changes. So standardizing production becomes difficult. Mexico solved this over decades through selective breeding. India hasn't yet," he says.

Vadlamudi co-founded tequila brand Loca Loka. It uses Mexican blue agave from the tequila heartland of Jalisco.

"We wanted to leverage the rich, iron-heavy red soil left behind by ancient volcanic eruptions in Jalisco, Mexico. This unique terroir imparts a distinct flavour profile to the agave that cannot be replicated by growing the same seeds in Indian soil," Vadlamudi says.

Mexico's large, organised agave farms are a sharp contrast to India's informal system.

Those big, rich farms can afford hi-tech farming techniques. Some combine drones and AI systems to monitor their crops.

"Drones scan thousands of hectares to accurately count individual crops, assess plant health, spot early signs of disease, and monitor the growth of the piña to predict the absolute perfect window for harvesting," Vadlamudi says.

Such investment is still a long way off for Indian producers.

Nazareth accepts that building a significant agave spirit industry will take time. But he's confident.

"India could absolutely become a major agave economy. The Deccan Plateau alone has millions of acres suitable for cultivation. We could theoretically rival Mexico if there's long-term vision and patience."

The World Cup of adverts: How brands are competing to entertain, not simply sell

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c992v43m71do, 2 days ago

Almost six minutes into Nike's frenzied recent football-themed advert, Norwegian superstar striker Erling Haaland finally leaps into life.

Having hitherto sat around the film set waiting patiently with his supposed stunt double, US actor Channing Tatum, the Manchester City forward appears as if from nowhere in slow motion - and in final boss mode - to ruin a young player's shot at glory.

Rip the Script, as the ad is called, features Haaland alongside fellow goal machines Kylian Mbappe and Cristiano Ronaldo.

But more notably, it also features a sea of stars from other parts of the entertainment galaxy that are adjacent to the beautiful game.

They include fictional soccer coach Ted Lasso, Kim Kardashian and her PSG supporting son Saint West, and rappers/football fans Travis Scott, Central Cee and Blackpink's Lisa, as well as basketball icon LeBron James - who is a minority owner in Liverpool FC.

James and Ronaldo appear together looking less like sports stars and more like characters from the X-Men or Justice League.

The cinematic commercial got tongues wagging online last week and capped a crazy run of lengthy, star-studded videos dropping ahead of the Fifa Men's World Cup.

It landed soon after Marty Supreme star and Chelsea fan Timothée Chalamet had been seen pulling together a band of "Backyard Legends", aka footballers Lamine Yamal, Jude Bellingham and Trinity Rodman, in Adidas's five-minute offering.

Its free-flowing neighbourhood tournament was also enjoyed by Puerto Rican music star Bad Bunny as well as Lionel Messi and - via the wonders of technology - a regenerated young David Beckham from his playing days.

Elsewhere, a collaboration between Palace Skateboards streetwear, Nike and England brought us former captain Wayne Rooney delivering a patriotic rallying cry from the pages of William Shakespeare's Richard II.

And many other brands, including Brahma, Budweiser and Pepsi, have all been creatively vying for the attention of football fans, as have Lays Crisps and Lego.

"It's very exciting and fun to start seeing everybody put their pieces on the table," Caleb Jensen, one of the executive creative directors at Wieden+Kennedy, Nike's creative advertising agency, tells BBC News.

"It does feel like it's a World Cup in itself, just in the world of advertising."

Of course, there have always been World Cup-adjacent adverts - from Diego Maradona starring for Coca-Cola in 1982 to a young Scott Parker doing keepie-uppies for McDonald's in 94 and the Brazil team's memorable airport scenes set to a samba beat in 98.

But the ambition and scale of these latest productions - which have been widely shared across social media - appear to have ramped up this time around.

Many feel more like mini-movies than conventional commercials.

"Young people don't want to feel like they're being marketed to," reasons Jensen's creative partner Blair Warren.

'Entertaining content'

Advertising journalist Gurjit Degun, from industry publication Campaign, believes this is part of a broader trend towards companies "creating entertaining content" over more traditional ads.

"These adverts are less about selling products like football boots and fizzy drinks - though they are still in there - and more about cultural engagement and lifestyle," she says.

The trend can also be seen in Christmas adverts, such as Waitrose's four-minute festive rom-com The Perfect Gift starring Keira Knightley and Joe Wilkinson, Degun says.

And given that the US is one of the World Cup host nations, she suggests brands are potentially "tackling it in the way they approach the Super Bowl ads" - by going big and long.

Shorter versions of many commercials - like the Instacart one featuring Ben Stiller and Benson Boone in a retro-pop music video - have appeared on TV during breaks in the action, while directing viewers to see more online.

Hydration breaks during this summer's matches will make it a game of four quarters, not two halves, and therefore allow broadcasters to sneak in more promos.

Tom Berendsen, managing director of production company Business/Club, this year made a Super Bowl advert for Skittles starring Elijah Wood, surreally, as a magical horned woodland creature.

Berendsen's company says its aim is to make films, or "absurdist entertainment", for people "who hate commercials".

"Selling products is dead," he says. "And I think brands have quickly realised that in order to make anyone [care], you have to entertain them, which is easier said than done."

Businesses are now looking to production companies and directors, he says, who are "big in the world of creating entertainment" - making music videos, short films and features.

One such creative, Oscar-winning Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu (The Revenant, Birdman) arguably kicked off the trend in 2010 with his epic Write The Future ad, which had a bearded Rooney living in a caravan park while dreaming of success.

"Big brand ambassadors" like Rooney are needed to stand out in the "saturated" advertising space, says Berendsen.

"The only way that you cut through that barrier is to bring in people with cultural significance that they [viewers] respect.

"But, God, does it cost brands a lot of money to do this."

His own company is now working on a short sitcom and a series of sketches that subliminally serve as an endorsement for a new drink.

"In the old days, you would have a product, and then you'd have advertising to sell a product. Nowadays you create entertainment that happens to sell a product."

Celebrating fan culture

Scottish soft drink Irn-Bru poured some fizz into fans' algorithms last week - ahead of the men's side's first World Cup appearance in 28 years - with the release of a tongue-in-cheek music video, We're Made in Scotland from Girders.

It finds singer Susan Boyle - teed up by midfielder John McGinn - booming out a balladic version of a retro jingle atop the Forth Bridge, while Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos is seen shredding his guitar somewhere near a loch.

Comedian Paul Black and actor Kevin Oakes also appear, but, according to Shelley Smoler, chief creative officer at Lucky Generals, which oversaw the campaign, the focus is firmly on "celebrating Scottish football fans".

"Irn-Bru doesn't have the budgets of some of the other bigger brands, so they have to have a different point of view and punch above their weight," she says.

"We did loads of research to actually find out what the fans are feeling, what the Tartan Army is going through during this time, and what they feel about it.

"So it's not celebrating football greatness or the heroic athletes or the cinematic aspiration that other brands are trying to tap into, but more like the ridiculous travel plans, the impossible odds, the financial irresponsibility and the sleep deprivation - and really tap into Scottish culture that way."

Highlighting the "experiences and challenges" faced by fans during a "genuinely global cultural moment", Smoler says, was the approach in order to make something "very human and easy to relate to".

"As competitive as football is, with all the rivalry, it's the same for brands, and everyone's trying to compete to get the biggest stars, and so you need to give more than that."

Brands like Irn-Bru and Nike have suggested there is more content still to come throughout the World Cup, so we're likely to see new material and more adverts as the summer goes on.

They may depend on how events play out for teams like Scotland and players like Haaland.

"What I will tell you is there are going to be certain ways of making it relevant to the different phases of the tournament," Smoler smiles.

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Elon Musk becomes world's first trillionaire as SpaceX soars in stock market debut

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gypy3wwl7o, yesterday

Elon Musk on Friday became the world's first trillionaire after shares in his SpaceX rocket company soared during the biggest-ever stock market debut.

The Tesla and SpaceX founder comfortably cemented his status as the world's richest man, with his total net worth standing at $1.11tn (£828bn) according to the Bloomberg rich list.

It came as the rocket, telecommunications and artificial intelligence (AI) company listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange with a value of $2.2tn.

The company said its shares would be offered at $135 each, but trading opened at $150 and briefly reached $176.50 in a show of investor enthusiasm for potential business related to space and companies associated with Musk.

SpaceX shares closed on Friday at about $161.

The initial public offering (IPO) of SpaceX raised $75bn from investors and underwriters of the deal before shares of the company hit the open stock market on Friday.

Musk's 42% ownership stake in SpaceX gives him essentially unilateral control over everything it does. He can spend the money being invested however he likes.

According to Bloomberg, his shares in SpaceX were worth $767.1bn at close of trade, and he has another $53.8 in SpaceX options. He also has $168bn in Tesla shares, and a further $116.4bn in Tesla options.

Wealth boost sparks debate

Musk's status as the world's first trillionaire immediately sparked debate about wealth inequality. His wealth is now similar to the entire economic output of Poland or Switzerland.

Such unheard of wealth has already turned Musk into a powerful and divisive figure in global politics.

He gave hundreds of millions of dollars to the re-election campaign of US President Donald Trump after criticising the country's leadership, and for several months last year, Musk led the Department for Government Efficiency (Doge).

Through drastic cuts to government spending, Musk was responsible for the closure of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Such cuts could cause more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, according to a warning published by researchers in the Lancet medical journal.

He has also criticised leadership in the UK and elsewhere, often on topics of immigration and promoting of racial divisions.

Musk has repeatedly clashed with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, including over the murder of 18-year-old British student Henry Nowak.

Democratic US senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were among a slew of politicians to condemn the trillionaire milestone. Warren said it should be a "wake up call" and argued it underlines the need for wealth taxes.

However, Musk is a trillionaire only on paper, as it is almost entirely tied to the value of his stockholdings in Tesla and now SpaceX. He is unable to sell any of his SpaceX stock for at least a year.

SpaceX's public listing is also expected to have made millionaires of more than 4,400 of its current and former staff through the shares in the company they had been given as part of their pay.

SpaceX's valuation is largely based on optimism about its potential future earnings, as opposed to financial results it has demonstrated so far.

It is currently not profitable, meaning it loses more money from its operations than it makes.

The company lost more than $9bn in 2025 and 2026 so far, according to its financial filings, due to its huge spending on AI and other infrastructure investments.

The biggest focus of its business is the manufacture and launch of rockets with reusable parts.

SpaceX also manufactures and launches Starlink internet satellites, and through this year's acquisition of xAI, another company Musk owned and operated, SpaceX entered into the AI business, too.

SpaceX has said it will use the money to "fuel its growth strategy" around rockets, satellites for its growing Starlink internet service, and AI, including speculative plans to build data centres in orbit.

Nancy Tengler, who heads Laffer Tengler Investments and put in an order to buy shares of SpaceX, called the company's AI business a "cash incinerator" despite Musk's ambitions for the segment.

"It's important to take some of the projections with a grain of salt," Tengler said.

Nevertheless, she is buying into the company for its long-term potential.

"Our investment horizon is three, five, and even ten years," Tengler said.

She is also expecting SpaceX to merge with Tesla in the next two years, potentially creating a company worth more than either one on its own.

But the ambitions of SpaceX are currently more lofty than satellites or mergers.

As stated in its IPO prospectus, the mission of SpaceX is: "To build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary, to understand the true nature of the universe and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars."

SpaceX even said that its future growth and success is based in large part on building what it refers to as the "lunar economy."

Essentially, such an economy would entail getting people and cargo to the moon and Mars, something that would need to be a regular occurrence for a true economy to develop around it.

SpaceX admits that it is unsure such a thing will ever succeed.

"Many of our initiatives… involve significant technical complexity, unproven technologies or technologies that do not exist, and such initiatives may not achieve commercial viability," the company wrote in its prospectus.

This level of uncertainty did not seem to trouble investors on Friday.

Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at asset manager Wealth Club said the share price jump was "indicative of huge interest in Elon Musk's vision".

"He has long been reaching for the stars with his extra-terrestrial ambitions, and it appears plenty of investors share his enthusiasm for the future," she said.

But she warned Friday's rally was "being driven as much by hype and scarcity as fundamentals".

While many individual investors were eager to be a part of SpaceX's listing and snap up stock, others had expressed concerns about the number of investors who will be exposed to the company perhaps unintentionally.

Pension pots and savings accounts often invest in index-linked funds, which buy into the biggest firms and will be affected by expected fluctuations in the company's share price.

Where the price of SpaceX goes from here will be the biggest concern for such investors.

"The question on SpaceX is less about the immediate trading after IPO," said Samel Kerr, who leads equity capital markets research for Mergermarket. "It's more about how the price holds over the longer term."

Elon Musk's stratospheric rise to trillionaire status - in charts

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gyp523ly8o, yesterday

Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire on Friday, following the record-breaking stock market debut of his company SpaceX.

With a current estimated net worth of about $1.11tn, according to Bloomberg, Musk sits well above wealthy billionaires topping rich lists, including Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and boss of French luxury goods group LVMH, Bernard Arnault.

Musk - who first made waves in the tech industry in the late 1990s - hasn't always topped the rich list though.

In January 2020, he was only the 35th richest person in the world, with a fortune of around $28bn.

But his wealth took off that year as the value of his two biggest companies - electric carmaker Tesla and space exploration and AI firm SpaceX - began to grow sharply. Musk holds large stakes in both businesses.

The long-scroll chart below traces this volatile journey over the last six years. His wealth trajectory mimics a jagged mountain range, with dramatic surges and steep declines driven by swings in Tesla's share price, the rising value of SpaceX, and shifts in political and investor sentiment during his time in the Trump administration.

By January 2021, the tech mogul had risen to become the world's richest person, briefly overtaking Jeff Bezos.

But his fortune dipped in 2022 amid a downturn in US tech stocks, and fell sharply again in early 2025, as investor concerns over his role in the Trump administration coincided with a slump in Tesla's share price.

Each time, he has come back stronger. Now a trillionaire, Musk is almost four times richer than his nearest rival Larry Page, and more than five times richer than Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg.

But what does a thousand billion dollars (that's a one followed by 12 zeros) actually look like? The chart below breaks this unimaginable sum down, dot by dot, comparing his total wealth to other high-profile figures, government spending budgets and luxury assets.

It's important to remember that Musk's wealth is mainly made up of stock holdings that can rise or fall depending on investor sentiment. Indeed in February, the tech mogul said on X that less than "0.1%" of his net worth was held in cash.

Musk currently owns a 12% stake in Tesla, a company with a market valuation of around $1.5tn, and a 42% stake in SpaceX, which is now worth more than $2tn. Many of his shares have been pledged as collateral against personal loans.

The tech boss also owns stakes in smaller businesses, including The Boring Company, a tunnel construction firm, and Neuralink, which develops implantable brain-computer interfaces.

This extreme reliance on paper assets rather than liquid cash creates a striking imbalance. As the breakdown below illustrates, the horizontal block of his wealth is almost entirely consumed by two massive corporate holdings, leaving virtually no room for actual cash.

Historically, the world's wealthiest individuals earned fortunes in sectors like finance and manufacturing. Today, the global rich list tells a completely different story.

Look at the grid below: the expanding blue blocks show how completely tech titans have monopolised the top spots over the last decade.

Back in 2015, only two of the world's top 10 richest people were from the tech world. Now that number is seven, including the entire top six.

Anthropic suspends new AI tools over US government security concerns

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c932g3v3e13o, today

Anthropic has suspended its powerful new AI model after US authorities raised security concerns just days following its public release.

In a statement published on its website, Anthropic said it was ordered to suspend foreign nationals from using Claude Fable 5, a program that the company self-described as "too powerful".

"The net effect of this order is that we must abruptly disable Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all our customers to ensure compliance," the company wrote.

Anthropic and the Trump administration are involved in a separate ongoing lawsuit over an order to stop government agencies using the company's AI tools. The BBC has approached the US Department of Commerce for comment.

Claude Fable 5 is a version of Anthropic's Claude Mythos, an AI program rivalling competitors OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini.

Anthropic said US national security authorities had not identified specific concerns.

"Our understanding is that the government believes it has become aware of a method of bypassing, or 'jailbreaking' Fable 5," the company said.

Jailbreaking is a process of getting past software restrictions designed to protect a cyber network, allowing hackers to access sensitive information or unblock features.

"We reviewed a demonstration of this specific technique being used to identify a small number of previously known, minor vulnerabilities," Anthropic said.

"These vulnerabilities all appear relatively simple, and we have found that other publicly-available models are able to discover them as well without requiring a bypass."

Ahead of the release of Claude Fable 5, the company touted various "safeguards" it had implemented to prevent cyber hacking.

Finance, technology and government leaders had expressed concerns about its public rollout, following a private release in April for previewing and testing vulnerabilities within its own system.

Anthropic said it enabled pre-release access for a handful of organisations because the tool was so intelligent that it could be dangerous because of its ability to exploit or hack computer systems.

The company self-proclaimed that it was "too powerful to release" before Claude Fable 5 was publicly released, which some critics questioned as inflated hype and marketing spin.

"Fable's capabilities exceed those of any model we've ever made generally available," the company said.

The European Union, which gained access to Mythos earlier in June after weeks of talks, said the latest development further underlined "Europe's need for technological sovereignty".

"We take note of Anthropic's statement and are assessing," said Thomas Regnier, a spokesman for the European Commission, which this month unveiled measures to slash the 27-nation bloc's dependence on America and Asia for key technologies, including AI.

Gina Neff, Professor of Responsible AI at Queen Mary University London, told the BBC that the decision to restrict access to the model could limit the development and safe testing of these AI systems.

She warned it could also restrict collaboration with governments around the world.

"We're in uncharted territory at this point," she said.

"People within the AI industry have been warning us that these tools are getting better very rapidly and that we have to be able to build up capabilities to keep our companies safe from cyber attacks

She said the UK government's AI Security Institute found in its tests that the model could exploit defences and systems 73% of the time.

"It's a step change in capability in cyber security," she added.

Anthropic has found itself in the crosshairs of the Trump administration recently.

Donald Trump has criticised the company publicly and then US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth labelled it a "supply chain risk" – the first time a US company has ever publicly received such a designation.

The designation means a tool or service is not secure enough for government use, and is historically reserved for companies based in adversarial countries.

Anthropic is suing the Pentagon following the designation. A US judge has ruled the Pentagon's directive could not be enforced, meaning government agencies and organisations working with the US military can still use Anthropic while the lawsuit continues.

Spain's visitor numbers hit new highs as tourists avoid Middle East

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gvndd2qelo, 6 days ago

From the rooftop terrace of a hotel, Fede Fuster looks out across Benidorm, at the nearby high-rise buildings and the town's famous, sweeping beach.

"With all its virtues and its defects this is a place we feel proud of," he says. "It's a place of opportunities."

Fuster is the president of the local tourism association, and his family was one of the first to build a hotel in this Mediterranean city, in the 1950s.

Benidorm's population is still only 77,000, but it swells to around five times that number in the height of summer, due to its status as one of Spain's prime tourism draws.

Since the Covid pandemic left resorts like Benidorm virtually deserted and the Spanish tourism industry at a standstill there has been a remarkable recovery. Foreign arrival numbers into the country have broken records each year, and totalled 97 million in 2025.

Currently the world's second-biggest tourist destination, just behind France, Spain is expected to consolidate its recent success in 2026.

"I think this is going to be a great year," Fuster says. "I'm optimistic, we're talking about reaching 100 million tourists in Spain. If we keep growing like this we're going to be number one [in the world] very soon."

Industry experts had originally expected 2026 to see more modest growth. But the outbreak of the US-Israeli conflict with Iran has made Spain an attractive alternative compared to Middle Eastern holiday destination Dubai, and countries in the eastern Mediterranean, such as Turkey and Cyprus.

"In these moments of crisis, of [military] strikes or wars, the bookings always increase," says Fuster, who recalls a similar phenomenon in 2011, during the turmoil of the Arab Spring, although he insists he would prefer to compete with other countries without this advantage.

"Any time that you have a crisis in the [eastern] Mediterranean or the Middle East, Spain is seen as a secure place to go," says Francisco Femenia-Serra, a lecturer in geography at Madrid's Complutense University.

He explains that "part of the tourists that would normally go to Turkey or Egypt because of the [low] prices, for instance, might end up in Spain".

Spain's official tourist arrival figures appear to bear this out. The country received 9.1 million international visitors in April, a new high for the month. This was 5.2% more, or 450,000 additional people, than April 2025.

Meanwhile, Dubai International Airport saw its passenger numbers drop by 66% in March as flights and bookings were significantly reduced due to the Iranian situation.

With tourism directly contributing 13% of Spain's GDP, the industry has been a crucial component in the country's growth of recent years, which has outstripped that of France, Germany, Italy and the UK.

One cloud on the horizon is the possible impact of rising fuel costs, which could end up curtailing Europeans' foreign travel.

The other major concern for the Spanish industry is more domestic - growing anger among local residents at the impact tourism is having on their home environments.

"Tourism was always accepted as a positive economic sector for Spain," says Femenia-Serra. "That changed from 2016, 2017, with the label of over-tourism being put on some cities, like Barcelona.

"And now, most young Spaniards under 45 have a different image of tourism. They see it as a sector that obviously has a positive impact but also some negative outcomes in their lives."

Since 2024, Barcelona and many other tourist hubs, along the Mediterranean coast, in the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, have seen summer protests against perceived excessive visitor numbers.

A Europe-wide YouGov poll published in September 2024 found that 28% of Spaniards had a negative view of foreign tourism, by far the highest percentage of any country. The report also found that two-thirds of Spaniards sympathised with the protests.

Locals' grievances include the congestion caused by visitors in city centres, their environmental impact and, above all, the idea that they are exacerbating Spain's housing crisis. A new wave of protests at the country's soaring rentals has begun in recent weeks, with tourism often closely associated with the problem.

In a bookshop in the centre of Valencia, a group of local tenants meet regularly to discuss their housing-related problems with representatives of the Sindicat de Llogateres (Tenants' Union) activist group. Many of those who attend have seen their rentals increase sharply when landlords have revised their contracts.

"We have on the one hand the tourist accommodation market and on the other the residential market," says Jordi Vila, a representative of the Sindicat de Llogateres.

"When it comes to renewing rental contracts, the owners of properties no longer think about setting rents according to local salaries, but rather the salaries of people visiting from abroad, which might be three or four times higher. So local people end up getting pushed out of their homes."

He points to Barcelona, further up the Mediterranean coast, as the epitome of this phenomenon, describing the centre of the city as "a kind of theme park" where the proliferation of tourist accommodation has displaced locals.

In the northern region of Asturias, graffiti has been daubed in recent days on holiday rental properties, with the slogan: "Your business, our ruin."

While organisations such as the Sindicat de Llogateres continue to campaign, the left-wing coalition government has also identified tourist accommodation as a problem.

In 2025, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez warned that "there are too many Airbnbs and not enough homes". In December, his government fined the holiday rental platform €65m ($75.5m; £56m) for advertising unlicensed apartments.

Local governments have also announced measures both aimed at curbing the growth of holiday accommodation and managing the large numbers of tourist arrivals.

Some city halls are restricting the granting of tourist-flat permits, and Barcelona has said it will revoke the licenses of all its 10,000 short-term apartments by 2028. It has also announced a doubling of the city's tourist tax to eight euros for those arriving on cruise liners for short-term stays.

Local activists applaud such measures yet demand more be done. The tourism industry, however, is concerned. The Exceltur tourism association has called for "the reparation of the links between the tourism sector and local residents".

The holiday apartment sector, meanwhile, has pointed to a report by PwC on the Barcelona licence-revocation plan, warning it could undermine the city's competitiveness and cause the loss of thousands of jobs.

Femenia-Serra says that cities are still searching for satisfactory formulas.

"We have measures that try to alleviate the impact that tourism has and that try to distribute tourists in cities in a different way," he says. "But we still haven't seen a single measure that is effective in reducing the number of tourists."

In Benidorm, as he ponders what looks likely to be another record-breaking summer for Spain, Fede Fuster acknowledges the backlash against his sector.

"We say we are the industry of happiness," he says. "But we also have to realise that we impact the normal life of citizens.

"The way we welcome people and we care about them and our happiness, the way we live, I think that's something the tourist really appreciates – that's the key," he explains.

"That's why we have to work a lot in these places, mostly in cities, where there is a feeling of not welcoming tourists. It's very important for us because if we lose that, we're dead."

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New candy stores are popping up across NYC. Why?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c30ylzlygngo, 3 days ago

With US consumer confidence at historic lows, it's a tough time for retailers across the country. But in and around New York City one niche sector is expanding – candy stores.

Mitchell Cohen, the third-generation owner of Economy Candy, on Manhattan's Lower East Side, has a theory – people will still buy candy (or sweets, as they are called in British English) – when economic times are difficult.

"The dollar isn't going as far these days," he says. "Inflation, uncertainty, all that, but there's always candy."

The business, the oldest sweet shop in New York, first opened its doors in 1937, towards the end of the Great Depression.

Initially it was a hat and shoe repair store, with candies sold from a cart out front as an extra earning stream.

But people couldn't afford to get things repaired, Cohen says. So his grandfather entirely pivoted to what was still selling – the affordable sweet treats. Eighty-nine years later, Economy Candy is still going strong.

While the most recent official data shows that US retail sales are still growing, up 4.9% in April from the same month last year, US consumer sentiment hit a new all-time low in May, according to one closely-watched report.

Echoing the thoughts of Mitchell Cohen, Kate Bolger says that as candy has a low price point "everyone can partake" despite people feeling the economic pinch.

Next month she is due to open The Village Confectionery, a candy store in Sleepy Hollow, the Hudson Valley town 28 miles north of New York City that is best known as being the setting of the 19th Century horror short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Bolger, who previously worked as a movie producer, says that while consumers may be putting off making big, expensive purchases, they can still treat themselves to a piece of candy.

It is an extension of the so-called "lipstick effect" economic theory that was popularised in the early 2000s, whereby people who couldn't afford to buy something really expensive would buy a little luxury item instead.

Back in New York City, an upmarket candy store company called BonBon now has five shops across Manhattan and Brooklyn, and another in the Hamptons on Long Island that opened last summer.

The business, founded in 2018 by three Swedish expats, imports its product range from Sweden. Swedish confectionery, which has strict rules regarding the use of all natural ingredients, has in recent years seen a big rise in global popularity thanks to social media.

BonBon co-founder Leo Schaltz says that a key company rule for its shops is to avoid main avenues. "You wouldn't want to be on Broadway," he says.

Instead the firm goes for side streets, where the rents are lower, and takes over small units. "You don't want to overpay for rent, and it's easier to make a space feel cozy when it's smaller," he says.

Schaltz adds that BonBon also focuses on "little, quirky details", such the staff wearing uniforms inspired by a Stockholm restaurant. This summer it is due to open a branch in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Meanwhile, Swedish sweet shop chain Candy King, opened its first US outlet in Manhattan last December.

In Brooklyn, Cat Cirino launched her sweet shop, Candor Candy's, in the Fort Greene neighbourhood in March. To boost revenues she also sells pantry items such as granola, rice, soft drinks and beef jerky, all from independent producers.

But when it comes to her core product, selling candy has a number of benefits, such as it having a long shelf life, and being able to sit at room temperature. And if the shop follows the pick-and-mix model then the customer does a lot of the work on his or her own.

But as Cohen points out, it is not all plain sailing. With many confectionary supplies coming from overseas, he says that his wholesale prices have risen. The increases come due to President Trump's numerous import tariffs on other countries, and higher global transport costs as a result of fuel prices rising due to the US-Israeli conflict with Iran.

Cohen notes that a Hershey chocolate bar that cost his shop about 62 cents pre-pandemic now comes to more than a dollar. For while Hershey's is a famous American brand, the cocoa beans it is made from come from overseas.

He adds that one of his UK suppliers simply stopped shipping to the US after losing too much money in customs.

Despite these issues, Cohen says he has absorbed most of the cost increases, and that his sales are up. In these tough economic times, he says "a little candy goes a long way".

Could humanoid robots be heading for the battlefield?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cedpxwe26l1o, 5 days ago

I've come to an industrial space in a tech-heavy area of San Francisco expecting to see a menacing humanoid robot solider doing something combat-like: the future of land-based warfare, perhaps.

Instead, the black shiny faceless Phantom robot is engaged in "free play", manipulating a bunch of coloured kids blocks.

"We need data from it just interacting with its environment…[and] this is today's menu," explains Sankaet Pathak, co-founder and CEO of two-year-old start-up Foundation Robotics, which is developing Phantom for military and civilian applications.

Later he pushes its 80kg steel-covered body around the room to demonstrate its stability and shows me how it walks.

While many companies are building autonomous humanoid robots for factories, homes or companions, Foundation claims it is the only US firm developing them specifically for a broad range of defence applications.

That includes support roles like supply pickup, reconnaissance, recovery of equipment or casualties, and hazard inspection. But also, more controversially, warfighting to engage and neutralise threats – which Pathak calls "frontline weaponisation".

Arming robots could keep human soldiers out of harm's way, he argues. They could enter and search buildings, where chokepoints can be lethal.

They could also reduce collateral damage. Land-based autonomy can be more precise than striking targets autonomously from the air, he says.

That is all well in the future for Foundation's Phantom.

The company's first-generation model, Phantom MK-1, which I am shown, doesn't have a battery, isn't dust or waterproof and can't get back up if it falls.

Its hands – still a major robotics challenge – lack strength and dexterity, and it has no proper wrists yet.

A second-generation model is being built in another off-limits part of the facility.

Not only will Phantom MK-2 be element proof, says Pathak, but a large battery will provide about six hours of runtime, and it will be able to recover if it falls and withstand more force.

Better hands are crucial. The robot's next set will move in far more ways, with wrists that help it to fire weapons, Pathak says.

Foundation's goal, Pathak adds, is to produce at least 40,000 units a year by end of 2027 with costs in the long term less than $20,000 (£15,000) each.

Pathak argues that China is pursuing the technology and the West needs to keep up.

He envisions hundreds of thousands of AI-driven humanoid robots forming a ground force, matching the growing use of autonomous drones in the skies. A fleet of humanoid robot soldiers could be a major deterrent to conflict, he says.

Foundation has $24m (£18m) in research contracts to pilot its technology with the US military as well as two units currently being tested by the Ukrainian military.

The US military pilot is limited to handling rather than firing weapons, Pathak says, though weaponisation is part of the testing in Ukraine.

The company attracted attention earlier this year after Eric Trump, the US Presidents' son, became an investor and advisor.

Foundation is also an opportunity for Pathak to prove himself - Synapse, the financial services firm he co-founded and led, filed for bankruptcy in 2024.

But are humanoid soldier robots what the military needs, how hard are they to build and what ethical issues do they raise?

The military is clearly interested, says Dean Fankhauser at Robozaps, a humanoid robotics advisory firm that runs a marketplace for commercial systems. He points to a current US Army contest for humanoids that could eventually support soldiers across a wide range of tasks.

It is "completely inevitable" says Fankhauser that a company would see a business opportunity in weaponising the technology.

There are plenty of simpler robots – namely drones and even some ground robot systems – used to carry explosives, missiles and other payloads, with battlefield use especially visible in Ukraine.

Some firms have also been working to weaponise dog-like quadruped robots, though we haven't seen them too much in active warfare yet notes Fankhauser.

But other legged robot companies have drawn a line opposing weaponisation, citing risks of harm and ethical issues.

Pathak disagrees with that, arguing it is dangerous that more firms aren't following Foundation's lead.

Humanoid robot soldiers make sense, he argues, because the world is built for humans. From screwdrivers to weapons, there is no need to reinvent existing tools.

Humans should be "in the loop", approving any use of lethal force before the system can act, Pathak says, though he makes exceptions where firing autonomously might be necessary to avoid a catastrophic outcome and sees scenarios where human authorisation is less critical.

Perhaps the biggest challenge, and one faced by all companies building humanoid robots, is developing artificial intelligence that can operate in the real world and cope with unpredictable and complicated situations.

Phantom is directed by an AI system called Cortex, and a new version is also in development.

The idea is that Phantom is given a goal – such as moving supplies or mapping the inside of a building – based on a task it has been trained specifically to carry out through demonstrations using videos, images and text.

It then navigates its environment using cameras in its helmet that provide 360-degree vision, allowing its AI system to assess the surroundings and adapt its movements.

In Cortex, says Patak, two types of AI models work together.

A "reasoning model" trained on task-specific examples interprets the goal and formulates Phantom's action plan.

A broader "world model", trained on internet videos as well as data gathered from the robot interacting with the physical world – including its "free play" with blocks – predicts how the environment will respond, helping Phantom move safely and execute actions.

Yet not everyone is convinced the humanoid form factor is the most effective.

Other robots, such as quadrupeds, can navigate terrain more quickly and efficiently, says Fankhauser of Robozaps.

He also notes, based on what he has seen in the commercial space, humanoid technology still has a long way to go.

Today's commercial humanoid robots can barely handle warehouse packing let alone open a door, says Fankhauser.

"If there was a war in Taiwan today, the likelihood that China is going to militarise these humanoids and fight effectively is fanciful," he adds.

While Chinese robots have produced some impressive displays, they have taken place in highly controlled or structured environments – the antithesis of real-world warfare. Though Fankhauser adds things might be different in another five or 10 years.

Robert Griffin works on humanoid robots at the non-profit Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, whose activities include military-funded humanoid projects focused on non-combat applications.

One of its spin-out companies was later acquired by Foundation for part of its core technology.

Griffin sees value in humanoids in reducing risk to human soldiers, but also says unpredictable environments remain a major hurdle.

Getting a robot to jump through a window of unknown height, land on uneven ground, and immediately navigate an unfamiliar interior is hard.

"You get an impression of human-level capability by seeing the human form… but [these autonomous systems] don't know how to handle open-ended uncertainty yet," says Griffin.

Human soldiers have easily foiled AI systems by doing what is "out of the ordinary", like somersaulting or putting cardboard boxes over their heads, he adds.

The practical issues also aren't easily solved.

Runtime is a problem "plaguing every humanoid company" Griffin says – locomotion and moving joints are power consuming. Six hours would be "very impressive".

Whether Foundation can build hands capable of manipulating a weapon designed for a person remains open.

"[The company is] setting extremely hard challenges for their engineering team to either meet or fail at," he says.

Meanwhile, ethical concerns loom large.

Lethal autonomous weapons, whatever their form, lower the barrier to warfare, dehumanise conflict and blur accountability, says Nicole van Rooijen, the executive director of Stop Killer Robots, a global coalition of non-governmental organisations.

But she also finds the humanoid form "extra worrying".

Human-like machines may appear familiar and trustworthy as their civilian use grows, increasing the risk people misread danger.

The answer to the current technological arms race, she argues, is international rules to de-escalate it.

UK vows to phase out Russian diesel and jet fuel imports by new year

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ceqdl8xre7qo, yesterday

The UK government has committed to banning imports of diesel and jet fuel made from Russian oil by 1 January 2027.

The ban forms part of the government's package of sanctions on Moscow following the war with Ukraine.

In May, the government said it would gradually phase out the use of diesel and jet fuel refined in third countries from Russian crude oil as it introduced new sanctions, saying extra flexibility was needed due to global oil supply issues.

The move prompted criticism, with the EU warning it is "not the time to roll back sanctions" against Moscow.

Trade Minister Chris Bryant said: "The end date is a clear signal that we continue to ratchet up maximum pressure on Russia."

The temporary licence to import those products will be reviewed every two weeks, the government said. It is understood the review process means the licence could be revoked sooner than 1 January.

"I made a commitment to the House of Commons that we would review the temporary general licence for diesel and jet fuel on a fortnightly basis and lift it as soon as practicable," Bryant said.

"Today we're confirming that the government will include an end date of 1st January 2027 in the licence at the latest and that we will continue to keep the licence under continuous review."

Global oil prices have been pushed up by the US and Israel conflict with Iran, as the effective halt of trade through the Strait of Hormuz has reduced global oil supplies.

Before the conflict, the global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading around $70 a barrel, but is currently trading around $87 as a deal to end the conflict appears close.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Minister Stephen Doughty said: "These new measures that strengthen our sanctions will stop refined oil made from Russian crude from entering the UK through third countries.

"We are maximising pressure on Russia while maintaining stability at home, and we will continue to use every lever available to debilitate Putin's war machine and support Ukraine."

But a campaigner said the decision was "absurd" and would provide billions of pounds of financing to Russia's war machine.

Speaking to the BBC, Sir Bill Browder, a longstanding critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said: "It's absurd. On one hand we are giving Ukraine billions to fight off Russia.

"On the other we're giving Russia billions for their diesel and jet fuel to buy weapons to attack Ukraine.

"For anyone to not see the connection and absurdity, they must be willingly blind."

What you need to know as millions of SpaceX shares go up for sale

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czx299wpp56o, yesterday

For the first time investors can now buy and sell shares in Elon Musk's Texas-based SpaceX, a company that is planning to colonise Mars and put artificial intelligence (AI) data centres in space.

It is set to be the biggest ever public sale of shares and will make SpaceX one of the US's top 10 largest listed firms. A higher-than-usual proportion of those shares is being made available to individual investors, but its sheer size means many investment funds will end up with a stake in SpaceX too.

So for those who invest, what exactly are they buying and what are the risks?

What is happening with SpaceX exactly?

SpaceX is currently owned by Musk and other private investors, but has launched what is known as an initial public offering, or IPO.

On Friday, millions of new shares in the company started trading on the stock market.

The IPO has raised at least $75bn from financial firms which bought shares at $135 (£100) a piece. It gives investors the chance to buy into a business whose activities range from space exploration and satellite communication to the social media site X and the controversial AI platform Grok.

SpaceX is separate from Musk's most well-known company, the electric car maker Tesla, although it is thought the two may end up merging next year.

Musk plans to use the extra money he is raising to expand SpaceX's current activities but also to fund new future ventures: mining asteroids, colonising Mars and putting AI data centres in space.

The sci-fi style sales prospectus says humans must avoid "the same fate as dinosaurs" and plan for an "age of abundance" based in space because the "light of consciousness" will not be tied to a single planet.

There is plenty of scepticism about the feasibility of some of these ambitions. But Musk's backers say he has beaten the doubters before.

On Friday afternoon shares started trading at $150 each - significantly higher than the initial offering price - and then quickly rose, cementing Musk's status as the world's first trillionaire.

Can anyone buy shares?

SpaceX was listed on the New York technology-focused Nasdaq market on Friday, and some of the big global investment institutions have been buying shares. But individuals, including in the UK, also have a chance to apply to buy shares via certain investment platforms and brokers. The shares were allocated according to demand before trading started.

Now trading has begun their value could quickly rise or fall depending on whether the wider market thinks that initial price was too low or too high.

Even if you do not invest in SpaceX shares directly you may find you have an indirect financial interest if your pension or savings fund manager buys shares as part of their investment strategy, or if you have an index-tracking fund that automatically buys into the biggest firms. That means millions of people will find their money is affected, at least in some small way, by what happens at the company.

SpaceX is set to be valued at around $1.75tn, which would make it larger than rivals Anthropic and OpenAI, but smaller than the big tech giants such as Alphabet (Google), Apple, Microsoft and Amazon.

Will SpaceX investors get rich?

Teams of analysts follow the performance of companies like SpaceX and even they did not know whether the price would rise or fall once the shares started trading.

In the past Musk has weathered setbacks such as failed rocket launches, production bottlenecks and political controversy, but the AI race especially is hugely expensive and fraught with uncertainty, raising widespread concern that share prices are already inflated and that the bubble may burst.

Last year, Space Exploration Technologies - as SpaceX is officially known - brought in $18.6bn (£13.8bn) in revenue but had a net loss of $4.9bn.

And the IPO prospectus - the document that outlines the terms of the share sale - even says the company has "a history of net losses" and "may not achieve profitability in the future".

Ruth Foxe-Blader at US venture capital firm Citrine Venture Partners thinks the number and range of SpaceX's projects mean it has many selling points.

But Michael Hewson at iForex says the "numbers defy belief" and amount to a bet on Musk's "ability to deliver" on some very big ambitions.

Analysts have pointed out that SpaceX will need to increase its revenue massively in the next few years to justify this valuation.

The SpaceX share sale is the first of three AI-related mega-listings expected this year. When Anthropic and OpenAI sell their shares the same basic principle will apply: a lot of money is being invested with no guarantee of future profits to match.

Do shareholders get a say in how SpaceX is run?

When it comes to company decisions Musk will still hold more than 80% of the voting power after the share sale, only marginally less than he currently has. He will still determine who runs the company and its overall strategy.

That has raised some eyebrows, given Musk's erratic management style and his many enterprises. But paradoxically for some investors it may be his reputation that drives interest in this venture.

In fact, it has been pointed out more broadly that the IPO, especially the big push to involve the wider public more than is usual, is trading heavily on Musk's personal profile rather than the fundamentals of the business.

Elon Musk's SpaceX raises $75bn ahead of world's biggest stock market launch

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy034q89j4o, yesterday

SpaceX has raised $75bn (£56bn) from financial firms ahead of becoming a publicly traded company on Friday, in what is expected to be the highest-value stock listing in history.

In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the space exploration and artificial intelligence (AI) company said it had sold $75bn in shares at $135 each.

The price matches the estimate SpaceX gave last week, leaving the firm's expected initial stock market value to be nearly $1.8tn.

At that value, chief executive Elon Musk - already the world's richest man - is set to become the first trillionaire.

SpaceX is selling only 5% of the total shares available at first.

Once trading starts, their value could rise or fall depending on how many shares are made available for sale in the Initial Public Offering (IPO), strength of demand, and what investors decide they are worth. It is essentially an auction on the open stock market.

If they sell at or above $135, SpaceX will immediately become one of the most valuable public companies in the world.

Interest in acquiring a stake in SpaceX among investment funds and individuals, often referred to as "retail investors," is expected to be high.

Certain financial analysts have already set targets for the shares above SpaceX's $135 estimate, including the global brokerage Oppenheimer which said on Thursday it expects the company to hit $190 a share.

Peta Cooper, 43, a copywriter who lives in Cornwall, plans to invest about £750 in SpaceX to add to her portfolio which mainly includes tech and crypto firm shares.

"It's really exciting. I really love the space industry. [SpaceX] have had a really great track record so far with their launches and their innovation," said Cooper, who grew up in California.

She expects the share price to dip at some point but plans to "keep it in my portfolio and let it grow" over the long term.

Many see today's IPO as a huge bet on AI, and some analysts are sceptical.

"It's a huge roll of the dice," said Sinead O'Sullivan, an economist who has worked at Nasa.

"There's so much built into one company, one share price here. Do I believe that Elon Musk is great at executing technological innovation? Yes. Do I believe that the share price is representative of the future value he's going to create? Probably not..."

SpaceX chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell told CNBC she had not been sure the company would go public, but it "feels like the right time now".

"We've been feeling over the last few years a lot of pressure from everyday Americans and our friends that wanted to buy stock," she told the US business news network.

Shotwell said SpaceX has long-term ambitions and she does not want to focus on quarterly results.

"I'm not saying we're not going to do right by our investors, but what folks that invest in SpaceX need to know... is that what we're doing is very futuristic."

The listing on the technology-focused Nasdaq index is being viewed by some as a test case for other companies with private valuations nearing $1tn, including Anthropic and OpenAI.

Both companies recently said they are preparing to go public, likely this year.

Elon in control

Becoming a public company will lead to more scrutiny, but Musk will keep almost total control.

He will maintain roughly 40% of SpaceX total equity through his holding of different types of shares, which come with extra voting rights meaning he effectively controls 85% of the company.

With so much control consolidated with Musk, SpaceX will not even need to have on its board of directors anyone considered to be "independent" - who does not have a direct personal or financial interest in the company.

Such control creates potential risk for investors, according to analysis from Harvard Law School, because SpaceX insiders will be able to make decisions on business deals, including possible acquisitions of other Musk-owned entities, and his compensation.

Already, SpaceX has acquired Musk's startup xAI, which itself acquired the social media platform X in 2025. Musk bought the platform formerly known as Twitter in 2022.

Asked about the governance structure, chief operating officer Shotwell told CNBC: "There is no-one who can run this company other than Elon, frankly. We want Elon to have that kind of control."

Musk has divided public opinion in recent years, using his power and wealth in controversial ways.

He helped fund Donald Trump's second run for office before their relationship imploded, secured billions in US government contracts and has dabbled in the internal affairs and politics of other countries.

His posts and comments about matters in the UK, Germany and other European states have frequently angered politicians. Sometimes they appeared to have come at a cost to his businesses.

Tom Mueller, SpaceX's first official employee and now founder of Impulse Space, told the BBC's Michelle Fleury "it's unbelievable" to see what the company has become.

Mueller recalled when SpaceX got its first rocket engine running, and when that engine exploded, and when another rocket crashed before "finally" making a successful launch to orbit in 2008.

"It's just been an incredible ride," he said.

Mueller left SpaceX in 2020 and maintains a considerable financial interest in the firm.

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UK economy contracts as Iran war impact felt

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c77y47248k4o, yesterday

The UK's economy shrank slightly in April as the Iran war began to have an impact on businesses, official data has indicated.

The economy contracted by 0.1% in the month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said, with some firms citing the conflict in the Middle East as having raised costs and affected turnover.

April's contraction was the first monthly fall since August last year, but had been forecast by economists after stronger than expected growth in March.

Analysts said that after a good start to the year the economy was set to slow over the next few months, and they expect the Bank of England to keep interest rates unchanged when it meets next week.

In the three months to April - which is generally seen as a less volatile measure - the ONS said the economy grew by 0.7% compared with the previous three-month period.

When the Iran war broke out it led to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route for oil tankers, causing crude oil prices to surge.

The price of a barrel of Brent crude, the international benchmark, has risen as high as $120 since the conflict began, but has fluctuated as hopes of an end to the war have risen and fallen.

On Friday, the price sank to a three-month low of $86 on hopes that a resolution to the conflict could be close.

The increase in oil prices since the start of the war has led to a rise in petrol and diesel prices in the UK. Household energy bills will also increase in the coming months with the energy price cap rising in July.

Oil prices also have a wide-reaching effect on the cost of many goods and services.

Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK, said that while the economy grew over the three months to April, "the contraction in April is more indicative of growth prospects for the economy going forward".

The monthly figure, she said, "points to renewed fragility in the UK economy, with pressure on both consumers and businesses likely to persist over the coming months".

Consumers are bracing for a sharp rise in their energy bills, she added, and as a result "have signalled their intention to cut back on purchases and increase their savings, which will weigh on economic activity".

And while businesses are also facing rising costs, "subdued domestic demand is limiting firms' ability to pass these higher costs on to consumers, which is likely to squeeze profit margins".

Responding to the figures, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said that the war "will have an impact at home".

"Before the conflict in the Middle East, growth was higher than expected and inflation was falling," she said.

"The choices I have made as Chancellor mean our economy is in a stronger position to deal with the costs of the war."

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride said "putting Benefits Street first leaves the economy weaker", adding that only the Conservatives "have a plan to get Britain working again".

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper said the GDP figures showed the government was "asleep at the wheel", adding Labour had left the economy "vulnerable... in the face of Trumpflation and geopolitical turmoil".

Reform's Treasury spokesperson Robert Jenrick said: "The economy is shrinking because of the choices Rachel Reeves is making."

The BBC has contacted the Green Party for comment.

The ONS said that the main driver of the contraction in April was a 0.2% fall in the dominant services sector - which accounts for about three-quarters of the UK's economy

Areas of the services sector that were particularly hard hit included arts and entertainment, sports activities and amusement and recreation activities.

The ONS said that "some of this fall can be attributed to the effects from the conflict in the Middle East, with the cancellation of multiple sporting events in the Middle East affecting the output of UK-based businesses".

It also added that some manufacturing, transport and travel business had also seen their trading affected by the impact of the Iran war.

Ruth Gregory, deputy chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said the Bank of England could raise interest rates later in the year, but "the weakness in economic activity will probably mean rates stay on hold this year".

The Bank is widely expected to keep rates unchanged when it meets next week. Before the Iran war broke out, analysts had widely expected it to cut rates this year.

Gregory said the contraction in April "showed the strong start to the year is now faltering".

"We expect the economy to come to a standstill this quarter and next as the hit to households' real incomes from higher energy prices intensifies."

BBC News has contacted the Green Party for comment.

What's happening to the UK economy and how does it affect you?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0j7p38jg15o, yesterday

The UK economy shrank slightly in April, official figures show.

The contraction comes after a better-than-expected start to the year for the economy, but experts expect the global impact of the US-Israeli war with Iran will mean growth could remain sluggish for some months.

Economic growth matters because it affects things like pay increases for workers and the amount of tax the government raises to pay for services.

What is GDP and why does it matter?

UK economic growth is measured by the change in the country's GDP, or gross domestic product. This includes all the economic activity of companies, governments and people in a country.

In the UK, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes new GDP figures every month. However, these can vary quite a lot and the quarterly figures - covering three months at a time - are considered more significant.

Most economists, politicians, and businesses like to see GDP rising steadily.

That's because it usually means people are spending more, extra jobs are created, more tax is paid, and workers get better pay rises.

When GDP is falling, it means the economy is shrinking.

This can be bad news for businesses and workers as it can lead to pay freezes and job losses.

If GDP falls for two quarters in a row, that is known as a recession.

What is happening to the UK economy?

The UK economy shrank by 0.1% in April, according the latest figures from the ONS, as businesses started to feel the impact of the Iran war.

A small contraction had been expected after the economy grew by a stronger-than-expected 0.3% in March, when there was some evidence that consumers and businesses had brought forward spending before the impact of the conflict in the Middle East was felt.

GDP grew by 0.6% during the first three months of the year, but analysts think the dip in April is a sign of things to come, with growth expected to be sluggish in the months ahead.

The Bank of England has already warned that it expects UK inflation to increase as a result of the war, possibly reaching 6% in the worst-case scenario.

In April, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it expected the war to hit the UK the hardest of the world's advanced economies.

However, in May the IMF forecast the UK's economy would grow by 1% this year, up from its previous estimate of 0.8%.

The Labour government has repeatedly said growth is its top priority, but has faced criticism for achieving only moderate GDP growth since it took power in 2024.

Across 2025 as a whole, UK GDP was estimated to have increased by 1.4%, up from 1.1% in 2024.

How does GDP affect tax and public services?

If GDP is going up steadily, people pay more in tax because they're earning and spending more.

This means more money for the government, which it can choose to spend on public services, such as schools, police and hospitals.

When the economy shrinks and a country goes into recession, these things can go into reverse.

Governments tend to get less money in tax, which means they may decide to freeze or cut public spending, or put taxes up.

In 2020, the Covid pandemic caused the most severe UK recession for more than 300 years, which forced the government to borrow hundreds of billions of pounds to support the economy.

How is GDP measured?

GDP can be measured in three ways:

Output: The total value of goods and services produced by all sectors of the economy - agriculture, manufacturing, energy, construction, the service sector and government.

Expenditure: The value of goods and services bought by households and by government, investment in machinery and buildings. This also includes the value of exports, minus imports.

Income: The value of the income generated, mostly in terms of profits and wages.

In the UK, the ONS publishes one single measure of GDP, which is calculated using all three measurements.

But early estimates mainly use the output measure, using data collected from thousands of companies.

Why does the GDP figure sometimes change?

The UK produces one of the quickest estimates of GDP of the major economies, about 40 days after the quarter in question.

At that stage, only about 60% of the data is available, so the figure is revised as more information comes in.

The ONS publishes more information about this on its website.

What are the limitations of the GDP figure?

GDP is not the whole story as it does not include things like:

The hidden economy: Unpaid work such as caring for children or elderly relatives isn't captured.

Inequality: Rising GDP could result from the richest getting richer, rather than everyone becoming better off, and some people could be worse off.

Living standards: If the population is also growing, increased GDP can still mean less money per person, which can reduce people's living standards. This is why the GDP per capita measure is important.

Some critics also argue that GDP doesn't take into account whether the economic growth it measures is sustainable, or the environmental damage it might do.

Alternative measures have been developed which try to capture this.

Since 2010, the ONS has also measured well-being alongside economic growth. This assesses health, relationships, education and skills, as well as people's personal finances and the environment.

But despite its limitations, GDP is still the most widely used measure for most government decisions and international comparisons.

My friends always want to split the bill equally, how do I say no?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czxqdznzy7ro, 2 days ago

One friend orders two cocktails. Another "just wants to try" that £16 truffle arancini starter. But you stuck religiously to tap water. So when the waiter places the card reader on the table at the end of the night, you are facing a social minefield.

Even if you are sober enough to manage the mental arithmetic, you will be hard-pushed to overrule the jolly friend who shouts: "let's just divide it equally!"

"When we eat out, we always just split the bill," says Ella, a communications assistant from Leeds.

The 23-year-old says she never suggests to her friends they all just pay for what they've ordered as "it just feels awkward".

Ella earns over £30,000 but some of her friends earn more and she finds it hard to say no if they want to go somewhere a bit fancy that she can't really afford. Instead she matches her order with theirs so she isn't left feeling short-changed.

It is worse when it's a big ticket item like a holiday.

When that happens, rather than tell her friends how she feels, she scrabbles around for extra money.

"I'm probably on the phone to my mother in secret asking to borrow that extra bit of cash," she says.

Her reluctance to speak up reflects a wider trend.

Research from the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) in 2025 found that only four in 10 adults do feel comfortable talking to friends about money, with women significantly less likely to feel okay discussing finances with friends (39%) compared to men (50%).

Ella says money is almost never discussed within her friendship group. They have booked a four-night beach holiday costing around £680 each for flights and accommodation and they are using a bill-splitting app to log expenses before balancing everything at the end.

"We never really consider if something is affordable or not," she says. "We all pay the same, no matter your salary."

'Set expectations early'

Rolling into the restaurant and announcing you won't be footing your friends' booze bill can make you feel like a bit of a buzzkill if others are planning to live it up. But experts suggest that is best way to tackle the problem: be open from the start.

Laura Pomfret, chief executive of women's finance community Financielle, says people worry that speaking up will ruin the atmosphere. But friends often respond positively if you are honest about your financial situation, she says.

"If you know you have a limit on what you can afford, say it at the beginning rather than sitting through the meal hoping someone else suggests paying separately," she advises.

She also suggests:

* Decide beforehand: If an event is outside your budget, save for it in advance or skip it altogether

* Give a reason: You don't have to say you can't afford it. Say you are saving for something else, a holiday or investing.

* Remember, spending is personal: Even if your friend can afford a £100 meal they may not wish to spend their money that way

Chloe, 31, who runs a tech startup and earns around £80,000, says she and her friends are very open about salaries and what they can afford, partly because they have been through tough times together.

"We talk about money all the time - pay rises, investments, whether we can afford something."

"We'll say, 'I can't afford that this month - can we do it next month instead?' It's about breaking down that wall of shame."

Now she is on a higher income she is happy to cover for the others sometimes.

"I live in London and when friends visit who are between jobs, they might pay for the train ticket and then I'll make sure I've budgeted to cover dinner because I wanted us to go out," she says.

Don't forget the tip

But even groups of friends who are upfront about what they can afford find there are pitfalls.

Mark Fullilove a marketing manager from Leeds says he and his friends always pay for what they order in a restaurant but sometimes he finds there's a shortfall at the end, because an item was forgotten or they didn't factor in a service charge.

"I've had to cover the difference as the last payer," the 37-year-old says.

When they go on holiday they also split things evenly, although often those with less disposable income will just pay their share when they can manage it, rather than having to come up with a deposit on the spot, he says.

In the end, paying for what you consume is likely to be the best for everyone's budget, the research suggests.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, splitting a bill equally tends to encourage people to order more, or plump for the caviar and lobster, boosting the overall final bill for everyone.

And luckily these days there are plenty of apps to help you quickly calculate what each individual owes, including a tip, without having to grapple with long-division after half a bottle of Rioja.

But if that still feels too awkward there is an alternative that some happy risk-takers on social media suggest: you all throw your credit cards into the middle of the table and the waiter picks one at random. That's the person who is buying you all dinner.

SpaceX says it's worth $1.75tn as it targets largest stock market debut

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgz237n40jo, 10 days ago

Elon Musk's SpaceX has released a suggested share price ahead of its planned listing, which would make it the largest initial public sale in history.

In a filing setting out plans for its initial public offering (IPO), SpaceX said its shares should go for $135 (£100) each, ratcheting up its own valuation of the firm to roughly $1.75tn.

Setting an estimated price for its stock listing so far in advance is a rare move, and the amount represents a large increase in SpaceX's previous valuation of $1.25tn earlier this year.

The revelation does not mean its shares will sell for the proposed price, as this will ultimately be decided by buyers. The price could go up or down.

The move by SpaceX, which builds space exploration rockets and infrastructure but also owns xAI and Starlink, to reveal its estimated share price more than a week before its public debut is unusual.

Companies typically only reveal the price they want to sell their shares at the day before they begin trading on the open market.

SpaceX is expected to start trading on the Nasdaq stock index on 12 June, making its price estimate one of, if not the earliest price estimates, in stock market history.

The company is aiming to raise $75bn, which would be a record high for an IPO. The current record is held by oil giant Saudi Aramco, which raised $25.6bn in 2019.

Should the company's shares sell at or above the expected $135 price, it will immediately become one of the most valuable companies in the world.

And Musk, who controls more than 80% of SpaceX with his own stock holdings in the firm, could become a trillionaire.

However, such an outcome is not certain.

According to data from Dealogic, which conducts research on the capital markets, almost half of companies that have gone public in the last 30 years have seen their value decrease compared to when they listed.

"There is no doubt the valuation is incredibly rich," Samuel Kerr, head of equity capital markets research at Mergermarket, said.

He noted that SpaceX was pricing itself compared to its sales at a ratio that is higher than any other major company included in what investors refer to as the "Mag 7" - Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Nvidia, Microsoft and Tesla, another of Musk's companies.

"But SpaceX is being valued on future earnings and revenue rather than the here and now, so some investors might be willing to overlook that," Kerr added.

Last year, Space Exploration Technologies - as SpaceX is officially known - brought in $18.6bn (£13.8bn) in revenue but had a net loss of $4.9bn.

In the first three months of this year, it achieved $4.7bn in sales but made a net loss of $4.3bn. Its balance sheet shows it has $102bn in assets, such as rockets and other equipment, but also carries $60.5bn of debt.

Besides space exploration, the company is investing heavily in artificial intelligence (AI), social media, space-based internet services and data centres.

Earlier this year, SpaceX acquired xAI, another one of Musk's businesses which is known for its Grok chatbot.

xAI started as part of X, formerly known as Twitter, and used its access to live text and information on the platform for AI training data.

Musk has long believed that developing infrastructure in space is the best way to secure the resources needed to power AI, given that land on Earth is scarce.

He has outlined plans to launch AI satellites and eventually build data centres in orbit.

"SpaceX used to be a simple business, it was a launch company and then it was also a satellite broadband provider, and now it's a social media company and it's an AI lab," Laurence Pevsner, a partner at venture capital firm Lux Capital, told the BBC's Today programme.

"The AI lab is what's really spiking the valuation and I think it's a risky bet to put onto shareholders," he added.

SpaceX's listing comes as other tech giants are looking to raise more cash to fund their spending on AI.

Earlier this week, AI firm Anthropic revealed its plans for a public share sale later this year, while Google's owner Alphabet said it wanted to raise $80bn to spend on AI investment.

OpenAI is also reportedly considering going public this year.

Additional reporting by Osmond Chia

'He was always in the right spot': How Brazil is betting on 'smart vests' in its bid for World Cup glory

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260611-he-was-always-in-the-right-spot-how-brazil-is-betting-on-smart-vests-in-its-bid-for-world-cup-glory, yesterday

Player tracking technology has helped the Brazilian football team gather years of data on its stars in the run up to the 2026 World Cup.

Brazil has won the men's World Cup more times than any other nation.

Five titles and generations of footballing legends have cemented Brazil's reputation as one of the big teams to beat when the Fifa World Cup comes around every four years.

But after disappointment in the past five tournaments, the Brazilian team has sought some additional technical help to find an edge in 2026. (Read more about the bid to revive Brazil's World Cup fortunes.)

Behind the scenes, sports scientists have been tracking its players using wearable technology to monitor everything from sprint speeds and heart rates to fatigue levels and injury recovery.

The aim is simple: to provide Brazil's head coach Carlo Ancelotti and his team with as much information as possible before making career-defining World Cup decisions. With Brazil's first match of the 2026 World Cup against Morocco taking place on Saturday 23 June, we look at how the data has helped the team build up to this moment.

Tracking vests

Across Brazil, most professional players wear sensor-laden "smart vests", which look a little like a sports bra, under their strip. They wear these vests as they train and play matches at their clubs throughout the season, generating detailed data about how they move, how hard they are working and how well they are recovering.

Such tracking technology has advanced rapidly over the past decade, and the majority the teams at the World Cup are now using these electronic performance and tracking systems.

Brazil, however, has integrated the monitoring of its players extensively across all of its men's, women's and youth league teams.

The information gathered by individual clubs on their players is then relayed to the national team's sports science department. This allows coaches to monitor players throughout the season as they prepare for international duty.

"On a daily basis, when we are not with the players, we communicate with the clubs and they send us the players information from the tracking system," says Guilherme Passos, head of sports science for the Brazil national team. "So it's easy to integrate in our database and to analyse the players when they are not with us."

For an international side, this helps with a unique challenge. Unlike club coaches, national team staff spend only limited time with their star players. Many members of the squad play not only in different leagues but on different continents. It makes comparing the performance and assessing the talents needed to build a team with the potential of winning the World Cup even harder.

The player tracking technology, however, allows Brazil's staff to effectively keep tabs on players even when they are thousands of miles away. "We know exactly where the players are in this transition process," says Passos.

That visibility is an asset before major tournaments.

Selecting who plays

Selecting players, their positions and tactical roles is informed by much of this data gathered through the year. Some players also arrive carrying injuries or returning from rehabilitation programmes. Others may be experiencing unusually high workloads at club level.

One of the most important applications for these monitoring systems involves managing the rehabilitation of hamstring injuries, a common problem in elite football.

By keeping an eye on metrics such as how much players are sprinting and running at high speeds, sports scientists can assess whether a player able to recover safely, says Passos. "If the player's a high speed player, it's very important to devote to this metric, small steps to guarantee that the muscle is well recovered."

The data can also influence tactical decisions. A particularly fast player, may be a strong winger, while recovery metrics may help determine whether a player should start a match or be used as an impact substitute later in the game.

"If you have a very, very fast player, the coach can maybe think about using that player in a style where you can counter-attack," Passos says.

This is not just about preparation. The tracking vests will continue to be worn throughout the World Cup, providing live data across matches, often separated by only a few days. And monitoring fatigue and recovery will help coaching staff decide who is ready to play and who may need additional rest.

Testing the tech in Boston

We've been filming in the USA for the BBC TechXplore World Cup series, where we've been exploring the cutting-edge technologies used by professional footballers, host stadia and fans.

Paul was invited to test a tracking vest made by sports technology company Catapult, which is working with many World Cup sides including Brazil. The lightweight vest contains heart-rate electrodes inside its seams and a GPS tracking device inside a pocket.

To put him through his paces, Paul joined a training session with the National Women's Soccer League side Boston Legacy. After a series of drills and sprint exercises, Paul's performance was analysed. As his heart rate reached 177 beats per minute, the numbers were humbling.

Most striking was the metric known as "player load", which revealed how much physical stress he had generated during the session. Compared with an elite footballer, he was producing significantly more load for the distance he covered. In other words, Paul was working much harder and moving much less efficiently.

A professional career is most definitely off the cards.

Dan Jones, director of health and performance at Boston Legacy FC, says that the tracking helps staff both push their players to their limits during training, but also protect them from injury.

"There are moments within training sessions when we see we aren't getting as much volume or fitness as we planned," he says. In those cases, sports science staff may quietly recommend extending a drill to achieve the desired training effect.

During a recent game, Boston Legacy were monitoring a player returning from injury. Staff had calculated a safe amount of running and high-speed activity for her rehabilitation programme. Throughout the match, those numbers were tracked in real time.

"When she hit those numbers, we spoke with the coaches and said we should be thinking about a substitution in the near future," the coach says. "We brought her off."

World Cup coaches make the final call

Despite football's growing reliance on technology, one of the biggest misconceptions about modern analytics is that more data automatically leads to better decisions. The reality is much more complicated.

Brazil's Passos says one example remains stuck in his memory.

Using tracking data, he identified a player who was covering only around 6km (3.7 miles) during matches. Many teammates were running roughly double that distance. Viewed purely through the numbers, the player appeared to be underperforming. But when coaches reviewed the footage, they discovered something entirely different.

"This specific player was always in the right spot in the perfect tactical position," says Passos. "He was a very efficient player." He kept the identity of the player a secret, however, to avoid giving away crucial tactical information ahead of the World Cup.

The lesson is one that sports scientists increasingly emphasise: football is not athletics, and running further does not necessarily mean playing better. A player with excellent physical metrics may still be the wrong choice for a particular tactical system. Exceptional positioning, decision-making or leadership qualities may be what defines a player's career.

There is also the psychology of the game to consider.

"Sometimes we can be surprised about having very good data from one player regarding the physical side," says Passos. "But the coach decides not to select them because technically and mentally he doesn't believe they can perform under his playing style."

As artificial intelligence and performance analytics continue to develop, the amount of information available to coaches is only likely to increase.

At this World Cup, an AI-powered football club assistant developed by Fifa and Lenovo is also being used to provide national coaches and players with instant feedback. Called Football AI Pro, it uses machine learning and natural language processing to analyse millions of data points.

But despite football's technological revolution, Brazil's leaders believe the decisive factor remains unchanged – human judgement. "The main difference is the specialised people behind the technology analysing the data and translating it into practical decisions," says Passos.

For the world's most successful football nation, wearable technology may help its coaches put what they believe to be their best side onto the World Cup pitches. Glory, however, will still be decided by how those players perform.

* Paul Carter is the presenter of TechXplore: World Cup, which was broadcast on BBC News on 6 June 2026.

For more technology news and analysis from the BBC, sign up to Tech Decoded. This twice‑weekly newsletter, written by North America tech correspondent Lily Jamali and senior technology journalist Thomas Germain, decodes the biggest developments in global tech and helps you live a better digital life. Sign up for free here.

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Is it OK to play AI songs on the radio?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98r7975e96o, yesterday

Imagine discovering that the songs you've been bopping along to on the radio were not created by a human, but by artificial intelligence (AI).

Would it make you change the channel or does it even matter how a song was created as long as you enjoy it?

AI-generated songs with a distinctly Northern Ireland theme have been listened to hundreds of thousands of times on social media recently, and have divided opinion after being aired on local commercial radio.

The songs have since been removed from playlists after intense online debate.

The creators say they are a form of art and a new way for people to express themselves, but some writers, musicians and artists have pushed back against the technology.

'Musicians are leaving the industry because of AI'

After almost two decades in the music industry, Paul Connolly said he feels "angry and deflated" at the development of AI-generated music, which he said is a "slap in the face to artists whose job it is to help us make sense of the world".

"We're seeing a lot of difficulty in authentic artists getting heard more than ever, and that's because they can't cut through the noise of AI," he said.

Connolly is a songwriter and lead singer of alternative-punk band The Wood Burning Savages.

He also provides music workshops for people of all ages, but said there are now fewer opportunities than ever for musicians to gig, and get their songs on the radio.

"We're seeing AI music creeping into the charts now across streaming platforms, for that reason, we're seeing artists beginning to devalue themselves and leave this industry."

Connolly said he did not agree with streaming services and radio stations giving a platform to AI-generated music.

He added: "AI cannot comfort us and it can't inspire the next generation of songwriters.

"Music is how we decorate the time that we're on earth, and if you're decorating it with AI, then it's a tacky wall that you've created.

"Music is food for the soul, and AI is just a takeaway for the arteries."

'My AI music has my story behind it, I don't just press buttons'

In 2025, Oliver McCann became the first AI music designer to sign with a traditional record label.

He doesn't believe what he does is about "replacing artists", but rather "expanding what is possible".

"AI handles what used to take a room full of people and a six figure studio budget, so I can move faster and stay focused on the story and emotional core of the song," he said.

McCann, who has a background as a visual designer, started experimenting with AI to see if it could bring his "lyrics to life".

He signed with independent record label Hallwood Media after one of his tracks racked up 3 million streams on AI streaming service, Suno.

"Building a career on today's streaming model feels like manufacturing CDs the week before the iPod dropped. I'm watching where the future is actually being built," he said.

McCann argues that radio had always been guided by a single principle and that is whether a song connects with listeners.

"That hasn't evolved," he said, adding that while the tools musicians use continue to change, the core relationship between artist and audience remains the same.

He said he understands concerns surrounding the use of AI in music, agreeing with the wider sentiment that the human creative process is "sacred".

"My music has my story behind it," he said.

"There's a big difference between an artist using this technology with intention and someone just pressing a button. I don't press buttons."

What are streaming platforms doing about AI?

There is currently no legal obligation for streaming platforms to label AI-generated songs, despite increasing calls for them to signpost such tracks.

Spotify has made some concessions to address concerns.

In April it launched a test feature which shows in the credits of a song, how an artist used AI. But it's a voluntary system based on what an artist tells their record label or distributor.

The streaming platform Deezer uses an AI detection tool, as well as a system which tags AI-generated music.

Deezer says its detection system can flag tracks made with the most prolific AI music creation tools, and is working on expanding its ability to detect music made by others.

Apple Music requires that labels and distributors transparently declare the use of AI in their uploads.

Instead of a blanket ban, Apple mandates the use of 'transparency tags' in its metadata to flag whether artificial intelligence was used to create a track or video.

Social media on trial: Four important cases to watch

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9q39l447l4o, 3 days ago

When social media started to take over the internet 20 years ago, it was widely hailed as a game-changing technology that would connect people across divides and make information more accessible.

Today, companies like Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, Google, owner of Youtube, and Snapchat, along with relatively newer platforms like TikTok, Discord and social gaming platform Roblox, are facing thousands of lawsuits in the US over claims that they have instead harmed users, children in particular.

Taken together, the outcome of the lawsuits, whether they ultimately settle out of court or end up with jury verdicts against companies, could change the way social platforms operate forever.

"It's created a stage that not only legal observers are watching, but regulators and lawmakers are watching closely as well," Eric Talley, a lawyer and professor at Columbia Law School, said.

Talley noted that the way this growing wave of lawsuits against platforms is feeding into broader public perception is likely to influence political elections for the next several years, impacting new and revised laws and regulations.

Many of the cases are going through courts in California, where all of the major social platforms are headquartered. Known as the "California effect", legal and policy changes enacted in the state tend to lead to nationwide changes.

"There's no denying anymore that there is an issue with child safety on the platforms," Alexis Shore Ingber, a communications law expert and a professor at Syracuse University, said. "We are seeing an inflection point. These cases are significant."

Already this year, Meta and YouTube notched an unprecedented loss in a case brought by a young woman who claimed she was addicted as a child to social media, contributing to her mental and emotional health struggles. The companies were ordered by a jury to pay her a combined $6m (£4.5m) in damages. Both firms said they disagreed with the verdict and intended to appeal.

Meta also lost a bigger case in New Mexico, brought by that state's attorney general accusing the company of essentially misleading the public that its platforms were safe for children despite known issues with young people being sexually exploited on them. Meta said it also plans to appeal against this verdict.

During the years these cases were brought and resolved, Meta has released changes to its platforms aimed at making them safer for young users.

But broader change to the platforms, how they are designed and function and even accessed, is likely to take years more, and more court rulings against them.

Between this year and next, Meta and the other major social platforms are poised to fight their way through more trials where juries could consider a host of claims by young users, their parents, school districts, and state attorneys who allege an array of ill effects from the way social media platforms are designed and operate.

Even a billionaire is prepared to take Meta to trial over its hosting of advertisements that scam people out of money.

So which cases really matter?

The BBC looked through scores of cases in the US to find the handful of lawsuits against social media and social gaming companies that are on track for trial in the next year or so and could have a significant impact on the platforms' businesses and operations.

According to Adam J. Schwartz, a lawyer who also founded an online document review tool, the following lawsuits "are the bellwether cases that will set the tone and tenor for shaping the law in the future".

Social Media Adolescent Addiction MDL

This sprawling multidistrict litigation (MDL) in California includes allegations from more than 1,000 school districts across the US.

Broadly, the schools accuse Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok of being intentionally designed to be addictive, which has allegedly harmed children mentally and emotionally through their excessive use of platforms.

The schools claim that dealing with the ill effects of social media has cost them money and resources, and that the platforms should be deemed a "public nuisance" and held liable for impacting children's well-being.

Although a jury trial for certain of the school districts' claims is now set to begin in February, as the platforms recently settled with a school district that was to be the first trial, all of the cases could take a couple more years to resolve completely.

Should court outcomes go against the platforms, everything from the way platforms display user engagement to who they allow on the platforms could change.

A spokesman for YouTube said: "The allegations in these complaints are simply not true."

A spokeswoman for Snapchat said: "We fundamentally disagree with the allegations - we do not target schools."

Meta declined to comment and TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.

People of the State of California v. Meta

Attorneys for California and Colorado led a group of 29 states in filing in 2023 a lawsuit against Meta and Instagram. It is set to go to trial in August.

While it is also before the same judge as the MDL in California, the states are accusing Meta alone of violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, a federal law known as COPPA. The law was intended to protect children under 13 years old from being targeted by businesses operating online but was enacted in 2000.

Meta has already provided more than 2 million documents in the case, according to court records.

Should the states prevail in their claims, it is demanding that Meta better prevent users under 13 years old from using its platforms and remove data it has previously collected from underage users, along with a host of other changes.

Meta uses such data to do things like ad targeting and train its artificial intelligence (AI) models and tools.

A spokesman for the company declined to comment.

John Doe, a minor v. Roblox et al

This case against Roblox and Discord was brought by a 13-year-old boy in state court in San Mateo, California. The boy claims he was recently groomed and solicited through both platforms by an adult sexual predator who was subsequently arrested for his crimes against more than two dozen children.

The lawsuit argues both platforms were defectively designed and engaged in false marketing about safety for young users and so should be held liable for the harm young John Doe came to.

Roblox, which is a gaming-focused platform with many social media features, and Discord tried to get the case into arbitration, which is a private legal process outside the court system. The court refused, but the case is currently on hold pending the companies' appeal against that decision.

Should Roblox and Discord lose their appeals, the case could go to trial later this year. A court verdict against the platforms may bring changes to age-gating and the ability of strangers to interact with young users through platform messages and chat spaces.

A spokeswoman for Discord declined to comment. A representative for Roblox did not respond to a request for comment.

Forrest v. Meta

Not all of the cases against social media platforms heading towards trial have to do with harms against children.

Dr Andrew Forrest, an Australian billionaire, sued Meta in California in 2022 over the company's alleged failure to combat scam advertisements tricking Australians into fake investments that allegedly proliferated on Facebook using his name and likeness.

With claims including misuse of his image and unjust enrichment, because Meta makes money from ads on its platform no matter their goal or outcome, Forrest's lawsuit could be one of the most significant.

He is asking the court to find that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act cannot be used as a defence by Meta in the case. Meta is arguing that it is protected from Forrest's claims by Section 230.

Enacted in 1996, Section 230, as it's usually referred, essentially gives legal immunity to platforms for anything that occurs on them.

If the court ultimately sides with Forrest, it could upend decades of defences by online platforms.

A spokesman for Meta declined to comment.

The ancient trick making food waste useful and tasty

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c78kmj2kyklo, 9 days ago

Vayu Hill-Maini's lab has created a new cheese, or at least something that tastes like cheese, but is actually made from food waste.

The bioengineer, who runs a lab at Stanford University in California, is experimenting with fermentation using fungi.

"One of the most amazing things that we found recently is that we could take waste and add a few other ingredients in a fungal fermentation and create this delicious cheese that is like a Pecorino or Parmigiano," he says.

Fermentation is a biological process whereby organisms convert carbohydrates like starch or sugar into substances like alcohol, without using oxygen.

Perhaps the best-known examples of fermentation are in baking and brewing, where yeast breaks down sugar into ethanol and carbon dioxide.

But it's not just wheat flour, or barley that can fuel fermentation, all sorts of substances are suitable - in biology those fermentation hosts are known as substrates.

With the latest biotech tools, companies are taking by-products of the food industry, that are currently discarded or have little value, and using fermentation to turn them into something useful.

UK-based Fermtech is transforming cocoa shells, which are normally thrown away, into a cocoa powder substitute, using fermentation.

"If you were to sniff a bag of cocoa shells, you would be really struck by the intense chocolatey nature of it," says Andy Clayton, Fermtech's CEO.

He says it's a shame that by-products of the food industry are composted or burnt, rather than using microorganisms to break down the hard bits of the plant and make it bioavailable for humans, while retaining the flavours.

Utilising a broader palette of substrates can save money, help the environment, and expand flavour.

"We're kind of like flavour miners," says Clayton says.

Take peas. Protein makes up about a quarter of a pea, and pea protein has become an increasingly popular source of plant-based protein.

What then to do with the other three-quarters of the pea?

That makes "a perfect substrate for fermentation," according to Bosco Emparanza, the CEO of Spain's MOA Foodtech.

His company gathers data on environmental conditions and available substrates, and sequences the genomes of microorganisms appropriate for the food industry.

With that data, MOA has trained an AI to work out what combinations of substrates and microorganisms would achieve the best yields.

Emparanza marvels at the speed of such AI-driven fermentation design.

"When we started the company, we were able to develop one bioprocess in two weeks," he says, referring to the use of living cells to generate a product.

"Nowadays, the platform can develop 300 bioprocesses per hour."

Using that tech, MOA Foodtech discovered the best microorganisms to make use of the leftover starch and fibre in the pea protein industry.

Those byproducts would normally get sold at rock-bottom prices for animal feed, for instance, or possibly even discarded.

MOA Foodtech is working to put those byproducts back into the human food chain.

Germany's MicroHarvest has developed a confidential process which speeds up the fermentation process.

MicroHarvest uses byproducts of the sugar industry, such as molasses, which isn't typically eaten in Germany.

Rather than the sugar industry turning this over to farmers to feed cows, MicroHarvest is working with sugar makers and pet food producers to convert side streams into premium pet food.

Katelijne Bekers, the CEO and co-founder of MicroHarvest, describes the cat snack Vegcat as having an umami taste without the bitterness of some plant-based proteins.

Singapore's Mottainai Food Tech also has a mission to use unconventional and underappreciated ingredients, which can be nutritious and widely available throughout Asia.

The inspiration for the name comes from the Japanese term mottainai, which laments waste - think of the phrase "waste not, want not" and you have the sentiment.

The company has produced a meat substitute called Jiro Meat based on okara, a soy pulp typically discarded after making tofu and soymilk.

Mottainai also recently started a plant-based tuna project.

They've experimented with different microorganisms to minimise off-flavours and maximise desirable flavour compounds such as umami or sweetness.

Singapore has a supportive environment for these kinds of food experiments.

"In five years' time, we hope to be able to have a wide range of ingredients" drawing on the company's fermentation platform, says Daryl Pek, a cofounder of Mottainai Food Tech.

Back in Stanford, Hill-Maini's lab is working on precision fermentation.

This involves genetically engineering microorganisms, such as moulds, to produce a specific material in a fermentation process.

Precision fermentation can efficiently adjust the aesthetics, aroma or flavour of a food, but also its digestibility.

For instance, Hill-Maini says that some waste products are rich in cellulose, which humans can't digest. But as they grow, fungi can break down the cellulose and convert it into protein.

"They become kind of a bioconversion machine where they can remove some of those complicated molecules that the human gut cannot digest and convert them into more digestible substances."

Hill-Maini believes that his lab's work inspires others to think differently about food waste. But he doesn't want this work to stay in the lab.

They have a chef in residence and an R&D culinary innovation kitchen to ensure that their food experiments are as appealing to potential consumers as possible.

Of the recently developed Pecorino-like cheese, the lab used a Neurospora mould, but would not say what waste was used as a substrate. That's secret until they publish a paper about their work.

But he's excited about the new "cheese".

"You can grate it, it's salty, it has a nice texture, it can be added to pasta. And it's just really cool to see… the fermentation can help it become delicious."

Molly Russell's dad says PM rushing social media restrictions 'deplorable'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwykw759v3po, today

The father of a teenager who took her own life after viewing harmful content online has said he is "dismayed" by reports the government is to ban young people from using some social media platforms.

Ian Russell, the father of Molly Russell, told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg, Sir Keir Starmer had "rushed" an announcement and that he could "not think of a reason other than a political reason".

"If he's playing politics, what he's doing is gambling with young people's lives, and I find that deplorable."

A Downing Street spokesperson said: "We have undertaken a thorough consultation and will set out next steps in due course."

They added: "The prime minister has been clear that the status quo is not good enough and we need to do more to protect children.

"This is not about politics - it is about protecting children."

In recent weeks, government ministers have examined a variety of options for restrictions, including a blanket ban on under-16s accessing social media, as has been introduced in Australia.

Since Molly took her own life aged 14 in 2017, Russell has campaigned for better online protections for children - but has said "implementing sledgehammer techniques like bans" would only cause "more problems".

Sir Keir is preparing to announce a crackdown on children's access to social media within days.

Some media reports have suggested under-16s could banned from accessing "high-risk" social media platforms under the plans, while safer ones would be subjected to restrictions.

Speaking exclusively to BBC One's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Russell said he would be "dismayed" by such a decision.

He told the BBC ahead of the expected announcement: "In opposition, Keir Starmer promised to tighten up the online safety world by regulating better.

"Early last year, father to father, I met with him briefly and he was very concerned - and he promised me he would look into effective solutions to deal with this problem. He seemed concerned.

"But as we sit here on the verge of this announcement, it seems that he's not kept either of those promises."

He said the prime minister had "promised a group of bereaved parents" an announcement could be expected by the summer recess, which falls in mid-July.

Russell also shared new research indicating half of all girls saw high risk harmful content on social media in a week despite the Online Safety Act, according to new figures from his organisation.

A survey of from the Molly Rose Foundation suggested 47% of girls and a third of all teenagers aged 13-17 saw high-risk suicide, self-harm and eating disorder content in a week.

The poll of 1,825 children across the UK, only slightly fewer are seeing harmful content now than immediately before the Online Safety Act came into force - at 34% down from 37%.

The act was passed in 2023 and was meant to ensure children did not view illegal or certain kinds of harmful content online, with rules for social media companies being enforced by media regulator Ofcom.

However, campaign groups including the Molly Rose Foundation have criticised Ofcom's implementation and enforcement of the new regulations.

Russell told the BBC: "I think it's enough to say that we found that in the first year of implementing the production of children measures, Ofcom the regulator have effectively achieved nothing much at all."

"It's really frustrating because we've been saying... Ofcom have been too timid, Ofcom need to do more, the gaps in the Online Safety Act need to be plugged, something needs to change and very sadly and tragically we seem to have been proved right."

In a statement, Ofcom said it has driven "some of the strongest changes of any online safety regulation in the world".

It said it had brought in age checks and grooming protections for children, as well as investigations into more 100 sites and apps, and fines totalling £5m.

An Ofcom spokesperson said: "The job is far from done and we share Ian's concerns that tech firms have not done nearly enough to reassure parents that they are putting children's safety first. We've made clear that companies need to go much further, including taking swift action to make their feeds safer for children."

See the full interview with Ian Russell on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on BBC One at 09:00 BST on Sunday

Social media ban for under-16s would be unenforceable, charity warns

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgmdy9vg9jmo, yesterday

A social media ban for under-16s would not be enforceable and the government should instead focus on restricting the features that make it addictive, the chief executive of an online safety charity has said.

Sir Keir Starmer is expected to announce shortly whether there will be a social media ban for under-16s as has been introduced in Australia.

Andy Burrows, chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation which was set up in memory of Molly Russell, told BBC Breakfast he would be "dismayed" if the UK was to enforce a similar ban as the evidence "doesn't support" it.

He said the focus should instead be on banning features such as autoplay, infinite scroll, and the algorithms that "bombard" children with harmful material.

Molly was 14 when she took her own life in 2017 after being exposed to self-harm content online.

Burrows said that parents across the country were looking for "decisive action" from the government and the introduction of "measures that can actually succeed".

This could include enforcing tougher restrictions on features which make social media addictive, such as banning autoplay, infinite scroll, and the algorithms that "bombard" children with harmful material.

He said these features contributed to the harm that led to Molly's death.

Burrows said that experts and organisations working on child safety "do not have confidence" in an Australia-style ban for under-16s.

Australia introduced the ban in January, but in March, its eSafety Commission found that seven in 10 parents whose children already had a social media account said they were still on the platforms.

Burrows told BBC Breakfast: "In Australia this is not working, it's not something that is enforceable."

He added: "This looks like policy making being done on the back of a fag packet and frankly that is incredibly high risk when we are talking about children's safety. We should be following the evidence."

The UK government announced a consultation on children's social media use in January, to examine the most effective ways to ensure young people can remain safe online.

It received 116,211 responses.

Government ministers have examined a variety of options for restrictions, including a blanket ban or the introduction of screen time limits.

Proponents of a ban have been offering "false hope" to parents, Burrows argued. "I'm looking at all the evidence, the sector is looking at all the evidence, and we just don't see what lessons we can learn from Australia."

Ian Russell, Molly's father, told BBC's Newscast in January that the government should enforce existing laws rather than "implementing sledgehammer techniques like bans".

Meta vs the nipple - the 'never-ending' censorship battle

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g734pj22zo, yesterday

Social media bans are not anything new. Many of us will have seen examples of this in our timelines - friends announcing their return from "Facebook jail" or complaints about posts being removed for what appear to be strange reasons.

But there is another group of people who say they are frustrated by a "never-ending" battle with Facebook owner Meta - tattooists who provide restorative nipple tattoos for people who have undergone breast cancer treatment.

They say their work is often mistakenly flagged as nudity or pornography, which can result in their content or social media accounts being permanently removed.

The wider censoring of clinical images and medical terminology relating to women's bodies on social media was raised in Parliament on 21 May, in a debate secured by Emily Darlington, MP for Milton Keynes Central.

The Labour member told the debate: "Shadow banning is the term for when users can still technically post but their visibility is secretly throttled.

"Their posts stop appearing in feeds, their reach collapses, their engagement disappears and their followers cannot find them. In the examples I have seen, the user is never clearly informed about it.

"That is censorship without accountability, which is harming education, charities and businesses, reinforcing stigma and, in some cases, putting women's lives at risk. We need to call that what it is: algorithmic sexism."

The problem facing medical tattooists has been widely reported in news outlets for more than a decade at least, and has seen protests - including one featuring a 20ft (6m) inflatable breast - take place outside the London headquarters of Meta, which also owns Instagram.

"We're trying to give something back to someone who's lost something, to help them feel whole again," said Emma Roberts, a former nurse who now offers free nipple tattoos to breast cancer survivors.

"It's like that's being stripped away from them, just from not being able to post about the service I provide. It's not nudity, it's a tattoo."

But Emma, from Littleover in Derby, said Meta had "repeatedly" mistaken her work for nudity.

The 32-year-old qualified as a nurse in 2011 but, inspired by a woman who had lost eyelashes, eyebrows, hair and her breasts after cancer treatment, became a full-time tattooist in March 2025.

She began sharing her work on social media, but said she had to create multiple Facebook and Instagram pages due to her content being flagged and, in some cases, her accounts being permanently removed.

"Words like 'boob', 'areola', 'mastectomy' or 'breast' are instantly flagged, and images can be taken down," Emma said.

"This stops people benefiting from a free service."

Emma, who now relies on word of mouth rather than social media, said she had also been shadow banned by Meta.

Vicky Martin, a medical tattooist from Reading, has faced restrictions and shadow bans on Facebook since 2016.

"I would get told that my pictures were taken down because they were classed as pornographic," she said.

Vicky, who has been a medical tattooist for 25 years, told the BBC she had lodged appeals but did "not hear anything" back, leaving her with restricted Facebook use.

"The worst part was that no-one was told I was blocked, so when women reached out to me, I couldn't reply," the 52-year-old said.

"I feel it's my duty to share on social media what's possible, because every woman deserves to look complete and feel stronger for the journey they are on."

She decided to start posting on Instagram instead, but she found herself facing the same problems and said it was "just like banging your head against the brick wall".

Frustration pushed Vicky to organise a protest outside Meta's London headquarters on 15 November 2019, where she was joined by other tattooists, surgeons, mastectomy groups and breast cancer survivors.

"I needed to do something to get a response," she said. "I wasn't just going to sit there and not allow the world to see how complete someone can look again after something terrible like breast cancer."

Vicky, who spent £3,500 on a large inflatable breast to take to the protest, said she did not get to speak to anyone but it had "put pressure" on Meta.

Vicky continued to experience the same issues and returned for a second protest outside Meta's headquarters on 1 September 2021.

This time, she was joined by protesters wearing inflatable breasts.

"We actually linked arms and stood in front of the door," Vicky said.

The second protest resulted in a meeting between Vicky and Meta, which she said had taken place online.

During that meeting, she created a list of accounts that had experienced bans and restrictions over content relating to nipple tattoos or breast cancer.

Vicky said Meta had told her the list would help prevent future bans and provided guidance on how to format posts to avoid them being flagged.

That advice, she told the BBC, was to clearly label posts with "post mastectomy", for users to state their medical role on their profiles and to clearly state in captions that the content relates to either "breast cancer or post mastectomy" work.

Vicky said accounts started to be unblocked, but she "wanted permanent change" and for those not on the list she gave to Meta, like new accounts, to make efforts to avoid being banned in the first place.

She feels progress has "stalled" and said she continued to hear from tattooists and breast cancer survivors who needed support.

"I'm banging my head against the brick wall again," she added. "It feels like we're on the back burner.

"It's just heartbreaking that people can't show off how good they look.

"If you say you're going to help us, then I think it's important to stick to your word."

Vicky recently sent the company another list of more than 70 flagged accounts belonging to surgeons, tattooists, and breast cancer survivors.

Meta told the BBC it had met members of the medical tattoo community, including Vicky, to "better understand these challenges and improve enforcement outcomes".

Dr Carolina Are, a digital criminologist at the London School of Economics and Political Science, specialises in the shadow banning and deplatforming of nudity, sex work and sex‑positive users on social media.

She said nipples were a "hill that platforms decide to die on in terms of online safety".

"A nipple is not a marker for sexuality. It's not a marker for harm. It's a completely arbitrary decision," she added.

Carolina described the issue of shadow banning as "never-ending" and said: "It doesn't seem like platforms are making any strides or progress about their obsession with nipples."

She said Meta asking for lists of banned accounts to reinstate them was "a band-aid approach over a systemic issue".

Caroline added: "I think it's going to be unlikely to see any change, because nipple tattoos are a very good example of the nuance that is missing from content moderation."

'Women deserve equal access'

When approached by the BBC after the debate, the MP Emily Darlington said she was "shocked but unfortunately not surprised" by the struggles faced by medical tattooists.

She added: "We need platforms to work directly with groups like these medical tattoo artists who are doing such great work for breast cancer survivors, alongside clinicians, educators and trusts charities to make sure their content isn't censored.

"Women deserve equal access to medical information and support groups".

A spokesperson for Meta told the BBC the company "continues to work on improving" how it identifies and protects medical and health-related content.

They said: "Images showing post-mastectomy scarring and areola tattoos are allowed on Facebook and Instagram.

"We recognise the important role medical tattooists play in supporting breast cancer survivors, and we want this content on our platforms.

"Because these tattoos are often highly realistic, our systems may occasionally make mistakes enforcing our nudity policies.

"We understand how frustrating that can be, which is why we allow users to appeal these decisions and we continue to work on improving how we identify and protect medical and health-related content."

Listen to BBC Radio Derby on Sounds and follow BBC Derby on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210.

What does Amazon investing £1bn mean for a county?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyxk5gxnggo, yesterday

To the untrained eye, Amazon's newest fulfillment centre is a vast behemoth.

But behind the metal panels and glass windows lay four floors of warehouse with advanced technology enabling the convenience of next or even same-day delivery.

The massive site near junction 15 of the M1 in Northampton has a total internal footprint 2.2 million sq ft (204,387 sq m).

But why has the online retailer chosen to invest here - and what could it mean for the future?

What has been announced?

On Wednesday, Amazon officially opened its new fulfilment centre in Northampton, known as STN6.

And as one project concluded, the online retailer was announcing plans for a second hub less than 20 miles (32km) away in Kettering.

The Northampton site, an Amazon Robotics Sortable (ARS) fulfilment centre, can store tens of millions of products and has been fitted with a range of new technology - some of which has not been used in the UK before.

The Kettering project is slated for completion in the autumn of this year and will provide a logistics hub where goods from suppliers are delivered before quickly being sent out again to carriers or customers.

The 900,000 sq ft (83,610 sqm) facility will handle about 20 million items a week.

Amazon said the Northampton and Kettering sites would cost £1bn to deliver and are part of its wider £40bn investment into the UK between 2025-27.

This has included a newly opened fulfilment centre in Hull and a £107m distribution centre in Peterborough, due to open this autumn, creating 1,400 jobs.

Why Northamptonshire?

The short answer is a simple one: location and infrastructure.

The county's position in the centre of the country provides access to a massive consumer base.

The M1 and the A14 run through it, it is close to the M40 and M6 and has the Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT) and Northampton Gateway freight terminal too.

Clare Bottle, from the UK Warehousing Association, said Northamptonshire had a "really proud history of being central to trade and distribution across the centuries".

She said for the likes of Amazon, the county provided the ability to reach almost all of the UK within one HGV driving shift.

The Northampton and Kettering warehouses serve different purposes for the firm, but their close proximity enable it to fulfil customer orders more quickly - and reduce its own costs too.

Bottle said there was no doubt the investment was a "really good news story" for Northamptonshire.

She said it was not just about the benefits for Amazon, but the county itself.

"With those warehouses they'll be paying business rates, that's supporting the local economy," she said.

"Sometimes the story we hear about warehouses is a bit of negative one. I'd really like to put that right, today's warehousing jobs - especially with a big investor like Amazon - will mean really technically focused jobs.

"It can be a really good engine of social mobility. Not just entry level but also chances to develop and move on."

What does it mean for jobs?

John Boumphrey, from Amazon UK, said that once fully operational, the new facilities in Northampton and Kettering would create about 4,000 jobs in total.

A thousand of those jobs are already up and running in Northampton, with another thousand to have been recruited by the end of the year. A further 2,000 jobs are to be generated by the Kettering facility.

However, it has also been a time of change for some of the company's long-serving staff.

Earlier this year, Amazon closed its first UK base, which opened in Bedfordshire in 1998.

The 500 employees at Marston Gate, near Brogborough, were given the opportunity to transfer to Northampton or another location.

Magda Ziavka, one of the affected workers, said it had been really difficult to leave the "family" of the Bedfordshire site behind, but "the feeling here [at Northampton] is also pretty good".

What have the industry said?

Mick Lancaster, from the GMB Union, said the human impact of closing the Bedfordshire site had been felt by the people once employed there.

"Many of our members have got young families and commitments in the local Bedford area," he said.

"Some of our members have relocated already, so coming up from Dunstable and Luton way the travel to Northampton was just too far out of their reach."

Boumphrey said the move had been made after "careful consideration" and was a symptom of evolving consumer demand.

"This [Northampton warehouse] is on a different scale. It's across four floors where we only had two there [Bedfordshire]," he said.

"It allows us to use the latest generation of robots and it's really efficient. It gives us the ability to deliver to our customers to get those products even faster."

He added: "We think really hard about what is the right footprint, what is the right set of buildings to have."

Bottle said the Covid pandemic had taught the logistics industry that "warehousing is absolutely essential to making sure that we've got enough of everything everywhere to be able to serve consumers".

Could robots take over?

At Northampton, some 1,600 robots are spread across the floors of the building.

They will allow Amazon to store, pack and ship hundreds of thousands of orders every week.

But Bottle said improving technology did not mean that humans would become obsolete in the process, despite a "trend" of automation and artificial intelligence impacting many job sectors.

She said: "The adoption of robotics means that the leadership jobs in warehouses are very skilled.

"You need to lead teams of people and manage some quite technical equipment."

How do locals feel about warehouses?

For all the progress and benefits that the facilites like Amazon's new centre in Northampton bring, there remains resistance from locals.

A campaign group staged a protest in April against a separate development off the A14 near Kettering.

It was only the latest such example of opposition, with themes from campaigners often centred on the appearance of the structures, their impact on local roads and, in some cases, proximity to residential areas.

Bottle, who also chairs the Northamptonshire Logistics Industry Forum, said there was a balance to strike.

She said: "We need to think carefully about how we use land. There are lots of questions about planning permission and we need more investment in the planning process.

"But if we do that really well, we can find the happy medium where we're making the best use of the land available to us on this beautiful island of Britain.

"And, at the same time, attracting that inward investment from big firms like Amazon and creating fabulous jobs."

Do you have a story suggestion for Northamptonshire? Contact us below.

Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.

Who is Elon Musk and what is his net worth?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0r1975ded7o, yesterday

Technology mogul Elon Musk, boss of SpaceX, Tesla and X (formerly Twitter), has become the world's first trillionaire.

For some time Musk has been, or at least never far from being, the world's richest person.

He became the first person to achieve a net worth of more than half a trillion dollars (£370.9bn) in October 2025, according to Forbes.

A month later, Tesla shareholders approved a record-breaking pay deal that could be worth $1 trillion.

But in June 2026, Musk's net worth soared past billionaire to trillionaire status after his rocket-builder and satellite operator SpaceX, which also owns X, Grok and Starlink, went public.

However, he is known for more than simply his immense wealth.

The SpaceX boss has used his social media platform to air his views on a vast array of topics, ranging from current affairs to the future of humanity.

His forays into politics have become more frequent in recent years, and include helping Donald Trump win the 2024 US presidential election, to the frustration of some investors.

Musk has since also taken an interest in UK matters - drawing scrutiny as well as criticism from some politicians, including the Prime Minister, for both his views and the way X influences the public debate and mood.

Where was Elon Musk born?

Born in Pretoria, South Africa, Musk showed his talents for entrepreneurship early, going door-to-door with his brother selling homemade chocolate Easter eggs and developing his first computer game at the age of 12.

He has described his childhood as difficult, affected by his parents' divorce, bullying at school and his own difficulty picking up on social cues because of Asperger's Syndrome.

At the earliest opportunity, he left home for college, moving to Canada and then the US, where he studied economics and physics at the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League college.

In a 2010 essay for Marie Claire, his first wife, Justine Musk, a writer whom he met in college and married in 2000, wrote that even before making his millions Musk was "not a man who takes no for an answer".

"The will to compete and dominate, that made him so successful in business, did not magically shut off when he came home," she recalled, adding that he told her while dancing at their wedding, "I am the alpha in this relationship."

How did Elon Musk make his money?

After being accepted to a physics graduate degree programme at Stanford University, Musk quickly dropped out and founded two technology start-ups during the "dotcom boom" of the 1990s.

These included a web software firm and an online banking company that eventually became PayPal, which was sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5bn (£1.2bn).

He ploughed his fortune into a new rocket company, SpaceX - which he aimed to make a cost-effective alternative to Nasa - and a new electric car company, Tesla, where he chaired the board until becoming chief executive in 2008.

The two firms have been credited with upending their industries, even as they sometimes veered close to financial collapse.

Other business ventures include his takeover of social media platform Twitter in October 2022.

Musk's long-term ambition is for X to become an "everything app" offering a range of services. However, the value of the firm plunged from the $44bn he originally paid to just $9.4bn, according to some estimates.

Some companies left the platform. Reports suggested hate speech on X grew under Musk's tenure, and some firms don't want to be associated with that.

He also has ambitions in the AI sector, being an early investor in ChatGPT's parent company before parting ways in 2018, and setting up his own company xAI "to understand the true nature of the universe" in 2023.

In February 2024, he sued OpenAI and its boss Sam Altman, saying the firm he helped found had reneged on its non-profit, open source origins by hitching its wagon to Microsoft.

However, in May 2026, a California jury tossed out Musk's lawsuit, saying he had waited too long to file it.

"I'm never hugely convinced that he knows what he wants to do tomorrow," says journalist Chris Stokel-Walker of Musk's wide-ranging interests. "He very much leads by instinct."

In a 2015 biography, author Ashlee Vance described Musk as "a confrontational know-it-all" with an "abundant ego". But he also called him an awkward dancer and diffident public speaker.

In the press, he's been dubbed both a mad genius and X's biggest troll - known as much for his lofty ambitions as his petty fights, not to mention the more serious lawsuits he and his companies have faced from regulators, investors and others over issues such as racial discrimination and the trustworthiness of his claims.

Divorced three times - twice from the same woman, British actress Talulah Riley - Musk is frank about his faults.

"If you list my sins, I sound like the worst person on Earth," he said in a TED interview in 2022.

"But if you put those against the things I've done right, it makes much more sense."

What is Elon Musk's net worth?

Those contradictions certainly haven't stopped Musk from amassing a fortune.

In October 2025, he became the first person to achieve a net worth of more than half a trillion dollars, according to Forbes, which tracks the wealth of billionaires.

Musk already sits well above wealthy tech billionaires topping rich lists, including Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg.

But with SpaceX now a publicly traded company, he is poised to become even more wealthy.

The rocket-making firm raised $75bn (£56bn) from financial firms ahead of its highly-anticipated initial public offering (IPO).

Speaking ahead of the launch of its shares on the US tech-heavy Nasdaq index on 12 June, Musk said he gave SpaceX "less than a 10% chance of succeeding at all" when it first started - but it was now going public "with the largest IPO ever".

Its shares began trading up over 20% from its initial listing price of $135 a share.

As a result, estimates of Musk's net worth have soared to more than $1tn, according to Bloomberg and Forbes.

But with much of his net worth tied up in SpaceX stock, his status as a trillionaire could change if its shares were to drop dramatically.

He could also make a fortune from Tesla, after the carmaker's board approved a deal that could see him receive a pay package worth more than $1tn if he hits a list of ambitious targets over the next decade.

Among a list of goals, he would need to grow Tesla's value eightfold, sell a million AI robots and another 12 million Tesla cars.

Throughout 2024 Musk was locked in a legal battle over a $56bn pay package from Tesla. In December 2024, a Delaware judge rejected his claim to it for a second time, but in December 2025 the package was reinstated by the Delaware Supreme Court.

Musk also champions digital currencies and has a hand in several other smaller companies, including tunnel-maker the Boring Company.

Musk, who wears the mantle of a workaholic proudly, has often said he's not in business simply to make money.

"Elon only gets involved with things if he feels that they're critically important for some reason... for the sake of society or humanity," says friend and Tesla investor Ross Gerber.

What are Elon Musk's political views?

For a long time Musk, who became a US citizen in 2002, resisted efforts to label his politics - calling himself "half-Democrat, half-Republican", "politically moderate" and "independent".

He says he voted for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and - reluctantly - Joe Biden, all of them Democrats.

But in recent years he has backed Donald Trump, who is a Republican.

Musk officially endorsed Trump for a second term in 2024 after his attempted assassination and became one of the campaign's foremost backers and influencers.

He became critical of the Democrat party's stance on a number of issues, including the economy, immigration and gun control - decrying many of its policies as "woke".

Musk's America Super PAC also ran a controversial $1m giveaway to voters in battleground states in the last weeks of the campaign, alongside appearing on Trump's campaign trail.

After his election, President Trump selected Musk as the self-proclaimed "first buddy" to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).

The initiative oversaw deep - and deeply controversial - cuts to public spending.

But their friendship fell apart in a very public fashion, when an initial public clash over a tax and spending bill snowballed into the pair slinging personal insults on the social media platforms they own.

Musk announced his departure from the White House on 28 May 2025 and, not long after, the president declared their relationship was over.

However the feud has seemingly thawed since, with Musk among tech bosses who joined Trump on an important trip to China.

Musk has recently taken a more active interest in political events in the UK.

In particular, he has used X to criticise Sir Keir Starmer's Labour government on several matters, including its response to grooming gangs and immigration.

Musk has aligned himself with prominent figures on the right of UK politics, including far-right activist and convicted criminal Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson.

Having previously supported Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, Musk shifted to back another MP, Rupert Lowe, as its leader in 2025.

And in 2026, ahead of local elections in England, Lowe formed a new party to rival Reform called Restore Britain. Musk threw his support behind it, writing on X: "It will win. It must win. To Save Britain."

However, his frequent posts about UK politics have also come under scrutiny from MPs across the political spectrum, some of whom have criticised his interventions as uninformed and unwelcome.

Starmer accused Musk of "trying to whip up division" over the murder of Henry Nowak in June - but Musk has used posts on X to push back on claims that he and other figures fanned the flames of any protests and riots.

A self-proclaimed "free speech absolutist", he continues to make his views on political matters in the UK and elsewhere known.

How many children does Elon Musk have?

In the past, Musk has said he sees his businesses as a form of philanthropy, because they are focused on solving major human issues such as climate change.

However, he has since moderated his views on climate change, tweeting that it is "real, just much slower than alarmists claim".

Despite his own interest in artificial intelligence, he has also been one of the most prominent figures expressing concern about the supposed threat to humanity's future that super-intelligent AIs might pose.

He has claimed that the rise of artificial intelligence, combined with a declining birth rate, could result in "not enough people" being in the world.

Musk has fathered 14 children - six with his first wife, three with Canadian singer Grimes, four with Shivon Zilis and one with conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair.

Following the birth of his twins with Ms Zilis, he tweeted: "Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis."

Meanwhile St Clair, who revealed she had given birth to Musk's child in February 2025, sued his company xAI in January 2026 after Grok was used to create sexualised deepfakes of her on X.

Additional reporting by Tom Espiner & Tom Gerken

How Soviet prisons spread a secret 'language of thieves' now spoken by millions

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260611-fenya-how-cyber-criminals-adopted-russias-secret-language-of-thieves, yesterday

The tricks of the jail jargon Fenya were once used to bewilder guards in Stalin's Gulags. Now they are being used by Russian cyber-criminals.

When would you hide in a raspberry? Why don't you want to be a sixer? And what does it mean to go to the akademiya?

Russian often takes slang to complex levels, such as through Mat, its linguistic system for obscenities. But even a "matershchinnik" (a well-practiced master of swearing) might find the above phrases nonsensical – unless, of course, they are familiar with Fenya, the language of Russia's colossal prison system.

This language of criminals has been deployed by underworld figures for centuries to puzzle and evade. But during the 20th Century, its curious mixture of double entendre and loan words ballooned in Soviet prisons.

With German, Greek and Yiddish influences, Fenya is brimming with confusing hidden meanings. In Russian, "babki" literally means "grandmas", but in Fenya, it also means "money". "Varezhka" means a "mitten" but also a "mouth, while "khalyava", derived from the Hebrew for "milk", is a "freebie" or "giveaway".

A single word in Fenya can contain hidden codes known only to speakers of the slang. And just as it once bewildered prison camp guards, its language tricks are now being being used online, obscuring the intent of cyber-criminals and confusing authorities.

For instance, while the Russian words мусор or musor normally translate to "trash", its Fenya equivalent today means a cop who may have infiltrated the dark-web forums where cyber-attacks are organised.

With Russian cyber-crime booming, investigators must now familiarise themselves with this jargon if they want to get the drop on perpetrators. Even with advances in artificial intelligence, though, machines can struggle to pick up Fenya's constantly evolving nuances.

So how did we get here? While Fenya was muttered on the streets of Tsarist Russia for centuries, it was a series of decisions taken by the Soviet justice system that resulted in its explosion into the mainstream – and ultimately onto the internet too.

Clandestine beginnings

Broadly speaking, Fenya is a type of cryptolect – a camouflaged language often used to confuse others. Today, it has burrowed into broader Russian culture to the degree that some may be unaware of words' original ties to the underworld.

Fenya's origins are shrouded in mystery. One intriguing (though disputed) theory suggests it began with nomadic salesmen called Ofeni who travelled on foot across Russia selling religious knick-knacks. A 17th-Century church schism, the theory goes, declared their wares items heretical, so wayfaring merchants adopted their own unique modes of speech.

More is known about how Fenya spread. The vocabulary is thought to have started expanding in the 19th Century, writes Mark Galeotti, an expert in modern Russia, intelligence consultant and honorary professor at University College London, in his 2018 book The Vory: Russia's Super Mafia. It was then, he says, that street urchins and criminals started to place "fe" and "nye" sounds in the middle of words.

These particular tics, redolent of an underworld pig-Latin, were eventually dropped, writes Galeotti. But not before gangs of pickpockets and street scammers adopted Fenya. Initiations into their crews counted on a basic understanding of it. Words and phrases were documented at length in an 1863 dictionary of living Russian,which attempted to categorise Russian as it was lived and spoken.

In Fenya, hierarchies are expressed through card-game jargon, with suits and clubs symbolising bona fide thieves. Animals take on secret double-lives as objects, so speakers know that a monkey is a mirror and a fox is a folding-knife. Altogether, Fenya's vocabulary is thought to comprise between 10,000 and 27,000 words.

Among the intelligentsia of the late Tsarist period, the tantalising suggestion of a shadow criminal society fascinated literary figures and inspired so-called vagabond music – where performers sang in Fenya and romanticised slum life.

But it was the enormous social upheaval of wars and revolution to come that really cemented Fenya's rise.

Fenya's explosion

After winning the Russian civil war and creating the USSR in 1922, the Bolsheviks experimented with expanding the country's prison camps. In these forerunners to the notorious Gulag system, all sorts of people would mix with petty criminals – giving everyone from peasants to the intelligentsia a first-hand taste of Fenya.

When Stalin took power, millions more were incarcerated, leading the enigmatic vocabulary to spread among even more prisoners and become standardised among criminals, eventually evolving into a kind of prison-camp vocabulary with whole new terms.

"Language became a kind of communicative survival tool," says Martin Puchner, professor of English and comparative literature at Harvard University in the US, and author of The Language of Thieves: The Story of Rotwelsch and One Family's Secret History.

In the prisons, professional criminals formalised Fenya into the "vorovskoy zakon", or thieves' code, a Mafioso-style set of laws that signalled status: those familiar with its rules, and the commoners or "muzhik" (peasants) who would only ever be their marks.

Meanwhile, Stalin attempted to crush criminality, along with anything he associated with it – like Fenya. As early as 1930, official Soviet magazines decried "thieves songs" as a dangerous affront to proletarian culture.

Popular artists reinvented themselves in more ideologically acceptable directions. The famous Soviet estrada singer Leonid Utesov – whose jaunty thieves' song From The Odessa Gaol was once a crowd-pleaser – began performing for the military instead, converting his style into what one historian called a "Soviet product cleansed of decadence".

Leaving the prisons

The days following Stalin's death in 1953 brought another twist to the tale of Fenya.

A mass amnesty of more than a million prisoners meant petty criminals left the Gulags in droves. They returned home, bringing Fenya with them. "Blatnaya pesnya" – thieves' songs – broke out in taverns across the country.

"[At this time] there was a sense that criminal culture was a folk culture, suppressed by the official party," says Svetlana Stephenson, professor of sociology at London Metropolitan University and author of Gangs of Russia: From the Streets to the Corridors of Power. "There was a flirtation with this world among the intelligentsia."

Attempts to suppress thieves' songs only boosted their popularity. As the USSR intensified its censorship, enterprising citizens bootlegged music, cutting cheap X-ray sheets into disc shapes with scissors and printing sounds on them using home-made lathes. Known as "jazz on bones", these were playable on gramophones. The burgeoning black market in these sheets allowed people to trade music from denounced Russian émigrés as well as record their own songs, which was otherwise impossible.

Home recordings of thieves' songs circulated widely. Later, with the advent of the cassette tape, the rowdy sounds of underground artists like Arkady Severny and emigrant singer Dina Vierny – with their bawdy tales of sex, robberies, violence and gulags – thundered through the USSR.

By the time the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, Fenya's folkloric status was cemented, despite the best efforts of the state. Yet speaking Fenya in polite society was still unthinkable.

At the turn of the millennium, however, it entered a surprising new era of acceptability. Russian political elites including Vladimir Putin began to use Fenya in their official communiques, says Larissa Ryazanova-Clarke, professor of Russian and sociolinguistics at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. This "period of linguistic turmoil" was due to the "landslide of the norm", she says, reflecting the dramatic changes of the time.

Officials probably used this language to lend them a populist appeal, says Stephenson, who has described the trend as "Kremlovskaya Fenya" – Kremlin Fenya. "I think it expresses the culture of violence, which has penetrated to the very top of Russian society," she says. Paradoxically, officials banned speaking Fenya in Russian prisons but continued to speak it themselves.

Obfuscating the web

As Fenya burrowed into everyday language at the turn of the 21st Century, it also began to evolve in a new arena: the digital revolution.

In 1999 on the early Russian internet (or "RuNet"), a user on the FidoNet bulletin board published a "Manifesto of Anti-Literacy", writes academic Larisa Morkoborodova. This railed against "the so-called spelling correctness on the Net" and urged "all masters of the Russian word" to "challenge the killing of our live language by soulless automatons!".

Their deliberate misspellings and punny inventions evolved into new slang known as padonki, also ironically named olbanian. Millions per month speak in padonki online, writes Morkoborodova, and it has seeped into broader society. It means many Russians are familiar with padonki – only a subset of them criminals. Still, its creative semantics can cause headaches for cyber investigators.

The lingo deliberately breaks Russian language conventions, emphasising double consonants and phonetically written words, with loanwords from English that deviate from their original meanings.

For example, Russian speakers might write "email" as "mylo" – literally "soap dish" – because at the dawn of digital culture in Russia there was simply no word for email, says Roman Sannikov, a cyber-security expert who's worked as a linguist for the FBI. The Russian word for soap dish sounded phonetically close enough. "If you're using machine translation, sometimes you'll get 'soap' instead of an 'email'," he adds.

With Cyrillic (Russian) keyboards rare at the time, some web users also deployed the numerical "4" as shorthand for a "ch" sound, because "four" is "chetyre" in Russian.

"A lot of it came from English, because the words just did not exist in Russian," Sannikov says. "A hard drive was frequently called a 'winch', because many of them were branded 'Winchester'."

'Cyber-Fenya'

"Most of the people that created cyber-slang were kids or young people," says Sannikov – rather different from the Fenya-uttering vory (thieves) of the past.

So when Fenya words do crop up, says Fyodor Yarochkin, a researcher at the cyber security company Trend Micro, they might speak to a rarer sort of cross-pollination: traditional crooks who've entered the realm of white-collar cyber-criminals, perhaps to discuss more physical kinds of lawbreaking.

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Or, having learned phrases from gangster movies, they might just be trying to impress their associates and look tough, he suggests, using Fenya as a status symbol or cultural signifier rather than evasion.

Still, when chat logs from the Russian cyber-crime gang Conti leaked in 2022, among the logistics, obscenities and general blather were words that can be traced back to Fenya.

Researchers at global cyber-security firm Check Point noted that some of the chat logs appeared impossible to understand, with machine translation failing when they said phrases to each other such as: "My soaps don't bathe. I've been warming them up for months." What the criminals were really talking about was avoiding email blacklists.

Forums for "initial access brokers" – the insider threats at organisations who open the doors to cyber-attackers – also often speak in a mixture of Fenya and Mat, helping to disguise what they're up to.

"Fenya and cyber-crime lingo are almost like a form of convergent evolution," says Sannikov – together forming an intricate semantic tapestry that's hard to unpick. You could call the jumble of online criminal lingo "cyber-Fenya", he adds.

This internet usage is just the latest example of how criminal argot continues to be diluted, changed and occasionally absorbed into Russian. And Fenya's reach today is ultimately thanks to Stalin and the Gulags, which turned it into one of the most widespread covert languages in the world.

Many of the prisoners there could have told you that a raspberry was a secret lair, a "sixer" was at the very bottom of the criminal hierarchy, and that the "akademiya", or prison, is where you never wanted to end up – though it certainly would have given you a good education in Fenya.

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What do Puerto Ricans think of the viral song about their homeland?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy0v85ldyjo, 2 days ago

"First time in San Juan, mi hijo. Capital of Puerto Rico…"

A big corner of the internet has been singing and dancing to those lyrics over the last few weeks, with the red, white and blue of Puerto's flag emoji proudly sprinkled all over captions.

Some are claiming this catchy tune is a new "song of the summer" - it was created by internet personality and comic Bill Stiteler, known as Saxboy Billy, who's said he used AI music platform Suno to transform his lyrics into a song.

Since the original post, the song has had more than million views on TikTok, and celebrities including Mila Kunis, Charlie Puth and Jennifer Love Hewitt have made their own lip sync videos.

So how does it feel when your home has become a viral hit?

"To see the song being played by people who aren't Puerto Rican is amazing. It feels like we're on the map," says Maria Mercedes Grubb, who works as a chef in San Juan.

"Even the sentence about people clapping when the plane lands - that's so Puerto Rico!" she tells the BBC World Service's Outside Source programme.

With lyrics referencing Puerto Rico being a wild place to vacation, a Barack Obama statue and slot machines in the bus station - some are embracing the AI creation, while others are disappointed the earworm hasn't had as much human influence as they expected.

Mercedes Grubb takes a different approach and feels there is an underrated authenticity to the song, saying: "You can tell that there was genuine input about things that matter to the island. He used AI in such a clever way."

Song creator Stiteler, who's originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, told the BBC he's always appreciated Puerto Rican culture, referencing a statue of Puerto Rican baseball player Roberto Clemente in his hometown.

He says when he took his trip to the island "everything clicked".

Door 'opened' to new conversations

Many of the videos people create online to accompany the song show people in sunglasses and summer outfits, as if they're about to book the next flight to the island.

At the heart of the track lies a love letter to Puerto Rico - a small island in the northeastern Caribbean Sea, with a population of around 3.2 million people.

Spanish and English are the official languages of Puerto Rico, which is a self-governing unincorporated territory of the United States.

Puerto Rico's culture being on the global stage is something Debbie Perez, who hosts the Boriken podcast, which explores Puerto Rican history, is passionate about.

"I'm glad the song has opened the door to have more nuanced conversations about Puerto Rico," she says.

"We felt like the creator appreciated our culture. He said he would love to collaborate with Puerto Rican artists - we have some amazing people who talk about Puerto Rico's social issues in their music."

When mentioning those social issues, both Perez and Mercedes Grubb bring up Puerto Rican megastar Bad Bunny's impact in raising the profile of their home.

"You cannot talk about Puerto Rico without talking about Bad Bunny. Whether you like his music or not, he's doing so much for the island," says Mercedes Grubb.

She says she could see that impact in her restaurant last summer during the star's unprecedented two-month concert residency in San Juan.

The show was credited with giving a boost to Puerto Rico's tourism, drawing an estimated $200 million into the economy, according to reports..

For many Puerto Ricans, Bad Bunny's music also highlights their daily struggles – and they would love to see more conversation around those struggles in pop culture.

Although Perez thinks the Puerto Rico song is a great expression of love for her homeland, she says it doesn't show Puerto Rico's full story.

"We have to be careful that love for Puerto Rico doesn't become consumption.

"Bad Bunny highlights the history and struggle of Puerto Ricans, people fighting for the land and beaches and environmental protections. We have power outages for example so it's important to further the conversation."

Bad Bunny highlights other issues

Puerto Rico's power outages have been well documented.

After the US territory was devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017, the electricity grid still remains short of needed generating capacity.

On average Puerto Ricans experienced 27 hours of power outages per year between 2021 and 2024, according to some reports.

Bad Bunny's protest song El Apagón has been praised for highlighting the blackouts and unstable electrical grid, with Maria saying it was an important moment for her to see the outages spotlighted during his Super Bowl headline show earlier this year.

The world watched as Bad Bunny and his dancers performed on top of utility poles, accompanied by sparks and flickering power lines across the stage.

Although Stiteler makes it clear he thinks the song is "silly and goofy", it is more than just summer fun for some.

Perez adds that it reflects "art opens the door to curiosity - just like Bad Bunny opened the door".

'Police only took me seriously after my TikTok post'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgjpj42pvjgo, 2 days ago

A woman who was threatened with rape by a group of teenage boys and young men has said she was "heavily disappointed" after police initially took no action.

Saskia Ponting said she was verbally abused and followed by the group as she walked through Cheltenham town centre on 28 May.

She made a report to Gloucestershire Police about the incident that evening but three days later was told the case would be closed.

After posting a TikTok video about her experiences on 1 June, police contacted her to ask for permission to launch a public appeal. Gloucestershire Police said a "mistake" had been made and agreed the case should have been taken further when it was first reported.

Ponting said that the escalation of the police investigation was "100%" due to her speaking out on social media and that officers explicitly told her this.

"The police definitely should have reached out earlier," she said.

"I would have also appreciated more empathy from them and less victim blaming."

She added that while the abuse and threats she received from the group was verbal, it put her in fear of what might happen next.

"It was them talking to one another about how I would be perfect for that [rape] and then with them following me, it just felt like something really bad was going to happen," she said.

Ponting also criticised what she felt was a lack of clarity about how cases are handled.

"The officer I spoke to told me I'd done everything I was supposed to do in that situation, but at the same time I was penalised for not being able to provide an exact suspect profile from memory," she said.

Gloucestershire Police said a "mistake" had been made and agreed the case should have been taken further when it was first reported.

Det Ch Supt Kerry Paterson said incidents are assessed according to "threat, harm and risk", as well as potential lines of inquiry.

"If there are lines of inquiry, it should then be allocated to an officer to investigate.

"Unfortunately, on this occasion, that's not what happened and it was closed by an officer prematurely."

She added: "Obviously listening to Saskia's TikTok video and talking about her distress and experience, I can understand how she feels let down."

A full investigation into Ponting's case is now under way. CCTV footage along the route she took is being examined and more police patrols are being mounted in the area.

The group are described as being white, aged between 16 and 18 or possibly older, with brown hair, and being about 5ft 8ins (1.72m) in height.

They were all wearing tracksuits and some of them were riding bikes, police added.

Officers have also appealed to businesses in the area to share any relevant CCTV, and said they want to hear from any other women who may have been targeted by the group.

Victims who have experienced any form of harassment, sexual violence or threats are also being encouraged to tell police.

"It's really, really important to us, whatever the level of the intimidation or harassment, for people to come forward and report it," Paterson said.

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Palantir's legal action over mayor's Met deal veto

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3ey390gn2vo, 3 days ago

The US technology company Palantir plans to take legal action against the mayor of London's decision to block a contract between them and the Metropolitan Police.

The Met had proposed a £25.3m deal with Palantir UK for 2026-27, to use the firm's artificial intelligence (AI) technology to speed up criminal investigations and root out corrupt officers.

The Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) said it was not satisfied the Met had adequately ensured or demonstrated value for money.

The proposed legal action regards another part of MOPAC's assessment, where it cited concerns around the firm's values and ethics. Legally this cannot influence a deal refusal.

A spokesperson for the mayor of London said the decision was not made on the basis of values or political considerations.

"In this case, the Met did not present its procurement strategy for approval as required and the process followed by the Met did not adequately demonstrate value for money for Londoners for a proposed contract at this value," they said.

"Given the tight budgetary constraints the police and all public services are operating under, it's even more important that robust processes are followed when awarding large contracts such as this."

A Palantir spokesperson said: "We don't take the decision to pursue legal avenues lightly.

"However, we have clear reason to believe that the decision may have been taken because, in the words of the mayor's spokesperson, of a subjective assessment that our company does not share their 'values'.

"If that is the case, not only will the decision have been bad for Londoners, leading to the hundreds fewer officers on the street - it will have been unlawful too.

"We have repeatedly requested further information from MOPAC to clarify whether this is the case and, to date, none has been forthcoming."

Critics of Palantir have pointed out the company's funding links to the CIA, leading to allegations around surveillance, its contracts with the Israeli Defence Force, and its co-founder Peter Thiel being a major donor to Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

At Thursday's meeting of the London Policing Board, Sir Sadiq Khan said discussions around the Palantir contract would be "restricted" due to the threat of legal action.

"I would like to make this point though, the deputy mayor and I both support the Met using the very latest technology to drive efficiencies and improve performance of the police," he said.

"However we must always ensure the correct processes are followed and that we get value for money for taxpayers in London.

"There is a history of public sector IT contracts going tens of millions of pounds over budget, this is waste that could have been used for frontline services. The Met does not and should not stand above scrutiny.

"Rather than being alarmist, we must continue to work together calmly and diligently on the funding reforms and efficiencies that are needed to avoid potential tough choices like we've done over recent years."

In a report presented to the board, Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said the force now faced "stark" choices which meant it would "be able to achieve less for London's communities".

He estimated that between 500-700 front line jobs could be at risk.

He said the force faces a £125m funding gap in the next financial year and needed to make savings through "cutting-edge technology," including using AI to speed up tasks such as searching through reports or phone data.

In the report, Sir Mark referred to the "tough choices" already made by the Met over the last two years, which have included losing 3,300 officers and staff.

Palantir said an earlier pilot project with the Met "helped Scotland Yard tackle serious corruption and criminality within its force".

The AI was used to check for potential breaches and misconduct, covering corruption, abuse of authority for sexual purposes, fraud, sexual assault, misconduct in public office and misuse of police systems.

The pilot resulted in the arrest of two officers and gross misconduct investigations of at least 30.

Earlier this month, the government's cross-party Science, Innovation and Technology Committee said Palantir should not play such a significant role in the UK public sector, stressing that it was not the only company capable of providing the 'middleware' required by public bodies.

It said reliance on a small number of US-based providers "represented a clear vulnerability, with ambitions to digitally transform public services potentially at the mercy of foreign actors".

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AI 'filling in gaps' in lung cancer diagnoses

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdr40j6mldlo, 3 days ago

Artificial intelligence (AI) will help with "filling in those gaps" when it comes to lung cancer diagnoses in England, a hospital trust manager says.

AI is being rolled out in Surrey to help speed up cancer diagnoses as part of a national £20m government investment.

"Time is really important, the quicker you pick up these subtle cancers the better the prognosis for the patient," Mike Jones, AI and digital manager at the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust, says.

"There's no way a human can look at 800 X-rays every day to tell you which ones are the most critical. To have the AI there filling in those gaps is what you can't replace."

AI-powered X-ray tools that act as a virtual "second pair of eyes" for radiologists will be rolled out to all NHS trusts in England by 2029, the government says.

This technology, currently available in half of England's NHS trusts, is already helping more than 4m people receive a faster diagnosis or an all-clear for lung cancer.

Jones says the AI package has two core functions - prioritisation and clinical decision support.

He explained that previously X-rays were reported in a chronological order, but this had been changed so AI pre-read scans and could move people to the top of the queue.

'Best of both worlds'

The technology also reads scans and gives highlights of its findings to hospital staff.

"The patient gets the best of both worlds," Jones told BBC Radio Surrey.

"They get the AI read, but then if the human disagrees with the AI they've got full autonomy to overwrite that report or combine the two and write the best report for that examination."

The government says chest X-rays are one of the most important tools in diagnosing lung cancer, England's biggest cancer killer, with more than 7m performed across the NHS each year.

Jones said: "There'll be more patients that survive lung cancer because we're picking these cancers up earlier."

Ian Murray, the minister for digital data and modernising government, says AI "isn't replacing the clinicians, it's not replacing the human, it's actually supplementing that".

"We've just seen an example of where someone came in and could be diagnosed as having a stroke within three minutes rather than within 60 minutes, and that 57-minute difference makes a huge issue to both their survival and their recovery, and their treatment pathways," he added.

Early data shows the technology helps radiologists analyse scans in an average of just four days, compared to eight days for the most complex cases previously, the government says.

By cutting the time it takes to analyse chest X-rays, the tools are expected to help more patients begin treatment within 62 days of a GP referral, which is in line with cancer waiting time standards.

"So there'll be a situation whereby AI will pick something up that the human eye couldn't, there'll be something that the human eye can pick up that the AI doesn't, mash them together, you get a much better result," Murray said.

Preet Kaur Gill, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department of Health and Social Care, said: "Adoption is going to be really key in terms of how we [can] be transformative, making sure that NHS trusts are able to support their staff to adopt the technology that is coming."

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'Everyone think it's easy to be a social media influencer - but it's not'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8r8pm53dkvo, 3 days ago

Millions of us go on social media every day and find many brands and individuals are after our time, trying to influence us.

"It's daunting to put yourself online," Lauren Davies admits. "I think people think 'oh I could do that' - and you go to it and it's hard!"

She has more than 300,000 followers on Instagram while also running an agency for fellow social media influencers.

She and her business partner have 18 clients on their books, mostly other mums like themselves, who specialise in content around homes, family and day-to-day lifestyle.

"We wanted to create a team where we could all bounce off one another. It's very important to have a network of people that understand," said the 35-year-old, from Nantwich, Cheshire.

But not everyone has caught up with what she does - Davies said her mum still did not get what she did for a living: "She still thinks I sit at home!"

Producing content can be very lucrative. Facebook offered some influencers $3,000 (£2,260) a month to post on the platform earlier this year, while some on TikTok say they have earnt up to £5,000 a month.

But Davies said brands could also have very specific demands about what they wanted in the content.

"Ultimately it depends on views and traffic," she said. "But there is a lot of money to be made from it, if you do it properly."

Authenticity and consistent content was key to success, the talent manager believed.

Filming yourself could be very isolating though and there was also online trolling to deal with, Davies admitted.

She said some people believed it was acceptable to abuse those they felt have chosen to be in the public eye.

"Some of these people didn't mean to, they just went viral, or they just did what they loved and people started to follow," said Davies.

Making material for social media could also become like an obsession: "Posting is addictive, the comments you receive are addictive - good or bad - the follower count, the views can be addictive."

'Dream job'

The agency, Talent Wise Management, takes their clients away on two bonding sessions a year, where they discuss the good and bad, share ideas and film fresh content.

Davies also puts on twice yearly events, called the Housewise Socials, involving about 100 content creators being invited to network with well-known brands and pitch what they do.

"You're getting them off direct messages, you're seeing the whites of their eyes, it's excitement, and you're actually coming out of this very isolating world," she said.

Davies, who used to work in home decor design and development, said being an influencer was a "dream job" as it provided both flexibility and rewards.

"It's a real skill set creating content, it really it is," she said. "It's something that people really enjoy to consume now."

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Canada proposes teen social media ban - with workaround for tech firms

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c872x47gnyjo, 3 days ago

Canada is proposing a social media ban for children and teenagers under the age of 16, mirroring a similar law passed in Australia late last year.

But unlike Australia's law, tech firms could sidestep Canada's ban if they demonstrate they have policies to minimise harm to minors.

The law includes sweeping measures to regulate AI chatbots and curtail "harmful content" online. It would create a regulator to ensure tech firms comply. Some free speech groups have warned it would expand censorship.

It comes amid calls from parents and advocates to bolster children's safety online and as other countries - including the UK - eye similar bans.

The law is being proposed ahead of the upcoming G7 summit in France next week, where world leaders are expected to discuss and issue statements on AI and protecting children from online harm.

Canada's proposed law - the Safe Social Media Act - was put forward in the House of Commons on Wednesday by Culture Minister Marc Miller.

Earlier in the week, Miller said passing a law that addresses online harms was a priority for the Canadian government because "kids are dying".

"Suffice to say, we will take all reasonable measures to make sure kids are safe in this country," he told reporters.

Pressure has been mounting on Canada to pass legislation on online safety after the previous Liberal government failed twice to implement one.

Other countries have already enacted similar laws, including the UK with its Online Safety Act, as well as France and New Zealand.

AI safety has been at the forefront in Canada after a deadly February mass school shooting in British Columbia, where the 18-year-old suspect was revealed to have used ChatGPT to discuss gun violence months before the attack. Eight people, including six young children, were killed.

OpenAI has since come under fire for failing to report the suspect's account to police, prompting a written apology to the victims' families by CEO Sam Altman.

There is no broad consensus, however, on whether Canada should pass legislation on online harms.

Some free speech groups have argued the issue should be addressed within existing laws under Canada's criminal code.

The text of the newly proposed Bill C-34 lists seven categories of "harmful content", which includes material bullying a child, or that foments hatred, or incites violence.

The BBC contacted the Canadian justice and culture ministries seeking clarity on these criteria, but did not receive a reply.

The maximum penalty for a violation is the greater of $10m ($7m; £5m), or 3% of gross global revenue.

The government says the law would create a new independent regulator, the Digital Safety Commission of Canada. Its members would be appointed by the cabinet, according to briefing documents.

UK eyeing social media ban

Social media bans for teenagers are being considered by other countries, including the UK, with an announcement expected next week on a ban for those under the age of 16.

In Greece, a ban for children under the age of 15 is set to take effect in January.

Six months ago, Australia became the first country to ban access to social media for young teenagers and children, though it has since been criticised for not being effective.

The law bars those under 16 from creating a new account on platforms like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. It also deactivated existing ones.

Social media companies face fines of up to A$49.5m (US$32m, £25m) for serious or repeat breaches. The law mandates that firms take "reasonable steps" to keep kids off their platforms, and should use multiple age assurance technologies like IDs, face or voice recognition.

But in a recent survey of parents by the Australian government, around 70% said their children were still on social media. Many also said their children were not asked by platforms to verify their age after the law was enacted.

The Australian government has said it has opened five investigations into alleged non-compliance, including by Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.

Sara Austin, whose organisation Children First Canada has long advocated for an online harms law, said Canada's decision to include an exemption clause could be a positive as it offers an incentive for firms to enact better safety policies overall.

This, she said, "will not only benefit children, but will also benefit all Canadians" using these platforms.

Austin added that while Canada has lagged behind its peers on addressing online safety, she hopes the proposed law is an opportunity to set a precedent ahead of the G7 summit.

Are you a parent, teacher or young person with a view or question about social media bans? Get in touch here or use the form below.

Harry Styles revisits X Factor as he kicks off Wembley residency

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy0381xxd7o, yesterday

Harry Styles opened the first night of his record-breaking residency at Wembley Stadium by reminiscing about his audition for The X Factor, 16 years ago.

"Just outside of this building, just next door in Wembley Arena, my sister brought me to London for the very first time," said the star, who was born in Redditch and raised in Cheshire.

"It was… in that building that I was put in a band. We were called One Direction," he recalled, prompting screams from a sold-out crowd of 80,000 fans.

"My sister is here tonight," he added. "I want to thank her. I love you and I appreciate you."

Later, Styles also thanked his mother, Anne, who secretly signed him up for The X Factor when he was just 16 years old.

"I wouldn't be here today if she hadn't done that," he said. "I thank you so, so much."

Back in 2010, Styles' audition consisted of two songs: Train's Hey Soul Sister and Stevie Wonder's Isn't She Lovely - earning him a space in the global phenomenon One Direction.

Prior to that, the first song he ever recorded was Elvis Presley's The Girl of My Best Friend. Appropriately, then, his walk-on music at Wembley was also an Elvis track - in this case, his cover of Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water.

Styles has a lot in common with the King of Rock and Roll: from his chiselled good looks to the particular way he wiggles his hips.

At Wembley, those qualities - combined with armour-plated pop smashes like As It Was and Watermelon Sugar - had the audience spellbound.

They arrived in sequins and feather boas; or sometimes in waistcoats and ties. They held paper hearts aloft during Fine Line, and painted red lips on their necks, in reference to the star's latest album: Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.

Hand-painted signs declared "Welcome home" and "Can I be your intern this summer?"

But it was a more left-field statement that caught Styles' attention.

"We have some hard-hitting journalism down here," he observed, highlighting a sign from Ella, who had come from Sunderland.

"Ella's sign says, 'What's your favourite type of egg?'

"Um... I like a fried egg. Followed closely with a scramble."

So now we know.

However random that seems, such moments of connection are the backbone of Styles' show.

There's a focus on community and the euphoria of - in his own words - "dancing together, sweating together and singing together".

On stage, there is a camaraderie between the musicians, who interact playfully with their frontman, twirling him around the stage, or parting ways to let him noodle around on a vintage synthesiser.

But there is no forgetting the star of the show.

Styles can elicit screams just by adjusting the collar of his shirt and his stage for this tour is designed to let as many people get close and personal as possible.

Three interconnected catwalks stretch into the audience, carving the space into small compartments.

It makes the standing areas feel intimate - more like a club show than a stadium concert - with Styles zipping around the borders, blowing kisses and posing for cameras throughout the night.

Notably, the set-up has been tweaked since the tour launched in Amsterdam last month, removing some of the 10 foot-high "bridges" that obscured some fans' views.

The set drew on all four of Styles' solo albums, showcasing everything from the blissed-out pop of Adore You, to the windswept balladry of Sign of the Times.

But there was a question mark hovering over his new material, which has not been met with the sort of universal acclaim the 33-year-old has come to expect.

Kiss All The Time... was promoted as a dance record, inspired by Berlin's club scene and transcendental moments watching bands like LCD Soundsystem.

Instead, it delivered a watered-down facsimile of those sounds, that critics called "unremarkable", "obtuse" and "lacking in depth".

On stage, however, the songs burst into life.

That was all down to Styles' supple and powerful band. Swelling to 18 musicians at some points, they anchored the songs with heavy bass and pounding rhythms. The grooves finally grooved.

Opening track Are You Listening Yet rumbled along on an irresistible soca rhythm, while a sample of Underworld's Born Slippy gave Taste Back a much-needed turbo boost.

Elsewhere, the recent single American Girls gained a long, trippy intro, with Styles messing around on an old analogue keyboard, tweaking low pass filters and playing squiggly synth noises.

It was as experimental as it was awesome - but large sections of the crowd did not really know what to make of it.

They were more enthused by Golden, leaping up and down until Wembley's foundations shook. Later, the ebullient Treat People With Kindness saw a giant conga line snaking around the stadium.

Styles matched their enthusiasm - despite a nagging cough that sometimes left his voice with a new (and not unwelcome) raspiness.

His recent marathon training has paid dividends, allowing him to sprint circuits around the stage without losing his breath.

And while he was resolutely anti-choreography during his boyband days, he has clearly had some coaching in how to move.

There is nothing so gauche as a routine, mind you, but he dances with the oblivious cool of a best man at a wedding where everyone knows the bride prefers him to her new husband.

Friday night's concert was the first of 12 at Wembley Stadium - breaking a record previously held by Coldplay (who played a run of 10 shows last summer) and Taylor Swift (who played eight in 2024).

It is a pattern he will adopt in all seven of the cities the Together Together tour hits this year: Amsterdam, London, São Paulo, Mexico City, New York, Melbourne and Sydney.

Styles says anchoring the tour in this way allows him to put on more elaborate shows, while protecting his and his band's health.

"It's not like I'm saying I'll never travel again, but I want to see what it looks like if you do it a different way," he told Apple Music's Zane Lowe.

"People in my band have families now and kids [and] it's really important to me that they're on the road. I don't want to make it near impossible for them to be able to come do that with me."

That thoughtfulness was on full display in London. As Styles thanked his stage crew at the end of the show, their faces flashed up on the video screens - apparently taking some by surprise.

But the singer made sure fans knew they were the most important element of the whole endeavour.

"Thank you for choosing to spend your evening with us," he said halfway through the show.

"Seeing what you all created together - this energy, this community - I've never felt more hopeful about the future."

It is a big sentiment - and probably not one worth scrutinising given current world events.

But for two brief hours, we abandoned our worries, made new friends, and felt a little joy. And that is something.

Harry Styles' Wembley setlist

* Are You Listening Yet?

* Golden

* Adore You

* Watermelon Sugar

* Music for a Sushi Restaurant

* Taste Back / Born Slippy

* Coming Up Roses

* Fine Line

* String interlude: Night Changes / Falling / History

* Italian Girls

* American Girls

* Keep Driving

* Ready, Steady, Go!

* Dance No More (including elements of Gorillaz' Clint Eastwood)

* Treat People With Kindness (including elements of Talking Heads' This Must Be the Place and Paul Simon's You Can Call Me Al)

* Pop

* Season 2 Weight Loss

* Carla's Song (including elements of Satellite)

* Aperture

Encore:

* Little Freak

* Sign of the Times

* As It Was

'The vibrant proof of a presence slipped away': Why David Hockney's 1967 masterpiece is newly poignant after his death

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260612-david-hockneys-1967-masterpiece-takes-on-a-new-poignancy-after-his-death, yesterday

In the wake of legendary British artist David Hockney's death, aged 88, his famous meditation on presence and absence, A Bigger Splash, takes on a new meaning.

Created three years after moving to Los Angeles from London, David Hockney's iconic acrylic painting A Bigger Splash is a study in perception and the fleetingness of being. Since its emergence in 1967, the work has been cherished as a powerful metaphor for liberation and the freedom of personal expression.

At first glance, the painting's abrupt, split-second syncing of exploding pool water and clean summer light may seem a conspicuous heir of the impromptu plein air snapshots of sun and stream that characterised the vision of the Impressionists.

But to understand the carefully calibrated contours of Hockney's canvas, one needs to look further back. Much further. Though the work may chronicle a flashing instant in time, his masterpiece – a fusion of photography and drawing, ancient frescoes and cutting-edge aesthetics – was in fact millennia in the making.

The year before Hockney moved to California, he visited Egypt. There, he was able to study and draw, first hand, tomb art he had first encountered in the British Museum and had been obsessed with as a student. Leaving behind his camera, the young artist focused on translating the flatness of ancient frescoes and the stylised, statuesque figures to his drawing pad.

The crispness and intense immediacy of these Egyptian reliefs seem to have rhymed in his mind with the calm cool colours that he had always admired in the early Renaissance frescoes and tempera panels of artists such as Masaccio, Fra Angelico and Piero della Francesca. Suddenly, the chaotic and cluttered compositions he had been pursuing previously no longer made sense.

After moving to the US, the burgeoning influence of those masters would merge in Hockney's imagination with the bold language of the prevailing contemporary art movement of the time, American Pop Art. What might it mean to combine the commercial punch of Andy Warhol's soup cans or Roy Lichtenstein's comic book "pows!" with the crisp music of Egyptian reliefs and tranquillity of 15th-Century frescoes? The ingenious, if seemingly implausible, blend of ancient and modern inspirations was expedited by a similarly invigorating collision of media.

Capturing a moment in time

Though A Bigger Splash appears, on its surface, to be a meticulously observed moment in time, it was, in fact, a fusion of personal and borrowed experience. The painting owes its most immediate origin to the artist's chance discovery of a technical manual about swimming pool construction. A photograph of a splash made by an unseen diver and diving board in Swimming Pools, published by Sunset Books in 1959, stripped of a pair of poolside onlookers, was soon fused on Hockney's canvas with a stylised version of the building behind them, similar to ones he had recently been committing to his drawing pad.

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Against a jigsaw of flat and abstracted shapes that echo the palette and contours of contemporary abstract artists, such as Richard Diebenkorn, Hockney attempted to suspend convincingly a burst of pool water, propelled into the air by a vanished swimmer. It took weeks.

The result would be one of the most instantly recognisable images in art history. Though the work makes significant use of photography as an invisible scaffold for constructing an image, the canvas is a bold affirmation of the primacy of paint and the imagination of the painter in orchestrating a powerful composition.

In the years and decades that followed, Hockney would continue to experiment with the relationship between technology and painting, particularly in his innovative photocollages, iPad drawings, and ceaseless experiments with perspective that defined his indefatigable later years.

Looking back on the artist's astonishing career and contribution to the history of image-making through the lens of this, perhaps his best known work, it is clear that Hockney understood that while art cannot stop the elapse of time, it can suspend in luminous traces the vibrant proof of a presence that has slipped away.

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Ed Sheeran found this record in a second-hand store - now it's finally getting attention

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce8my1mrv7mo, yesterday

When Ed Sheeran recently declared his love for an obscure album he had unearthed in a second-hand record shop in New York, it was a big surprise to the English singer who made it almost 50 years ago.

After buying a copy of Allan Taylor's 1978 LP The Traveller, Ed Sheeran may have recognised something of a kindred spirit in his fellow singer-songwriter.

Taylor started out performing in pubs and bars, sleeping on floors and sofas with his guitar and little else, several decades before Sheeran began his career on a similar path.

Taylor toured the world and signed major record deals. But unlike Sheeran, mainstream success eluded him.

"Everything I did wrong, he did right," Taylor says ruefully.

That's not to say the 80-year-old hasn't had a fruitful and fulfilling career.

He performed at the Royal Albert Hall with Fairport Convention, hung out in New York with Bob Marley, and has been covered by dozens of artists. He's highly respected on the folk scene, and has found recognition in Europe.

At home, the Leeds-based singer had been due to bring the curtain down on his career with a string of farewell concerts at folk clubs this summer, but was forced to cancel them because of health problems.

Just as he was settling into retirement, he received some unexpected but welcome late recognition when Sheeran posted a rave review for his long-forgotten LP.

"Been buying random vinyl at record stores, coming across some gems," the star wrote on Instagram in April.

"Allan Taylor - The Traveller I found in a record store in Williamsburg, and I love it. Can't find it anywhere online, so feels like a special vinyl in the collection."

Sheeran's post came out of the blue.

"I find it flattering that someone of his stature has seen something in what I do as being interesting," Taylor responds.

While The Traveller had been available unofficially on YouTube, it has just been released on other streaming services for the first time following Sheeran's endorsement.

The pair have spoken at length on the phone. "I found him remarkably down-to-earth, friendly and very interesting as a songwriter," Taylor says.

"He says he wants to drop by for a cup of tea."

During their conversations, Taylor has told Sheeran all about his eventful life.

He grew up in Brighton but left his family, girlfriend and apprenticeship as a telephone engineer behind to seek adventure in Europe in 1966 at the age of 21.

"I had that foreboding of what life was going to be, and I was getting pretty good on the guitar, so I sold my birthday presents to raise the money to go to Sweden."

The trip taught him how to rely on his musical talents and his wits to survive on the road.

"We were stuck once in Stockholm at 11 o'clock at night and the person we were staying with never showed up. There were nowhere to stay.

"If you sleep in the street you're going to die because it's freezing cold in Stockholm in November. So I just went into a bar and started playing.

"Eventually, someone said, 'Do you want a drink?' And you get talking. 'Do you need a place to stay?' 'Yeah.'"

Taylor continued to travel with his guitar through the UK and Europe. "I had a van, I used to sleep in the back of the van, wandered through Ireland, never had any money, just was living from day to day."

At one stop, he received a telegram from friends in Fairport Convention, one of the biggest bands on the folk scene. They wanted him to support them at the Royal Albert Hall the following week and join them on tour.

"That was bizarre, to be playing to a club of 25 people and then suddenly walking out alone on a stage in front of 5,000 at the Albert Hall."

Supporting Fairport Convention brought Taylor to the attention of a major US record label, which offered him a deal.

"I screwed that up," he reflects. "I didn't get a lawyer. I lost thousands. But it did open doors."

Taylor moved to New York and hung out in the Greenwich Village folk scene. But the LPs he released made little impact and he got out of the deal, before signing as a songwriter for Island Records.

While in the Big Apple, Island's boss asked Taylor to look after a reggae band who were coming to town.

"Bob Marley and the Wailers were smoking a lot of dope, so they weren't that organised. So Chris Blackwell asked me if I would look after them for a couple of weeks to make sure they'd get to the gigs, which I did."

Taylor then signed for another major label as frontman of a band called Cajun Moon. "I signed that contract under financial pressure because I was just running out of money. And again, I should have got a lawyer."

Both the deal and the band ended when Taylor developed nodes on his vocal cords, which required him to stay silent for three months.

He took stock of his journey when he came to write his next album - The Traveller.

The chorus of the title track reflects on his attempts to make it big: "Running for the money / Running for the fame / Lost where he was going / And forgot his name."

He says: "If the objective is money and fame, then if you lose, you lose your identity.

"Whereas if you stick to your beliefs, you fail on your terms but you don't fail on anyone else's terms. Which was what I decided to do."

The Traveller didn't trouble the charts but did win best folk album at the Montreux Jazz Festival's awards. Taylor began getting more bookings in Europe, including a tour of British army barracks in Germany.

Most of the gigs there fell flat, though. "If you're a soldier and you're driving a tank all day, the last thing you wanted was some introspective soul-searching song that I was writing," he says.

However, one show was open to locals as well as soldiers. "They were really into what I was doing. I don't know how it clicked, but it did click with them."

'Found my voice'

Although he had been writing and performing for years by that point, Taylor's travels helped him truly find his voice in the early 1980s, he says. In fact, he can pinpoint the moment.

"I found my voice at about two o'clock in the morning in a bar in Brussels."

After a gig, he looked around at "the bartender just wiping the glasses, and the joker who's trying to get a drink out of everyone, and the street ladies".

"I just sat there and I thought, everyone's got a story here, and all I had to do is write it down. Which is what I did and called it Win or Lose, and that was the start of my own way."

Taylor's dramatic and poignant storytelling style combined European influences with folk and country. "It was my sound, and that started to make a big difference."

His tone of voice matured, too, gaining a depth and wisdom that at times put him in the same league as Leonard Cohen and Johnny Cash.

Taylor re-recorded the title track from The Traveller (and the LP's standout song Cold Hard Town) on his 1996 album Looking For You, with his now-signature style making the updated versions mellower and arguably better.

If Sheeran hasn't discovered Taylor's later catalogue yet, he should.

Perhaps a cover version could be on the cards. It's Good To See You, also from The Traveller, has been covered more than 100 times - including by US country star Don Williams, Greek singer Nana Mouskouri and German folk veteran Hannes Wader.

That helped raise Taylor's profile in northern Europe. Now, Warsaw, Bonn and Berlin are the cities with his most monthly listeners on Spotify.

Taylor says he is among the last of a generation of troubadours who experienced and wrote about the "romance of the road" from the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

"There's not many of us left who can remember what happened or what we did and what it was like, and I think young people are interested," Taylor says. "I think that's why Ed is interested."

Married at First Sight Australia stars not told partners had drug and violence convictions

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clypy0ndvjlo, yesterday

Married at First Sight Australia stars say the show left them feeling unsafe and unprotected because their on-screen partners had criminal pasts which they were not told about, a BBC investigation can reveal.

It comes after the British version of the show, known to many as MAFS UK, was plunged into crisis after BBC Panorama reported rape allegations from two women contestants - allegations the men involved have denied.

One woman from last year's Australian series says she was not told the man she had been matched with had a previous drug conviction and only found out after the show ended. "There should be informed consent," she told us.

We can also reveal that another groom from the same series had a past conviction for affray, which we understand his on-screen bride was not made aware of.

Nine former cast members from MAFS Australia have spoken to the BBC and are now calling on the show to improve its background checks and to stop allowing individuals with previous convictions or allegations on the show.

MAFS Australia is not made by the same production company as MAFS UK. Endemol Shine Australia is behind the show, which airs in Australia on Channel 9.

In a joint statement, Channel 9 and Endemol Shine Australia said they had "strong protocols in place to ensure participant safety and wellbeing".

As well as being a huge hit in Australia, the show is popular in the UK and is shown on Channel 4. The broadcaster has pulled all the UK episodes of MAFS from its streaming service All 4, but MAFS Australia remains available to watch.

Both programmes show single people agreeing to "marry" total strangers after meeting for the first time at their mock weddings.

The marriages are not legally binding, but viewers see the couples go on "honeymoons", before moving in together and navigating their relationships - all while being filmed, almost every day.

Several male contestants have been allowed on MAFS Australia despite having been convicted of, or having faced allegations of, violence, assault or drug use.

The BBC is reporting some of these details for the first time, while others have previously been reported in Australian media. We found many of the details in court records on a publicly accessible database.

Some female cast members we spoke to told us they had not been informed about their partners' criminal pasts when they were matched.

When we asked Channel 9 whether they had been - the broadcaster did not answer that specific question, but told us its protocols did not include sharing personal or background information between participants.

'Brides are not safe on MAFS Australia'

Sierah Swepstone, from last year's series, says she feels let down by the show's producers.

She was cast with Billy Belcher, who was arrested and sentenced in 2014 for multiple drug-related offences in Perth.

She says she was not told about his previous conviction and only found out after the show ended.

"You shouldn't be left alone with a stranger with a criminal record," Swepstone told us.

"At the very least, there should be informed consent. They should let us know. Why is the show accepting that risk on our behalf? We should have the choice."

Swepstone now feels strongly that she was not protected on the show and says it failed in its duty of care towards her.

"Brides are not safe on MAFS Australia," she says.

Belcher did not respond to a request for comment.

Channel 9 and Endemol Shine Australia pointed us to a previous statement which said: "Billy was completely honest with production about the life lessons he learnt when he was 18, after receiving a suspended sentence with good behaviour for drug related offences."

They also said there were no accusations or convictions in relation to violence or abuse of any sort.

'I was terrified'

Another former contestant also told us her on-screen partner had told her during filming that he had behaved aggressively in the past, and that producers knew.

"I was terrified the whole time," says the woman, who has asked to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions. We are calling her Anna.

"I thought I'd be safe, that's why I signed up to the show."

She was left traumatised by her experience, she says.

He had a temper, Anna says, and on one occasion threw a mic-pack at a wall, smashing it into pieces while swearing. Another time, she says he threw an object at producers during filming.

BBC News has also seen a picture of a bruise she sent during filming to a number that we have verified belongs to her on-screen partner, who responded: "Shit! I'm so sorry."

Channel 9 and Endemol Shine Australia told us the male contestant was involved in an isolated event several years prior to MAFS Australia. They said he did not have a criminal record and they had no record of the allegations of him throwing the mic-pack and or the other object.

Anna's on-screen husband says he "categorically denies every allegation" raised by her, or regarding his past. "These claims are entirely false, malicious, and a complete distortion of reality," he adds.

Anna says her problem is primarily with the show for allowing her to be in that situation.

"Channel 9 are making money off people who are vulnerable," she says. "They did the checks and they knew about his background, and they cast him anyway as it makes 'good TV.'"

Cast members with past convictions also include Adrian Araouzou, a groom on the 2025 series.

Prior to his reality TV stint, the BBC has learned he received a 2017 conviction for affray.

Previously, it was reported he had also been acquitted of domestic violence, and that details of his trial had emerged during filming.

When asked for a response by BBC News, Araouzou said it was "none of your business" and told us the information we had put to him was "false".

We asked Channel 9 and Endemol Shine Australia whether they had told Araouzou's on-screen partner about the conviction for affray. We understand she had not been told.

They said: "All participants on MAFS, including Adrian, undergo extensive background checks including police checks."

They also said: "The affray conviction was nine years ago, and the penalty was a $400 [£210] fine, placing this at the lowest end of the spectrum for this offence as determined by the court".

Other male cast members with criminal histories include Timothy Smith, who took part in the 2024 series.

After filming on the show, Smith confirmed he had previously spent a year in a US prison after pleading guilty to drug trafficking. On his website, he describes himself as "cartel pilot to corporate leader".

Smith told the BBC he stood by what he had said of his past. Channel 9 and Endemol Shine Australia said his conviction, which was in the US, was not revealed by him until after the series was broadcast.

Separately, Chris Nield, from the latest series, was previously found guilty of common assault. Nield did not respond to our request for comment.

Channel 9 and Endemol Shine Australia said Nield's conviction arose from a one-off altercation and there had been no repeat conduct in the 11 years since.

The show 'dropped the ball'

We have spoken to several further Australian cast members who have concerns about the casting process on the show.

One groom, who asked to remain anonymous, told the BBC there had only been two weeks between him applying for the show and filming starting.

The checks had been "rushed", he said. When he could not find certain documentation to prove he did not have a criminal record, he says the show's producers told him they would "just take his word for it" as they were in a hurry to get started.

"I didn't have a criminal record, but it raises the question over what happens if they put someone on the show who does have a history," he said.

Other cast members also said they felt the show had "dropped the ball" when it came to background checks. They include Katie Johnstone, from the 2025 series, and Tahnee Cook from the 2023 series.

Neither were partnered with men with past convictions, but they say they are aware of others who were.

"If you're with someone who has a sketchy background, then you should be made aware of that," said Johnstone.

"Especially considering you're expected to be alone and share a room with this person," she added. "You need to know and it's not fair that women are being placed in these positions."

"These checks can't just be a tick box," added Cook. "I don't think you should be allowed on with any previous offence. I think it's unsafe."

Our Watch, an Australian non-profit organisation aiming to prevent violence against women, told the BBC that allegations or convictions must be treated as "a serious safeguarding issue" by TV productions, "and not withheld from the people most at risk".

Channel 9 and Endemol Shine Australia said they take their obligations in respect of the health, wellbeing and safety of participants "extremely seriously".

"There is a structured, multi-stage checking process that every participant must complete and clear," they said - including police and criminal-history checks in each declared country of residence, independent clinical psychological assessment, medical screening, disclosure supported by a statutory declaration, and legal and digital due diligence.

Channel 4 said it is not involved in the production of MAFS Australia and has "no editorial control or input" into its making.

"However, Channel 4 ensures any version it transmits of acquired programmes adheres to the Ofcom Broadcasting Code."

* If you have more information about this story, you can reach Noor by email at noor.nanji@bbc.co.uk

David Hockney depicted a 'peaceful, gay paradise' when homosexuality was a crime

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpq393dz535o, yesterday

One of David Hockney's early paintings depicts a couple wrapped in an embrace.

Painted in 1961, this picture may sound like it captures a relatively traditional romantic scene.

But at the time, it was a radical piece of work. That is because the couple in the painting are both men, and in 1961 it was still illegal to be gay in the UK.

Hockney, who has died aged 88, painted We Two Boys Together Clinging as a second-year student at the Royal College of Art.

Homosexuality was only partially decriminalised some six years later, in 1967, when the law changed to allow sex between two men "in private", so long as they were both over the age of 21.

The 1961 painting, inspired by a Walt Whitman poem of the same name, was an early statement of intent by an artist who would go on to become a defining figure of British – and LGBT+ – culture.

Over the next decade, Hockney continued to break social taboos by celebrating same-sex relationships in his art - often by depicting the quiet, everyday moments of gay domestic life.

There is an underground quality to some of Hockney's early work. His pictures are reminiscent of graffiti: spiky, expressive and defiant, rendered in bold lines and block colours.

"He was really pioneering as somebody who was unashamedly proud of his queerness before the legalisation of homosexuality in '67," says Dominic James Bilton, the co-leader of the Queer British Art Network.

In these early paintings, Hockney "showed and made work on same-sex relationships and desire and sexuality" at a time when "not a lot of people were doing that".

Hockney's style changed radically a few years later, after he travelled to California for the first time in 1964. There he painted his famous swimming pool pictures.

In one 1966 painting, Peter Getting Out of Nick's Pool, a nude man climbs from the water of a swimming pool, his back to the viewer, head turned as though in conversation with someone just out of frame.

The 1963 painting Domestic Scene, Los Angeles shows one man in a shower while another man washes his back.

"Those works are so queer, so sensual and sexy and playful and joyous," Bilton says, adding they also show the "domesticity" and "dull aspects of gay relationships".

Hockney was "normalising same-sex relationships... that we take for granted", Bilton suggests, adding the artist showed that gay people "are just normal people... doing normal stuff, looking at our partners and thinking: 'oh, you're beautiful'".

Hockney tattoo

Perhaps best known among Hockney's pool paintings is A Bigger Splash, which depicts the moment just after a diver has disappeared below the surface of a swimming pool.

Life-long fan Joe Thomas has the painting tattooed on his leg. "I can still remember the feeling of awe and deep peace the first time I saw it," he tells the BBC. "It suggests making that leap and going for it; something I try to live by."

Thomas's other favourite is Peter Getting Out of Nick's Pool, which he describes as a "snapshot of a peaceful, beautiful and gay paradise in the mid-60s". "There's stillness and love," he says.

"So much of Hockney's painting, to me, feels so naturally gay... it's not radically queer or a bombastic explosion of his sexuality, it just so happens to be about being gay and fancying other men. I find a freedom in that."

For 26-year-old curator and art commentator James Marshall, it is important the history of Hockney's early work is not forgotten.

"For a lot of people growing up now, especially a lot of the gay youth – including myself – you can look at his paintings and assume they're lovely, pretty pictures.

"But they're also a strong act of protest at a time when showing queer lives as normalised or domesticated was very much avoided," he says.

In the 1960s, depictions of gay men in popular culture were defined by "parody", Marshall explains. In the media, "queer figures were often isolated, very alone... narrowed down to very basic stereotypes".

But Hockney's California series "told an alternative story of queerness" in which gay life was "domesticated" and "peaceful".

To fully appreciate the work, Marshall says, "people need to understand the context of that time".

It is easy to underestimate the political power of Hockney's paintings today, according to writer and critic Michael Valinsky.

He tells the BBC it is now difficult to appreciate the effect Hockney's work had on museum-goers in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

"It's hard for me to think about the shock factor at the time," he says.

According to Valinsky, Hockney's paintings offered society new, visual ways to engage with ideas about homosexuality. "That helps the cause, right? Don't name it, just look at it," he said.

'Always radical'

To author and art critic Will Gompertz, David Hockney's work was "always radical", from his earliest paintings to his final works.

"Even his later work... it was really joyful at a time when there's so much cynicism, so that just to celebrate life is deemed to be facile.

"Ultimately, he completely challenged that notion, and said: 'No, I want to celebrate what's beautiful, and bring that to people's attention'," Gompertz says.

But Hockney's joyful work always "comes with a bite", he adds, whether the artist was depicting gay love at a time when homosexuality was still illegal, or exploring "how we've lost our connection with nature".

In his later work, Hockney interrogated man's relationship with technology and "reinvented the landscape [painting] for the 21st Century".

In Gompertz's assessment, "every iteration of what [Hockney's] done has been equally as bold" as those early works.

"I think the boy you meet at 16 or 17 when he went to art school, to the man who died [on Friday], he doesn't change a lot. He's the same thoughtful, bold, curious, colourful character," Gompertz said.

King leads tributes to 'giant of the art world' David Hockney

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgjxdr27z4o, yesterday

The King has joined the art world in paying tribute to David Hockney, one of the UK's most important and popular artists, who has died at the age of 88.

In a personal message, King Charles said he and the Queen were "greatly saddened" to learn of the death of "a giant of the world of art and painting, a Yorkshireman through and through, and a dear friend and inspiration to so many".

Artist Dame Tracey Emin said she felt privileged to have known Hockney, adding: "A great artist and a wonderful man, who with the power of art changed the perception of Britishness. A proud chain-smoking homosexual, who flew the flag higher than any other British artist."

Over his seven-decade career, Hockney was famous for his vibrant and innovative artworks, including landscapes of his native Yorkshire, sun-drenched paintings of Los Angeles swimming pools, and iPad portraits of friends and family.

In his statement, the King recalled encounters with Hockney, including an Order of Merit lunch to which the artist wore unconventional footwear in 2022.

"David was one of life's true originals; one who wore his genius as lightly as those beloved yellow Crocs of his that helped brighten Palace occasions.

"I trust they will see him tread safely into the hereafter as we mourn a man whose irrepressible charm, talent and constant innovation will be most sorely missed, but whose dazzling creativity lives on in galleries and museums around the world."

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was "saddened" to hear of the death of "one of Britain's most celebrated artists".

A Downing Street spokesman added that the artist's "vivid, instantly recognisable work influenced generations of artists, and the prime minister's thoughts are with his friends and family".

Alex Farquharson, director of the Tate Britain gallery, described Hockney as an "immensely important figure" and "an endlessly inventive artist, with a unique vision of the world".

Farquharson remembered Hockney as someone who was "always completely and courageously himself, both in his work and in life".

"He taught us about the joy of looking, seeing things the rest of us failed to notice - his witty and sharp observations a constant presence within his work and in person," he continued.

"The loss to the art world is immense: David's passing brings to a close an extraordinary body of work characterised by reinvention.

Farquharson also praised "his astonishing talent, his love for art and life, and his profound and unconventional insights", adding: "His work continues to influence our culture, far beyond the art world."

Hockney was also a major figure in global art. The Pompidou Centre in Paris, which staged two landmark exhibitions, described him as "unquestionably one of the major figures of contemporary art".

It added that the works he leaves behind remain "dazzling, alive and eternal".

Paying tribute, fellow British artist Grayson Perry said Hockney's early works had "that kind of dour English palette", but on his return from the US he transformed into a "sort of poet of the spring".

He said Hockney was a "pioneering figure in some ways, not just for his work, but for who he was and what he stood for".

"He was a very public figure in lots of ways, in a sense, it wasn't just his art, but was the statement, the man himself was something of a statement," Perry told BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight.

Announcing his death on Friday, Hockney's representatives said: "The celebrated British artist David Hockney, one of the most important figures in contemporary art in both the 20th and 21st centuries, passed away peacefully at home on 11 June 2026, one month short of his 89th birthday."

The statement added that his "enduring legacy reflects his underlying enthusiasm for life, his outstanding sense of humour, his immense generosity, and his investigative curiosity encapsulated by his signature phrase: Love Life".

The Tate said they would continue to work with Hockney's team to stage two planned projects next year.

One is a major exhibition at Tate Britain, spanning seven decades of his work, and the other is a multimedia installation in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall bringing his celebrated designs for opera sets to life.

The Tate said its Hockney exhibition in 2017 was the most visited in Tate Britain's history.

He also made his mark on the digital world, with Apple's outgoing CEO Tim Cook writing on X that Hockney "showed that creativity has no limits, turning iPad into a canvas for some of the most vibrant art of our time".

"His legacy will inspire us all to see the world a little more beautifully," Cook added.

'A revolutionary of British art'

Tracy Brabin, the mayor of West Yorkshire, called Hockney "quite simply one of Yorkshire's finest".

"A Bradford boy who changed the art world forever. But words alone don't do David justice. His work, those pioneering pieces that burst onto the scene with vivid colour, changed the trajectory of modern art, and will continue to inspire generations to come," she posted on X.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan called the artist "a true icon and revolutionary of British art who never stopped reinventing his work," saying his "vivid paintings of our changing seasons helped me see the beauty and fragility of our natural world - and why it must be protected".

Dominic James Bilton, co-leader of the Queer British Art Network told the BBC: "We've lost one of those people who were making changes in society before it was socially and culturally acceptable to be gay.

"He pioneered queer British art before it was fashionable to do so, before contemporary society built upon it."

Bilton added that Hockney was an inspirational "giant of queer British art".

Labour peer Lord Cashman added that the artist "spoke truth to the world, whether the world was ready for it or not" adding that when gay rights group Stonewall was founded, Hockney donated an artwork worth $250,000 to pay for its early years as a charity".

Antiques Roadshow art expert Frances Christie told BBC Radio 5 Live that Hockney's art appealed to a wide audience.

He painted "really everyday, ordinary subjects - he painted people, he painted the landscapes around him, whether they were in Yorkshire or the Grand Canyon or in California or in Normandy or in France", she said.

She added that he was a "master of colour", adding: "He wasn't scared to use bold dynamic colour combinations, and above all, I think there's an energy in his pictures.

"They're often just joyous, you can feel his energy and warmth in them, but equally he can also elicit lots of very different emotions as well."

Others paying tribute included art historian Richard Morris, who posted on X: "His huge achievement was to make serious painting look effortless.

"He carried forward one of the most sustained investigations into vision, space and representation by any post-war artist. British art has lost a giant."

Hockney learned his craft by pushing a pram containing art materials around his home city as he painted on the streets.

After training in at Bradford School of Art, he went on to study at the Royal College of Art, graduating with a gold medal distinction.

Professor Christoph Lindner, the college's president and vice-chancellor, said: "His boundless curiosity, mastery of colour, and embrace of new technologies reshaped the course of modern art.

"His legacy will continue to inspire and challenge generations of artists to come."

After moving to Los Angeles in 1964, Hockney's distinctive style highlighted life in California with his swimming pool series of paintings.

His other famous works included the portrait Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy, of fashion designer Ossie Clark, textile designer Celia Birtwell and their cat, in 1971.

Last year, Hockney spoke to BBC culture editor Katie Razzall about his biggest ever exhibition, at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris. When it was planned two years earlier, he wasn't sure he would ever see it, he said.

"I just thought I probably wouldn't be here," he said at the time. "I'm still a smoker, a happy smoker fed up of bossy people telling you what to do."

The exhibition featured a gallery dedicated to his love of spring, after the artist, who lived in Normandy during the pandemic in 2020, used his iPad to paint the trees and flowers blooming as spring arrived.

He is survived by his long-time partner and companion Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima, his great-nephew Richard - his studio assistant in his last years - his brothers Philip and John, plus his nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews.

'A dark and violent scene': The 1927 painting that foretold Germany's downfall

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260611-the-1927-painting-that-foretold-germanys-downfall, yesterday

A new exhibition focuses on the paintings of German painter Max Beckmann. Among them is Variety Show, an unsettling artwork depicting a chaotic cabaret scene – what does it mean, and did it foreshadow the rise of Nazism?

In the 1927 painting Variety Show by German painter Max Beckmann, a cabaret performance is turned on its head. A man in a red military overcoat lies on the floor. Another walks a slack tightrope over his supine body and nearby a figure stands with their face covered in a blue cloth, while a seemingly uninterested man on a stool faces away from the spectacle. A large dog-like creature watches in the background.

"It seems to be a stage, figures performing, but there's this idea of nobody really taking responsibility for what's going on here," art historian Lucy Wasensteiner tells the BBC. At first glance, it's a depiction of the nightlife prevalent in 1920s Germany. Entertainment during the Weimar period (1918–1933) exploded, with cabaret in particular becoming increasingly boundary-pushing, political and satirical.

But if you look longer, the mood in the artwork is less celebratory and more peculiar. What does this strange painting tell us about this precarious moment in history – and did it foreshadow the rise of Nazism?

The dramatic piece is on show in an exhibition of Beckmann's work at Hauser & Wirth in Basel, Switzerland. The artist lived through two world wars, the collapse of the Weimar Republic, and the rise of fascism. He fled Germany in 1937, and moved to Amsterdam, then in 1947 to the United States. He died in New York three years later.

"He's one of the few artists coming from Germany who's not so easily classified," Carlo Knoell, director of the gallery's Basel branch, tells the BBC. "He's not like the New Objectivity [a realist movement in Germany at the time]. He's not an Expressionist. He is really going his own path."

Variety Show is a "society painting", says Knoell, "in the sense that it's looking at the state of human beings. Every figure in itself is a symbol on its own, including the awkward-looking – I don't know even if it is – dog and the orange flower shape [behind the tightrope walker]." It is a "dark and violent" scene, he says, and the man lying on the floor looks as if "he has been attacked or is out of shape or at least 'out of power'".

Considering this scene was painted during the Weimar period – the years after the end of World War One and before the beginning of Nazi Germany – it arguably foreshadows the bleakness soon to come. "You've got two aspects there. On the one hand, there was a lot of freedom in the Weimar Republic that hadn't existed before, but people knew that it was a fragile situation," says Wasensteiner, a professor at the University of Bonn.

'Problems were brewing'

The man walking on the tightrope is a depiction of the precariousness of the situation, she says. "The government was known to be unstable, there were high-profile assassinations, the Nazi party was slowly on the rise, there were other parties that were causing trouble, so people knew that problems were brewing."

Yet, the Weimar Republic is also described as culturally vibrant, with new forms of architecture, a booming entertainment industry and rapid modernisation. "Now, with hindsight, we can look at these paintings and say he was insinuating that [the vibrancy of the era] was all somehow fake, all just an act, and that it was inevitably going to come to an end," says Wasensteiner.

Knowing the historical tragedies that followed, it's easier to define the work in this way almost a century later, she adds. "I agree with the idea of the Weimar Republic as a kind of stage. It's interesting to interpret the painting that way because there's a large group of works from the 1920s that are showing these kinds of scenes," she says.

Beckmann served as a medical orderly during World War One and suffered a mental breakdown during this time, in 1915. Consequently, his depictions of life thereafter became noticeably cynical, and he abandoned his earlier more romantic style. "He was basically saying either, 'This is how [the world] is,' or 'This is how I see it, and I don't see it very positively,'" says Wasensteiner. This attitude was a factor when more than 500 of his works, along with those of several other artists, were forcibly removed from public institutions by the Nazis.

'Degenerate art'

In 1937, the Nazis opened Degenerate Art (Entartete Kunst), a propaganda exhibition featuring artworks that the regime had confiscated and that it deemed immoral. Its aim was to humiliate the artists and degrade the work. The Nazis had a loose and uneven criteria for what was considered "degenerate", and while there were several inconsistencies, they typically favoured realistic, heroic imagery and disapproved of modernist styles, abstraction and experimentation. Beckmann's work fell into the last category.

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"A lot of his paintings are quite complicated to look at. They're quite unappealing in some ways, and there's a lot of black, there's a lot of darkness," says Wasensteiner. Ten paintings and 12 graphic works by Beckmann were included in the Degenerate Art exhibition. He reportedly left for Amsterdam immediately after it.

Yet Variety Show managed to evade the exhibition, having left the country soon after it was painted. It remained with private collectors, and was displayed across Germany and other parts of Europe. The fact that the painting managed to avoid the regime creates an extra layer of mystery and highlights how even in the toughest of times, ideas can still travel.

Max Beckmann is at Hauser & Wirth, Basel, Switzerland until 11 July.

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'Pure malevolence': How Cape Fear's psychopath Max Cady became one of America's all-time greatest villains

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260610-how-cape-fears-psychopath-max-cady-became-one-of-americas-all-time-greatest-villains, 3 days ago

A new TV take on the classic thriller is dominated once again by its monstrous antagonist, here played by Javier Bardem. Here's why he's such an unforgettably terrifying figure.

Few bad guys in US culture have left quite as terrifying a mark as Max Cady – the vengeful psychopathic criminal who was first introduced in John D MacDonald's 1957 thriller novel The Executioners. Cady blames attorney Sam Bowden for testifying against him as a witness in a rape case, and getting him put in prison for over a decade. And, once he is released, he takes revenge on Bowden by menacing him and his family. MacDonald describes him as a "black thing loose in the world".

Since then, Cady has been immortalised on screen in two revered film adaptations – J Lee Thompson's 1962 version, evocatively retitled Cape Fear, and Martin Scorsese's 1991 remake of the same name. In these he was memorably played by Robert Mitchum and Robert De Niro, respectively. Now comes the first small-screen Cape Fear, a new 10-part series for Apple TV, executive produced by Scorsese, with Javier Bardem filling his malevolent shoes.

Throughout these different iterations, Cady has come to symbolise something profound in American life – an anti-establishment threat towards the suburban family unit and the very legal systems that govern American civilisation. Yet at the same time, the story and Cady himself have gone through an evolution. As Nick Antosca, the showrunner for the new series, puts it: "Cape Fear is the story about an all-American, safe, privileged family that is terrorised by an outsider, a monster in all versions. But the nature of the family and the nature of the monster is different in every version – and in the 2020s everything is more complicated."

The character's first incarnation

In the original novel, indeed, things are far more simple: Cady is presented as a savage predator whose violent psychopathy is exacerbated by his family history of crime, his wife's desertion of him while in prison, and his son's death. Yet MacDonald leaves no ambiguity about the antagonist's guilt or his remorseless sadism, as he terrorises the righteous Bowden, who witnessed Cady commit sexual assault as his lieutenant during World War Two. Bowden's family symbolises to Cady everything he has lost, and he stalks them while cannily avoiding doing anything that could get him arrested, underscoring the fragility of the legal system.

When it came to the 1962 film, Mitchum's Cady was stripped of almost all backstory to create an even simpler film noir revenge plot. Mitchum, already known for his roles as bad apples in films like The Track of the Cat (1954) and The Night of the Hunter (1955), exudes a cool charisma that was familiar to audiences and a laconic, Southern Gothic menace.

"He's like the proto hippie and American rebel character," says Michael Arnzen, author and professor of Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University, who explored the changing depiction of Cady in his essay Cape Fear and the Hollywood Remake as Metanarrative Discourse. By giving Cady a non-conformist "beatnik" characterisation and juxtaposing him with Gregory Peck's conservative Bowden, the film reflected the mainstream anxiety at the time towards individuals who rejected traditional values.

Scorsese's 'over the top' Cady

Twenty-nine years later, De Niro would take a maximalist approach to his performance as Cady, creating with Scorsese another indelible portrayal of warped masculinity to stand alongside his Raging Bull, Mean Streets and Taxi Driver roles. "De Niro's performance was so over the top," says Arnzen. "It's comedic and intentionally discomforting."

Scorsese's film, written by Wesley Strick, changes the plot and consciously turns Cady into a mythic figure. In this version, Bowden (played by Nick Nolte) is not a witness in the rape case against Cady, but his defence lawyer, who deliberately buries evidence that could have got his client a shorter sentence. And Cady himself is formidable in all ways – now a muscular, heavily tattooed, highly intelligent avenging angel, who has educated himself in prison with legal books, religious texts and the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, all contributing to the creation of his own warped moral code.

Arnzen notes that the way De Niro's Cady throws out Bible quotes, legalese and silky-tongued lies to ensnare his victims shows commonality with another iconic '90s villain, Hannibal Lecter. "You might throw him in the same box as that superhero of criminality, who can seduce anybody through his language and performances." Free from the Hollywood Production Code of the 1960s, Scorsese also depicts De Niro's Cady meting out shocking violence which pushes the film further into the realm of out-and-out horror.

What's just as interesting is how this version reimagines the supposed hero. In the 1962 film, as in the book, Sam Bowden is positioned as a fallible but fundamentally decent man, with Cady representing his moral opposite. Come the climax, Peck's Bowden refuses to kill him, ending, ultimately, as a virtuous patriarchal figure, with his perfect family left intact.

In Scorsese's version, however, the nuclear family is far more dysfunctional. Bowden has a history of both infidelity and unethically representing his client, suggesting that underneath his civilised exterior, he too has a corrupt moral code. His wife Leigh (Jessica Lange) has had a mental breakdown, while his daughter Danielle (Juliette Lewis) has been in trouble for using drugs. "The level of divorce was so much higher than it was in the early 1960s, so Max Cady becomes this litmus test [for] the strength of the family," says Arnzen.

For Vulture TV critic Roxana Hadadi, Cady represents not just a danger to the American family, but "a threat to white femininity and chastity". In both films, Cady sexually assaults Bowden's wife and targets his daughter, but Scorsese's remake shows the peril more explicitly: Cady seduces 15-year-old Danielle over the phone and later talks her into sucking on his finger and accepting an inappropriate kiss. By the film's end, Nolte's Bowden has regressed, exacting vengeance on Cady with a caveman-like fervour, which poses a compelling question about patriarchal duty.

"At a certain point, your little girl is going to grow up and meet all kinds of men who you don't know," Hadadi tells the BBC. "Are you a good man by being a bad man to protect your daughter from other bad men?"

The new series and its key change to Cady

The new Apple TV series shifts the narrative set-up yet again by making both Bowden parents lawyers. Amy Adams' Anna, his original public defender and Patrick Wilson's Tom, the lead prosecutor of his case, married after Cady's conviction – and, it is implied, colluded to secure it. Perhaps the biggest difference in this latest adaptation is the question of Cady's guilt. Here, his original alleged crime is the murder of his wife and unborn child, and having spent 17 years in prison for it, he is exonerated after his mistress leaves a suicide note confessing that she was responsible. However, whether Cady committed the crime or not is left unclear.

The show also spends time solidifying a traumatic backstory for Cady of childhood domestic abuse, and shows him suffering a brain injury after surviving a prison fight, to present a nuanced villain deserving of more compassion than his predecessors. "We wanted to play with the paranoia, the mystery, and whether the uncertainty about his guilt or innocence can play on audiences' sympathies," Antosca tells the BBC. "If a wrong has been done to you, if you're genuinely the victim of an injustice, what can we forgive? What are you allowed to do if your vengeance is justified? Are you still a monster?"

Hadadi says that this more ambiguous approach, which speaks to an age more interested in moral uncertainty, has pros and cons. She appreciates how the series heightens the story's class anxiety and the "Fear of the Other" theme by illustrating a "very cloistered, genteel Southern white world for the Bowdens", and by having a racialised Spanish-American version of Cady. This forces viewers to interrogate the prejudices of a criminal justice system where "some men are able to hire a rich defence lawyer to get away with things", she argues, and some aren't.

This othering of Cady is further amplified through the Santeria faith he adopts in prison. This Afro-Caribbean-Yoruba religion, developed by enslaved people in Cuba, involves the worship of deities called Orishas. "Max's Orisha is of thunder, justice and vengeance, so that's very appropriate to his character, his needs and motivations," says Antosca. Cady's tattoos, continuing De Niro's legacy, are just as evocative, with dozens of eyes etched across his skin: "There are a lot of ways to spy on, terrorise and surveil people in 2026 that didn't exist before, so Max's tattoos [emphasise] that he's always watching."

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Hadadi relished watching Bardem's performance, which channels both Mitchum's delicate charisma and DeNiro's sexual magnetism, while offering something unique. "Bardem brings a natural charm that [makes him] more acceptable in polite society than previous films," Hadadi says. "That tells you something about the insidiousness of this kind of man in a way you wouldn't expect."

But she believes the fleshing-out of Cady's motivation and psychology also takes away the power of Cady's "inexplicable" wickedness. "I'm so primed to see Max as this figure of almost cosmic evil, a pure entity of malevolence without explanation," she argues. "I struggle with the backstory that does a little bit too much to hit a lot of our current Hollywood established trauma markers."

With several more episodes to go, the full impact of Cady's blunt force attack on the American family, the legal system, and so-called civilised society is yet to be experienced. But Antosca hopes this modern take on the iconic villain will be as terrifying as it is challenging. "The audience may have sympathy for 'the Other', but at its heart, [Cape Fear] is a heightened thriller, a psychological horror story, and Max Cady is a scary, menacing figure – there's no question about it."

New episodes of Cape Fear premiere internationally every Friday on Apple TV.

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'I locked myself in a toilet until we were afloat': The woman who stowed away on a ship to report on D-Day

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260608-the-woman-who-sneaked-into-the-d-day-landings, 4 days ago

American journalist and author Martha Gellhorn tricked officers so that she could write firsthand dispatches from Normandy in June 1944. In 1991, she told the BBC about her daring subterfuge.

"Everyone was violently busy on that crowded, dangerous shore," writes Martha Gellhorn in a dispatch from the D-Day landings in June 1944. "We walked with the utmost care between the narrowly placed white tape lines that marked the mine-cleared path… The dust that rose in the grey night light seemed like the fog of war itself."

And then, she recalls something that makes the bleakest of moments a little more human. "We got off on to the grass, and it was perhaps the most surprising of all the day's surprises to smell the sweet smell of summer grass, a smell of cattle and peace and the sun that had warmed the Earth some other time, when summer was real."

It's an unexpectedly tender insight into the World War Two Allied landings on the Normandy beaches, revealing a quality of observation that marked out Gellhorn's writing. Her gift was to convey both the brutality and humanity of war in vivid accounts that focused more on everyday detail than troop movements or battle logistics.

During a career that spanned 60 years, the Missouri-born journalist and fiction writer covered conflicts including the Spanish Civil War, the Vietnam War, the invasions of Czechoslovakia and Finland, and the liberation of Dachau concentration camp. She also wrote for Vogue magazine and reported on the Great Depression for the US government, travelling through the Dust Bowl with the photographer Dorothea Lange.

Gellhorn's firsthand D-Day account came after a daring feat that reveals her strength of character. "I had sneaked on to a hospital ship," she told the BBC in 1991 at the age of 82, during a rare TV interview. "Somebody probably onshore asked me what I was doing, and I said, 'I'm just going on this ship to interview the nurses – a woman's feature.'

"You could always get by with that. It always sounded harmless and idiotic, and it worked a treat. 'I'm just doing the woman's angle,' and nobody's interested anymore. And then I just locked myself in a toilet until such time as we were afloat."

That strength of character also meant Gellhorn had an extraordinary personal life. She befriended the Roosevelts and stayed with them at the White House, cadged bed and breakfast from HG Wells, and married Ernest Hemingway – resolutely refusing to live under his shadow.

In competition with Hemingway

And throughout, she chronicled what happened in the darkest of times, in her own words becoming "a walking tape recorder with eyes" – noticing details that others might have missed in the heat of the moment, and powerfully describing how war affects ordinary lives.

Gellhorn had been married to Hemingway for three years when she decided to travel to Europe in September of 1943. During their time living at Lookout Farm in Cuba, while he unsuccessfully hunted for German submarines using his fishing boat, she became increasingly restless.

Hemingway had been the reason she began reporting on war – according to Gellhorn, "I went to Spain in March 1937 and became a war correspondent by accident." Her biographer Caroline Moorhead told the BBC that Gellhorn had travelled to Spain to be with him. "When she got there, Hemingway said, 'Why aren't you writing about the war?' And she said, 'Well, I don't know about weapons and battles.' So he said, 'Write about what you do know, which is people.'"

She had funded her trip to Spain in 1937 with payment for a Vogue article entitled Beauty Problems of the Middle-Aged Woman, which involved testing out a harsh chemical peel. Her next published article was called Only the Shells Whine, describing the reality of civilian life under siege in Madrid. She had found her vocation, telling a friend that she would "stick to misery which is my province… and the hell with the flesh".

Yet once they were married, in 1940, Hemingway wanted her to remain at home. She accompanied the US Fifth Army to the front in Monte Cassino, Italy in 1943, prompting him to cable her with the petulant question: "Are you a war correspondent or a wife in my bed?"

And by the time she returned to Cuba in 1944, the spouses were in competition with each other. Gellhorn had hoped to cover the D-Day invasion for the weekly magazine Collier's, but Hemingway stole the assignment, and while he flew to London, she ended up spending two weeks travelling to Europe aboard a Norwegian freighter filled with explosives.

Although the US military refused permission for female journalists to cover the Allied landings, Gellhorn wasn't deterred. "To me, all the people in the rear who make rules, they exist to be thwarted," she told the BBC in 1991. Her defiance meant she was on the first hospital ship to reach Normandy, arriving at Omaha Beach early on the morning of 7 June, and becoming the only woman correspondent on the ground at the D-Day landings.

Poetic snapshots and startling details

She was arrested by military police once she returned to London for travelling to Normandy without permission, and sent to a nurse's training camp. Yet she managed to hitch a lift to Italy with a British pilot to cover the Allied advance through Europe. "She didn't allow others – and herself – to let gender define her and her work," says the BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet. "In what was then a male-dominated profession, Gellhorn showed that women couldn't just report on war, they could excel at it."

Doucet believes Gellhorn has a lot to offer even now. "What drove her, what defined her journalism, still resonates today. For all that has changed in journalism since her time, the essence of good journalism is much the same as she saw it – with courage and moral clarity and her stubborn belief that the gold standard is on-the-ground, face-to-face journalism in the heat and dust, in the cold and dark."

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Being there allowed Gellhorn to bring to life the reality of Omaha beach in a way that Hemingway wasn't able to, having not set foot on shore (although his report ran first, on the cover of Collier's, a fortnight before hers). Her D-Day dispatch combined the terrifying magnificence of the scene with poetic snapshots of the minutiae.

Taking in the wider backdrop of troops unloading from ships, tanks clanking on the shore and "invisible planes flying behind the grey ceiling of cloud", she also picks out startling details, spotting a washing line strung up on a landing craft. "Between the loud explosions of mines being detonated on the beach, one could hear dance music coming from its radio. There were barrage balloons, looking like comic toy elephants, bouncing in the high wind above the massed ships."

Gellhorn's commitment to witnessing the horrors of conflict firsthand stayed with her throughout her life. Her 1959 collection of dispatches was called The Face of War to reflect that focus on the human experience of combat. "War happens to people, one by one," she writes in its introduction.

She was able to convey the sights, sounds – and smells – of wartime for ordinary civilians and soldiers. "It may seem obvious and essential now, but Gellhorn's focus on the people on the ground, not the powerful at the top, was her signature," says Doucet.

One striking line from her D-Day account relays how the young US soldiers were surprised by how much food there was in Normandy, unaware that the region was one of the great food-producing areas of France. "Everything was confused and astounding: first, there were the deadly bleak beaches, and then the villages where they were greeted with flowers and cookies – and often by snipers and booby traps."

It captures the nuance of how those who were there might have felt, beyond descriptions of military strategies or commanders' decisions. So too do her descriptions of the jokes shared by those on the beach. "One of the soldiers remarked that they had a nice foxhole about 50 yards inland and we were very welcome there, when the air raid started, if we didn't mind eating sand," she writes. "My companion, one of the stretcher-bearers from the ship, thanked them for their kind invitation and said that, on the other hand, we had guests aboard the LCT [landing craft, tank] and we would have to stay home this evening."

Those moments of humour reflect one way in which Gellhorn was able to withstand bearing witness to some of the greatest horrors of the 20th Century – an approach she describes in her essay The War in Finland. "The way people stay half-sane in war, I imagine, is to suspend a large part of their reasoning minds, lose most of their sensitivity, laugh when they get the smallest chance, and go a bit, but increasingly, crazy."

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Disclosure Day review: Steven Spielberg's 'flimsy' alien drama is like 'a drab X-Files episode' ★★☆☆☆

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260609-disclosure-day-review, 5 days ago

Spielberg has returned to the subject of extraterrestrial life with his new blockbuster. But, falling far short of Close Encounters and ET, it's a major disappointment.

Disclosure Day isn't the worst film of the year, but it may well be the most disappointing. For a start, it's directed by Steven Spielberg, one of the US's greatest living film-makers. And for another thing, it's about a topic that has obsessed him throughout his career: aliens coming to Earth.

He first touched on the topic in Firelight, a film he made as a teenager in 1964. He returned to it in 1977 for his definitive UFO drama, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. And he's kept coming back to it ever since. When the spine-tingling trailer for Disclosure Day was released, with a "Story by Steven Spielberg" credit hinting at how close the scenario was to his heart, many of us hoped that the 79-year-old would deliver a career-crowning masterpiece: his profound last word on a question he has been thinking about and researching for most of his life.

And what did he deliver instead? A flimsy, outdated car-chase thriller with no ideas about aliens that we haven't heard before.

Josh O'Connor stars as Daniel, a cyber-security boffin who works for a powerful organisation called Wardex. The organisation was set up to keep information about aliens secret – so, yes, on one level Disclosure Day is a rehash of Men in Black, except without the jokes. Daniel decides to reveal – or rather disclose – this information, but first he has to drive around for a while with his girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson), waiting for the go-ahead from his associate, Hugo (Colman Domingo). Absurdly, Hugo insists that Daniel shouldn't just put the information online. Instead, the videos he has stolen should be shared via… errr… a local television news channel. In Spielberg's mind, it seems, the world hasn't moved on since ET: The Extra Terrestrial came out.

Another plot strand features Emily Blunt as Margaret, a perky weather forecaster who suddenly finds that she can speak every language on Earth, plus one or two from elsewhere. Blunt is fantastic, and the scenes focusing on Margaret's burgeoning psychic powers are so fun that Spielberg probably should have made a film about them and ditched the rest. But most of Disclosure Day is about the sketchily drawn Daniel and Jane running from Wardex's anonymous goons. Essentially, it's a drab X-Files episode, or a more conventional One Battle After Another, in which some people we don't care about are hunted by some other people we don't care about.

The villain of the piece is Colin Firth's Noah, a standard-issue baddie given standard-issue baddie dialogue: "History doesn't have a reset key," he growls. "If you do this, there's no undoing it." Firth is badly miscast. Wardex is meant to be the ultimate US deep-state cover-up operation, so it's distracting to have a well-spoken Englishman in charge. For that matter, it's distracting that Wardex is all about secrecy, but it somehow has a huge headquarters and countless employees. Wouldn't one of them have spilt the beans already?

Still, that's not the film's only head-scratching plot problem. Its biggest mystery isn't about aliens, but about why Hugo puts so much time and effort into building a life-size model house.

Disclosure Day might not be so unsatisfying if you share the wide-eyed positivity that Spielberg puts into it, and there are some expertly choreographed action sequences, even if they do echo various Indiana Jones adventures. But the first line spoken by Firth proves to be prophetic: "Well, this is all rather disappointing." The main themes – whether aliens and a supreme deity can co-exist, and why empathy is important – are conveyed by people making long, polished speeches about them. And its thesis on alien life is so amazingly uninspired that you'd assume that Spielberg had pondered it for several minutes, not several decades.

I won't give away the ending, but there is very little in Disclosure that wasn't in the trailer – and very little that wasn't in Close Encounters almost 50 years ago.

★★☆☆☆

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In pictures: Recycled art project transforms church

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy07d1wyqyo, today

A new art installation has transformed a church in the New Forest into a towering waterfall and a meadow of colourful flowers and insects.

The watery cascade at St John the Baptist church in Boldre, near Lymington, Hampshire, was created with recycled bin bags by a team of about 12 volunteers over nine months.

The Waterfall Garden installation, thought up by Steph Glen, follows a Remembrance display at the church, which saw nearly 5,000 hand-crafted poppies, created by volunteers, appear to flow from the top of the tower.

"It's been quite interesting trying to explain to people what we were going to do," said Glen. "When you say, 'we'll just get a few old plastic bags and hang them up on strings and it's going to look great' but, actually, it does."

The waterfall stretches 40ft (12m) from the top of the church tower to the ground, where it meets a blue pool, crafted from recycled fabric and plastics.

All around is a colourful wildflower meadow, featuring hundreds of knitted blooms, interspersed with others made from fabric and plastic bags, and there are more displays inside the church.

The installation is free to visit until 15 July but donations are being requested.

Glen said: "We just want lots of people to come, see the outside and see the inside.

"We want it to be fun, we want children to come and to just see what we've done."

Any money raised will be split between the Boldre Church Trust, and local charities Coda Music & Arts Trust and the Countryside Education Trust.

Deptford: A colourful high street loved by locals

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj3g0vg20evo, today

"This man is going to paint my coffin for me in the summer."

It is not a conversation you would expect to hear in a street market, but in one corner of south-east London, it is less out-of-the-ordinary than anticipated.

Artist Patricio Forrester is more commonly found painting walls than he is coffins. At Deptford Market, he shows traders his latest plan for a mural in the area.

He first decided to brighten the neighbourhood 25 years ago with a necklace and tie mural off Deptford High Street, and there have been many more works since, thanks to his community interest company Artmongers.

Forrester's patchwork blanket of colour has widened across south-east London, with each piece rooted in the people who work, shop and live there.

He says the murals are only part of the story.

"The high street comes together as a community," he explains. "Everybody is surviving together. In the hard times people look after each other, and in the thriving times, we share as well."

In the coming weeks, the government is promising a "turning point" for the nation's high streets, with a new strategy set to be announced.

Mary Portas, the so-called Queen of Shops, was high street adviser to David Cameron's coalition government.

"It's not about what those high streets sell, it's about the social interaction above anything else," the retailer and consultant says.

"We've got an ageing population, where you've got young children and families that want to connect.

"Particularly post-Covid, people have woken up to how important it is to connect, commune, meet."

Connection and community lead the way when it comes to Forrester's murals - and how they are funded.

Residents chip in through crowdfunding, and local businesses donate materials. Neville Johnny, owner of Johnny's DIY shop, often donates the paint. He remembers when the square felt very different.

"[It was] run down, unkept, it wasn't a place you wanted to hang around," he said.

"Now you want to stay there. It's a place that attracts people. It's great, I love it."

Forrester adds: "When people come to Deptford, they know they're going to get a bargain, they're going to get people talking to them, [and] looking at the artwork is part of that experience."

Portas says "London has always been good at regeneration".

"What makes a great high street has changed," she says. "But it is always about a great real mix of stuff."

With the government promising a turning point for the nation's high streets, and a new strategy in the coming weeks, Dr Jack Brown, King's College London lecturer in London Studies, says the issue often comes down to funding.

"Ultimately, lots of this comes down to the market or to spending a bit of money, and we know there's not a lot of that about," he says.

At the start of the year, the government said it would commit £150m to supporting high streets "most in need of being brought back together".

While the government promises investment, Deptford shows there is something else at play - community involvement.

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Elves, fairies and goblins restored to Elfin Oak

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czx5gj7448qo, today

Figurines depicting elves, fairies, goblins, witches and forest animals have been restored to a central London park.

The statuettes, located in the Elfin Oak in Kensington Gardens, have been renewed for future generations to enjoy as part of a conservation project jointly funded by the Royal Parks charity and the Friends of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.

The mature oak, which sits near the entrance to the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground, has contained the carvings since July 1930.

They were carved by children's book illustrator Ivor Innes around the natural features of the oak, which had been moved from Richmond Park. The oak is classified as a Grade II-listed structure.

The 97 figurines include Wookey, a little old witch, Huckleberry, a gnome, and Harebell, a fairy.

Park manager Andy Williams said: "Kensington Gardens is one of the most magical parks for children and part of its appeal is the Elfin Oak, where elves, witches and owls inhabit a secret world.

"We are delighted to help restore this much-loved treasure back to its former glory."

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The surprising Labi Siffre song which is a Spotify hit

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqx18jpzx2jo, today

The way we listen to music has changed so much since the dawn of the internet era and has led to a resurgence in many artists' careers - and the uncovering of some previously little known gems.

That appears to have happened to Labi Siffre.

The singer, to many older music lovers, would be familiar through his top twenty chart hits, (Something Inside) So Strong, Crying, Laughing, Loving, Lying and It Must Be Love.

But they are not his most streamed song on Spotify - instead it is Cannock Chase, an album cut from 1972, with 79 million streams.

The song

"Sitting in the back seat of my car, with my arms 'round my guitar.

And the rain falls, from the roof of the world."

Cannock Chase was written by the singer-songwriter at the location after which it is named after, the woodland in Staffordshire.

The man himself, speaking in a video posted on his official Facebook page in December, said the opening lyrics were exactly what happened.

"I was sitting in the back seat of my car with my arms around my guitar and the rain fell," he admitted.

Siffre added that he used to, when he was away from home for gigs, during the day he would go into the country until he found "unfenced land.

"I used to do that and I'd find a spot and I'd sit down and practice. Well in this one, I found Cannock Chase," he said.

But the reason for its massive, recent popularity? One music journalist believes it could be through its connection with films and use on TikTok.

The TikTok generation

Callum MacHattie, from Far Out Magazine, said the song had come to people's attention through two recent movies.

Cannock Chase has also been heavily used as background music for TikTok videos recently and he said: "There is something about the atmosphere of the song."

Although he said there was often "no rhyme or reason" why songs became popular on social media, be believed the song fits perfectly with TikTok reels which show serene, natural environments.

People are craving tranquility in a hectic world, he said and "Cannock Chase is so open in the fact that it is paying tribute to somewhere in nature".

"I believe he was touring and I think it was very much a ritual for him to just find the nearest area of countryside," he said.

"Wherever it was he was playing a show and just drive and sort of take stock of what was around him."

The song is reflective, but MacHattie said it was also "very much a literal song".

MacHattie described the song as "a classic Labi Siffre song in terms of how it is arranged and the lyrics".

But he said, while it perhaps did not get the attention it deserved in the 1970s, it "likely lived in the subconscious of music fans".

Siffre's music has been "sampled by hip-hop artists many times" so by the time Cannock Chase featured in the soundtrack of the films Sentimental Value last year, as well as The Holdovers, his music was already familiar.

"I think fans were already kind of aware of his voice and wanted to hear more and wanted to dig a little bit deeper," he said.

Sentimental Value is a Norwegian film which won the Best International Feature Film at the Oscars and the Cannock Chase song featured in "quite a key scene," MacHattie said.

He believed the song then fell into an "intersection of music that's hidden under the radar and films that have hit that independent indie niche".

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How George Michael's mixing desk ended up in a village studio

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c05yg3rvmeqo, today

"We came to it by accident."

Anthony Shorter still cannot believe how he ended up owning a mixing desk which used to belong to pop royalty.

Bought second-hand from a man who wanted money for an airfare, Shorter was getting the desk serviced at his recording studio when the techie from the firm doing the work asked: "Do you know who owned that desk from new?"

Shorter recalled: "I was like, 'no'. And he said it was George Michael's. We were like 'OK, we're keeping this for definite now'."

The desk has pride of place at the studio in Shropshire which Shorter owns along with James Revitt. The walls are now adorned with photos of Michael using the kit.

"We've got a purchase receipt from George Michael when he originally bought it so we've got so much history in our studio now," Shorter told BBC Introducing as he began to outline his vision for the studio arm of label Moose Records - and the plan to help fledgling musicians.

They have had the desk since 2025, although it was stored for a year until a move into new premises. And there it sits in the red brick building in Leebotwood south of Shewsbury, where it is not lonely for company alongside other memorabilia such as a guitar signed by UB40 and an original master from The Kinks.

Now there's just the small matter of using the tech.

"I think me and James are going to be so frightened to touch it because we don't want to break it," Shorter said.

But they will have to touch it if their plan is to be put into action.

The idea of the label is to help musicians who cannot afford studio time, with the pair looking to get funding help in the future from the Arts Council.

Moose was set up after Shorter's stepdaughter, singer Macy O, suggested that instead of touring studios in London, "we could do this ourselves".

One music degree later, a meeting with Revitt and the idea was born.

"It just started growing and growing and growing and now we are a team," Shorter explained.

Revitt added: "It was a lot of hard work between all of us to put it together.

"I'm no longer a bus driver. I'm now doing producing music full-time and I couldn't be happier."

Music runs in Shorter's blood as his father Robert Shorter is a drummer who used to be in the Spencer Davis Group in the 1960s and was the studio drummer on their number one Keep On Running.

"My dad has actually been in here; to have him in my studio is really amazing," Shorter said.

"I've got my dad's original reels, the tapes from the session of Keep On Running and I will not let them out of my safe, so I won't let them go anywhere."

As to what goes on at that precious music desk, Shorter said: "The idea is to bring in as many musicians [as possible] just to get some studio time and get their music heard.

"BBC Introducing is the perfect platform for that so we are so behind it as you can see in our studio, we've got screens up that shows BBC Introducing."

The team at Moose Records has since been invited to go to George Michael's house after the George Michael Foundation heard they have his old desk.

The popstar passed away in 2016, aged 53.

"We're going to stay there for the weekend and do a bit of songwriting," Shorter grinned.

"The only clause we have in their contract is we have to climb into George Michael's pink flamingos and swim in his pool.

"It's the flamingos that were used in the music video for Club Tropicana so we we've got to use them!"

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Artist's 'non-violent' take on manspreading

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0lygxny0dpo, today

An artist has created a painting to challenge the phenomenon known as manspreading as a way to empower other women.

Charlotte Miller, 24, from Diss, Norfolk, made the oil painting called Claiming that she said was a "non-violent way" of calling out manspreading.

Manspreading is a phrase commonly used to describe a man and their legs taking up more than one seat on public transport, encroaching on those sat next to them.

Miller's piece is now hanging at Ickworth House near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, and videos and pictures featuring her work have amassed millions of views on social media.

Miller studied University Studies at West Suffolk College and secured an Art Practice degree in 2023.

After graduating, a lecturer invited her to be part of an exhibition that would explore themes of tolerance, resistance and building bridges.

She chose the topic of manspreading because she thought it could be "visually interesting" and it had been something she had experienced on the London Tube.

"We notice it and see it, experience it, but I don't feel like everyone is aware they're doing it," she said, speaking to BBC Radio Suffolk's Wayne Bavin.

"Fair enough, you're trying to be comfortable, but sometimes for women if you're sat down and someone is making you uncomfortable, you don't really get to say anything... [this painting is] pushing back non-violently."

Once finished, the piece was displayed at Ickworth House in the smoke room which historically was an area for men to gather away from women.

Miller said she had quit her work in hospitality and childcare because of her newfound success.

She said future works would also be based around women's issues, but also "calling out ideas and experiences I've had or what people have let me know".

"If you know, you know, and I think that's what's happened with this one," she continued.

"People who resonate with it, they completely understand.

"Then other people who don't get it are looking at it and questioning it, and fair enough it's art.

"Everyone can have their own interpretation of it."

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The dance classes bringing 'joy' to a hospital

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yzr2l9g8lo, today

A hospital ward is not always thought of as a place of joy, but that is exactly what Sadie Hunt and Jenny Howells are trying to achieve.

For more than a year the duo have run Dance for Health classes at Bedford Hospital.

What started off as a pilot on two frailty wards of older patients, is now expanding to a 30-week programme, and will be offered to cancer patients and children.

So what do they, the patients and the hospital get from it?

Hunt, 47, a freelance Dance for Health practitioner, who runs the classes, says this will be the fourth time the project has been extended, having previously received funding from the Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Charity, then Sport England and Friends of Bedford Hospital.

"We're now going to be working with children, which we're really, really excited about," she says.

"A hospital ward doesn't stop being a hospital ward because you're dancing on it; we're very conscious of not being in the way.

"Staff say to us that actually once we've gone, everybody's in such a better mood or they're so much easier to work with.

"One of my favourite things is when people say, 'Oh no, dancing isn't for me' or 'I'm not up to it.'

"Then one or two people on the bay will give it a go and nine times out of 10, everybody's joined in.

"Sometimes people only have one perception of what dance might be but it's using actions that they might use in physio sessions.

"We had one lady who said 'I thought I was going to be really embarrassed, but I wasn't – I absolutely loved it.'"

Others say it is "very worthwhile" and that they feel "totally uplifted", she says.

Another told her: "This is the first time I have felt like myself since I have been here. We need this every day."

Hunt says: "When you're in hospital, you're bored, you're fed up, you're feeling very poorly.

"So having 15 minutes or half an hour of music, it's something that uplifts you.

"I also see visitors seeing their loved one who's been very poorly, smile and engage."

A lot of upper body movement is involved, she says.

"Some people say 'My shoulders feel about three inches lower' or they have a little bit more mobility.

"It's about relaxation, joy, fun, muscular release and tension release.

"There's a shared sense of belonging. It's a way of everybody on the bay being able to come together and feel that sense of togetherness.

"I think it just shifts the ward from feeling like a very clinical space into feeling like a more human and artistic space."

Howells, 35, says: "I value seeing the role that dance and the creative arts can play within a healthy context, supporting physical health but also impacting mood, wellbeing and building community.

"We have seen benefits to their physical health, with some patients sharing that their pain reduced or ceased whilst dancing and sharing that their joints felt looser or easier to move.

"Several individuals have said that the atmosphere of the ward has felt different in response."

Keely Birch, prevention of deconditioning lead at the hospital, says: "We are aware that patients' mental health can be impacted by prolonged hospital stay, resulting in high levels of boredom, isolation and low mood.

"This project has shown that creative health has a well-deserved place in the acute setting, with patients who have taken part reporting they feel it has value as part of their hospital stay."

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'Maggi Hambling helped me reveal my true identity'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c77y4d7yyllo, today

An artist who painted on skateboards under a fake name said renowned sculptor Maggi Hambling helped her reveal her true identity.

Rachael Bassett, 37, from Clare in Suffolk, started her art career under the pseudonym, Bassé, during the Covid-19 pandemic.

She developed a love of using skateboards as her canvas, which also garnered the attention of her "hero" Hambling, who came to visit her at home.

"She went through my artwork which was my dream and she gave me a few pieces of advice which was maybe it was time to take the mask off, and what Maggi says, happens," Bassett explained to BBC Radio Suffolk's Sarah Lilley.

"I did that and then she gave me advice on some works and when Maggi says, 'This is really good', that's not something you forget either.

"So I developed that series and that is what has turned into this skate brand from my style developing based on what she told me."

Bassett said she had always enjoyed creating art, but during the pandemic used it as an outlet for her ADHD.

She initially did not want her face "all over social media", so created her fake identity and would even wear Venetian masks at exhibitions.

She first met Hambling at an exhibition in Sudbury where they chatted.

They then bumped into each other over three consecutive days before Hambling offered to come and look at her work and encouraged her to pursue her skateboard art.

Bassett had skateboarded as a teenager and started to get back into it as an adult, but she realised the boards could be a perfect canvas for her art.

"I never planned to create this skate brand but I started this series called Souls for Salaries which was a bit of an expression on the idea of when people work out of necessity and not out of passion," she said.

"The series developed to where I focused on the actual souls trapped within that world and I looked for a different canvas because of that.

"I wanted a canvas that symbolises freedom and movement because it fit the story and so I find skateboards."

She launched EKH-O and debuted her work last year before putting it on TikTok and gaining attention from the skateboard community.

"I took a chance and the furthest to date I've sold is Australia, which is mad," she added.

The boards all have a piece of original artwork and then they are professionally made by a skateboard manufacturer here in the UK using 100% Canadian maple wood.

Bassett said the boards were "no longer just for hanging on the wall, these are made to be skated" and that the skateboarding community had been incredibly supportive of her.

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Is Download's first female headliner a milestone or a 'bittersweet' moment?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy0x5lgel5o, yesterday

Linkin Park will make history this weekend as the first female-fronted band to headline the UK's biggest rock festival.

Download, held at Donington Park, Leicestershire, has traditionally been dominated by male-led groups such as Iron Maiden, Slipknot, and Metallica since it began in 2003.

This year, Linkin Park and lead singer Emily Armstrong will close out the three-day rock and metal festival on Sunday night

The presence of a woman at the top of the bill this year has been hailed by some fans as a milestone, but others say it's not quite the step forward for diversity it appears to be.

Linkin Park reformed in 2024, seven years after original frontman Chester Bennington took his own life.

Chester Bennington's family also criticised the band with his son, Jaime, accusing remaining members of "quietly erasing" his father's "life and legacy".

The choice of Emily Armstrong upset some fans, who pointed to her alleged ties to the Church of Scientology and past support for US actor and convicted rapist Danny Masterson.

Armstrong has distanced herself from Masterson, stressing that she does not condone any "abuse or violence against women".

Despite the friction, their comeback single The Emptiness Machine reached number four in the UK top 40, and reaction to them topping the Download bill has been generally positive.

On his way into the festival, Linkin Park fan James Harvey tells BBC Newsbeat Armstrong is "a really good fit", and says it's a sign the scene is "changing for the better".

The 22-year-old says getting more diverse headliners might "take a while" but the future is "going to get even better".

'It's the bare minimum'

Lambrini Girls bassist Selin Macieira-Boşgelmez tells BBC Newsbeat that women in the rock scene are "often plagued with imposter syndrome".

"Partially because we are so under-represented in alternative music," she says.

Selin formed the English punk rock duo with Phoebe Lunny in 2019 and, in 2025, the pair landed the grassroots Loud Women Hercury Prize and were nominated for Rolling Stone UK's Rising Stars Award.

But, she says, it was difficult for them to get a foothold in the industry.

"In terms of even seeing myself in it, I very often would just go through my male friends that were musicians," says Selin.

"I think that part of the problem is that they're often not really given the chance on account of not being taken seriously."

Selin feels that "loudness and aggression" - key elements of heavier genres - are often "celebrated in men and demonised in women."

Selin says seeing Armstrong top the Download bill is "bittersweet".

"It is kind of the bare minimum," she says.

"I think that's a problem across the whole industry, not just this particular festival."

BBC Newsbeat has asked Download Festival's organisers for comment.

British radio host Sophie K says festivalgoers should be celebrating positive changes and not attacking Emily for being the first.

"I'm over the conversation about criticising festivals for their headliners," she says.

Sophie K co-hosts the On Wednesdays We Wear Black podcast with Yasmine Summan which gives a platform to under-represented voices in rock and metal.

As one of the first black women to host an alternative radio show in the UK, Sophie says fans "should be thanking Linkin Park for choosing a queer woman to front their band".

"They could have chosen anyone."

Co-host Yasmine Summan says seeing Armstrong headline a major festival is "really validating" but "there definitely is always room for more."

Summan says growing up and seeing her co-host Sophie as a "loud and proud black woman in rock music" has been "incredibly important".

Summan says one reason for slow progress on representation is down to risk-taking.

"Doing creative jobs often isn't considered for queer people, for brown people, for women, because it's really hard for us to exist."

They hope that Emily Armstrong shows people that it's "a viable career option".

Yasmine also feels that music listeners and fans have to play their part too.

"You guys need to start telling festivals what bands you want to listen to, if enough people want this artist at a festival they get booked for it."

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

'David Hockney the person has gone but he will live on'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq51lpvqvweo, yesterday

Heralded as Bradford's favourite son, artist David Hockney had been cherished by his home town as well as recognised by the the art world before his death aged 88 this week.

Born in Eccleshill in 1937, Hockney attended Wellington Primary School before heading to Bradford Grammar School in Heaton.

He later studied at Bradford School of Art, now Bradford College.

Even almost 90 years after his birth, it is impossible to grow up in the city and not know who he is.

Today, Bradford College has a £50m building named after its alumnus and keeps his work alive with the students - even keeping one of his works, The Hypnotist, on display.

Ryan Woods is manager of the School of Art and says Hockney, whose uniform of glasses, cap and cigarette on the go made him easily identifiable, shows you can be from a "humble background" and still make it in the art world.

"That's one thing that's really important about his work - it transcends a lot of different mediums. It's something that's very inspiring to the young people we get through this door," he explains.

"David is always a person you can rely on to bring into the classroom to gain inspiration from, because his work evolved and it changed as creativity should."

Student Aimee Scala says he has been catalyst for her and fellow students.

"Using him as an inspiration - as he's done many form of media - has really helped me work out where I want to go," she says.

Lecturer Mike Tipping says they reference his work across many courses.

"David Hockney the person has gone but he will live on in his artwork and will continue to inspire students," he reflects.

At Cartwright Hall Art Gallery - nestled in Lister Park opposite Hockney's former school, Bradford Grammar - art lovers come to see its permanent exhibition of his work.

Pat Foster, 73, remembers him as a creative local person who "explored every known art form from opera to digital".

"For me, he brought more interest and knowledge of people who have same-sex relationships, particularly his set of paintings when he was in Miami, and he's been great for Bradford and for Yorkshire and we'll really miss him," she says.

Cliff and Joy Allchin are visiting the gallery from Rodley on the outskirts of Leeds.

Cliff recently took on the task of writing prose based on the work of Hockney in his creative writing class.

But not everyone is a big fan - and you can recognise the value of the man without enjoying everything he did, says Joy.

"I like the flowers but I wasn't keen on the people, there's lots of portraits of people sitting and it didn't do anything for me," she says.

In the city centre, Brenda Knott from Leeds is doing something of a Hockney tour. She has just travelled through Eccleshill, where he was born.

"I love that picture of him and Alan Bennett in Salts Mill - it's just perfect," she says.

"I've been to see him at Salts Mill lots of times, his iPad drawings, I got my grandson a pencil to go with his iPad and he does drawings on his too.

"It's so inspirational and so fabulous for Bradford for him to be associated with this city. It's a big loss."

Graphic designer Paul Holmes, 57, says Hockney helped him on his journey into the art world.

He says: "When I was about 14 I was at school in Halifax and we got brought over to the Media Museum when it first opened up – and Hockney's Joiners, these photographic joiners, were there, which inspired me to get a camera and darkroom together and create my own joiners as a young lad.

"And that work got me into art school in Huddersfield at 16."

Years later, he "randomly" found an original Hockney for sale on eBay for £10, which is now on his wall at home.

"It's not worth that anymore. It will stay there and it will go to my daughter," he says.

"I found it quite randomly and I got it valued on Antiques Roadshow in Halifax Piece Hall.

"They were quite surprised. From £10 to £2,000, so that's not bad is it?"

At the Bradford building most famous for its Hockney connection, Salts Mill, co-director Zoe Silver remembers the time the artist came to see his work in-situ.

She says: "When we showed A Year in Normandy, which took over our entire attic, he came to see it.

"It was a quiet morning, he came early, and there was a few people around looking at it, and slowly the penny dropped as to who was in the room.

"He was so happy to meet the people who were in the room and have pictures taken with them and sharing their enjoyment so enhanced his enjoyment.

"They already loved it, they already thought the work was unbelievable and he shone."

Salts Mill – a former textile mill built by industrialist Sir Titus Salt – was rescued and transformed into galleries, shops and restaurants by Zoe's father Jonathan.

Jonathan, a Leeds-based entrepreneur who ran menswear shops across the country, became friends with Hockney after they met at Silver's father's burger bar.

And when Salts Mill was being transformed in the 1980s, he made Hockney's work a centrepiece.

Zoe says he was a "great friend to the family", adding: "He was a great joy to be with and a great story teller.

"He was born to paint, that's what my mum always said. And people growing up around Bradford they remember how he used to walk around with a pram of paintbrushes.

"Art was his life, it was his practice, it was his pleasure."

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.

'My wonderful life 15 years on from Britain's Got Talent'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn75mj2pyn8o, yesterday

Britain's Got Talent (BGT) finalist Jean Martyn will never forget the call from her son to say her mother had died - just moments before she was due on stage at the O2.

It was June 2011 and the retired music teacher was on tour with the other series five finalists, performing uplifting tunes on her piano to crowds across the UK.

"It hit me like a brick," she said. But her mother's voice came to her, saying, "I paid two and sixpence for your piano lessons, you get on there and you entertain."

"I played like I'd never played before, because I was on another plateau," she said.

Afterwards, host Stephen Mulhern guided her to the front of the stage and encouraged her to tell the audience what had happened.

"The whole of the O2, you could have heard a pin drop," she remembers.

"And suddenly everybody stood up, so I had a standing ovation in the O2 and then I cried."

The musician, who lived in Brewood in Staffordshire, near Wolverhampton, at the time, said her late husband had entered her into the contest without her knowledge.

"There were 60,000 entrants and they chose me to go and audition, which was hilarious," she said.

She turned up to the NEC in Birmingham with a portable piano under her arm, wrapped in a duvet.

"A woman who was sitting there, she said, 'have you brought a coffin with you? Or a body?'"

She played a boogie woogie version of a carol to a panel of producers, who invited her back for the next round, a filmed audition in Manchester.

Nine hours after arriving, she was one of the last contestants to play in front of BGT judges Michael McIntyre, Amanda Holden and Simon Cowell.

"I had a terrific audition there, and then the third one was the reveal," she recalled.

Described by Holden as "Victoria Wood on acid", Martyn was one of 10 contestants to reach the final.

The TV show catapulted her to newfound fame, the subsequent tour taking her to major arenas across the UK.

Martyn remembers being on the road with the other contestants as "a laugh a minute".

She said: "I was 59 when I did BGT and my 60th birthday, we had a night off on tour, and they took me and the nine other finalists to the Dominion in London to watch We Will Rock You."

When she played the NIA in Birmingham, "half my pupils from the school I taught at in Huntington... were standing outside," she said.

She added she was still in regular contact with Mulhern and would always be grateful to Cowell for his kindness after her mum's death.

She had retired from teaching because she wanted to be out there playing concerts. Already a seasoned pianist and organist, the venues and crowds she was playing in front of suddenly became much bigger.

"I went into theatres, I did outside broadcasts under a big arena. I went with Chris Evans to CarFest," she said.

She has since performed in the United States, Europe, the United Arab Emirates and India, and along the way met countless celebrities, played for royalty, and even made an appearance on Holland's Got Talent.

Now living in Stoke-on-Trent with her Dutch husband Hans, who she married in 2020, she also regularly streams live performances to global audiences via social media.

She will be playing a concert at St John's Church in Walsall Wood on 26 June and still fondly remembers her father's words that she should "go out there and share that talent".

"I'm having a terrific life with playing and enjoying travelling and concerts here there and everywhere," she said. "It's wonderful."

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Myles Smith announces Luton show ahead of album drop

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg5mx4gn8ko, yesterday

Singer Myles Smith has said he will be "coming home" for a free pop-up gig in Luton to celebrate the release of his debut album.

The singer posted on his Instagram that he would be performing at St George's Square at 16:30 BST on Monday.

Leading up to the performance, he will be spending some time in the town, and there will be a series of special events ahead of his album, My Mess, My Heart, My Life, being released on 19 June.

In an Instagram post, he said: "If you're local, come and say hello. If you're nearby, make the trip. Let's make it a special one."

It came after he announced earlier in the week that he would be spending the summer on a North American tour.

Smith's career took off after he started posting covers online during the covid lockdown, with his acoustic rendition of The Neighbourhood's Sweater Weather going viral in 2022.

Since then, he has gone on to perform at Glastonbury, been named BBC Introducing's Artist of the Year and scooped the 2025 Rising Star Brit Award.

He previously told the BBC that Luton had "always been home" and that he was "proof" that young musicians from his hometown do not need to come from a big city or fancy school to succeed.

His latest pop-up gig is not the first time Smith has surprised fans in his hometown, and crowds of hundreds gathered to catch a glimpse of him performing outside the Hat Factory in March.

In a post on the Myles Smith HQ Instagram account last week, he announced he had been cooking up the idea of a "hometown takeover" of some of his favourite spots.

He said: "I've always wanted to go back to the place that it started and give Luton the flowers it deserves.

"So, Luton, we are about to show up. And to everyone who loves the music, make your way down for a fun time. Let's have it... expect surprises."

This time round, a series of special events has been planned in the town, starting at Luton Train Station at 08:00 and finishing with an album party at Sugarloaf Pub at 18:00.

After performing at St George's Square, he will sign copies of his soon-to-be-released album at HMV.

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Delta Goodrem becomes third celebrity to join Strictly Come Dancing

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg74gvy8lgjo, yesterday

Delta Goodrem has joined the line up for Strictly Come Dancing, with the Australian singer and actress becoming the third celebrity to be announced for the upcoming series.

The singer-songwriter, 41, joins EastEnders actress Lacey Turner and reality star Dani Dyer in the battle for the Glitterball trophy.

"I've been incredibly honoured to perform on many different stages throughout my career - from TV, theatre, film sets, to touring my own shows around the world," Goodrem said in a statement.

"There is, however, one stage I've never stepped onto and that is the ballroom floor. I'm absolutely thrilled to be joining Strictly and can't wait to get started."

Goodrem rose to fame in hit Australian soap opera Neighbours and recently represented her nation in the 2026 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest.

The 24th series of Strictly is expected to begin in September.

Lacey Turner was the first contestant to be announced on Wednesday.

She said she was "so excited to being making my way to the dance floor", adding that she was a "huge fan" of the show.

Turner is best known for her role as Stacey Slater on the BBC One soap, which she joined in 2004.

She has won a British Soap Award and National Television Award for her role, and has also starred in TV dramas including the BBC's Our Girl.

In a video posted on Instagram, Turner said she was "so excited and so terrified at the same time" to be taking part in the show.

"But I've had so many friends do Strictly, and I thought it was about time that I pluck up the courage and made my way on to the dance floor."

She was followed by reality star Dani Dyer.

The media personality and daughter of actor Danny Dyer appeared in the launch episode last year, but was then injured in training and pulled out before the competition began.

That incident has not put her off trying again. "I am so excited to be back in the ballroom this September," she said.

"I just cannot wait to get my dancing shoes back on and hopefully this time around I can actually make it to week one! I'm just over the moon and cannot wait to find out who else is doing it."

The 29-year-old, who first found fame on Love Island in 2018, fractured her ankle when she "landed funny" in rehearsals with dance partner Nikita Kuzmin before the competitive episodes began last September.

She was replaced by actress Amber Davies, another former Love Island winner, who went on to reach the Strictly final.

Earlier this year, Dyer was joint winner of Channel 4's Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, and appeared with her dad in TV show The Dyers' Caravan Park.

She has 3.7 million Instagram followers and is married to West Ham striker Jarrod Bowen.

"Welcome back @danidyerxx," posted head judge Shirley Ballas on Instagram.

Comedian Josh Widdicombe, part of the show's new hosting trio, wrote: "YES DANI!!!!"

Widdicombe will present the new series alongside Emma Willis and Johannes Radebe, following the departures of Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman.

Shirley Ballas 'wowed' by line-up

The first line-up announcements have come significantly earlier than usual - the BBC usually confirms the line-up in August.

Speaking to ITV's Good Morning Britain on Wednesday, Ballas said: "There are going to be some people on there that will make you go 'wow'."

Asked about the new presenting trio, Ballas said she was "very excited to see what they bring" to the show.

"I know they took lots of chemistry tests, as did everybody, and those chemistry tests have brought those three people together, and I believe it's absolutely unbelievable," she said.

Ballas described the number of new elements on this year's show as "quite extraordinary", but added that it will still feel familiar to viewers.

"There are new dancers, new presenters, I heard a lot that there was supposed to be a new set, but don't believe everything you read," she said.

"I don't think they'll change the show too much, maybe tweaks here and there, but no major changes."

Ballas, Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke will all return as judges.

However, professional dancers Gorka Marquez, Nadiya Bychkova, Luba Mushtuk, Karen Hauer and Michelle Tsiakkas will not be coming back this year.

But other regulars including Amy Dowden, Dianne Buswell, Katya Jones, Vito Coppola and Aljaz Skorjanec will be back on the dance floor.

'She beat Disney by a decade': How a 26-year-old German woman made the world's oldest animated feature film

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260603-how-a-26-year-old-german-woman-made-the-worlds-oldest-surviving-animated-feature-film, 11 days ago

Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed was released a century ago in 1926. This stop-motion classic makes her "a key figure in the history of cinema".

Starting out in the film business isn't always glamorous. In the silent era, aspiring German actress Lotte Reiniger began her career on an adaptation of a folk tale, The Pied Piper of Hamelin. But she wasn't in front of the camera. Her job was to handle the rats.

Despite this inauspicious beginning, Reiniger would soon earn a place in cinema history. Just a few years after her rodent-wrangling experience, she was in the director's chair. That was extraordinary enough – in the 1920s, few women were given the opportunity to direct. But Reiniger's project was particularly innovative. Released a century ago in 1926, The Adventures of Prince Achmed is recognised as the world's oldest surviving animated feature film – despite what Walt Disney's publicists might prefer you to think. Disney's Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs is often considered to be the first ever animated feature. But Lotte beat Walt by more than a decade.

"You can't think of an equivalent to Lotte Reiniger," says Jez Stewart, Curator of Animation at the British Film Institute. "This young female artist had the vision and skills to create a timeless classic that still speaks to audiences across the world. Even 100 years on, we're still thinking, 'How did she do that?'"

Reiniger was born in Berlin in 1899. In her early years, she expressed her interest in acting through shadow puppets, cutting out silhouette figures to stage miniature Shakespeare shows. It was her skill with the scissors that got her on to the set of the Pied Piper film (she hand-cut the title cards). But it was the rats that proved most influential.

As she recalled in a 1970 book, Shadow Puppets, Shadow Theatres and Shadow Films, the animals were uncooperative: none of them would follow the Pied Piper. So, the film-makers switched to wooden rats. They shot one frame at a time, moving the models inch by inch, creating an illusion of motion when the film was played back. "This was my first encounter with animation," Reiniger said. It sparked an idea: she could bring her old-fashioned shadow puppets to life using this "stop-motion" technique.

Reiniger experimented with placing her articulated silhouette figures flat on a glass plate, lit from below. As she adjusted their movements frame by frame, a camera captured each shot from above. It was a painstaking process, requiring more than a thousand frames per minute of film. But by 1919, she had completed her first short film, The Ornament of the Loving Heart. Over the next few years, she made several more. "She was always interested in fairy tales," Stewart tells the BBC, noting her early adaptations of Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. "She even made an advert for Nivea cream."

At that time, animation was in its infancy (Mickey Mouse wouldn't appear for another decade), so Reiniger's short films stood out. In 1923, they caught the attention of a Berlin banker, who offered to finance a longer production. "The opportunity to make a feature-length animated film at that time was an anomaly," Stewart explains. "But that anomaly was connected to the way Reiniger made films. It was an affordable, artisanal method using limited means."

The film's greatest technical achievement

Indeed, once Reiniger accepted the proposition, she took on just a handful of staff. This included a few animators, an assistant to track the frames shot, and Reiniger's husband, who controlled the camera. As well as directing, Reiniger constructed the silhouette puppets herself, cutting characters from cardboard and lead, before fixing their joints with wire hinges. She also devised the film's scenario, combining several Middle Eastern fairy tales into one story, The Adventures of Prince of Achmed.

Reiniger's yarn follows the titular prince as he battles a shape-shifting sorcerer across various adventures. A century later, many of the film's mystical sequences still dazzle. In one stand-out scene, the sorcerer fights a witch, with the duo transforming into lions, scorpions and dragons mid-combat. Focusing on myth and magic made perfect sense for animation. As Reiniger put it in one magazine article, animation enabled her to "show events which could not be performed by any other means".

But the film's greatest technical achievement was in its background imagery. "She introduced an early version of the multiplane camera," explains Cristina Formenti, President of the Society for Animation Studies. "She used it to create a sense of depth. If you watch the film, you can see that it's not just a flat image."

Reiniger's multiplane device was essentially a tall scaffold. The camera was mounted at the top, shooting down through multiple layers of glass. Reiniger placed her silhouette characters on one layer, while background imagery and effects were animated on different levels. She later explained the technique in her book, referencing a scene of Prince Achmed on his flying horse. "[T]he starry sky was worked out on three layers. All three were moved at a different speed… This arrangement of movement produced a feeling of space, giving to the shot a weird fantastic quality."

Although Reiniger pioneered this innovation, she didn't receive much credit for it. In 1940, Walt Disney was awarded a US patent for the multiplane camera. In 2000, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for inventing the device. "Obviously, Disney's version was more complex," Formenti says. "But Reiniger is the first one that's known to have used it."

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This wasn't the only way Disney's achievements overshadowed Reiniger's: the studio's DVD and video boxes have declared that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was "the first full-length animated feature ever made", a claim that echoes the cartoon's initial marketing in 1937. "Disney was a genius in many ways," Stewart says. "Self-marketing and promotion was definitely one of them." The film's original posters and trailer emphasised that Snow White was "Disney's first full-length feature production". As Disney's name was synonymous with animation, the idea that Snow White was the world's first animated film quickly took hold.

But even though Reiniger's film came a decade earlier, historians still hesitate to confirm it as "the oldest" animated feature. In 1917, Argentinian film-maker Quirino Cristiani used a cut-out technique similar to Reiniger's to create a film called El Apóstol. Some historians believe this could be the first-ever animated feature. But all copies have been lost, and its exact running time is undocumented. In the face of this uncertainty, Stewart prefers to describe The Adventures of Prince Achmed as "the earliest surviving animated feature" rather than the oldest.

Influential but unique

In any case, Reiniger's film was certainly the most ambitious animated production ever made up to that time. It received its premiere in May 1926, having taken three years to complete. Reiniger was just 26 years old. "To give somebody three years to make a film – that didn't happen at that time," says Stewart. "It's another way in which this film is a complete anomaly."

Over the following years, The Adventures of Prince Achmed was screened in France, the United Kingdom and the United States. It was well-received by critics and audiences. Film-maker Jean Renoir even compared Reiniger's genius to Mozart's. But it never achieved the widespread attention of later animated films like Disney's Snow White. "It ended up being distributed more as an experimental film rather than an entertainment film," Formenti explains. "That limited the scope of its success."

Despite its limited distribution, The Adventures of Prince Achmed has continued to amaze viewers for a century – and continued to evolve. "Some of the best screenings I've seen have been with different musical accompaniments," says Stewart. He recalls one musician in Beijing who mixed a live electronic soundtrack using a laptop. In August, he has a 100th anniversary screening planned at the British Film Institute which will feature new live music. Other centenary performances have already been held in the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Reiniger's native Germany.

Stewart also hopes this milestone anniversary can bring attention to Reiniger's later works. "After Prince Achmed, she never got to make another feature film," he says. "But she had some prominence in the 1950s." She returned to her fairy-tale roots, creating a series of short films based on stories like Puss in Boots and Thumbelina, which were screened on the BBC and US television.

Reiniger's legacy also extends to subsequent generations. Director Nora Twomey described Reiniger as "a big influence" on her 2017 Oscar-nominated film The Breadwinner. But as influential as Reiniger has been, Stewart believes that she is still unique. "She was a young female artist making an unprecedented feature film in animation – and it's still in circulation 100 years later. It's just extraordinary."

Her place in the history books is certainly a long way from her unpromising start as a rat handler. But just like her fairy stories, there is a touch of magic about Lotte Reiniger's tale. It's as if she were imbued with the powers of those witches and sorcerers of her own imagination – breathing life into shadows to create a legacy that would last a century, and beyond.

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Cornwall's Miracle Theatre company looks on 47 years

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0ryg9q1e8do, today

"Everyone in the company is encouraged to put in their input."

So says Bill Scott, leader of Cornwall's Miracle Theatre troupe, which started with just three people and now has four full-time staff members and up to 15 freelancers during production periods.

Now celebrating 47 years of work, the company has produced a range of adaptations of well-known plays, as well as self-written performances, which are often held in open-air venues across the South West.

Scott, who is co-artistic director and chief executive of the company based in Penryn, said it was important for them from the start to entertain local people while having "quite a lot of comedy".

Miracle Theatre started when Scott, Steve Clarke and Keri Jessiman decided to create an adaptation of the Cornish Ordinivia in 1979 - a series of stories from the Bible but with a humorous twist.

Scott said, as a touring company, it had to be "very flexible and adaptable" because sometimes they would be performing in gardens, parks, old bits of houses, school playing fields and beaches.

Scott said originally the group of three would tour around local pubs and then on to high streets.

Since those early days, they have gone on to perform in large settings, including the Minack Theatre at Porthcurno, which Scott said was an "amazing treat".

Scott said, as a touring company, "you have to bend whatever you're doing to fit that environment and also try and make something of the environment you're in".

"Because things happen, you can't control it, so you have to turn those occasions to their advantage," he said.

Scott added the company was fortunate to receive regular funding by the Arts Council England and Cornwall Council.

"We didn't have any funding support in the early days," Scott added.

"Everyone was doing it for the love and a share of the box office takings, but now we get funding from the Arts Council and Cornwall Council.

"It's a very different sort of organisation."

Scott said he would often write the scripts or do an adaptation before it went into rehearsals.

"Everyone in the company is encouraged to put in their input," he said.

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'Intriguing' ballet teaches kids about dance

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3dy5k1xlz9o, today

Nearly 300 primary school children were offered a special viewing of an "intriguing" ballet to help the pupils learn about the "big, beautiful world" of dance.

Ballet d'Jerri's new piece Black Dog Noir opened at Jersey Opera House on Saturday, with students attending the final rehearsal on Friday.

The ballet company said that 273 "school students benefited from our free educational programme, enriching their learning through dance and theatre".

Tabitha Dombroski, ballet d'Jèrri dancer, described the play as intriguing, adding: "The arts is such a big, beautiful world, and there's so many things you can do... whether that be a performer or a dancer, a lighting technician or a stage manager."

The ballet is based on The Black Dog of Bouley Bay, a Jersey legend which choreographer Jeroen Verbruggen said could also be a metaphor for mental health.

Verbruggen said: "When I was asked to make a creation here, they had asked me to maybe get inspired about... stories or legends on the island and the one that spoke to me was the Black Dog of Bouley Bay."

He said it was not just movement that came into creating the ballet, but the lights, costumes and dancers were just as important.

The choreographer from Belgium said it was a "privilege" to work with Jersey folklore.

For the children watching the performance, he said it was important to invest in educating people about the arts.

"People think dance is not for everybody, but it is," he said.

"I think people forget that it's more about feeling the art and that's whether they love it or hate it."

Dombroski added: "I just love learning about the heritage ... and just to bring these tales to life.

The New Zealand-born dancer has been with the ballet company for three seasons and said she loved the excitement the children who came to watch showed.

Primary school pupil Aria, 11, attended the performance.

She said: "It's historical, so it's good to learn a bit through dance as well. I'm excited to see and listen to all the things that they're doing."

What is the Black Dog of Bouley Bay

According to Jersey Heritage, the Black Dog was thought to have roamed the cliff paths around Bouley Bay dragging a chain behind him.

It said the "dog frightened people so much that they would stop in their tracks, ... but apparently no actual bodily harm was ever done to any of the victims – they would be found cowering against a hedge".

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Next phase of work begins to rebuild theatre

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce3enleknppo, today

The next phase of work to rebuild a theatre in Shropshire will begin this summer, according to a council.

Telford Theatre, which was originally built in the 1960s, is being fully replaced as part of a multi-million pound project, after suffering from significant structural defects.

New facilities include a 776-seat main auditorium, a separate studio theatre, a new community art room, an upgraded bar and modernised backstage facilities.

"We want to reassure people that despite some initial setbacks we remain fully focused on bringing plans for this exciting new facility to fruition," Telford and Wrekin councillor, Lee Carter said.

The rebuild will create 12 full-time jobs and is expected to attract around 100,000 visitors annually during its anticipated 60-year life span, the council said.

An expected opening date for the theatre will be confirmed alongside a construction timeline as work gets underway.

The council said it was also looking at options to increase the number of free car parking spaces available in Oakengates.

Lee Carter described the theatre as an "eagerly anticipated project throughout the Oakengates and wider community."

"It's one of our biggest investment projects across the Borough, which when complete will attract visitors from far-and-wide and drive more footfall to Oakengates Town Centre," he said.

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Pirate radio musical cancels again after injury

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9w2lpejwzgo, yesterday

A new musical has been hit with further bad luck after a cast member was injured, causing a performance to be abandoned 30 minutes in.

Caroline - A New Musical, based on the pirate radio ship broadcasting off the Essex coast, has been on at the Mercury Theatre in Colchester.

The incident happened during the matinee show on Thursday and the evening act was cancelled as well.

Last week, an actor who had never seen the script was asked to step in at the last minute because of illness, but Craig Mather said the audience was "well and truly onside".

On Friday, the theatre confirmed both Friday and Saturday's performances would go ahead as planned with sold out shows for the rest of its run in Essex.

"We are sorry to disappoint those of you expecting to see the show," the theatre said.

"We will be contacting all bookers by email to explain your options."

BBC journalist Joshua Holmes-Bright was at the cancelled matinee performance on Thursday.

"Thirty minutes into the show, a member of theatre staff came up on stage and said they needed to pause the show," he said, adding the house lights were turned on and the cast taken behind the curtain.

"The woman came back on stage a few minutes later to say the rest of the show was cancelled due to cast injury."

Written by Olivier-award winning writer Vikki Stone, the show is about the rebel Radio Caroline station which defied UK broadcasting laws by playing pop music from international waters off the coast of Clacton-on-Sea.

The show on Friday is due to be followed by a question and answer session with Radio Caroline broadcaster Ray Clark.

The performance on 4 June was also cancelled due to illness, but the next day, musical theatre teacher Mather stepped in and read from the 140-page script on stage.

It is the first production launched by the East Anglia Touring Consortium to support mid-scale tour productions with a focus on championing new writing and developing local talent.

The cast of 10 has toured across East Anglia, with The Mercury the penultimate stop before it travels to the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk from 16 to 20 June.

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Hockney's home town in tribute to 'inspiring son'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20y53k4g3ko, yesterday

People from across celebrated artist David Hockney's home town have paid tribute, following his death at the age of 88.

Born in Eccleshill in 1937, Hockney attended Wellington Primary School before going to Bradford Grammar School in Heaton. He later studied at Bradford School of Art.

His connection to the area was further cemented through the 1853 gallery at Salt's Mill, in Saltaire, - which was founded by his friend Jonathan Silver - and is home to one of the largest collections of his work.

Mill co-director Zoe Silver said Hockney was "proud" of his Bradford roots and of Yorkshire, adding that he was a "genius" who "never stopped loving [life]".

"He loved Yorkshire, he loved the beauty of Yorkshire," she said

"He made people who had never been to Yorkshire love it because he wanted to celebrate it and saw the joy - all the work in recent years has been joy and he never stopped working."

In 2012 he unveiled a collection of iPad drawings of the Yorkshire Wolds, a selection of which sold at auction in October for £6.2m.

The drawings were completed while Hockney was living in Bridlington, where he relocated to from Beverley Hills in 2005, having spent many summers as a school boy in East Yorkshire.

Councillor Chris Herd, Bradford's lord mayor, called Hockney "one of Bradford's most well-loved sons".

"He was one of the most inspirational artists in the modern era and will leave a lasting legacy in the Bradford district and across the world," he said.

"He painted the things he loved and we know that people will continue to be inspired by his artwork and his passion for life for many years to come."

Principal of Bradford Grammar School, where Hockney studied from 1948 to 1953, Simon Hinchliffe, said he was one of the school's most influential alumni.

"We hold David's contribution to the world of art and the way we see the world in high regard. He was an incredible figure, he will be deeply missed. His legacy will be lasting - of that I'm sure," he said.

After school, Hockney went on to study at Bradford School of Art, which in now part of Bradford College.

While at college he sold his first painting - a portrait of his father - for £10 at the Yorkshire Artists' Exhibition in 1957.

During its refurbishment in 2014, Bradford College named its flagship £50m building after the artist.

Bradford College deputy CEO Liz Leek said he remained "a source of immense pride for our College, our city, and the wider cultural community".

"David Hockney was not only one of the world's greatest artists, but also one of Bradford's most inspiring sons. His journey from Bradford School of Art to international acclaim embodies the transformative power of education and creativity."

Councillor Stephen Place, Bradford Council leader, said: "His legacy will live on, not only in the fantastic artwork displayed in galleries across the district and around the world, but also in the incredible support he gave to our year as UK City of Culture.

"Bradford will forever honour his remarkable life, his fearless creativity and his enduring contribution to global culture."

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.

The snake-wrangling 84-year-old who lives on a remote barrier island

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260612-the-snake-rearing-84-year-old-who-lives-on-a-remote-barrier-island, today

Once called the "wildest woman in America", this fearless knife-wielding naturalist has lived off the land for 53 years, fighting to preserve Cumberland Island for future travellers.

Every week, 84-year-old Carol Ruckdeschel walks the wind-whipped beach on Cumberland Island, Georgia. Wearing white rubber boots, and with her dark hair in pigtail braids, she jots down everything she finds in a field journal: spoonbills, sandwich terns, shearwaters, sea oats, moon snails, micromolluscs, whelks, calico crabs. This morning, she records a committee of vultures perching on a dead snag. Bottlenose dolphins swim offshore. Feral horses lope along the dunes. Shark teeth glint in the sand.

Then, she comes across the carcass of a loggerhead turtle. She kneels beside it and extends her measuring tape. As she's done some 4,000 times before, she cuts it open and performs a necropsy, investigating how it died, what it ate and recording every detail in fieldnotes so thorough and exquisite they once inspired curators at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History to travel 700 miles (1,126km) south from Washington DC to meet her in person.

Ruckdeschel moved to Cumberland in 1973, and for the past 53 years, the ecologist and naturalist has been one of the only full-time residents on one of the Atlantic's most remote and biodiverse barrier islands. Dubbed "the Jane Goodall of sea turtles" for her pioneering research and "the wildest woman in America", due to her snake-rearing, knife-wielding, roadkill-scavenging lifestyle, Ruckdeschel lives off the land and largely off the grid alone in a protected wilderness she fights tenaciously to preserve for future travellers.

The lure of a wild island

Measuring more than 36,000 acres and located 18 miles (30km) north-east of Jacksonville, Florida, Cumberland is the largest and southernmost of the 14 barrier islands strewn off Georgia's Atlantic coast. It's also among the least visited of the 10 National Seashores managed by the US National Park Service (NPS).

Almost no cars are allowed on the island – there is no Uber, taxi or shuttles. There are no paved roads, trash cans, stores or amenities. There's not even a place to purchase a bottle of water. Visitors bring what they need and take it all away with them when they go. A single sandy road cuts north to south through palmetto-studded maritime forests and saltwater marshes. Seventeen miles (27 km) of beaches are lined with towering sand dunes where rare, endangered shorebirds and four species of sea turtles nest.

To help keep Cumberland wild, a maximum of 300 visitors are permitted on the island each day. Every visit requires a reservation months in advance – whether for day-trippers taking the ferry, visitors spending the night at one of five campsites or guests staying in one of the 17 rooms or cottages at the island's lone business, the Greyfield Inn.

At the turn of the 20th Century, powerful American families like the Carnegies and the Rockefellers maintained sprawling, Gilded Age estates on the island's remote, private stretches. Their younger scions still holiday there today.

Unlike her few part-time neighbours, Ruckdeschel isn't here by inheritance. After visiting the island for the first time in 1960 as a 28-year-old biology researcher at Georgia State University, she couldn't get it out of her mind. "[I could] go walking off in the woods on the trails and be alone and hear silence," she says.

In 1973, Ruckdeschel left Atlanta and moved to Cumberland full-time, taking a job as a caretaker at a friend's family estate. The year before, the US government had designated the island as a protected National Seashore and began buying up all available parcels and plots and making deals with homeowners to transfer their properties to the park after they pass away. Most of the island's few residents left, leaving their heirs to use their properties as holiday homes. But not Ruckdeschel.

In 1978, she used the last of her savings to purchase one of the only structures the NPS hadn't yet acquired: an abandoned wooden cabin on the island's remote north end built by emancipated Black residents in the 1800s.

"My house was about falling down when I got it," Ruckdescel recalls. During the next two years, she used driftwood and found materials to make it livable.

It isn't easy living full-time in a place that's only accessible by boat and has no markets, gas stations, postal service or landfill. But the island was "priceless" to the biologist, and she set out to learn everything she could about it.

In those first few years, a friend on a neighbouring island taught Ruckdeschel how to perform sea turtle surveys, and for a time, she monitored sea turtle hatches for the NPS.

During her walks along the beach, Ruckdeschel noticed that more and more dead sea turtles were washing ashore. By completing a necropsy on each one, she discovered that many were drowning in shrimping trawlers, and her findings led to changes in legislation and in net design. Over time, Ruckdeschel amassed one of the world's largest collections of sea turtle skulls, shells and skeletal remains. For years, she housed them in the hand-hewn Cumberland Island Museum she built beside her house, with a lab, library and floor-to-ceiling shelving for the carefully catalogued specimens. This past autumn, Ruckdeschel transferred the collection to the NPS, and there are plans to display it at the Georgia Natural History Museum.

Living off the land

After Ruckdeschel's Friday morning surveys, she hikes back through the maritime forest to what she calls her "homestead". Along her cabin's wood walls, rain barrels capture water for her outdoor shower. Out back, her courtyard is lined with scrap wood, stacked cooking pots, ceramic bathtubs where she cleans animal remains and five-gallon buckets. Weathered picnic tables in the compound's courtyard are shaded by moss-draped oaks and longleaf pines. Beyond the courtyard is her chicken coop, which opens into a garden enclosed by wire fencing and roofed with terraces covered in grapevines.

The rain buckets under the cabin's tin roof water her garden via a drip line. She collects water from a pump and well. She heats her home and often cooks with wood she's gathered and split. Very few visitors hike or bike as far north as Ruckdeschel's place, which is located 15 miles (25km) up the rutty road from the public ferry terminal, and just steps from the First African Baptist Church, where John F Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette were wed in 1996.

Ruckdeschel says it took years to develop her garden to the point that it could sustain her. "Everything over here that you need or want, you pay for one way or another," Ruckdeschel says of life on the island. "I just happen to have paid in time."

During her half-century here, she's hunted, scavenged and eaten the island's wealth of boar, horse, possum, racoon, armadillo and manta rays. "I don't just go hunting, but if there's something bothering, pestering or messing with my garden or something like that, I'll eat it," she says. It's also finders-keepers. "There's the creek with fish and clams and oysters and shrimp… I'll throw the net or find something dead on the beach."

She may make the rare visit to the mainland and its grocery stores, but for the most part, she lives off the land. The grapefruit, lemon and loquat trees she planted decades ago are now mature and she grows tomatoes, okra, squash and other vegetables.

Yet, she notes that a curious deer recently infiltrated her plot and devoured virtually everything but her okra. "The garden's going to be behind," she laments, "but you do what you can."

'Boots on the ground'

Recently, Ruckdeschel's main preoccupation has been Cumberland's maritime forest – one of the best-preserved in the country."[It] is an endangered ecosystem… and we've got the most of it anywhere on the Georgia coast." After generations of human intervention on the island – including cattle grazing that decimated the ecosystem – this rewilded forest is finally reaching maturity, she says.

The effort to preserve Cumberland and allow this rewilding to occur has been tireless. But federal protection of the seashore didn't stop the threats of development.

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During Ruckdeschel's decades here, people have sought approval for expanded van tours into the protected wilderness, tried to swap parcels of land to allow for new development and even threatened to build a commercial spaceport on the mainland that would have launched unmanned rockets (which are prone to fiery explosions) right over Ruckdeschel's roof. Ruckdeschel has fought it all.

Some battles, she has won: she was a driving force in securing federal wilderness designation for the island's north end in the 1980s. Some, she's lost: she's been arguing for years that the feral horses first introduced by European settlers centuries ago have no place in Cumberland's ecosystem and suffer from disease and lack of food sources. But she's found few allies in her pitch to eradicate or rehome them.

Each time a new threat to Cumberland Island's natural balance arises, Ruckdeschel has been the "boots on the ground," as she puts it, sounding the alarm to conservationists.

In the old days, she'd write to her friend, the late US President Jimmy Carter, an advocate for ecological conservation in his home state of Georgia. These days, she reaches out to conservation groups like the Southern Environmental Law Center, or her own grassroots network of fellow citizen scientists and ecological defenders through the organisation she founded, Wild Cumberland.

"Without being aware of it, I slipped into this conservation mode," she says. "I didn't want to spend my time doing that. I just wanted to learn the island."

Right now, Ruckdeschel is fighting an arrangement between the NPS and wealthy landowners that would allow for the construction of new homes on the island for the first time in decades. She's also watching a pending NPS proposal that would raise the daily visitor limit on Cumberland from 300 to 750, expanding the presence of e‑bikes, and even developing concessions and new facilities – dramatic changes for a place with little to no infrastructure.

To Ruckdeschel, these plans spell "potential devastation", not just for flora and fauna but for visitors' ability to experience the island in its natural state, without crowds, commerce and other trappings of life on the mainland.

Even at 84, Ruckdeschel says she won't stop fighting to protect her island home – she just hopes there is still time left to walk through the maritime forest or survey the beach. "I learn something new every day," she says. "And that's what I love."

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The sites fighting to be removed from the Unesco World Heritage List

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260611-the-sites-fighting-to-be-removed-from-unesco, yesterday

It recognises places of "outstanding universal value" and can catapult lesser-known sites to global fame. So why are some places pleading to be removed from the list?

Set in the mountains of central Slovakia, the tiny village of Vlkolínec is a picture-perfect medieval hamlet with more houses than people. Its roughly 20 full-time residents live in 45 fairytale-like cottages painted in bright colours clustered around an 18th-Century bell tower.

Because of Vlkolínec's distinctive architecture, this remarkably intact settlement was added by the United Nations as a World Heritage site in 1993. Since then, more than 100,000 visitors have descended on the community every year. Recently, some locals have argued that the designation and associated tourism has created more issues than they're worth and want to have the village delisted.

Roughly 7,000km away in Tanzania, the Maasai International Solidarity Alliance has also called for removing the wildlife-rich Ngorongoro Conservation Area from the World Heritage List. The area is home to pastoralist communities and some of Africa's most iconic safari experiences, but locals argue that conservation policies tied to its internationally protected status have led to residents being displaced from ancestral grazing lands.

These disputes are highlighting a growing debate about what happens when the interests of local communities collide with efforts to preserve places deemed important to humanity.

Unesco's power

The ever-expanding World Heritage List is overseen by Unesco, an international United Nations committee that identifies and protects places it deems to have "outstanding cultural or natural importance to humanity". Since it inscribed its first 12 sites in 1978, its list has grown to 1,248 sites across 170 countries. These range from famous landmarks such as Machu Picchu and the Great Wall of China to lesser-known places such as Romania's Wooden Churches of Maramureș and the ancient Moroccan oasis settlements of Ait-Ben-Haddou.

The World Heritage List emerged from a post-World War Two push to protect culturally and environmentally significant places threatened by conflict, industrialisation and modern development.

Because Unesco designation can unlock international conservation funding, it is one of the world's most influential tools for heritage protection. Supporters point to examples such as the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, which was removed from Unesco's "In Danger" list in 2018 after stronger environmental protections were introduced; and Angkor Wat, where decades of restoration and conservation work helped save a site badly damaged by war and looting.

"The credo of Unesco is about shared heritage, conserving it, celebrating it and recognising it as an accomplishment of humankind," says John H Stubbs, a preservation scholar and former vice president at the World Monuments Fund.

But since the World Heritage List's early days, the rise of social media has increasingly made Unesco status something that may help to preserve a site while simultaneously changing the communities who live nearby through tourism.

Greg Richards, a researcher who studies cultural tourism and overtourism, compares the Unesco designation to star ratings in guidebooks that point tourists to "must-see" places. He also notes that more visitors is one of the most predictable results of being added to the list.

"I think the consensus among the leading experts in the world is that there is a whole range of possible things that can result from getting a Unesco listing, but one that will definitely happen is increased visitation."

Preservation and 'museumification'

Historically, Unesco preservation efforts were primarily focused on protecting physical structures: monuments, archaeological sites and architecturally significant buildings. But many modern heritage destinations now overlap with communities where residents still live and work.

Venice, Italy, which became a Unesco World Heritage site in 1987, has seen such increased tourism that the city has become one of Europe's most overtouristed places – and more residents are leaving as a result. In Lijiang, China, a city known for its Old Town and Naxi Indigenous culture, tourism increased after its 1997 designation, transforming parts of the centre into areas filled with guesthouses and souvenir shops that some researchers and residents say have diluted local life. In Marrakesh, Morocco, more tourism and foreign investment in the Unesco-listed medina have sparked debates about rising property prices and gentrification.

Researchers sometimes describe the process as "museumification": the gradual transformation of living communities into places increasingly oriented around visitors rather than residents. While many historic communities were already grappling with housing shortages and economic change long before Unesco recognition, in some cases – as with Venice – tourism merely accelerates existing trends.

The debate grows even more tangled as ideas about authenticity and preservation evolve.

"This is one of the big debates in heritage conservation," Richards says. "Authenticity is a very dangerous word because it can be interpreted in all sorts of different ways." He explains that what one group sees as authentic preservation, another might see as artificial reconstruction.

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Unesco sites are not prohibited from modernising, but developments are expected to preserve what the organisation calls a site's "outstanding universal value" – the defining qualities that earned it designation in the first place. In practice, that can create tensions between preservation and contemporary needs, particularly in communities that still require updated housing and infrastructure.

Richards also says that social media has greatly accelerated the pace at which tourism pressure builds. Before platforms like TikTok and Instagram, travellers mostly used guidebooks or official tourism information. "Now, increasingly, you're following other tourists," he says.

Unesco's new tourism approach

Representatives say Unesco is becoming more aware that World Heritage Sites are prone to overtourism.

"We certainly recognise that tourism has changed dramatically over the last 10 to 15 years," says Peter DeBrine, a Unesco sustainable tourism specialist. He adds that Unesco now asks sites to create visitor-management plans to prepare for tourism growth and find ways to reduce crowding and pressure on sensitive areas.

"We're not trying to discourage tourism at all, but just help that tourism to support conservation and the heritage," he says. "World Heritage Sites are there for everybody. They're for all humanity. We do want people to visit them, to experience them."

The shift reflects a broader evolution in Unesco's approach. In Unesco's early World Heritage guidance documents, tourism was mentioned only briefly and largely in the context of its potential impacts on conservation, according to DeBrine.

Today, Unesco increasingly views tourism as both a challenge and an opportunity – one that can be a force for conservation and local economies when carefully managed.

But the concerns emerging from Vlkolínec and Ngorongoro fall outside the World Heritage system's scope. While Unesco can evaluate and respond to threats to a site's conservation, its role is less clear when the grievance comes not from damage to the site itself, but from the people living within it.

When asked if Unesco can step in when local residents feel that tourism or preservation policies are hurting their lives, DeBrine said, "We don't really have a mechanism for that."

Despite the calls from Vlkolínec and Ngorongoro's Maasai advocacy group to reconsider their World Heritage status, neither site is expected to be discussed by the World Heritage Committee at its upcoming session.

Unesco can currently evaluate whether a landscape, monument or ecosystem is being adequately protected. It can list sites as "in danger" due to factors like armed conflict, climate change and uncontrolled development. It can also demand conservation measures, or – in rare cases – remove a designation altogether. But it can't list sites as "in danger" due to the tourism it helped create.

How to lose World Heritage status

To date, Unesco has only removed three sites from the World Heritage List, and in each case, the issue centered on conservation. In 2007, the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary became the first site to be removed after Oman sharply reduced the protected area amid plans for oil exploration. In 2009, Dresden Elbe Valley lost its status following the construction of a bridge, which Unesco argued fundamentally altered the landscape. And in 2021, Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City was delisted after disputes over waterfront redevelopment.

Interestingly, losing Unesco recognition has not always resulted in dramatic tourism declines. Liverpool continued attracting visitors tied to its music, sports and cultural identity after losing World Heritage status, while Dresden also remained a major tourism destination after its delisting.

Despite residents in Vlkolínec and Ngorongoro advocating to be removed from the list, Stubbs argues that this is unlikely to result in any meaningful change.

"I think it's great that [these calls for delisting are] making a point about the problems of overtourism," he says. "But in terms of the actual solution that will benefit the locals, as well as the monument, the answer is going to come from smart conservation planning that takes into account everything from economics to location to local people."

More than half a century after Unesco set out to preserve its first sites, the debates suggest that saving a place is not the same as saving a community – and that the latter may prove far more difficult.

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The Queer Eye chef dishes on the meals he still dreams about

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260608-the-queer-eye-chef-dishes-on-the-meals-he-still-dreams-about, 4 days ago

Whenever Antoni Porowski visits an unfamiliar place, he looks for a grandma.

"I go with the vibe," says the Polish-Canadian chef, model and author. "If it's a little restaurant with six tables and you see a grandma back there cooking, it's probably going to be damn good."

Food, Porowski tells the BBC, is his "number one" priority when he travels, which is constant. "I arrive in a city, and the first thing I want is a shower, and the second thing is a bite. My entire schedule usually rotates around my meals, and then I have free time in between to get lost and explore."

Best known as the food and wine expert on Netflix's Queer Eye, Porowski has learned hacks for finding great places to eat, from browsing his "extremely chaotic archived collection of Instagram posts" to friends' personal recommendations. But he says, "the best experiences are ones I've discovered on my own, just walking down the street. I'm looking for a place that has some soul, a place that's busy. I like to go where the locals go."

His new four-part National Geographic travel and food docuseries, Best of the World with Antoni Porowski, sees him explore four of the world's most vibrant cities: London, New York, Paris and Mexico City. The experience often proved exhilarating – "A lucha libra female wrestler kicked my ass, flipped me over and then we had a couple of tacos" – but most of all, illuminating: "[Food is] a fantastic way to get to know a people, a history and what they're into."

Here, Porowski dishes on his six most unforgettable meals around the world.

Lobster rolls at The Clam Shack in Maine, United States

When summer hits, all I think about is the beach. One of my favourite places in the world is Maine.

There's no shortage of lobster shacks [in Maine] but there's one called The Clam Shack [in Kennebunk] that has maybe my single most favourite lobster roll. It's half a lobster, rolled up on a little circular sweet potato bun. They cook it in ocean water, so it's beautifully salty. You eat it right on the water, where you see the fishing boats pulling up.

One time, I went up there with my dog, Neon, and my friends Chloe [Hartstein] and Kumi [Craig]. We had a weekend off and wanted to escape [New York City]. We said, "Let's drive five hours each way." The Clam Shack is seasonal and closes down for winter, so this was our last chance. Neon is obsessed with lobster. Her favourite hobby is rolling around in dead fish carcasses on the beach.

It's all about having a meal at The Clam Shack, overlooking the sound and the seagulls and the whole maritime Kennebunkport vibe of Maine, followed by going to a grocery store or farmers' market and getting as big a basket as I can of wild Maine blueberries. I can eat them until the sun comes down and I'm the happiest guy in the world.

Steak tartare at Stary Dom in Warsaw, Poland

I took a trip to Poland with my dad for a cousin's birthday. My partner, Zach, who's also Polish, had never been to Poland, so we all went to Warsaw for two days.

Steak tartare is one of those things a lot of people don't realise Polish people really excel at: chopping it up at the table, loads of egg yolk, horseradish, pickles… We went to a place called Stary Dom in Warsaw, a really old-school family-style restaurant. There's thick oak everywhere, carvings in the wood – very folkloric. Servers dress in polka dresses – it's that kind of place. But the steak tartare there just melts. Something about hand-chopping it and not putting it in the grinder or extruder changes the texture so much. It has the right amount of sharpness and it's one of the most incredible things ever.

For my father, it's a place he's been to before and he just loves the tartare. It was Zach's first meal in Poland ever. It was the perfect introduction into Polish cuisine.

Rosemary ice cream with herb salad at Rosetta in Mexico City, Mexico

Filming for Best of the World, it was my first time in Mexico City. Chef Elena Reygadas has a restaurant called Rosetta and a bakery, Panadería de Rosetta, which is less than a block away, so we had a "twofer". They took me to have a pastry first and then the savoury dish. I had a guava roll. This was one of those moments where, yes, it's all over TikTok and social media, but it was truly one of the most beautiful pastries I've ever had. It was flawless. I had two: one on-camera, one off-camera.

Then I got to meet Elena Reygadas. I had such a great time with her. We had five more nights after we filmed with her, and for three of those meals we were back at Rosetta. I'm typically not a "repeat offender" – I always want to explore a new place. But I was so obsessed. Her tamales with huitlacoche, which is mould that grows on corn, were so incredible that I just had to have more. But the one dish, if I had to go back and only have one thing, was a dessert: a rosemary ice cream with an herb salad. It was so refreshing but still had enough dairy and sugar to make you feel satisfied.

Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon at Hôtel de Crillon in Paris, France

I was in Paris one time just for one day because it was Fashion Week and then I was flying out the next day.

I was able to have just one meal. I had a friend staying at Hôtel de Crillon. I met him at his hotel and I had soft scrambled eggs with smoked salmon on the side, and a beautiful croissant.

It was the most perfectly executed soft scramble I've ever had – almost like a porridge. You could see through the smoked salmon – it was delicate and melted on your tongue. Then, to end with a croissant and some room-temperature butter and a really good French strawberry jam… That meal checked all of the boxes of things I want to have, in arguably one of the most beautiful settings in Paris. It was in a loungey living room with no windows – dark and cosy, with lush velvet everywhere.

We shot at the hotel two years later for Best of the World. They brought me into a room with a piano and said, "This is the room where Marie Antoinette took piano lessons when she was a young girl." Then, when you look outside the hotel at Place de la Concorde, you can see the exact spot where she was guillotined. It was an eerie experience.

Pork chop at Kiki's Tavern on Mykonos, Greece

On the Greek island of Mykonos, there's a place called Agios Sostis, a beautiful little cove, and a restaurant called Kiki's Tavern. You walk up a hill and it's a falling-apart shack, with cats running around everywhere, everyone drinking warm rosé out of paper cups. It was cash-only and no reservations – you put your name down on a list. You have to wait about an hour and a half, so you go swimming. Apparently, that cove is where Aristotle Onassis used to dock his yacht.

When you go up to the restaurant, there's Vasilis, the guy who runs the show. When I was there, he didn't have busboys – it was just him doing everything.

He does salads every day – he goes to the market and picks up whatever's available. I love to eat seafood in Greece, so I never thought I'd order this, but I saw the juiciest, fattest pork chop sitting on the grill and Vasilis was slathering it with honey water. I ordered that pork chop and it was perfectly pink on the inside, juicy as hell, with a caramelised crust on the outside. It was one of the best bites I've ever had in my life.

Stuffed guinea fowl at Locanda del Falco in Emilia-Romagna, Italy

When we were filming No Taste Like Home for Nat Geo, we were in Emilia-Romagna in Italy. There's a beautiful little hotel in the hills called Locanda del Falco, near Piacenza, where I went with [actor] Justin Theroux. We had this local specialty faraona alla creta, a beautiful guinea fowl, cooked in clay, stuffed with figs and lardo (lard). There was a group of five of us, and we ended up having two of those. It was one of the most outstanding meals ever.

Justin is someone I've known for a long time. We've travelled together a little bit. He's a good dude who loves food. He's on a par with me – he's, like, "Let's get all the appetisers and try everything." The hack he taught me was, when you're in Italy, get a nugget of Parmigiano Reggiano, the good stuff, and drizzle [the cheese] very lightly with the best balsamic vinegar you can possibly find. We found a damn good one there – I came back with two bottles that lasted me less than a month because I consumed it all.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

BBC Travel's The SpeciaList is a series of guides to popular and emerging destinations around the world, as seen through the eyes of local experts and tastemakers.

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In Okinawa, tourists are helping track endangered sharks

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260605-in-okinawa-tourists-are-helping-track-endangered-sharks, 6 days ago

Padi's new citizen-science diving programme is turning holidaymakers into ocean researchers as warming seas put reefs, sharks and rays under mounting pressure.

They say that the sea that surrounds Okinawa, Japan, has its own shade of blue, created by a heady mix of clear water and limestone seabeds. Yet from my perch at the top of Cape Manzamo, a lava-stone promontory on Okinawa's main island, I could count at least five stunning pantones. Beneath that prismatic surface, however, the reefs along this archipelago, which stretch south-west from Japan to Taiwan, are under strain.

Now, a new citizen-science initiative is asking divers to do more than admire them. Padi's Shark & Ray Conservation Specialty Course turns ordinary recreational dives into data-gathering missions designed to help protect Okinawa's sharks, rays and reefs.

It's how I found myself, several days earlier, in Ishigaki, south-west of Okinawa's main island, joining the programme's first wave of divers.

Every dive counts

According to Padi, sharks and rays are key indicator species that are in rapid decline due to a combination of targeted fishing (Asia prizes shark fins for soup and manta ray's gill plates for traditional medicine) and bycatch (where they are unintentionally caught in huge "set nets" used by Japanese fisheries to catch other fish for food).

"That's why we have launched the Global Shark and Ray Census in tandem with the new speciality course," explained Samantha Pearson, Global PR Director at Padi, "and why we decided to launch it here in Japan."

Following the two-day certification, every diver will be trained to collect and upload photographs, along with data about the dive location, date and time, to an international database on the free-to-use Padi Aware app. The data will be collated by students at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia, and made available to NGOs to help shape conservation policy around the world.

"We're lucky here," said Benjamin Lubrano, manager of Eurodivers ClubMed Kabira in Ishigaki – one of the first places in the world to offer the new certification. "We are located close to a predictable manta aggregation spot, not even 10 minutes away by boat, so it's an ideal place to learn how to collect data effectively."

Turning dives into data

My pre-trip training involved a short e-learning module (which I completed on my flight over from Tokyo), covering the lifecycle of sharks and rays, the threats they face and the role divers can play in documenting them. I also learned several mind-blowing facts about the species – including that the Greenland shark can live for more than 400 years, and that divers spend an average of $314 million (£234.5 million) each year on shark diving, supporting around 10,000 jobs globally.

By the time I arrived, I was ready to dive. In my first of the certification's two required 45-minute underwater adventures, I was on a shark-style hunt… for data. Knowing my sightings would be contributing to something that could help protect the species I love so much added another dimension to the sport. GoPro in hand, I spotted and photographed a huge stingray trying to camouflage itself in the sand at the bottom of a 25m (82ft) wall. Then inside a small overhang I managed to glimpse the tail of a small shark that swam away before I could even hum a line of the Jaws theme tune.

"It doesn't matter whether or not you get a photo or even see one at all," said Lubrano as we surfaced, "everything is valuable data that can be used."

Reading a manta's fingerprints

Before our second dive I met Rika Ozaki, founder of the Japan Manta Project. Her mission is to build a photo identification database of manta rays to mitigate the species' local decline. Ozaki told me about the threats facing the rays and how to best photograph them at our next location: Manta Scramble, a renowned manta ray dive site off Ishigaki.

"Mantas' spots on their underside are as unique as fingerprints, so try and get a clear view of that," she said, "along with any distinguishing features, such as mating bites or injuries."

Within minutes of going underwater we were photo bombed by a train of three mantas – a female being pursued by two males. I dutifully took my photos but then allowed myself time to put the camera away and simply watch their effortless dance.

Once back on land it was time to complete perhaps my most important task: log my sightings on the app. Within minutes I had contributed to global data, and though my part seemed small, Ozaki assured me it had massive capabilities for species protection.

And just like that I was certified, meaning every dive going forwards could be a data catch exercise.

A coral catastrophe

The need for better data on Okinawa's reef systems became clearer when I moved from Ishigaki to Okinawa's main island.

My destination was Japan's first eco-dive resort, ANA Intercontinental Manza Bay. The property is located in Onna Village, which declared itself a "coral village" – a community dedicated to reef restoration and conservation – as part of its Sustainable City programme in 2018, with the goal of becoming the most coral-friendly community in the world. It's also renowned for sightings of shy, white-tipped reef sharks.

Yet as I found out while chatting to my dive instructor Jymi Cardume – after we'd completed my first post-certification dives amid walls of bright fan corals and pointed staghorn, but had seen no sharks on either one – this area has not managed to escape the impact of climate change.

"In 1998, coral bleaching wiped out 90% of corals here," he explained while we loaded the dive boat. "So the fishermen and divers decided to act – and work together."

It's a partnership not often seen; fisheries tend to see divers as poachers and an annoyance rather than allies. But here, both fishermen and divers set to work collecting surviving coral and creating a huge underwater garden in which to regrow it. The result meant a boon for marine life.

"If you'd have come here three years ago, you'd have seen how beautiful it was," Cardume said. "We regularly saw sharks who hunt around the limestone caverns and reefs."

The area's annual typhoons normally help mix warm surface water with cooler water below, creating conditions in which coral can thrive. But in 2024, the typhoon never came. Without that churn, sea temperatures reached 34C, causing catastrophic bleaching. As the coral degraded, the reef's sharks lost food sources and shelter, driving them away from habitats they had long frequented.

Small signs of renewal

Across my six dives, I managed to spot just one shark: a small, white-tipped specimen resting beneath a ledge, apparently unbothered by a curious diver with a camera. I logged the sighting afterwards, buoyed by the fact that even a single shark counted.

On the way back to shore, we stopped to snorkel among the remains of the coral garden. Beneath the waves, the poles that once held festoons of coral were now rusting after much of it had bleached and died in the heat. Then, amid the wreckage, I spotted a small sign of renewal: three blue-tipped prongs of staghorn coral, catching the diffused sunlight.

Attached to the growing blocks were wishes written in Japanese by volunteers, who return several times a year to help replant the coral.

One simply said: "The ocean starts here". To which I mentally added: "And it starts with us."

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Inside the 'darecation': Why travellers are choosing holidays that hurt

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260604-why-travellers-are-choosing-holidays-that-hurt, 9 days ago

Forget relaxing on holiday; more travellers opting for physically punishing adventures in some of the world’s toughest places.

For Sara Storey, the World's Highest Marathon offered a chance to do something nobody had attempted before.

"I've done quite a few ultramarathons and multi-day races, some of them quite tough, but I'd never experienced an event where so much effort was required even to get to the start," she said.

She was one of 16 runners who signed up for the World's Highest Marathon in Chile earlier this year. The 26.2-mile (42.195km) race began on Ojos del Salado, the highest volcano in the world, at an elevation of 6,893m (22,615ft). In extremely low oxygen, temperatures of -30C and winds up to 100km/h (62mph), participants first had to climb for around 11 hours just to reach the start line. Only five made it there – and then came the small matter of completing a marathon at altitude.

"Altogether, I was moving for nearly 30 hours," she said. "It took so much out of me. I feel that in the battle between the volcano and me, it was a draw, because I've never been so close to my physical limits as I was then. Having said that, would I do it again? Absolutely. I want people to see what an ordinary 47-year-old woman can do when she puts her mind to it."

Storey is one of a growing number of people seeking not just thrills on holiday, but trips that test them. It's an increasingly visible theme in travel. Earlier this year, Pinterest identified "darecations" as one of their top trends for 2026, reporting a 75% increase in searches for adventure tourism and forecasting a boom in "full-throttle, adrenaline-inspired tourism" among Gen Z and Millennials. Sports insurance provider SportsCover Direct, meanwhile, has seen an 182% increase in travellers taking out sports travel insurance over the past two years, with particularly strong growth in trekking, mountaineering and marathon-related travel.

At UTMB World Series, one of the world's leading organisers of trail running and mountain races, business is booming. Since launching with a single race around the Mont Blanc Massif in 2003, it expanded to 25 ultramarathon events in 2022 and now hosts more than 60 races globally. Annual participation has risen from 50,000 in 2022 to 170,000, most of whom aren't elite athletes but highly committed amateurs.

"People become engineers of themselves for these races," said Florian Lamblin, executive director of UTMB International and an ultrarunner himself. "They are trying to achieve something complex and, at the end, deliver something extraordinary, which is running up to 30 hours in nature."

British mountaineer Gavin Bate, founder of specialist adventure travel firm Adventure Alternative, led the logistics for the World's Highest Marathon. He sees the rise of this kind of travel among non-professional athletes as partly a reflection of advances in training and sports nutrition. But he also believes something deeper is at work.

"It's about connection with nature – for a lot of people, the gym environment doesn't really cut it," he said. "We are living in a world… where we understand the benefit of a connectedness with nature. Many people working in the outdoor adventure sector are experiencing a tsunami of people coming to engage with these activities for mental health reasons."

He also points to Comic Relief's celebrity challenges as one reason why extreme adventures have become more visible. By bringing these feats into people's living rooms, he says, they are normalising the idea of enormous physical challenges.

"In 2009 when Chris Moyles summited Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief, you would not believe how many people were calling into our office wanting to do it," he said. "In his own words, he was overweight and a smoker. People felt that if he could do it, then they could too."

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Just as Comic Relief has shifted from classic epic treks like Kilimanjaro to Sara Cox's extreme ultramarathon and Greg James' 1,000km bike ride, extreme travel has evolved, too. Today, examples include ultramarathons, where the distance exceeds the typical marathon length, often by a significant margin, and trail running in punishing environments. Because of the distances involved, participants may need to carry their own equipment, camp enroute or cope with weather or altitude as part of the challenge.

Sports psychologist Dr Josephine Perry, who works with extreme endurance athletes, calls them "organised adventures". She sees them as a natural progression as runners move from marathons to triathlons, Hyrox competitions and then ultramarathons. The type of people attracted to them, she says, fall into two camps.

"There are those who love running and want to be outdoors doing it," she said. "Then there are those who are very good at running but find the focus on perfectionism in road running dull."

She said that the variable nature of ultramarathons and trail races mean that they cannot be reduced to times and splits in quite the same way as road races, making them more interesting for many participants.

"The ultimate gain at the end is not speed-related metrics: it's about how cool the course was, what you saw along the route and the stories and adventures you bring back," she said.

For anyone interested in taking an extreme adventure, there is no shortage of options. One of the oldest and best known is the Marathon des Sables, the iconic multi-day desert race in Morocco, which marked its 40th edition in 2026. The event covers 251km (156 miles) over roughly six days through the Sahara. It's not the only adventure race run by the organisation: there are now 10 further Marathon des Sables races in destinations including Namibia and Jordan, all featuring the signature multi-day extreme physical challenge adventure in wild scenery where limits are tested in a backdrop of shifting sand dunes and desert wildlife.

Then there's the extreme challenge of the Barkley Marathons in Tennessee, widely known as "The Race That Eats Its Young". One of the world's strangest and most brutal ultramarathons, the unmarked race sends runners through punishing terrain with only a map and compass, and it's common for nobody to finish. Shrouded in secrecy and myth, Barkley has become legendary in endurance sports culture.

In Europe, the annual Ultra Trail de Mont Blanc allows you to clock up three countries in a 171km (106 mile) race around the Alps. Others push the format into stranger terrain: The World's Deepest Marathon took runners through a zinc mine in Sweden in 2025, while The World's Highest Marathon will return in 2027, this time in Bolivia. You can even run a marathon on Everest, following a route that begins at Everest Base Camp and leads through the Sherpa trails of the Khumbu Valley. For those chasing something longer still, the Iditarod Invitational includes a 1,000-mile (621km) winter route across the Alaskan wilderness.

For marathon runners and super-fit adventurers, it seems that nowhere on the planet is too remote to have an extreme adventure. The only question is whether you're tough enough to take it on.

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The idyllic island you can drive around in a weekend

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260529-the-idyllic-island-you-can-drive-around-in-a-weekend, 14 days ago

More than a third of visitors to French Polynesia arrive by cruise, but Mo'orea rewards travellers who slow down and explore its coastal ring road at their own pace.

Mo'orea looks made for a road trip. A single 60km (37.3-mile) coastal road rings the mountainous French Polynesian island, slipping between reef-protected lagoons, coconut palms and jagged green peaks. There are no high rises, no traffic lights and no main town, just a string of small villages, roadside snack bars, green spaces and bays that can be explored in a day – or better, stretched into a slower weekend.

Just 30 minutes by ferry from Tahiti, the smaller, quieter island is often seen as a cruise stop or beach escape. But its compact scale makes it one of French Polynesia's easiest islands to independently explore. While e-biking around the 133 sq km isle is increasingly popular, my husband and I opt for a hybrid car, which lets us travel slowly, often in electric-only mode, while following the coast anticlockwise from the port of Vai'are.

"Remember not to park under any coconut trees," warns the hire-car agent as she hands us the keys.

Bays of plenty

We have barely left Vai'are when we reach our first wow moment. Elevated above the coast, the To'atea Lookout offers a sublime view of the electric turquoise lagoon fringing the island. Spindly palms lean over its coral-sand beach and the mountainous silhouette of Tahiti looms across the cobalt channel separating the sister islands.

It's only 15 minutes further to Cook's Bay (also known as Pao Pao Bay), the first of two long fjord-like bays that give Mo'orea's north coast its distinctive "W" shape. Pulling over to admire the view, I spot white terns – revered in Polynesian culture – fluttering high above the calm bay and Picasso triggerfish darting through the gin-clear water beside the road, their bright, brushstroke-like markings easily visible.

Like Tahiti, Mo'orea ("yellow lizard" in Tahitian) was created by the collapse of an ancient shield volcano some 1.5 million years ago. But Polynesian oral traditions attributing its striking topography to a sacred octopus somehow feel more fitting in this fantastical landscape.

As we continue around Cook's Bay, we stop at unassuming Snack Rotui, run by a third-generation Tahitian Chinese family, for dim sum with French mustard – one of many roadside "snacks" (quick service spots) here. Like much of French Polynesia, Mo'orea's underrated fusion cuisine blends Polynesian ingredients and traditions with strong French and Chinese influences, shaped in part by waves of Chinese migration to Tahiti from the 19th Century onwards. Nearby, at Manutea Tahiti – Rotui Juice Factory & Distillery, we sample locally made libations, including its signature Tahiti Drink, a ready-to-drink rum cocktail sold in recyclable cartons.

The cinematic scenery continues in 'Ōpūnohu Bay, where Captain James Cook anchored the Resolution in 1777 and violently clashed with local Polynesians following a dispute over a goat. At the head of the bay is Te Fare Natura eco-museum, a domed building powered largely by solar panels. Its main exhibit explores the marvels of – and threats to – the region's marine ecosystems, making it a worthwhile stop before heading into the lagoon or joining one of the island's popular whale swimming excursions (20 July-20 November). Regulations for whale tours were tightened in 2025, including capping boat numbers to better balance tourism and conservation.

Path of the ancestors

The eco-museum marks the gateway to the 'Ōpūnohu Valley, where pineapple plantations blanket hills once planted with taro introduced by Pacific voyagers around 1000 CE. We follow a side road that snakes up the verdant valley to a magnificent belvédère (lookout) towards Mount Rotui (899m), which rises between Cook's Bay and 'Ōpūnohu Bay.

Easily missed along the route is one of the largest archaeological sites in the Society Islands. Tucked into the rainforest just metres from the road lie some 500 structures dating primarily from the mid-15th to mid-17th Centuries, including partially restored, moss-encrusted marae – sacred ceremonial and social spaces linked by muddy forest trails.

Less than 200m uphill from the carpark, I find the well preserved Afare'aito marae flanked by archery platforms oriented towards Mount Tohiē'a (1,207m), the island's highest peak. With limited information available in English, I call on Mark Eddowes, a leading authority on Polynesian anthropology who lives nearby, to explain the significance of this important cultural site.

"Each lunar cycle, the sons of chiefs gathered here to 'start' the new cycle of abundance," Eddowes explains. "The chiefs are related to the gods in the heavens, so their sons' firing an arrow in the direction of the peak was believed to connect the living world (te feua) with that of the benevolence of the gods in the heavens (te reva) and start a new lunar cycle of fertility for the chief and his people."

I wonder how many more marae are hidden in Mo'orea's valleys, reclaimed by the rainforest after Christian missionaries banned Polynesians from practicing "pagan" traditions at their cultural sites from the late 18th Century onwards. Eddowes estimates there could be 100 sites yet to be surveyed.

Lagoon blues

While Mo'orea has two overwater bungalow resorts that offer a luxurious, Bora Bora-esque experience at a reduced price, the island can be explored more simply. In Tiahura on the north-west coast, we book a thatched-roof fare with an outdoor kitchen for less than US$140 (£105) per night and use its complimentary kayaks to paddle into the shimmering lagoon, gliding over lavender-hued coral clusters and majestic eagle rays.

We retrace part of the island's famous "W" northern coastline to hike lush trails, browse small art galleries and feast on local specialties including poisson cru (Polynesian ceviche, the national dish) and moreish homemade breadfruit crisps.

This stretch of the coast is also one of the easiest places to experience Mo'orea's marine life. On the advice of Certified Tahiti Specialist Carl Henderson, we head to Temae Beach where the reef begins about 150m (492ft) from shore. Finning out from the beach, we find ourselves in a natural aquarium surrounded by technicolour parrotfish and pairs of strictly monogamous butterflyfish. Violet-hued boxfish bob around awkwardly, rays glide across the sandy bottom and at one point a reef shark cruises by.

Yet the very accessibility that makes Mo'orea so appealing is also placing growing pressure on its coastline and lagoon access. Temae is one of only three public beaches left on the island, and is currently threatened by development that could further limit access for the 18,200 residents and visitors. It's one reason local-born conservationist Temoana Poole, son of renowned marine biologist Dr Micheal Poole, founded Keep Moorea Wild, an NGO inviting the public to "adopt" land by the square metre for conservation.

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"We meet with landowners looking to sell and promise them if they sell to us, we will protect it," Poole explains. Launched in December 2025, the initiative has already secured 515 sq m of land in Vai'are that will become a public sanctuary. "We already have landowners in other archipelagos asking us for help because they also want to protect their islands."

Deep south

The soft rumble of waves pounding the outer reef provides the soundtrack to our journey's final leg along the wild south coast. As we roll through the Ha'apiti district, the crimson bell turrets of the Eglise de la Sainte Famille (Church of the Holy Family), built in 1897 on the site of the island's first Catholic mission, catch my eye. In the church courtyard, a crucifix rises above a stone altar carved with the face of a Tiki. With Tikis representing the connection between the human and spirit worlds, it is a striking example of the blending of Christian and Polynesian spiritual traditions still visible across the region today.

The winding coast road continues past roadside stalls piled with bananas, papaya, passionfruit and supersized avocados, along with surfing-focused stays and the odd roulette (food truck), an evolution of food carts introduced by Chinese migrants. Before we know it, we're back in Vai'are. Even after driving the equivalent of several laps around the island, our hire car has only burned a few litres of fuel. An extraordinary journey with a minimal footprint; it's a road trip for our time.

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Increase in Isle of Man TT air passengers in 2026

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c621369gpnqo, today

The number of people travelling to the Isle of Man during the TT period rose by just under 2% in 2026.

Although the number arriving by ferry dropped by 4% to 37,941, airline passengers increased by 6% to 56,106.

Although monitored over slightly differing timelines during the fortnight, the overall number of passengers recorded was up by 1,793.

The two-week road racing event, which ran from 25 May to 6 June, is a cornerstone of the summer hospitality season for many firms on the island.

While the opening week of the event saw the island enjoy fine weather, race week itself was plagued by heavy rain and fog.

Acknowledging there had been some "challenging weather conditions", airport director Mark Beveridge said it was nevertheless "fantastic to see so many visitors and residents travelling through the airport and contributing to another successful TT".

Despite seeing the number of people arriving on the island by ferry drop by 1,528 on 2025, Isle of Man Steam Packet Company chief executive Brian Thomson said the event "remains one of the most important events in the Island's calendar".

"And while numbers are slightly down on last year's record, tens of thousands of passengers still travelled with us," he added.

The government-owned ferry firm operated three vessels during the festival, with passengers carried to the island from Liverpool, Lancashire, Dublin and Larne by flagship vessel Manxman and fast craft Manannan.

Back-up vessel Ben-my-Chree operated freight only sailings during the period to maximise space for passengers and TT race teams on the other two vessels.

Visit Isle of Man, which is responsible for growing tourism on the island, has a target of boosting visitor numbers to 500,000 by 2032.

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Hospitality bosses working on safety boosts

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20ynykvvjpo, yesterday

Hospitality bosses have told the government they are working to enhance guests' safety after a man was jailed for sexually assaulting a woman in her hotel room.

She told the BBC in March that she woke up to find she was being attacked at a Travelodge in Maidenhead, Berkshire, by Kyran Smith, who lied to staff to get a key card to get to her in 2022.

Dozens of other people said they were affected by lax security in various hotels across the country.

UKHospitality, which represents hotels and other venues including pubs and restaurants, shared its plans to boost existing guidance with ministers at a meeting on Friday.

It said other work will highlight training and safety protocols to businesses to "complement other safety procedures and support teams on the frontline".

Charities including Rape Crisis and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust will support businesses in how to identify and report abuse, it added.

Kate Nicholls, the chair of UKHospitality, said guests' safety is its "utmost priority" and a "responsibility that the entire hospitality sector takes incredibly seriously."

Its consultation with its members is out for consultation and it said it will continue working with the government.

"It's positive to hear recognition of the sector's ongoing work in this area and it's critical we work together to support our teams on the frontline, including the need to expand protections for retail staff to hospitality," she added.

'Safe and secure'

Tourism minister Stephanie Peacock said: "It is vital that everyone, whether a visitor, a guest or a member of staff, feels safe and secure.

"I am encouraged by the ambition shown by businesses building on the work the sector is already doing to protect guests and visitors and look forward to seeing these further commitments translate into meaningful, measurable change."

Jo Boydell, chief executive at Travelodge, said: "It was incredibly valuable to take part in this important discussion alongside government departments, our industry body UKHospitality, and sector peers to ensure the industry's views were represented.

"Travelodge is fully committed to collaborating with the Government, UKHospitality, and our peers to continuously strengthen safety, security and safeguarding standards across the wider tourism, hospitality and night-time economy sectors."

Aurigny CEO questions mandate to 'break-even'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjdgnl41g2vo, yesterday

The chief executive officer of Guernsey's States-owned airline has raised questions over its mandate to break-even.

Aurigny's latest accounts showed the airline made a loss of £6.3m, a slight improving on the 2024 £6.5m loss.

Nico Bezuidenhout said: "Where 70% of activity is now on lifeline services, it becomes debatable on whether or not break-even is the correct and right mandate."

He added that pilot shortages played a big part in their expenditure adding that it was "difficult to attract and retain pilots onto the island".

In 2025, staffing costs were up around £200,000 on the year prior, the accounts showed.

Government accounts stated "extended sickness among several senior flight crew, together with retirements" meant they had to use lease staff.

It also added a tail strike taking one aircraft out of service for three months and the late return of another aircraft for winter maintenance "further increased reliance on outsourced service providers".

Following the collapse of Eastern Airways in October and Blue Islands in November, the report said Aurigny moved quickly to operate substitute routes which incurred "significant costs to launch services at short notice".

The airline spent £4.9m leasing aircraft in 2025.

The documents for Aurigny showed the expenditure on leases was significantly higher than previous years when it spent around £1m in 2020 and 2021, although it was lower than the 2024 figure of £6.9m.

Islander James Smith said it was "disappointing" to hear the airline had made a loss.

But he added the airline had its hands tied with fares due to latest competition with British Airways.

"The flights are usually fairly reasonable and I think because they've got competition now, they can't really bring up the prices any more, thank goodness" he said.

Ros Hughes said "it's sad" that Aurigny is costing the island money but added that "it is a vital service".

Her husband, Martin said he did not see the airline ever making any money.

He added the airline could particularly struggle with competition from British Airways.

Phil Falla said it was a "great shame" the airline had made a loss because islanders "should be proud" to have their own airline.

He added he "would like to be able to support" Aurigny, but thinks it needed to improve the efficiency of its operation.

Dr David Byron, former managing director of the low-cost airline Bmibaby, said he understood how tough the sector is.

"The short haul, small niche airlines, it's very, very difficult" he said.

He added if Aurigny can focus on its ATR aircraft and keeping them in operation, it would be "much closer to a break-even position."

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More time needed for deadly Air India crash inquiry, officials say

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cnv93899vzqo, yesterday

Investigators looking into the cause of the Air India crash that killed 250 people say they are not yet ready to release their final report.

India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) released an update on Friday, the first anniversary of the disaster, saying "significant progress" had been made in the analysis of evidence relating to the crash but that this was ongoing.

It gave few other details, including when the final report might be released.

The exact cause of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner crash shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad en route to London on 12 June 2025 has been the subject of widespread speculation.

The plane came down about 6km (3.7 miles) from the airport, crashing into a building used as doctors' accommodation at the Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College and Civil Hospital and causing an explosion.

It left 19 people dead on the ground, as well as killing 241 on board. Of the passengers and crew killed, 169 were Indian nationals and 53 were Britons.

One person survived - Viswashkumar Ramesh, from Leicester.

"Over the past year, the investigation team has undertaken an extensive and rigorous examination of all relevant technical, operational, organisational and human factors associated with the accident," the AIIB said in its latest statement.

"Significant progress has been made in the examination and analysis of aircraft systems, flight recorder data, engine-related components, maintenance and operational records, and other evidence relevant to the investigation.

"The evidence gathered and the results of various examinations are currently being analysed in a comprehensive and integrated manner."

It went on: "The Final Report will be released upon completion of all investigative activities and the requisite international review and consultation processes," adding: "Every aspect of the accident will be examined with the utmost care and diligence."

The statement, which extended the AIIB's condolences to the "families and loved ones" of the deceased, emphasised the fact that the "sole purpose of an accident investigation is to enhance aviation safety through the identification of lessons and safety recommendations, and not to apportion blame or liability".

The AIIB was required to provide an update on the anniversary of the crash in line with international aviation rules.

There had been widespread doubt that its latest report would be conclusive. In May, India's civil aviation minister muddied the waters when he told reporters the investigation into the crash was into its "last stage", and that the final report would "mostly... come after a month".

A preliminary report was published on 12 July last year, finding that just seconds after take-off, fuel-control switches abruptly moved to the "cut-off" position, starving the engines of fuel and triggering total power loss.

Audio recordings from the cockpit captured one pilot asking the other why he had done it, with the other replying that he had not. Investigators did not identify which pilot made either statement.

In the days following its release, attention turned to the pilots. The Wall Street Journal and news agency Reuters reported that new details in the investigation were shifting attention towards the senior pilot in the cockpit - Capt Sumeet Sabharwal.

"A cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the Air India flight" that crashed last year supported the view that the "captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane's engines", the Reuters report said, citing unnamed sources.

The media reports prompted a strong backlash from pilots' associations in India, which criticised the coverage and rejected suggestions that the senior pilot had caused the crash, as well as the AAIB.

This week, Sabharwal's father told the BBC that he was determined to keep protecting his son's reputation in the face of the allegations.

"You see, every time an accident takes place, the pilot is blamed. Why? It's the simplest way to close the chapter. He is no more and cannot defend himself," Pushkar Raj, who is in his 90s, said.

Families mark a year since Air India crash with vigils and prayers

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly7j3gmvzvo, yesterday

Families of the people killed in the Air India plane crash are holding vigils and prayer meeting to mark a year since one of the country's deadliest aviation disasters.

The Air India Flight 171 to London crashed seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad, slamming into a medical college and killing 260 people - 241 passengers and crew on board and 19 on the ground. Only one passenger survived.

The cause of crash is still not known. On Friday, investigators provided an update on the investigation.

The evidence, they said, was being "analysed in a comprehensive and integrated manner" and that a final report would be published once the investigation was over.

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu had said earlier in the day that the investigation was proceeding "with diligence and professionalism".

"We remain committed to a thorough and objective determination of the causes of the accident and to further enhancing aviation safety," he wrote on X, offering condolences to the families.

Across cities, prayer meetings, vigils and memorial services are being held.

Families told the BBC that the first anniversary is a painful milestone - a reminder that while a year has passed, their grief remains undimmed.

In Ahmedabad, reminders of that day are impossible to ignore.

The crash site is still cordoned off. Behind the barriers stand blackened buildings that bear the scars of the impact, while flower garlands, photographs and handwritten messages left by relatives have transformed the area into an informal memorial.

On Friday, families of victims came carrying portraits of loved ones. Some bowed their heads in silent prayer; others embraced as tears flowed freely.

Among them was the family of 12-year-old Akash Patni, who lost his life when the aircraft crashed near the tea stall where he was helping his family.

For hours, his relatives sat on mats beneath a garlanded photograph of Akash at the crash site. Rose petals lay scattered across the ground. Behind them loomed the hollow, charred remains of the medical college hostel buildings.

His mother Sitaben, who suffered severe burn injuries that day, recited Hindu hymns and prayers alongside other family members. Thursday marked the first time she had returned to the site since the crash. She spent weeks in hospital recovering from her injuries.

At times, she broke down in tears as relatives gathered around to comfort her.

Earlier in the day, the British High Commissioner to India, Lindy Cameron, paid her respects to the victims. Fifty-three British nationals were among those killed in the crash. On Saturday, a memorial service will be held in Leicester to honour the memory of the victims.

Nearby, at BJ Medical College - where the plane crashed - staff, students and families gathered for a memorial event. The college also organised a blood donation drive, commemorating those who lost their lives in the disaster.

For some families, the remembrance is taking place away from the crash site.

When the BBC visited the Thakur family in Ahmedabad last week, photographs of Sarlaben Thakur and her two-year-old daughter Aadhya looked down from the walls of their small home. Both were killed when the plane crashed into a hostel complex of the college.

The family marked the first anniversary of their deaths with a prayer meeting at a nearby temple. Their home was too small to accommodate the nearly 200 relatives, neighbours and friends expected to attend, Sarlaben's daughter, Uma Thakur, said over the phone on Friday.

The Thakurs called 12 June a "black day". The grief is still so raw, they said, that they have removed the clocks from their house. Even glancing at the time could transport them back to the frantic hours after the crash, when they searched hospitals and mortuaries across Ahmedabad for any sign of Sarlaben and Aadhya.

For years, the family has run a tiffin service for doctors and medical staff around BJ Medical College, and Sarlaben spent much of her life cooking for others.

Despite their limited means, the Thakurs are preparing a meal for everyone who comes to pray.

A year on, traces of Sarlaben and Aadhya still surface in the family's preparations. Uma Thakur catches herself wondering what they would have liked to eat, how many people might come and where everyone should sit.

"In this way, they continue to occupy a place in our home," she says.

The family is especially keen to serve one of Aadhya's favourite meals - crunchy noodles and Manchurian.

"We hope this will bring us all some peace, at least for some time," Uma Thakur says.

In neighbouring Maharashtra state, memorial services were being held in Mumbai, home to both pilots and several members of the cabin crew.

In Nhava village in Uran taluka of Navi Mumbai, the family members of cabin crew member Maithili Patil gathered for a prayer meeting to mark the first anniversary of her death.

Nine months after the crash, Maithili's bag was returned to the family.

On Friday, it was placed alongside some of her personal belongings as relatives and friends gathered to remember her.

The family is still waiting to learn exactly how the crash occurred and who, if anyone, should be held responsible.

"My daughter will never come back to me. I only want the truth about what caused this accident," her mother, Pramila Patil, told BBC Marathi last week.

The crash left just one survivor. For Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a year has done little to lessen the weight of that day.

In a statement, he said that he continued to "live with the significant psychological scars" following the death of his brother in the crash.

"More than anything, people need honesty, transparency and answers. Nothing will ever change what happened, but families deserve clarity," he said.

With reporting inputs from Charlotte Scarr, BBC News; Roxy Gagdekar Chhara, BBC Gujarati and Shahid Shaikh, BBC Marathi.

10 winning photos from the World Food Photography Awards 2026

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260601-10-photos-of-food-culture-around-the-world, 11 days ago

From a Soviet-era sanatorium to a floating market in Bangladesh, this year's World Food Photography Awards capture the many ways food shapes daily life around the world.

The 2026 competition, sponsored by Tenderstem® Bimi® Broccolini, drew nearly 9,000 entries from more than 50 countries, immortalising harvests, markets, family kitchens, street food, celebrations and survival. With just one click, food photographers around the world created a global portrait of food culture, showing not just what people eat, but how food is woven into everyday life.

Here are some of this year's most striking winning images.

Overall winner: Jo Kearney, UK

British photographer Jo Kearney's winning shot captured a solitary moment in the canteen of a Soviet-era sanatorium in Tajikistan – a reminder that food photography can be as much about evoking memory and place as it is about whetting appetite. At Khoja Obi Garm in the mountains of Tajikistan, guests still gather for simple, hearty meals between prescribed treatments. Built on radon-rich hot springs, the vast concrete "health hotel" once offered workers two weeks of annual rest. Today, its low cost continues to draw local Tajiks, visitors from neighbouring Central Asian countries and the occasional backpacker.

Winner, Food for Celebration: Pingyao Song, China

At a hotpot festival in China, hundreds of diners gather around a vast communal banquet. The red broth, rich with chilli, Sichuan peppercorn, fermented bean paste, beef tallow and spices, becomes both meal and spectacle as guests eat, film and livestream the feast.

Winner, Cream of the Crop: Albert González, Spain

In Ine, a fishing village in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan, squid dries in the sun using the traditional technique of himono. The preservation method, used for fish and seafood, draws flavour from salt, air and time, linking the village's food traditions to the sea that sustains it.

Winner, Bring Home the Harvest: Marco Rutten, Netherlands

At sunrise beneath Kolkata's Howrah Bridge, a small crew hauls in nets from the Hooghly River. Their catch will be sold in nearby markets and cooked that same morning in Bengali homes. The image captures a quiet harvest taking place beneath one of the city's busiest crossings.

Winner, Street Food: Kara Baird, Australia

In Kyoto's Nishiki Market, a fleeting moment is captured through the crush of shoppers, steam, heat and movement. Known as "Kyoto's kitchen", the market has long been one of the city's great food thoroughfares, where street snacks, pickles, seafood and sweets are packed into narrow lanes. This image catches the intensity of the market at its busiest.

Winner, Louis Jadot Wine Photographer of the Year: Juan Miguel Ortuño Martinez, Spain

Inside an underground wine tank, a worker cleans away the traces of the previous vintage with pressurised water. After the walls and floor are washed, his partner lowers a small bucket with a sponge inside to collect what remains in the lowest corner. The image reveals the hidden labour behind winemaking that is far from the romance of the glass.

Winner, Food for the Family: Michela Balboni and Federico Borella, Italy

In Samarkand, Uzbekistan, a child reaches towards hot non bread fresh from the family tandoor. Dense and round with a thick chewy crust, always marked at the centre with black sesame seeds, Samarkand non is one of the city's defining foods.

Winner, Jamie Oliver Youth Prize 13-17: Indigo Larmour

During Chhath Puja in West Bengal, India, devotees stand in water holding food offerings to Surya, the Sun god. The festival, observed largely by women, is rooted in gratitude, purification and devotion.

Winner, Food for Sale: Kazi Mohammad Golam Quddus, Bangladesh

In Bogra, Bangladesh, a vegetable market comes to life in the early morning. Farmers bring their freshly harvested cabbages by rickshaw van before traders buy the produce and send it on to Dhaka and other major cities.

Winner, The Philip Harben Award for Food in Action: Lehóczki Balázs

Hungarian photographer Lehóczki Balázs had imagined this portrait of his grandparents for years but felt unworthy of capturing them. His grandmother went to the hairdresser and his grandfather shaved before he set up his studio equipment in their kitchen. When she saw the finished image, his grandmother called him an artist.

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The 14-course dinner redefining Zambian cuisine

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260522-the-14-course-dinner-redefining-zambian-cuisine, 13 days ago

Fine dining in Zambia has long meant replicating European techniques. But chef Sungani Phiri's new home restaurant is boldly elevating Zambia's ingredients – and its culinary profile.

I'm sitting at an outdoor verandah with my family in a suburb of Livingstone, Zambia, when chef Sungani Piri brings out our fourth course.

It's a black cone-shaped canape made of cassava, served on a bed of millet inside a black potjie – a three-legged cooking pot. Filled with avocado ice cream and topped with edible gold flecks, it's almost too pretty to eat. But I take a bite; it's simultaneously sweet and savoury. The gold, Phiri informs us, is an homage to the Copperbelt, Zambia's mining region.

These dishes are Zambia on a plate, yet unlike anything most travellers – or locals – will have encountered in the tourist capital, where restaurants usually cater to international tastes and fine dining has long referenced European techniques. Visitors hoping to try traditional Zambian cuisine typically encounter buffets of stews, boiled vegetables and nshima, the porridge-like cornmeal that is our staple food.

But Sungani Restaurant, whose fine dining tasting menu is entirely rooted in Zambia's indigenous ingredients and culinary memory, offers travellers a whole new way to experience Zambia's flavours – and a window into Zambian culture itself.

This is also Chef Phiri's home. And there are still 10 courses to go.

New frontiers

Visitor itineraries to Zambia usually focus on activities that celebrate its immense natural riches, like walking safaris through Mopane forests or hiking the magnificent Victoria Falls; the world's largest waterfall. Rarely do travellers venture to quiet city suburbs, let alone dine there. But just half an hour's drive north of the Falls, Phiri has been quietly developing the country's first molecular gastronomic experience, and making its cuisine a destination in itself.

Before launching Sungani last year, Phiri trained with two-Michelin-starred chef Sven Niebremer in South Africa, then served as head chef at Royal Chundu lodge in Livingstone and Botanica in Lusaka.

Phiri's groundbreaking "New Zambian cuisine" was born from an argument. After culinary school, he planned to embrace the European fine dining techniques he'd been taught. But his sister challenged the notion as "pretentious" if done without grounding them in Zambia itself. Inspired, Phiri decided that his own fine-dining restaurant would elevate Zambia's culinary tradition and began experimenting with ingredients he had grown up eating.

"When I place a chibwantu root in someone's hands before they eat, I'm not just showing them an ingredient – I'm taking them somewhere," he explained. "To the river, to the bush, to a Zambian childhood. For an international guest it opens a door they didn't know existed. For a Zambian guest, it's a moment of recognition and pride – seeing something deeply familiar treated with reverence and wonder."

His decision to host the experience inside his own residence was equally deliberate. "When you want to honour someone here, you don't take them to a restaurant – you bring them to your table," he said.

In April 2025, Phiri welcomed his first guests and launched a tasting menu called The Rebirth. "I’m trying to use food to show the standard of the finest things this country produces and then translate that onto a plate," he said.

Locally grown, locally loved

Upon arriving, my family and I are greeted by Alibesi Mwale Phiri, Phiri's wife and director of operations. "Twamilandilani," she said – "welcome" in Nyanja, one of Zambia's many local languages. "Please feel at home."

The restaurant seats just 22 people, with guests dining on a verandah beside the family's open-plan kitchen, divided by an island. A dining table functions both as the "chef's table" and family dining table. Phiri explained that all the restaurant's ingredients are sourced within a 100km radius, with his inspiration coming from farms and fish markets. "What's ready [in season], what's abundant, what's being overlooked. The menu follows that conversation," he said.

Depending on the season, the tasting menu spans 14 to 16 courses, many inspired by the Southern Province, where Livingstone is located. The project also doubles as a training ground for young Zambian chefs, three of whom were waiting on us that evening. "Groups of chefs come to learn here, and the first thing we focus on is indigenous ingredients," Phiri said. "Most young Zambian chefs have never cooked with them seriously."

Fourteen voyages into Zambia

Dinner begins with a welcome drink made from tart mundambi, Zambian hibiscus, topped with a square of hibiscus candy. The pink, frothy beverage transforms an ingredient more commonly associated with fruit jellies into something elegant and refreshing.

Several starters arrive in slow succession, beginning with a marshmallow made from pureed bondwe, a spinach-like vegetable usually served alongside nshima. The avocado and cassava cone comes next; cold, crunchy and creamy on our tongues. A savoury dumpling filled with free-range "village chicken" is served alongside an egg yolk, julienned carrots and bok choy. We are offered the "onion shot" – shot glasses of room-temperature onion soup – before receiving beef pâté with delele (okra) and crayfish pai tee: crispy pastry shells stuffed with crayfish from the Zambezi River.

Phiri returns with a sheaf of chibwantu reeds in hand for the ninth course, a palate-cleansing cocktail called "Where It All Began". The reeds are used as the raw ingredient in Zambia's traditional fermented beverage, but here it is transformed into a gin-based cocktail served inside a snail shell and garnished with green apple slices.

After a bread and jam platter – called, aptly, "The Journey To Home" – which includes freshly baked cassava wraps and a sweet, dense bread made from mabisi (sour milk), the tasting experience returns to the water. Zambezi bream, a species similar to tilapia, has fed communities along the river for generations and is typically served whole and grilled. Phiri's show-stopping version has thin slices layered into a mosaic and flavoured with lemon zest, ginger syrup and parsley powder. Okra caviar and edible gold flecks complete the dish.

The standout ingredient in the steak course is dried caterpillars (ifinkubala). In traditional Zambian cuisine, they are deep fried, but Phiri grinds them to powder to create the steak rub. "The ingredient is fully present, but the technique creates a bridge," he explained, acknowledging that some international diners may baulk at eating insects.

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• Chasing the rare lunar 'rainbow' at Victoria Falls

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• Africa's ice cream café that nurtures self-esteem

After the steak, we are ready for something sweet – the final course. We are presented a frozen cube of vitumbuwa cheesecake inspired by the eponymous Zambian-style beignet that is usually eaten as a snack or on-the-go breakfast. Phiri's version is filled with coffee-flavoured cream, a nod to Zambia's northern coffee-producing region.

"Every region has something to say," said Phiri. "The tasting menu is my way of bringing Zambia to one table."

By the time we complete the culinary experience, both our bellies and brains are stuffed with Zambian culinary history. For me and my family, Phiri's dining experience has achieved something simple, yet precious: it showed us how our national cuisine can be elevated, giving us new respect for the beloved ingredients. But most of all, it's putting Zambia on the map, one delicious ingredient at a time.

"Zambian cuisine deserves to be told on the world stage, on its own terms," said Phiri.

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What it's like to live in the world's safest countries for 2026

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260609-what-its-like-to-live-in-the-worlds-safest-countries-for-2026, 5 days ago

There are now more active conflicts than at any point since World War Two. Residents in Iceland, New Zealand and elsewhere explain the qualities that make their nations so peaceful.

The world has become less peaceful than it was last year, according to the latest Global Peace Index. Overall peacefulness deteriorated in 99 countries, marking the 12th consecutive year of global decline. Yet amid the worsening picture, a small group of nations continues to stand apart.

"Even though we had this catastrophic drop, it hasn't really affected the countries at the top," said Steve Killelea, founder and executive chairman of the Institute for Economics & Peace, which created the index in 2007.

The index ranks 163 nations across 23 indicators, from military expenditure and ongoing conflict to homicide rates and perceptions of safety. The places that perform best typically combine low levels of violence with well-functioning institutions, high social trust, good relations with neighbours and a high quality of life.

We spoke to residents in the world's five safest countries to learn what that security feels day to day, what helps sustain it – and how travellers can experience a taste of the calm and stability too.

1. Iceland

Iceland has topped the index since 2008 and remains the world's safest country for the 19th consecutive year. It improved by 2% in 2026, helped by a sharp drop in violent demonstrations, and continues to rank highly for safety, low levels of conflict and limited militarisation.

"Peacefulness is all around us in Iceland in the nature that surrounds us, but it is also a conscious choice rooted in our close-knit communities," said Oddný Arnarsdóttir, head of Visit Iceland. She credits a deep commitment to equality – including gender parity, where Iceland consistently ranks among the world's leaders – alongside strong public services and widespread renewable energy.

That commitment runs deeper than policy, with residents pointing to a strong sense of social cohesion and shared responsibility. "We are very aware of how fortunate we are to experience this sense of peacefulness," said Arnarsdóttir. "It reinforces the importance of maintaining an open and inclusive society."

Its remote location plays a role too. "Iceland's geographic isolation means it's less caught up in global tensions," said Eyrún Aníta Gylfadóttir, marketing manager at Hotel Rangá. "The vast open landscapes, dramatic mountains, clean air and abundant fresh water play a central role in quality of life here."

To experience Iceland's calmer pace, Arnarsdóttir recommends slowing down and spending time outdoors, rather than racing between attractions. Experiencing the country's bathing culture should be high on the list. Iceland is home to more than 120 geothermal pools, from luxury spas to neighbourhood swimming pools where locals gather year-round. "Experiencing Iceland's calm is closely linked to wellbeing," said Arnarsdóttir. "Whether through geothermal bathing culture, time spent in nature or simply having the space to disconnect."

Visitors should also make sure they venture beyond the country's best-known attractions. Arnarsdóttir points to the more than 220 museums scattered across Iceland, including the capital's National Museum and the Icelandic Sea Monster Museum in the Westfjords. "I love our quirky museums," she said. "These spaces help share local stories and traditions, while also encouraging people to travel more widely and experience different parts of Iceland."

2. New Zealand

Ranked second (up from third in 2025), New Zealand is the safest country in the Asia-Pacific region, with the region's lowest ongoing-conflict score. Its improvement came largely from a fall in weapons imports, and it remains one of the world's safest and least militarised nations.

Much of that peace comes down to geography. "Being this far from everywhere means New Zealand has largely avoided the geopolitical mess that drags other nations into conflict," said Warwick Woodley, a New Zealand citizen and founder of NZ Golden Visa. But he sees something in the culture too. People tend to be relaxed and straightforward, he said, "generally more interested in getting on with things than stirring the pot".

Safety here is so ordinary that it rarely registers. "Most people don't think about it much, which is probably the best indicator that it's generally not a concern," Woodley said. "Guns aren't part of everyday life here, and after Christchurch, the laws got even tighter." Neighbourhoods still function as neighbourhoods, he added, where people know each other and look out for one another. "That sense of accountability goes a long way in a country of five million, where anonymity is harder to come by."

Its sparse population also means easy access to nature. "Mountains, beaches and bush walks are all within reach depending on where you are," said Woodley. "Life doesn't feel like it's constantly running away from you the way it does in some of the bigger, busier countries."

3. Switzerland

Rising from fifth place last year to third in 2026, Switzerland combines low crime rates with a longstanding policy of military neutrality, helping it remain one of the world's safest countries.

"People seem willing to make room for one another here," said Cornelia Choe, an executive coach and author who lives in Geneva. "That creates a sense of trust, a confidence that people will generally do the right thing and that everyday life works largely as it should."

That trust often reveals itself in daily transactions. Choe recalls losing her wallet twice in Switzerland. The first time, a stranger mailed it back within days with the cash still inside. Years later, after she dropped her credit card at a train station, the person who found it contacted her bank directly to cancel the card to protect her from fraud. "Those are small moments, but they leave a lasting impression and create a feeling of security that's priceless," she said.

To appreciate the sense of peace here, visitors should embrace Switzerland's strong work-life balance. Many businesses close for two hours at midday, for instance. It is also worth appreciating the nation's four national languages and distinct regional identities. "Societies don't have to agree on everything to become stronger," said Choe. "I've observed a norm of reaching for compromises and practical solutions that allow people to move forward together. Perhaps that's what peace ultimately is: not the absence of differences, but a shared commitment to finding ways to live well with them."

4. Slovenia

Making its way into the index's top five for the first time, Slovenia's strong performance is underpinned by low military spending and high levels of safety and security.

"Slovenians place great importance on community and spend a lot of time in nature, which I believe creates a calmness and steadiness in us," said Jerneja Zver, who lives in Ljubljana and manages operations in Eastern Europe for Intrepid Travel. Zver says she spends most weekends outside, hiking, cycling, skiing or gathering with friends and family. A strong cultural emphasis on work-life balance, she said, leaves more room for the relationships that foster a sense of belonging.

"With conflict and uncertainty affecting many parts of the world right now, I do feel very lucky to call Slovenia home," Zver said. "I appreciate the smaller things that I might once have taken for granted, knowing that I can go about my daily life in safety and without fear."

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• Five new rules to travel smarter this summer

To appreciate all the country has to offer, Zver suggests spending more than a weekend trip to Ljubljana. "Come and spend a week," she said. That might include whitewater rafting on the Soča River, visiting the waterfalls of Vintgar Gorge near Bled or cycling through the country's mountain pastures. "Whatever you do in Slovenia, you'll be blown away by the warm hospitality of the people, the stunning landscapes and nature," said Zver. "And of course, great food."

5. Ireland

Ranked fifth, Ireland scores highly for its low levels of violence and limited involvement in international conflict.

For a country shaped by its turbulent past, that sense of safety is not taken for granted. "Ireland's historical experience as a nation makes its people acutely aware of the perils of prejudice and the importance of being generous and welcoming to others," said Didi Ronan, founder of regenerative hotel Native in West Cork.

Ronan traces that culture of hospitality back to the Brehon laws, which governed Ireland for much of the first millennium and mandated food and shelter for strangers and travellers. "It's in our DNA," she said.

Ireland's tradition of neutrality gives that sense of peace an international dimension, as the country does not join foreign wars or military alliances. "In a time of global volatility and uncertainty there is something soothing about being on a far-out rock in the Atlantic, with great music and walks and books," said Ronan.

"We appreciate this privilege in view of the great suffering and injustice experienced by so many people in the world today that echoes our own national experience."

For visitors, the fastest route into Ireland's peaceful side is through nature, whether that's through a woodland walk or a coastal adventure. Ronan recommends taking the ferry to Cape Clear Island, exploring the medieval ruins of Three Castle Head or visiting the Drombeg stone circle near Glandore.

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Siesta then fiesta: Enjoy Europe like the locals

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260605-siesta-then-fiesta-enjoy-europe-like-the-locals, 7 days ago

As temperatures soar across Europe, travellers are skipping the hottest hours and discovering that the continent's best summer experiences happen after sunset.

When Dane Maxwell's carefully planned Seville itinerary was nearly derailed by a three-day heatwave, he made a choice that ended up defining the trip: "We flipped to the local rhythm."

That meant sleeping until 11:00 and lazy breakfasts through to 13:00. He worked indoors during peak heat – a suffocating 44C (111F) – and took dinner from 20:00 before venturing into the Spanish city from midnight to 02:00. The midnight window proved to be the most memorable. "The streets were full but unhurried. The Cathedral exterior was lit and almost empty of tourists. The local tapas bars were at their liveliest."

With Europe's heatwave season falling early this year, Maxwell and his friends are part of a different wave: noctourism. The traditional, revered European summer holiday has become not just uncomfortable but potentially unsafe. Italy has already issued its first red alert warning people to stay out of the Sun, while both France and Portugal have seen new highest temperature records set for May. This summer promises to be hotter yet.

"We are seeing a real shift toward noctourism (nighttime tourism) as travellers look to reclaim their holidays from the midday heat and avoid daytime crowds," says Tricia Handley-Hughes, the UK & Ireland managing director at travel agency InteleTravel. "The traditional 10:00 to 16:00 sightseeing window is being traded for stargazing, night markets and moonlit tours."

Like the locals, smart summertime travellers are staying indoors during the hottest parts of day and venture out after dark for night-focused activities, ranging from organised nighttime city walks to dinners that stretch towards midnight. While they're at it, they're sidestepping the overtourism that can shape sightseeing in Europe.

Siesta, then fiesta

With average summer temperatures of 36C (97F), Seville is one of the premier examples of European cities working to make the summer months more bearable for residents and tourists alike.

Shade canopies now stretch across parts of the historic centre from May until autumn, with the city aiming to plant around 100,000 trees by 2039. In 2022, the city welcomed CartujaQanat, an urban climate adaptation project that utilises an underground canal network, shady public spaces and water misting to help cool outdoor public spaces by up to 10C.

While the city is engineering cooling infrastructure, locals know that the best antidote dates back generations: the siesta.

"The siesta is not only because you need to rest, but also to keep away from the heat. It can be 40C (104F) at 16:00 and that's really not the best time to be outside," says Saida Segura from the Sevilla City Office.

A 30-year Seville resident, Segura says summers there have never been cool, but that doesn't mean the city goes into hiding. "Everything still happens, but just a little bit later in the day."

Remote worker Becki Rendell wasted little time slipping into a later tempo when she moved from the UK to Seville six years ago. Now, one of the things she loves about her adopted city are the night picnics that start around 20:00. Habitually held by residents and visitors along the banks of the Guadalquivir River, these gatherings have become a regular feature of her social life. "We've had singing sessions, someone giving a short yoga session, a small circus act and more."

All ages embrace the cooler hours, she says. "You'll see children playing in the park, while adults are having a beer well after 23:00. The city still feels alive and safe, even at midnight on a weekday."

Those European summer nights

Other European cities are following suit. Rome regularly experiences 35C (95F) temperatures in July – and often feels hotter on the city centre's narrow streets. Last year, Rome's Mayor Roberto Gualtieri announced plans to plant 800,000 trees in the Italian capital, in part to fight climate change.

The heat caught Australian traveller Tamara Richardson off guard as soon as she landed in Rome with friends in July 2025: "The first day, we went to visit the Vatican Museums in the late morning and realised it was far too hot during the day, so we adjusted our plan." The group visited monuments first thing in the morning, returned to their hotel to rest or work, then ventured out again around 19:00.

One evening, they purchased tickets to Mozart's Don Giovanni as part of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma Caracalla Festival, which holds its lavish annual productions under the stars, starting at 21:00.

"There's nothing like sitting in the Roman Forum at night listening to Mozart," she says. "The atmosphere was perfect, there were no lines or waiting around in the Sun, the cooler temperatures allowed us to soak up the city and culture."

Without realising it, Richardson had adopted what local Lisa Zacchia says is Rome's "choreographed" relationship with summer heat.

"Romans essentially split the day in two: an early morning window before 11:00, then the city slows down for the riposo, Rome's version of the siesta," Zacchia says. While work commitments means the practice is not as widespread as it once was, what has never been threatened is the passeggiata, a slow evening stroll. "Romans pour into the streets at sunset; the passeggiata is essentially a heat tradition disguised as a social one."

More like this:

• Where Europe still delivers value this summer

• Seven travel trends that will define 2026

• Micro-cations: the big appeal of the tiny holiday

Open-air cinema along the Tiber and the Lungo il Tevere festival, which sets up nightly bars, food stalls and pop-up shops along the riverbank (19:00 to 02:00) from early June to late August are some Zacchia's favourite evening activities. Some of the city's celebrated sites, like the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, are also open until 19:15, helping visitors swerve both the heat and the crowds. Typically, the Colosseum welcomes more than 12 million people annually, mostly during the day, but after closing hours, it can also be visited after dark on pre-booked visits with authorised tour operators, such as Colosseum at Night.

Like Seville and Rome, Athens buzzes late on hot summer evenings. The Acropolis – which now closes between 12:00-17:00 during extreme temperatures – stays open to 20:00 in summer, by which point the crowds have thinned and buildings are illuminated with a golden glow. There's also a bonus spectacle for those visiting on a Sunday: the closing ceremony of the Acropolis at sunset, typically between 20:00 and 20:30, when guards lower the flag and close the citadel for the night.

"22:00- to 23:00 in summer is Athens at its best," explains local resident Stavros Kapnias. "You hear music from the bars and the coffee shops. The restaurants are full. The city feels alive."

He adds that searingly hot summer days also have an effect on Athenian nightlife, which has traditionally started at a time when other cities are heading to bed. "If you want to go to a club in Athens, you arrive at 01:00," he says. "20:00 drinking is not something that Athenians do; that's a time when we're still drinking cold coffees."

As summers get hotter, travellers who embrace the local schedule rather than fight it are not only staying cool, but they're experiencing their destination in a totally different light. "The tourist who insists on the 10:00 to 18:00 itinerary in 44C (111F) heat will have a miserable trip," says Maxwell. "The traveller who flips to the local late-night rhythm discovers the city the locals actually live in."

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Five new rules to travel smarter this summer

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260605-five-new-rules-of-summer-travel-in-2026, 8 days ago

From locking in flights first to paying for expertise and flexibility, here’s what to consider before booking your summer holiday this year.

With rising fuel costs, geopolitical uncertainty and disruption across major travel corridors, summer travel in 2026 has even seasoned holidaymakers rethinking how and where they go.

But they're not staying home. Flight searches are up 4% this summer compared with last year, according to Kayak's Summer Travel Check-In, with US domestic interest up 7%. Instead, travellers are adjusting travel dates around airfare deals, shortening itineraries, swapping European holidays for Latin America and paying more for flexibility.

For travellers still weighing up where – and how – to travel this summer, the old assumptions may no longer apply. Here are five new rules to consider before booking.

Rule 1: Book the flight first

With airfares still highly sensitive to fuel costs, route changes and late-booking demand, it can pay to start with the flight. Travel advisors say more clients are locking in good-value fares when they appear, then planning hotels, tours and itineraries around those dates and routes.

"We see a trend of clients booking flights to avoid the rising prices, and then coming to us with flights already in place and asking us to design bespoke trips around their fixed flight date," said Graham Carter, CEO of Unforgettable Travel. "Travellers want to offset the higher airfares with cost savings in other parts of their trip, and want to make sure they are getting the best service for the price they are paying."

Uncertainty is also shortening booking windows. While last-minute travel was already gaining momentum in 2025, advisors say people are now waiting even longer before committing as they monitor global stability in real time. "We've adapted our internal operational processes to handle bespoke bookings seven days out," said Carter, noting that "last-minute" previously meant closer to two to three weeks out.

Rule 2: Stay closer to home

If long-haul prices feel punishing, look at shorter trips, regional escapes and destinations that reduce the cost of getting there. According to Cayce Callaway, travel advisor at Cruise Planners, "[American] clients are looking closer to home, like the Caribbean, and they're going for fewer days when they would have otherwise gone to Europe. They're also flying coach when they would have been flying at least comfort [premium economy] previously."

Callaway says she is also fielding more bookings for Alaska, a destination that was previously on the backburner for many Americans in favour of far-flung international trips.

Road trips also remain popular this year. A recent survey by rental car company Hertz found that 64% of Americans plan to take a road trip this summer; while industry advocacy group GO RVing has seen a 6% rise in interest in RVing compared to last summer, climbing to 15% around the 4 July holiday period.

"Americans are determined to get away. However, they are tightening their belts, with average trip budgets dropping to around $1,600 [£1,193]," said Monika Geraci of the RV Industry Association. "Instead of cancelling vacations due to high flight or hotel costs, travellers are choosing to adjust. They are driving shorter distances and choosing closer destinations, but they are still making memories."

The trend is also playing out in the UK; camping and outdoor accommodation platform Pitch Up reported domestic bookings for the 1 May bank holiday weekend were up 35% from last year. The company also saw a sharp rise (more than 180%) in travellers using its "pick up from public transportation" filter, suggesting people are also trying to reduce fuel costs.

Rule 3: Look beyond Europe

For travellers still eager to go long-haul, Latin America is emerging as one of the summer's biggest long-haul winners. Luxury operator Blue Parallel says its booking mix has flipped from a typical 50:50 split between Europe and Latin America to 70% Latin America. KAYAK data also shows UK flight searches to Central America up 34% year-on-year, while South America up 27%. Costa Rica and Guatemala are seeing particularly strong growth across multiple operators.

"Travellers are still eager to take long-haul trips, but many are gravitating toward destinations that feel… more predictable right now," said Emmanuel Burgio, CEO of Blue Parallel.

He added that travellers are trading "fly-and-flop" Brazilian beach holidays for itineraries that combine lesser-known beach spots like Fernando de Noronha with Amazonian rainforests and wildlife-rich areas like the Pantanal. "These journeys balance biodiversity, adrenaline and cultural depth in one single, cohesive itinerary."

Rule 4: Choose cooler, calmer places

If you are set on the Med, think carefully about extreme summer heat, overtourism and regional disruption. According to Carter, destinations geographically closer to the Middle East conflict – such as Greece and Turkey – have seen softer demand from some US travellers. Greek tourism research body INSETE reported a double-digit drop in demand across its key markets including the UK and US.

At the same time, Kayak data suggests travellers increasingly considering cooler European cities such as Reykjavik, Shannon, Dublin, Stockholm and Copenhagen, driven by lower average airfares and milder summer temperatures. Norway's fjord regions are seeing a reported 160% increase in summer bookings, according to HotelPlanner.com.

"Travellers are moving away from the idea that an island escape has to mean tropical beaches and extreme heat," said Jonny Cooper, founder of Off the Map Travel. "The Nordic islands are capturing people's imagination, as they offer the chance to slow down and reconnect with nature."

The broader "slow travel" trend is also continuing to grow. Carter said clients are increasingly requesting longer stays, and the agency is seeing a 46% year-over-year rise in spa and wellness bookings, especially those wanting to combine mindfulness with exploration.

Rule 5: Pay for flexibility and protection

While most travellers are watching costs carefully, this may be the year to spend strategically – on flexibility, protection, expert help and options that make it easier to change course if plans are disrupted.

More like this:

• Summer travel costs are surging. Here's how six families are adjusting

• Where Europe still delivers value this summer

• The trade-offs Americans are making to afford summer travel

That means looking closely at cancellation policies before booking, choosing fares or hotels that allow changes where possible and considering travel insurance earlier. Destinations affected by softer demand – including Mediterranean cruises and the Seychelles – can offer better-than-usual deals as more cautious travellers bail out.

"The statistic that is most telling to me is that I'm up 28% year over year, but with 13% fewer bookings," said Callaway. "Each booking is a higher total, but I have fewer of them."

For newer travellers in particular, it may pay to hire expert help. Travel advisors say some clients are seeking reassurance as much as logistics – someone on call in case something goes wrong or just to offer a voice of comfort. "New clients, who are just starting to travel internationally, are the most nervous," said Callaway. "They hear in the media that there's no jet fuel and that everyone hates Americans, so I do a lot of hand holding for them before they depart. So far, they've all had a perfect experience, so they're less anxious."

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In the Atacama Desert, astronomers live and work in a James Bond villain lair

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260609-inside-the-bond-set-where-astronomers-live, 3 days ago

Daniel Craig's James Bond battled a malign villain here. But Chile's futuristic Residencia is actually home to astronomers.

It's easy to miss the building known as Residencia in Chile. Designed to blend into the Atacama Desert, the entrance is behind a heavy, unlabelled door at the base of a shallow ramp. Mostly, all you can see is bare, rocky plains and mountains. Above, an occasional bird of prey drifts across the dry air.

But step inside the Residencia, and you enter a verdant oasis. The first thing you feel is the moist air on your skin, produced by tropical trees and plants growing in the soil of the central atrium. Beneath a giant dome, there's a bright blue swimming pool.

If it looks like it could be a Bond villain's lair, that's because it was. In 2008, a crew filmed the finale of the Bond film Quantum of Solace here, using the corridors, terraces and exterior as a backdrop. Spoiler alert: Bond (Daniel Craig) arrives, and there's a lot of explosions.

The rest of the time, though, the Residencia isn't for movie stars, rather star gazers. It's a hotel – but not one that the general public can book. The 100+ rooms are taken by astronomers and engineers working in nearby star-gazing facilities such as the Very Large Telescope (VLT) which sits atop Cerro Paranal a few kilometres away.

Owned and operated by the European Southern Observatory (Eso), the Residencia was designed so that research can be conducted in one of the world's most extreme locations. The BBC recently visited for a few nights, and discovered what it's like to live and work as a scientist in this hidden desert oasis.

Set amid the harsh conditions of the Atacama – two hours' drive from the nearest city of Antofagasta – the Residencia is a marvel of architecture. Indeed, back in 2009, the Guardian called it one of the "10 best buildings of the decade".

But what makes it particularly unusual is that it was designed with astronomy in mind from the start. As well as creating a comfortable, humid environment to provide relief from the desert, one of its key features is how it keeps its surroundings dark.

The ground telescopes here at Eso's Paranal observatory can be affected by the smallest amount of light, so various precautions exist to reduce light pollution. You have to be careful here when walking outside at night, because cars must switch off their main headlights as they drive. And there are no other sources of light outdoors, apart from the torch you carry yourself – and there are strict instructions to only shine those groundward. (Read more about the battle for darkness in Chile's Atacama Desert).

To ensure the Residencia stays dark too, the individual rooms where people sleep have minimal windows, and any other glass is shielded by solid shutters at night. In the atrium, the translucent dome that keeps the plants alive in the day has a canopy that extends each evening.

Despite its desert location, life at the Residencia is surprisingly comfortable: residents have access to abundant food and spaces to relax when off work, but one thing lacking is alcohol. It's banned, because of the altitude and risk of dehydration. The site is more than 2,000m (7,900ft) above sea level, with almost no air moisture outside, and safety briefings ahead of your visit warn of the risk of feeling groggy and nauseous.

For these reasons, and the punishing UV light, exercise outdoors is advised only with caution: it's not somewhere you'd go for a hard run without telling anyone beforehand.

Life at the Residencia is also very much cyclical. As well as being keenly aware of the rotating positions of the stars in the sky they observe, the scientists also cycle between night and day shifts.

Every morning, the day-shift astronomers drive or bus up to the nearby VLT to perform maintenance, write algorithms, or develop future observation plans. Meanwhile, engineers staying at the Residencia travel to the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), an even bigger facility that they are currently building on Cerro Amazones around 20km (12 miles) away.

Later, as dusk arrives, it's tradition to watch the sunset over the Pacific as the astronomy shifts cross over and the night begins. In the dark, the telescopes can now fire up to gaze at the night sky.

And what a night sky it is. If you happen to wake up at 02:00, and step outside the rear door of your room directly onto the desert floor, you will see a dazzling cornucopia of stars. Up on the mountain, you can see the VLT firing its laser up into the atmosphere, to guide its observations of objects far away in the cosmos.

With such a clear, dark atmosphere separating the ground from space, few night skies on Earth are quite so stunning, and it's one of the world's best locations for ground astronomy. On the nights when the BBC visited, a train of 20 or more linked satellites visibly passed above; little dots crossing the dense canvas, one after the other. You could even see other galaxies with the naked eye: the Magellanic clouds, daubed as green splodges on the black.

More like this:

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The VLT has been behind many of the most important discoveries of the 21st Century so far, from the first image of a planet outside the Solar System to advancing understanding of the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way's centre.

When it's time to leave the Residencia, it feels like stepping outside a bubble. The moist air and verdant plants give way once more to the dry air and harsh sunlight, and on the journey home, the familiar hum of everyday life begins to resume.

After staying here a few days, though, you are left with the sense that humanity is just a moment in time and space. Beneath the building's foundations layers of desert rock have been folded over deep time into a mountain chain running the length of a continent, while in the sky above, photons of starlight have travelled across the cosmos to land on your retina. Few hotels could claim to offer this sense of awe-inspiring smallness.

The real difference between a Bond villain's lair and an astronomer's refuge? One plots to control the world, the other reveals how little of the Universe we'll ever control at all.

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El Niño under way and threatens weather extremes, scientists say

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c75ylx7g00xo, 3 days ago

El Niño - the natural Pacific weather pattern that pushes up global temperatures - has officially begun, US scientists say.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has declared that El Niño conditions are now under way in the tropical Pacific, with sea surface temperatures having risen sharply in recent months.

Many forecasts suggest this could end up as a so-called "super" El Niño, and even be among the strongest ever recorded.

Coming on top of decades of human-caused warming, it could bring another record-hot year - most likely in 2027 - with disruption to weather, food supplies and economies running well into that year.

This announcement by NOAA is not a surprise as forecasters have expected this warming phase, after the cooler "sister" pattern, La Niña, ended earlier this year.

Sea surface temperatures in the central and tropical Pacific have now passed the 0.5C-above-average threshold that US scientists use to define an El Niño event.

"El Niño conditions developed over the past month, as shown by above-average sea surface temperatures (SSTs) across the central to eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean," the agency said.

NOAA has also seen the winds above the equatorial Pacific begin to shift - a sign that the atmosphere is now responding to the warmer ocean, not just the ocean warming on its own.

What has surprised the researchers is how confident the computer models already are about its strength.

El Niño's intensity is measured by how far sea surface temperatures rise above average in a key zone of the Pacific.

A strong event is defined as more than 1.5C above average; a very strong one above 2C.

According to NOAA's June outlook, "there is a 63% chance of a very strong El Niño during November-January, that would rank among the largest El Niño events in the historical record going back to 1950," the agency said.

The three strongest events since then have been in 1982/83, 1997/98 and 2015/16.

Some of the latest US and European (ECMWF) models go further, showing temperatures in the tropical Pacific potentially climbing more than 3C above average by the end of the year.

But the US agency urged some caution on what their strength prediction implies.

"Even very strong El Niño events do not lead to the expected impact everywhere, but stronger events can more significantly tilt the odds in favour of expected outcomes."

The bigger concern is that all this is happening on an already much hotter planet.

"We do need to worry about the impacts," said Prof Adam Scaife, head of monthly to decadal prediction at the UK Met Office.

"The current El Niño is… riding on top of a substantial amount of global warming.

"This means that the actual temperatures in affected regions could well be unprecedented, as the warming from El Niño is being topped up by climate change."

A very strong El Niño typically lifts global air temperatures by around 0.2C, releasing heat stored in the ocean into the atmosphere. That extra blast now lands on a world that is already setting records.

The year 2024 - the warmest on record - was boosted by an El Niño that was not even especially strong.

And despite the cooling drag of a La Niña event, 2025 still came in as the third warmest year on record, hotter even than the super El Niño year of 2016.

"At the end of this year and into 2027, we're likely to see very high temperatures globally," Prof Scaife said.

"In 2027, we're likely to see excess heat on top of the global warming we've already got, and that could easily lead to another year above 1.5 degrees [of warming above late-19th-Century levels]."

No two El Niños are alike, but the disruption is felt most sharply in the tropics.

Flooding is common in northern Peru and southern Ecuador, and can reach parts of East Africa, Central Asia and the southern United States.

At the same time, the risk of drought and wildfire rises across much of Australia, Indonesia and northern South America - hitting agriculture and global food stocks.

El Niño also tends to suppress Atlantic hurricanes, and forecasters already expect a quieter-than-average season.

"While that sounds like a good thing, for Central America that leads to a lot less rainfall and potentially drought conditions," said Liz Stephens, professor of climate risk and resilience at the University of Reading.

Even the UK feels it, if faintly: El Niño can tilt the odds towards a mild start and cold end to winter, though the links are loose.

For many, the forecast is far from abstract.

"An El Niño declaration is not just another weather forecast - for millions of people it is a deadly siren to be feared," said Mohamed Adow, director of campaign group Power Shift Africa.

"It means failed rains, dying crops, rising food prices, and families pushed to the edge yet again. In East Africa especially, this will land on communities already battered by droughts and floods in recent years."

Japan's Meteorological Agency (JMA) takes a similar view to NOAA, judging that El Niño conditions are present. It adds it is all but certain to last into the autumn.

Not every agency is ready to call it, though. Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) uses a stricter criterion, requiring sea surface temperatures to exceed 0.8C above average.

This week it said the tropical Pacific was "approaching El Niño conditions", with central Pacific temperatures already crossing its thresholds, but it stopped short of formally declaring the event had begun.

It expects El Niño to develop later this year, and says it could be strong.

El Niño occurs every two to seven years and usually lasts about a year.

There is still no conclusive proof that climate change is making these events stronger or more frequent - but a warming world can supercharge their effects.

Additional reporting by Erwan Rivault

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Whale graveyard dating back five million years discovered

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c75ylx4xn10o, 4 days ago

An enormous whale graveyard around 1,200km (745 miles) long has been discovered in the south-eastern Indian Ocean.

The site, which is 7km (four miles) deep, has been found in the Diamantina fracture zone, a range on the sea floor of ridges and trenches.

But it is the age of the remains - some from 5.3 million years ago - that has prompted huge excitement in the scientific community.

The underwater necropolis, which was discovered by a team of researchers from China, Italy and New Zealand, is teeming with organisms and species that "may be new to science", according to journal Nature.

One of the study's authors Xiaotong Peng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said: "Discovering a necropolis of this scale was completely unexpected.

"The size of distribution, the depth and the age range were far beyond anything we had imagined."

During 32 dives to the site, explorers collected samples from 485 whale-fossil sites and active whale falls, and found a treasure trove of remains, including one extinct whale's skeleton.

The beaked Pterocetus benguelae, which is 5.3 million years old, was discovered to be one of the fossilised skulls in the graves.

A five-metre long Antarctic minke whale's carcass was the largest discovery made.

A new species which the team has called Pterocetus diamantinae, after the site, was also uncovered.

Jellyfish, worms and crustaceans are among the community of creatures living off the huge spread of carcasses.

"Peng and colleagues' encounter with a vast fossil graveyard is a truly unique discovery," Stephen J Godfrey of the Calvert Marine Museum wrote in Nature.

"Although the site has limited accessibility, it seems likely to hold many other exciting finds, and it will no doubt inspire more submersible dives in similar environments.

"Peng and colleagues' paper reminded me of a trailer for the first in a series of epic movies. I hope that there will be many more of these blockbusters to come."

Four days of extreme rain killed 7% of world's rarest orangutans, study says

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce8jde20v83o, 3 days ago

Four days of extreme rain and landslides in the Indonesian island of Sumatra have pushed the world's most endangered great apes even closer to extinction, says a study.

Research suggests that 58 of less than 800 critically endangered Tapanuli orangutans, or around 7% of the total species, were killed as a result of the extreme weather event last November.

Those are conservative figures, and do not take into account rain-induced canopy damage or reduced food availability, said the authors of the study published on Wednesday.

Cyclone Senyar ravaged Sumatra in late November, killing more than 1,000 people in Southeast Asia's deadliest natural disaster for 2025.

The study's findings, said the authors, show that extreme rainfall events can directly threaten the survival of great ape populations.

Wildlife experts and conservationists had previously observed that, in the wake of the storm, Tapanuli orangutan sightings had dissipated - fuelling speculation that the great apes may have been swept away by floods and landslides.

Professor Erik Meijaard, managing director of Borneo Futures in Brunei and an author of the study published on Wednesday, had told the BBC in December that Cyclone Senyar had likely killed about 35 orangutans – a loss which he said would constitute "a major blow to the population".

Now this comprehensive study has shown the region lost nearly double the number.

Weeks after the cyclone, humanitarian workers told the BBC they found the carcass of what they believed to be a Tapanuli orangutan semi-buried amid debris of mud and logs in Pulo Pakkat village in central Tapanuli district.

"I have seen several dead bodies of humans in the past few days but this was the first dead wildlife," said Deckey Chandra, who was working with a humanitarian team in the area. "They used to come to this place to eat fruits. But now it seems to have become their graveyard."

Meijaard said he had seen photos of the dead orangutan, shared by Chandra.

"What struck me is that all the flesh had been ripped off the face," he said. "If a few hectares of forest comes down in massive landslides, even powerful orangutans are helpless and just get mangled."

"It must have been hellish in the forest at the time."

Researchers noted that Cyclone Senyar was an anomalous event, but that human-induced climate change played a significant role.

They also noted that the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall in the area is likely to continue in the future, posing a threat to the survival of Tapanuli orangutans and their habitat.

Studies indicate that the species - which was only discovered in 2017 - will go extinct if it continues to lose more than 1% of its population annually.

"So, then to have an event where about 58 individuals are killed out of 580, that's about 10 to 11% of the population there and seven percent of the whole total population of the species," said Professor Sergei Vich, primatologist at the Liverpool John Moore University and one of the authors of the study.

"That's (the mortality) way beyond these animals can withstand. So this is a huge event."

The Indonesian government has temporarily halted major developments in the Batang Toru area - a protected forest in Sumatra - including mining, oil palm, and hydropower expansion, giving researchers a rare opportunity to further assess the ecological risks faced by these great apes.

The authors of Wednesday's report point out that the devastation inflicted by Cyclone Senyar proves how vulnerable the species is.

"The crisis facing the Tapanuli orangutan illustrates the convergence of climate instability, biodiversity loss, and vulnerability, calling for a coordinated response matching the scale of the threat," they report wrote.

To protect the remaining orangutans, they added, sustained international support will be required.

"Through strengthened domestic protection, climate-responsive planning, and global financial and technical assistance, we can still prevent the first modern extinction of a great ape species."

What is El Niño and why could it mean record temperatures?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj97npgk92po, 3 days ago

A natural weather pattern called El Niño - which could bring extreme weather to many parts of the world - has begun, US scientists say.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said that El Niño conditions are likely to strengthen over the rest of 2026. Many forecasts suggest it could be one of the strongest El Niños ever recorded.

Coming on top of decades of human-caused warming, 2027 may be the hottest year on record, with disruption to weather, food supplies and economies.

What happens during an El Niño and why could this one be strong?

An El Niño develops in the Pacific Ocean and the atmosphere above it.

When the winds that typically blow east-to-west weaken or reverse, warmer water can spread across the central and eastern tropical Pacific.

Scientists at NOAA announced that a new El Niño phase had started after observing sea surface temperatures more than 0.5C above average in the central tropical Pacific.

They also noticed a switch in atmospheric conditions, with a drop in pressure over the central Pacific compared with the western Pacific.

The Japanese Meteorological Agency also said that El Niño conditions are present.

Some scientists have warned that this El Niño could be especially strong, partly because the water beneath the surface of the Pacific is unusually warm.

These waters have been about 6C above average in places, according to the UN's World Meteorological Organization.

Deep-sea heat is often followed by warmer waters at the surface.

A "very strong" or so-called "super" El Niño is when the warming of the central tropical Pacific Ocean surface reaches 2C or more over an extended period. These events have only happened a few times since 1950.

The NOAA said there was a 63% chance of this El Niño ending up "very strong". That would "rank among the largest El Niño events in the historical record going back to 1950", it added.

It is expected to last at least into early 2027.

The El Niño phenomenon was first observed by Peruvian fishermen in the 1600s, who nicknamed it El Niño de Navidad - Christ Child in Spanish.

How could a strong El Niño affect the weather?

A strong El Niño event would "exacerbate drought and heavy rainfall and increase the risk of heatwaves both on land and in the ocean", said World Meteorological Organization secretary general Celeste Saulo.

During El Niño, the ocean will transfer heat to the air, making it warmer.

Coupled with higher global temperatures from human-caused climate change, this could make 2027 the hottest year on record for the planet.

The exact impact on the weather depends on where you are and what time of year it is.

No two El Niños are the same, but a strong event typically fuels hot, dry weather in parts of South America, South East Asia and Australia, raising the chances of droughts and wildfires.

It can also weaken the Indian monsoon. In the southern US, heavier rainfall can increase the risks of flooding.

El Niño tends to bring more tropical storms in the eastern and central Pacific, but fewer in the tropical Atlantic, including the south-east US.

The way UK weather is affected is complicated, and can vary. But El Niño may increase the chance of a mild start and cold end to UK winter, according to the Met Office.

What impact could El Niño have on people?

The UN's secretary general, António Guterres, has warned the world to prepare.

"El Niño conditions will pour fuel on the fire of a warming world. Impacts will hit even harder, travel even farther, and cross borders with devastating speed," he said.

Droughts in parts of South America and South East Asia could hit crops at a time when the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz is already disrupting the distribution of fertiliser. This could mean smaller harvests, reduced food supply and higher prices.

For fishing communities in South America, there is the risk of smaller catches. During El Niño, less cold, nutrient rich water comes to the surface, reducing food availability for marine species such as anchovies.

Some scientists are drawing comparisons with the 2015-16 El Niño, one of the strongest ever recorded.

At that time there were water shortages in the Caribbean, a record-breaking storm season in the central Pacific, and drought in the Horn of Africa.

The combination of storm events and widespread drought - at least partly the result of El Niño - led to food shortages affecting millions of people around the world, according to the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization.

Is climate change affecting El Niño?

El Niño events since 1950 have been stronger than those between 1850 and 1950, according to the UN's climate scientists, the IPCC.

But it said that tree rings and other historical evidence show there have been variations in their frequency and strength since the 1400s.

The IPCC said there is no clear evidence that climate change has affected El Niño events.

Some climate models suggest that El Niño episodes could become more frequent and more intense as a result of global warming - although this is a complex and uncertain area of science with no clear consensus.

But the impacts of El Niño will occur on top of those from long-term climate change - which could fuel increasingly severe weather extremes.

What is La Niña?

El Niño has a sister weather pattern called La Niña.

During these events, the temperature of the surface of the sea in the central-eastern Pacific is cooler - the opposite of what is seen during El Niño.

Atmospheric pressure is also higher than usual in the central Pacific, and lower than usual in the west.

La Niña typically brings wetter conditions to parts of Australia, Indonesia and equatorial South America, and drier conditions to the southern US.

El Niño and La Niña often alternate, but sometimes we can have two of the same event back to back. On average, they occur every two to seven years.

Additional reporting by Erwan Rivault

How forgotten voyages helped track El Nino

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cnv9dlppmr7o, today

The UN has warned a new phase of El Nino – a natural weather pattern that forms in the Pacific Ocean – could begin within weeks.

Several forecasts from national weather agencies suggest it could end up as one of the strongest ever recorded and drive more extreme weather around much of the globe.

Scientists are trying to understand how this will affect the planet in an era of climate change, but efforts to understand El Nino have been going on for more than a century, as the Hidden East Yorkshire podcast has been hearing.

"There's a lot been on the news quite recently about El Nino and the effects the global impact of this warm water current in the Pacific might have on the world as it has in the past," says Dr Rob Robinson, an honorary research fellow at the University of Hull.

"That and its complementary current, the Humboldt current, the cold-water current, have been a subject of a lot of examination over the years," he adds.

"And one of the reasons we know quite a lot about it is that the foundations for our understanding of these currents in the Pacific, a lot of them were laid by a research ship called the William Scoresby."

A century ago this month, the Royal Research Ship William Scoresby set sail from Humber Dock, in Hull, on a voyage to the southern oceans.

Its mission was to conduct research on whale stocks, particularly around the Falkland Islands, and it was purpose-built in Beverley for the task.

"The Scoresby was a path-breaking ship really," Robinson says. "It was designed specifically to explore close to the Antarctic to understand more about the bottom of the seas."

Named after a well-known Whitby whaler and scientist, it was built at the shipyard of Cook, Welton and Gemmell, before being floated down the River Hull.

Its first voyage was alongside the Discovery – a famous ship that had previously carried Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton on an expedition to Antarctica.

Over the course of several trips, the Scoresby began to conduct research on the movement of the oceans.

"Lots of samples were taken, tests were conducted, and gradually, with the scientists on board, an understanding, or rather the foundations of our modern sciences of marine biology and oceanography were given an extra lift," Robinson says.

During one voyage during the 1930s, when the ship was away from Britain for 19 months, the crew examined the Humboldt and El Nino currents.

"The information that came back helped with our understanding of these currents and the impact they have not only on the Pacific but on the world," he adds.

'Cloak and dagger'

It was not the end of the Scoresby's adventures.

During World War Two, the ship was pressed into service for Operation Tabarin, which, according to Robinson, was something of a "cloak and dagger" operation in the South Atlantic aimed at preventing Argentinian claims to sovereignty of various islands within the Falkland Islands Dependencies.

A postage stamp shows the vessel in operation at the time.

The Scoresby was laid up in the 1950s and eventually scrapped, but Robinson says it left a valuable legacy.

"Our understanding, our knowledge of the frontiers of marine biology and oceanography were really consolidated by the work of the Scoresby.

"What was discovered not only helped us understand the movements of the currents and where they went, but also in a sense the way that they impacted on weather systems."

Listen to more episodes of the Hidden East Yorkshire podcast.

Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North.

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Rare butterfly find drives conservation research

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cze9nje2xljo, today

A Surrey amateur lepidopterist has shared how his remarkable discovery of a rare butterfly has led to a breakthrough in conservation research.

Gareth Tilley discovered a population of one of the UK's most elusive butterflies, the black hairstreak, which had never before been recorded in the county.

Prior to his discovery, the species was found exclusively in woodlands between Oxford and Peterborough, according to Butterfly Conservation.

Tilley said: "I live in Epsom, and it was during the lockdown in 2020 I started going for walks in the area.

"During one of those walks a butterfly landed in front of me. I was amazed to see it was a black hairstreak."

Since 2002, the species' UK distribution has declined by 33%, largely due to habitat loss, according to Butterfly Conservation.

Tilley said when he told locals, some believed it was a one-off illegal release.

He then worked with Butterfly Conservation, the local council and the University of Sussex to confirm that this butterfly species does live in Surrey.

Tilley said the species is "notoriously difficult" to monitor.

"The caterpillars look like leaves, the chrysalis like bird droppings, and the adults stay high in trees," he explained.

The breakthrough came after he learned that some US caterpillars glow under UV light.

Gareth Tilley bought a UV torch to try and find the caterpillars in May 2022.

"I was sceptical it would work," he said.

"But when I found a caterpillar, it didn't just glow, it was incredibly bright."

He said he ended up finding 46 of them in one evening.

Tilley said the purpose of caterpillar's ability to glow in the dark is still unknown.

"It may help them deter predators, or have no direct function," he said.

Butterfly Conservation says it recognises the significance of the discovery and is now promoting UV surveying for hairstreaks nationwide.

Steven Lofting, the charity's south east conservation manager, said Tilley's work had made a "hugely valuable contribution" to butterfly conservation in the UK.

"We are finding much higher numbers of hairstreaks using UV surveys and it's a new, fun way to engage volunteers," he added.

Tilley is promoting this technique to other conservation groups, including those in Australia.

Follow BBC Surrey on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram and listen to BBC Radio Surrey on Sounds. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.

Calls to restore chalk grassland for rare insects

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6213ex52g2o, today

A conservation charity is encouraging residents to help restore vital habitats in Surrey to create a "haven" for some of the UK's rarest insects.

Buglife says the Chalk Lines project aims to restore more than 30 hectares (74 acres), roughly the size of 42 football pitches, of chalk grassland in the Surrey Hills.

It involves reconnecting vital patches to create "insect motorways" to assist wildlife to move safely across the countryside, the charity said.

Alice Parfitt, conservation officer, said: "It would be great to see local communities getting hands-on through wildflower seeding and planting, practical habitat management and creative workshops."

Fellow conservation officer, Peter Hewtson, said volunteers could attend workshops to learn more about the rare insects' important role in supporting the UK's ecosystems.

Buglife said animals including the Straw Belle, which now only survives at up to two sites in Surrey, and one of the UK's rarest insect, the hazel pot beetle, stand to benefit from the project.

Others include the adonis blue butterfly, the armed nomad bee and the red-tailed mason bee, the shining pot beetle and the large scabious mining bee.

Buglife explains chalk grassland is a rare and fragile habitat found along Surrey's rolling downs, supporting a rich diversity of wildflowers and insects found nowhere else.

It was once maintained by traditional grazing, much has been lost or degraded, leaving remaining areas fragmented and wildlife vulnerable.

The Chalk Lines project received a £300,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Stuart McLeod, director of England - London & South at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said they were "proud" to support Buglife.

"This project would help protect the remarkable wildlife while giving more people the chance to connect with the nature on their doorstep," he added.

Follow BBC Surrey on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram and listen to BBC Radio Surrey on Sounds. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.

What are UV levels and how can you protect yourself?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckmg1572e8ko, 3 days ago

During the May heatwave UV levels were unusually high across much of the UK for the time of year.

Some exposure to UV is essential for our wellbeing, but too much is damaging and can cause skin cancer.

What is UV and why can it be dangerous?

UV radiation is emitted by the Sun and penetrates the Earth's atmosphere.

It enables our skin to produce essential vitamin D, which is important for the function of bones, blood cells and our immune system.

But too much UV can be harmful.

It can lead to skin cancer by damaging DNA in skin cells. UV also plays a substantial role in skin ageing, contributing to wrinkles and loosened folds.

It has also been linked to eye problems, including cataracts.

"Every exposure to UV, especially every sunburn, increases our risk of skin cancer," says Prof Dorothy Bennett, from St George's, University of London.

"Melanoma, the most dangerous skin cancer, is now the fifth commonest cancer in the UK."

How is UV measured and what is the UV index?

Levels of UV radiation vary throughout the day.

The highest readings are in the four-hour period around "solar noon", when the sun is at its highest - usually from late morning to early afternoon.

The UV Index (or UVI) is a measure of ultraviolet radiation used around the world.

Values start at zero and can rise above 10.

The higher the number, the greater the potential for damage to the skin and eyes, and the less time it takes for harm to occur.

What do the different UV levels mean?

In the UK, the UV index would typically be around 5-6 during the summer, with a maximum of 8 only in exceptional circumstances.

Countries close to the equator can experience very high UV levels in the middle of the day, throughout the year.

Nairobi in Kenya, for example, can have UV levels above 10 all year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Majorca in Spain normally hits nine in June and July.

How can you protect yourself from UV radiation?

Appropriate sunscreen is essential.

Some sun protection is required when UK levels are medium (3-5) or high (6-7), the WHO says.

Extra sun protection is required when UV levels are very high (8-10) or extremely high (11+).

Children are more sensitive to UV radiation than adults, and therefore require additional protection at lower levels than adults.

The NHS advises using sunscreen with an SPF factor of 30 or above and which offers at least 4-star UVA protection.

It should be applied to all exposed skin, including the face, neck and ears - and head if you have thinning or no hair - ideally 30 minutes before you go out into the sun.

As a guide, adults should aim to apply about six to eight teaspoons of sunscreen if covering the entire body.

It should be reapplied every two hours, or sooner if you sweat a lot, have been in water, or after drying yourself with a towel.

In addition, the NHS recommends:

* covering up with suitable clothing and wearing sunglasses

* spending time in the shade when the sun is strongest - between 11:00 and 15:00 from March to October in the UK

Can you tan safely?

There is no safe or healthy way to get a tan, according to the NHS.

Dr Bav Shergill from the British Association of Dermatologists recommends using self-tan products instead.

"When you tan, ultraviolet light stimulates your skin cells to produce pigment to try and protect the DNA of skin cells - but that protection is minimal - the equivalent of SP4.

"That is not much protection at all - so you can still burn very early," he warns.

Can you burn even when it is cloudy and windy?

The amount of UV reaching your skin is not driven by the daily temperature.

"Your skin can burn just as quickly whether it's 30C or 20C," warns BBC Weather's BBC Weather's Helen Willetts.

"Don't be caught out on cloudy days. UV will still penetrate thin clouds - so even if you don't think it's that sunny, you can still burn."

I have brown skin. Do I need to worry?

Yes, according to Dr Shergill.

"The skin may look darker, but it doesn’t always behave that way from a protection point of view – because there are more genes at play than we think about," he says.

"I have, for example, seen South Asian people with skin cancer and I have seen people with dual-heritage get skin cancer."

The broader risks of eye damage and harmful effects on the immune system from too much UV radiation affect people of all skin colour.

Scotland's greenhouse gas emissions fall slightly as progress slows

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg748xd7vpjo, 5 days ago

Scotland's planet-warming emissions have reduced but progress has continued to slow, new figures show.

The amount of greenhouse gases produced by the country in 2024 fell by 1% compared to the previous year.

It is almost half of the reduction seen in 2023, when emissions fell by 2%.

Climate Action Secretary Gillian Martin said that while progress was being made, work to bring down emissions "must accelerate".

Since 1990, Scotland's greenhouse gas emissions have reduced by more than half (50.5%), with all sectors - except international aviation and shipping - falling over this time.

Most of the reduction in 2024 was driven by reduction in industry emissions.

However, there was an increase in pollution from transport - both in terms of domestic transport and international aviation - as well as from buildings.

Domestic transport is Scotland's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, at 28%, with buildings accounting for 19.5% and agriculture 19.3%.

Stop Climate Chaos Scotland said the figures were "stark confirmation" that action to tackle climate change has been "nowhere near strong enough or fast enough".

Fraser Sutherland, the group's coalition manager, said: "Climate change is already affecting people's health and well-being, livelihoods and financial stability in Scotland, with more frequent storms, floods, droughts and wildfires wreaking havoc across the country."

He added: "The clock is ticking if we want to halt the worst effects of planetary warming but there is still time."

Friends of the Earth Scotland's Catrina Randall said the "meagre" reduction figures were a "missed opportunity" to improve the lives of Scots.

She said: "They mean ministers have failed to help more people move around by public transport and failed to fix homes so that they aren't leaking energy and costing a fortune in bills."

Martin said that while progress was being made, reductions in emissions "must accelerate because climate action is not just about weather events, it is about making people's lives better".

She added: "Our recent climate change plan set out £42.3bn in direct financial benefits for Scotland, with the thriving net-zero economy currently supporting around 105,000 jobs.

"It will also provide significant wider impacts, from warmer homes to better air quality and improved health outcomes."

'Meagre' decrease

The Scottish government has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2045 - five years earlier than the UK government's target date of 2050.

But after repeatedly missing annual and interim targets, SNP ministers abandoned them in 2024 in favour of five-yearly carbon budgets.

The government is aiming to cut emissions by an average of 57% over the next five years and by 69% by 2035, when compared with 1990 levels.

By 2040, ministers hope to increase that figure to 80%.

Overall, the country produced an estimated 39 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) from the seven greenhouse gases in 2024 - a reduction of 0.4 MtCO2e from the year before.

Most parts of the economy showed modest reductions in emissions, with industry seeing the largest decrease (0.3 MtCO2e) due to a reduction in fuel use.

International aviation and shipping increased by 0.2 MtCO2e as they returned to pre-Covid levels.

Domestic transport and buildings also showed slight increases in the latest year.

All other sectors showed slightly reduced emissions.

Meanwhile, separate statistics released by the government showed Scotland's carbon footprint between 2021 and 2022 increased by 1.6%.

These figures provide estimates of the country's emissions associated with the spending of Scottish residents on goods and services, wherever in the world these emissions arise, together with emissions directly generated by Scottish households.

Between 1998 and 2022, Scotland's carbon footprint fell by 17.5%.

'Value of trees' in council's healthy spaces plan

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdxd9552l2wo, 5 days ago

Plans to safeguard North Yorkshire's trees and woodlands, while boosting the environment and people's wellbeing, are set to be considered.

A proposed new scheme by North Yorkshire Council outlines a countywide approach to managing trees and green spaces.

The authority said its plan aimed to "support wildlife, tackle climate change and improve people's quality of life".

Malcolm Taylor, executive member for highways and transportation at NYC, said: "Our trees and woodlands are some of the county's greatest natural assets."

If approved, the policy would introduce consistent standards across the county for the first time, replacing a mix of approaches that existed before the council was created in 2023, a council spokesperson said.

Taylor said the proposals recognised the "true value" of trees, not only as part of the landscape, but as vital to both environmental health and people's wellbeing.

The plans include stronger protections for trees, clearer expectations for developers to retain hedgerows, and greater use of Tree Preservation Orders.

Residents would also see more transparent processes for reporting concerns or requesting tree work.

Trees play a key role in tackling climate change by "absorbing carbon, cutting pollution, reducing flood risk and cooling built-up areas during hot weather", a spokesperson added.

The authority's tree and woodland manager, Helen Arnold, said the policy would help take a "long-term view", supporting nature recovery and climate action.

John Parker, chief executive of the Arboricultural Association, said it was "really positive" to see the council recognising the benefits trees bring to communities and the importance of "best practice in their care".

The proposal is due to be considered by councillors on 16 June.

Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.

UK's last outstanding coal mine plan rejected

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c992vzv0595o, 5 days ago

The last outstanding proposal for opencast coal mining in the UK has been rejected.

Carmarthenshire council refused plans to dig for 85,000 tonnes of coal at Glan Lash mine near Llandybie, citing impacts on the local environment.

Bryn Bach Coal Ltd had wanted to extend the site over 10.3 hectares (25 acres), promising 11 jobs.

It is the second time the company's plans have been turned down since the opencast mine closed in 2019. BBC Wales has approached the company for comment.

In a decision notice uploaded online, Rhodri Griffiths, the council's head of place and sustainability, said the proposals would conflict with a number of policies on biodiversity and the environment.

Protected woodland and hedgerows would be adversely affected, he said, and the scheme would result in "the unacceptable disturbance, degradation and loss" of "irreplaceable peatland".

There were also concerns for a local population of marsh fritillary, one of the UK's most threatened butterfly species.

The mine opened in 2012 on a licence permitting the extraction of 92,500 tonnes of coal over four-and-a-half years.

The company had revised its latest extension plans, after councillors rejected previous proposals in 2023.

Jenny Lloyd, of Friends of the Earth Cymru, said the council's decision was "great news".

"This brings to a close years of campaigning, but it also brings a stop to Wales' last opencast coal mine," she said.

"It's an opportunity now for that land to be remediated for nature and the community."

Coal Action Network said there were now "no live applications for new coal mines" in the UK and that the decision reflected "a clear, strategic commitment to climate leadership, rare habitat protection, and safeguarding the health of surrounding communities".

"We'll continue to engage with the local authority on the restoration to ensure it is delivered to the standard promised," added Daniel Therkelsen from the campaign group.

Carmarthenshire council said the application had been refused as it was contrary to the policies set out within Carmarthenshire County Council's Local Development Plan.

Bryn Bach Coal Ltd has been asked to comment.

In its application, the company had argued it had developed "a niche non-thermal market for premium quality anthracite".

It said there was considerable demand for its coal from industries ranging from water filtration and battery production to green steelmaking.

The company has six months to appeal the decision.

The UK's largest opencast coalmine - Ffos-y-Fran above Merthyr Tydfil - closed in 2023 after its operator's application for an extension was turned down.

Opencast mining involves scraping rock and earth away at the surface to recover coal - creating an open pit, rather than digging deep underground.

Wales has one last remaining deep mine - at Aberpergwm, in Neath Port Talbot.

'The deep sea will come to me': The blackwater diver who photographs the creatures of the deep

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260604-the-blackwater-photographer-who-captured-the-creatures-of-the-deep, 7 days ago

When photographer Jialing Cai plunged into the ocean in the dead of night, she found creatures of the deep had risen up to meet her.

In blackwater diving, the ocean floor is invisible, says Jialing Cai. You float in an endless black void.

"There is no reference for you to know your location in this three-dimensional space," says the specialist underwater photographer. "If you're not aware of your depth, you could start sinking down deeper and deeper."

During her first nighttime dive, however, "the excitement overwhelmed my fear". Cai soon found that this black "empty space" was, in fact, teeming with life – from baby octopuses, jellyfish and crabs, to juvenile fish and all manner of copepods, or "insects of the sea".

Cai, from Chongqing, China, is an award-winning blackwater photographer. In 2023, she was named Oceanographic magazine's Ocean Photographer of the Year for her image of a paper nautilus, a rarely-encountered octopus with a paper-thin shell-like egg case. Then, in 2025, Cai won the Oceanographic Female Fifty Fathoms Award for her collection of photographs that captured some of the ocean's most charismatic visitors from the deep.

Cai doesn't need to dive deep, though, to capture these deep ocean creatures. She simply waits for them to emerge from the depths at night as they come to surface to feed – in what is the biggest mass migration of animals on Earth.

Little is understood about the true nature of life in the ocean's midwater. Usually, specimens are collected in nets. Removed from their natural environment, their lifeless – often damaged – bodies are then preserved in jars.

These stunning images, however, reveal the amazing daily lives of the interior of the ocean, says Jon Copley, professor of ocean exploration at Southampton University in the UK. "Having photographic evidence of these animals is important because they're rarely seen in their natural habitat. Traditionally specimens of mid-water animals like these are collected in nets, which don't preserve the intricate structures that you can see in a photo."

In December 2018 – at just 19 years old – Cai embarked on her first ever blackwater dive in Batangas Bay, Philippines.

In the water, colour disappears very fast as you descend, says Cai. "You have to get very close to the subject if you want to capture a good image. You want to be relatively still, even as they move around. And sometimes you find a subject, you get close to it, and then it starts to swim. Then you just have to chase it."

Hyper-focused on photographing her first deep ocean species, Cai swam away from the dive boat and her dive guide who was in the water with her. This is when she captured the image of a wunderpus octopus (seen above). As an adult this wunderpus will have zebra-like stripes, but in its juvenile stage, says Cai, its colour cells have not yet developed. "Almost transparent, it can blend in with the empty dark space."

Cai used three bright lights to capture this image, which also attracted all manner of zooplankton – larval shrimps, crabs and worms – to join in the fun. "There's a huge diversity of life here. It's like a festival."

Suddenly, though, Cai realised she had swum so far from the boat that she could no longer see its lights. Alone in the darkness, she turned around in the water – and saw nothing. "I turned off all my lights: my camera light, my hunting light." She hoped this would allow her to detect the obscure light of the boat in the distance.

Still, there was nothing but the black of the night ocean.

Cai surfaced and turned on her lights. That's when the dive boat crew spotted her and – after a few minutes that felt like a lifetime – she was safe.

An ordinary diver

When Cai was studying marine biology at the University of Virginia in the US she thought exploring the deep sea would be as ambitious going to outer space. Then, one day, her lecturer explained the phenomenon of diel vertical migration (DVM).

Every single night, he explained, trillions of tiny zooplankton rise from the deep sea to feed in the relative safety of the cover of darkness. They swim for hundreds of metres to shallow waters, some even making it to the surface. During this nightly migration, the ocean hums with an "evening chorus". This is the chatter of countless fish, shrimp, jellies and squid making their way to the surface.

Then, just before sunrise, they return to the abyss.

"Diel vertical migration happens in every marine and freshwater environment on the planet," says Laura Hobbs, lecturer in Arctic marine science at the Scottish Association for Marine Science. "This is the biggest migration by biomass on the planet – and it happens every single day."

"It hit me like lightning," says Cai. "I couldn't help but interrupt the professor. I said, 'Are you saying that I actually don't have to go down to the deep, deep sea to see the creatures myself? I can just be an ordinary diver?' I realised I could take glimpses into a world that my mortal body would never allow me to reach. I just have to throw myself out into the open ocean at night, and the deep sea will come to me."

So, Cai learnt to dive and to use a camera. Today, she specialises in photographing zooplankton in the blackness of the open ocean at night. Diving no deeper than 30m (98ft), Cai photographed these deep ocean animals that swum up to meet her.

Dance of the immortal jellyfish

This mature immortal jellyfish "looked like a lightbulb in the night of the ocean", says Cai. The immortal jellyfish gets its name from its ability to "revert itself back into its baby stage, its polyp stage" on sensing danger, such as pathogens in the water, she explains. "It can restart its lifecycle again and again." In theory, immortal jellyfish can live forever.

The jellyfish was startled by Cai's bright light and immediately retracted its tentacles when she approached. So, she reverted to a red light, using a white strobe to capture the image in an instant. Immediately, the jellyfish began to extend its tentacles, dancing like a swirling tornado. "You sometimes have to use these kind of tricks to let marine creatures show us how they really behave," says Cai.

Borrowed venom

The diel vertical migration crew is a crowd jostling with both predators and prey. "These little critters form the basis of the food chain," says Hobbs, "so they're really important for everything from fish to whales." To survive being eaten by larger predators – or each other – many of these animals have developed ingenious defence strategies to protect themselves.

More like this:

• The strange deep-sea creatures that eat whales

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This juvenile fish has captured a jellyfish in its mouth, making use of the toxins in its tentacles. "This is a very typical behaviour for these juvenile fish," says Cai. "They take advantage of the venomous tentacles of the jellyfish. Every time I tried to approach the fish, it would immediately steer its chemical shield towards me."

A gauntlet of predators

"Here you can see a juvenile trevally, a kind of jack fish, sitting on the bell of a jellyfish," says Cai. Inside the jellyfish, you can see a baby octopus is being digested. "Its soft, blood-tinged eyes are visible within the gelatinous stomach. For the baby octopus, this jellyfish is brutal." For many small zooplankton, said Cai, the jellyfish's gut becomes their final resting place. For others, like the jack fish, the jellyfish offers refuge.

Cai's images, says Hobbs, offer a fascinating insight into the diversity of life at this scale in the ocean. "These huge migrations are happening as part of a complex three-dimensional environment, where tiny zooplankton move towards the surface to feed whilst simultaneously running the gauntlet past a variety of predators. It's amazing to think that each of these species is following their own strategy, shaped by its preferred prey, potential predators, and reproductive needs."

Trash shelter

Here "two tiny fish, each no bigger than my thumbnail, are navigating the open ocean at night beneath the fragile shelter of a drifting piece of candy wrapper", says Cai. "An unintended refuge in a world increasingly shaped by human debris."

The twilight zone – or mesopelagic zone – is a vast layer of water that spans the globe. It stretches from a dusky 200m (660ft) beneath the waves, to pitch darkness at 1,000m (3,280ft) depth. This portion of the ocean is home the vast majority of marine life – with more fish than the rest of the ocean combined – and is critical to both ocean ecosystems and the global carbon cycle.

There are various ways that human activity negatively impacts the twilight zone, says Copley. "These are depths that are fished for some fish species. Then, of course, the other big impact throughout the deep ocean is climate change. This affects the twilight zone and what lives there. Predictions are that the abundance of life there will decline."

This zone urgently needs protecting, says Copley, with research showing that climate change will curtail life there by as much as 40% by the end of the century.

Metamorphosis

Some of these tiny creatures undertake epic journeys before ending up on our shores. Crabs, for instance, are usually thought of as seafloor dwellers. But, like most marine animals that we encounter in coastal areas, they go through a planktonic stage, says Cai. As larvae they drift in the water column, undergoing multiple stages of metamorphosis, before they eventually settle into their final habitat.

"This image captures a juvenile crab in the act of moulting, shedding its old exoskeleton much like slipping off a sweater," says Cai. "If you look closely, you can spot subtle differences in shape and structure between the transparent moult and the crab's newly emerged body."

So, next time you watch a common shore crab scuttling around inside your seaside bucket, just think – it may well have travelled more than a hundred miles in the depths of the ocean, surviving against all odds.

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Mangrove forests are healing after decades of human destruction

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn4pk07npvvo, 9 days ago

The world's coastal mangrove forests, which protect millions of people from storms - and soak up vast amounts of planet-warming gases - are staging an unexpected comeback, scientists find.

For decades these swampy trees had been declining rapidly as they were cleared for fish farms and housing.

But a new study shows that since 2010 the world has been gaining more mangroves than it has been losing - driven by stronger legal protections and increased public awareness of their importance, sparked by disasters such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

The researchers say the key factor though is the remarkable capacity of these forests to regenerate naturally once humans stop chopping them down.

Mangroves are one of the world's unsung environmental heroes.

Not only do they store up to five times more carbon dioxide than land-based forests, but their tangled roots can also slow down waves and protect coastal communities from storm surges and tsunamis.

These same roots provide a perfect nursery for many species of fish and other marine life - protecting them from predators and providing ample food.

These benefits, though, have come under serious threat over the past century as the rise of fish farming, agriculture and the expansion of coastal cities and towns have seen mangroves chopped down and rapidly removed.

From the 1980s to 2010, over 12,000 sq km (4,600 sq miles) of mangroves were cleared or destroyed across Asia, Africa and the Americas - an area the size of Jamaica.

However, the new study shows a real reversal of that trend, particularly over the last decade. The total net losses - the forest lost and not replaced - since the 1980s have now been reduced to around 849 sq km (328 sq miles).

Restoration efforts over decades have helped degraded forests to recover, but the big change has come from the natural expansion of mangroves in many parts of the world following drops in deforestation.

This has enabled forest levels to stabilise in Indonesia and grow in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) - two of the most mangrove-dense countries.

In Indonesia, the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 seems to have played a role in changing people's minds about the importance of mangroves, and the removal of trees for fish farming has slowed.

"Some islands were covered by mangroves and after the tsunami those islands were [still] protected very well, so that increased public awareness about the importance of protecting mangroves," said lead author Dr Zhen Zhang from Tulane University in the US.

A similar change in public attitude occurred in Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis in 2008 and a national logging ban in 2016.

Technology is also part of the answer, say the authors. For this study, a different satellite imaging system was used to map the forests in more detail, showing far greater numbers of new trees compared to previous studies.

This imagery came from the Landsat satellite "which is highly sensitive to canopy changes, and provides globally consistent observations that previous assessments may have missed," said Prof Elizabeth Robinson, director of the Grantham Research Institute, who was not involved with the study.

"This is a considerable advance on earlier global assessments," she told BBC News.

Some of the expanding growth, though, is likely to be double edged - it may be at the expense of environmental damage in other locations.

In many countries, including Brazil, new mangrove forests have taken hold along rivers and coastlines with an abundant supply of nutrients in the sediments.

But it has been the destruction of forests and mining further upstream which may have flushed the nutrients, like nitrogen, from soils into waterways, benefitting the mangroves down the river.

"This is good news for mangroves - there are more of them than we thought, and they are showing their resilience," said Dr Pete Bunting from Aberystwyth University, another of the authors.

"But it is only really good news if it is not a complete mess upstream."

The research also shows that whilst a combination of restoration and a reduction in chopping down mangroves has been successful, it has not been a uniform success across the globe.

West and Central Africa have emerged as hotspots of destruction.

"The Niger Delta is the poster child for mangrove pollution impact," said Bunting.

"Oil pollution is having massive impacts - and if you look at Google Earth you can see straight lines through the mangroves where the pipelines are."

Tropical cyclones also remain a serious threat - with storms responsible for some of the most dramatic single year losses recorded in the study, from Australia to the Caribbean.

Despite this, the authors agree this is a good news story.

"We are moving in the right direction because you can see a very clear trend of decreased loss rate," Dr Zhen Zhang told BBC News.

The study also found that many existing forests were actually becoming healthier. Since the 1980s, the proportion of closed canopy mangroves, the richest and most carbon-dense, has grown by nearly 20%.

"So, I think we are going the right way," said Zhen.

Pangolins are the most trafficked mammal in the world. This is how two of them were returned to the wild

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260603-inside-a-trafficked-pangolins-return-to-the-wild, 10 days ago

Pangolins require huge amounts of care to rehabilitate, but even those caught up in the illegal trade can be saved. Here's how Stevie the pangolin was returned to the wild – and is now thriving.

It took a painstaking effort to save three-month-old pangolin pup Stevie.

Stevie was rescued from the illegal pangolin trade in the streets of Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2021. For the next six months, specialist veterinarian Kelsey Skinner meticulously carried out his medical care, fed him meals of cat milk formula and helped him learn to forage naturally.

A Temminck's pangolin, Stevie is named after Steven Koen, a South Africa Police Service (Saps) K9 officer who played a big role in arresting an "elusive" pangolin wildlife trafficker who was trying to sell the pup, says Skinner. It took several days and lot of intensive negotiations to catch the trafficker during a sting operation, she adds.

The pup should have still been with his mother, but she was nowhere to be seen, says Alexis Kriel, co-chair and executive director of the African Pangolin Working Group (APWG), a South Africa-based non-profit.

Sometimes known as scaly anteaters, since their diet mainly consists of ants and termites, pangolins are the world's only truly scaly mammal. They are often considered to be the most trafficked wild mammal in the world. Over a million pangolins are thought to have been illegally traded internationally from 2000 to 2016, while seizures of pangolin products from 2016 to 2024, which capture only a fraction of the overall trade, show at least half a million more being traded during this time.

Over the past few decades, law enforcement and non-profits in African countries have increased their efforts to rescue wild pangolins caught up in the black market. In South Africa, some 80% of the Temminck's pangolins retrieved are still alive.

Still, rescuing them is only the first step. Trafficked pangolins are often young or injured but also don't fare well in captivity, making them notoriously difficult to rehabilitate. That's where specialists like Skinner come in. After many months of her and others' support at the Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital, followed by several more months acclimatising him to his release site, Stevie was successfully returned to the wild in 2022.

His rehabilitation is part of a growing effort to return trafficked pangolins back into their natural habitat – a long, tricky process that may be essential to saving this bizarre, often overlooked mammal.

A persecuted animal

African pangolins are now at the very heart of illegal wildlife trafficking, one of the world's largest organised crime sectors. Demand for them comes largely from East Asia, where their scales are used in traditional medicine and their meat considered a delicacy, although the US is also a major market, driven by the fashion industry. Countries passed a total international trade ban on pangolins in 2016, but the illegal trade persists.

As trafficking has pushed Asian pangolins to the verge of extinction, Africa has now become the main source for this illicit global market. Together, trafficking, habitat loss and hunting by locals (for traditional medicine and bushmeat) mean all four African pangolin species are now threatened with extinction.

South Africa is among the countries that have become a source for illegal pangolin trading, as well as domestic consumption. Non-profits including the APWG support the country's law enforcement to conduct sting and anti-poaching operations, and in recent years the country has had a significant number of pangolin seizures.

Most of the pangolins in the APWG's care are rescued from traffickers in intelligence-led sting operations or stop-and-searches, where pangolins are recovered from vehicles, says Kriel. "We are able to save a small fraction of pangolins in the illegal trade but we don't know where the rest are going," she says.

Nicci Wright, co-chair and executive director of APWG, remembers being unable to do much to help the first pangolin that was brought into her care after being rescued from trafficker in 2008. "Having no experience with pangolins at that stage, the best thing I could do was release it back into a safe habitat and hope for the best," she says.

She has since grown a far deeper practical understanding on how to support pangolins seized from wildlife traffickers, which are usually physically and psychologically compromised.

"Some are concealed in bags and placed in car boots," says Wright. "They may be kept for weeks under these conditions that could lead to injuries, dehydration and compromised immunity."

Without medical attention, there is a high chance the pangolin could die soon after being returned to the wild, she says. "Hence the need to treat and rehabilitate the pangolin before its release."

Stevie's return to the wild

During the sting operation that led to his rescue, Stevie the pangolin was found in a cardboard box in a car boot, says Wright. "There was a cabbage leaf inside with him which may have been a food offering, but pangolins obviously do not eat cabbage."

Stevie was moved to the Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital, where Skinner put him through the usual checks for rescued pangolins. She weighed him, examined him for possible injuries or infections, gave him fluid therapy to address his dehydration, and drew blood to check the health of his organs. He was also given immune boosters and a small supportive electrolyte tube feed.

Thankfully, unlike many rescued pangolins, Stevie was in a healthy condition – in fact, he was alert and could move around with ease. Still, the pup – whose scales were still too soft to defend him from predators – was nervous, curling into a ball whenever he was approached, Skinner says. She took plenty of quiet time with him alone to get him used to her.

Since he would still have been feeding from his mother, she bottle-fed him cat milk formula, although it took him 10 days to fully accept the artificial milk and bottle. "Initially, he disliked the artificial teat but with patience, he got used to it and fed well," says Skinner. She walked him out daily in natural habitat, where she would flip rocks and expose ants and their eggs for him to forage. "At his age he would have been out foraging with his mother in the wild," says Skinner.

Once weaned off the milk at six months, he began to grow stronger every day, and after reaching 6kg (13lb) at nine months was transferred to his release site, the Manyoni Private Game Reserve in Zululand. "At this weight, pangolins are strong enough to maintain their protective curl and their scales are hard enough to withstand predator attacks," says Skinner.

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For five more months, Stevie was cared for by the reserve's pangolin monitor Donald Davies and his team, who let him outside daily to forage in the reserve and monitored his adaptation. By the time he was 14 months old, he was ready to fend for himself. He was fitted with two telemetry trackers and released for good.

Trackers help experts observe the natural movements and behaviours of released pangolins, as well as threats. "Electric fences pose a threat to pangolins though there have been other natural incidents: one pangolin was trampled by an elephant while one was eaten by crocodile," says Wright. "This information would have been unknown if the pangolins did not have telemetry tags fitted."

They can also help reveal whether the final step of the rehabilitation process has occurred: reproduction. Stevie's tracker shows he has now begun regularly crossing paths with females, including visiting them in their burrows, says Wright. "It's pretty guaranteed that he is now a father to a few pangolin pups," adds Skinner.

'Pangalorium'

Lesser-known species like pangolins often struggle to secure the funding and policy protections that flow more readily to more familiar wildlife such as elephants and big cats, says Araluen Schunmann, director of the Pangolin Crisis Fund at the Wildlife Conservation Network, a US-based non-profit.

Rehabilitation plays "a crucial role not only for the individual pangolins saved from illegal trade and eventually released back into the wild, where some go on to breed successfully, but also for broader conservation landscape initiatives", says Schunmann. "Conservation requires public awareness and support," she adds, praising the APWG's efforts to keep pangolins in the public conversation as filling a critical role.

Since 2016, the APWG has facilitated the release of 85 pangolins into suitable pangolin habitats across South Africa, including areas where they were locally extinct such as the Manyoni Private Game Reserve. In February 2025 the APWG set up the Pangalorium, a purpose-built pangolin rehabilitation facility, in the Lapalala Wilderness Reserve in South Africa, with Skinner as its first resident vet. The centre gives specialist care to pangolins rescued from the illegal trade and serves as a base for research and education.

While the APWG was the first pangolin organisation in South Africa, in recent years a wide landscape of other bodies has developed, sharing the load of campaigning, retrieval, rehabilitation and release. The release of each pangolin involves a myriad of people, says Wright.

Action on every level is needed to dismantle the vast pangolin trade networks, adds Wright – everything from raising public awareness to building legal capacity and changing policies around pangolin-related crimes. "The key to saving pangolins species from extinction is collaboration and the sharing of knowledge with other pangolin range states across Africa," she says.

Still, rescuing and rehabilitating pangolins should always form part of pangolin conservation, Wright says. "You cannot conserve a species if there are no individuals left to conserve."

A pup for Ditsi

Ditsi, another pangolin pup, was rescued by South African law enforcement from a trafficker near Vryburg, a town in northwestern South Africa, in 2021. While Ditsi did not have injuries, says Wright, she was extremely traumatised and stressed.

Though Ditsi was shy and scared, she was able to forage when she was taken out for her daily walks, says Wright. Ditsi later joined Stevie at Manyoni Private Game Reserve where she went through the same soft release process of daily foraging walks followed by a safe location to sleep.

"It was a process that was repeated until we were satisfied that she was doing exceptionally well at foraging on her own and displaying natural behaviours," says Wright. "We also wanted to ensure that she had met the right target weight of 6-6.5kg [13-14lb] for release."

A telemetry tag was fitted on Ditsi and she was released in February 2023.

Several pups have now been born from APWG's released, tagged females, says Wright. They include Ditsi. "Two years [after her release], camera traps stationed outside her burrow caught footage of a pup coming out from the burrow with Ditsi. She was now a mum."

Seeing successes like these makes it worth all the work, Kriel says. "Rehabilitating pangolins is very challenging process with many ups and downs and losses. So those that make it back to the wild after all the efforts keep you motivated to continue saving as many of them as you can."

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Failing sea defences 'disaster' for nature reserve

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0q2kk4ek8qo, 10 days ago

An internationally-important nature reserve faces "disaster" after being flooded by seawater because of failing coastal defences, conservationists have said.

The 120-hectare (300-acre) Farlington Marshes Nature Reserve near Portsmouth is designated as a Special Protection Area (SPA), Special Area for Conservation (SAC) and Ramsar site.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust has highlighted a failing tidal valve and crumbling sea wall which are letting salt water flood grazing marshland and wash away birds' nests and reed beds.

The Environment Agency (EA) said it was working to find a permanent fix but estimated it would cost about £90m to replace the entire 2-mile (3.5km) sea defence.

The site is home to bird species including bearded tit, avocet, redshank and lapwing.

Jamie Marsh, director of land management for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, said: "This is a bit of a disaster", with eight hectares of reed bed already lost.

"We have a tidal flap that's not sealing off properly and we're seeing water flooding into the site.

"The elevated sea levels have flooded out a lot of these areas and consequently flooded out a lot of the nesting areas. So nests have been lost."

Birds have been forced to move to higher ground to renest and rebreed.

The tidal flap first broke in the spring of 2024. A temporary repair was put in place by the EA which is responsible for the sea defences.

Earlier this year, engineers installed a permanent replacement valve but that too has since failed.

Marsh said it had left the situation "back to square one".

"Habitats that were recovering are now back under threat and under pressure again."

Areas of salt marsh and marsh grazing like Farlington are incredibly important and rare habitat in the south of England.

Not only does it provide a unique home for wildlife but coastal fringes act as both a natural flood defence and a carbon sink.

But with rising sea levels due to climate change such sites are getting squeezed out.

Development and hard infrastructure - in Farlington's case, the A27 - means there is nowhere for the marshes to retreat inland. In the future, unless action is taken, there is a real risk they will be lost altogether.

But finding areas of land to recreate lost salt marsh on a large scale is a near impossible task on an already crowded coast line.

Dr Stefanie Carter, coastal eco systems scientist at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, described it as a "declining habitat".

"It is possible to create salt marshes and restore some of the marsh we've lost but it probably won't be possible to do this at the scale."

"It's similar to peatland where in the past they've been regarded as wastelands. In the past they were dried out for agriculture and now they're realising peatlands are really important."

"And it's the same for saltmarshes. We're realising how important they are so we're trying to prioritise restoring them."

Back at Farlington Marshes Nature Reserve, the EA has put in another temporary fix to stop sea water overwhelming the site.

More changes to the water control unit are due to be made later this month.

A statement said: "These sea wall assets are nearing the end of their operational life, and we have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds and officer time in recent years to keep them working until we can find a longer term solution.

"We fully recognise the importance of Farlington Marshes to the community in terms of flood protection, recreation and as a wildlife haven, and remain committed to resolve the issue as quickly as possible."

Costly fuel pushes more Indians to buy electric cars but challenges remain

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx21181yq4no, 10 days ago

Are electric vehicles finally going mainstream in India? A slew of indicators suggests the transition may finally be gathering momentum.

The market for electric cars expanded by a solid 25% in the year ending March 2026, while EVs crossed the important 5% threshold in India's passenger vehicle market earlier this year - a figure often seen as a tipping point for mass-market adoption.

"The transition is no longer directional but substantive," India's automobile dealers association said in a press note recently.

Adoption is accelerating particularly in larger cars priced above one million rupees ($10,481; £7,777), where one in every 10 vehicles sold is now electric. Electric three-wheelers and motorbikes already account for more than 30% and 15% of sales in their respective categories.

Interest in electric cars has spiked sharply in the last few months, particularly against the backdrop of the Middle East conflict.

India imports nearly 90% of its oil, and state-run fuel retailers have been forced to raise pump prices after keeping them relatively stable for four years, as crude prices jumped by 50%.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also urged Indians to car pool, use public transport and work from home to conserve fuel.

"This rising uncertainty, alongside elevated fuel prices, acts as an incremental driver strengthening the case for EVs," says Nomura, the Japanese brokerage.

But beyond these immediate triggers, several longer-term factors are also driving buyer interest, most notably upcoming regulatory norms, known as CAFE-3, which are scheduled to come into force from April next year and run until March 2032.

These "meaningfully tighten regulation and are likely to drive more visible acceleration in EV adoption", Venugopal Garre and Param Shah, analysts with Bernstein, said in a note.

India currently doesn't pair its EV incentives with stringent targets or penalties, something CAFE-3 will make binding, say Garre and Shah.

The draft rules seek to reduce carbon emissions in cars from 113 to 76g/km by 2032 - a 33% drop.

Moreover, unlike in the present scenario where "penalties of about a billion dollars in fines across eight OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) were never collected, CAFE-3 penalties might be", according to Bernstein, all of which will push the case for EVs.

Individual city-states like Delhi - one of the country's most polluted hotspots - have also recently released ambitious draft policies that propose to phase out conventional internal combustion engines and halt registrations of new ICE two and three wheelers by 2027.

Another tailwind will be a "healthy launch pipeline", says Nomura, which expects EV penetration in India's passenger vehicle market to reach 9% by 2030.

In the two-wheeler segment too, demand is expected to be driven by a wave of new affordable models, while EV three-wheelers are projected to outsell non-EV variants by 2030, accelerating the transition.

"India's transition is more concentrated in high-utilisation, cost-sensitive categories such as three-wheelers, suggesting that the adoption curve is likely to be non-linear, with PV and two-wheeler penetration accelerating over time as affordability improves, charging infrastructure expands, and policy support strengthens," Nomura says.

Yet, despite these encouraging signs, India lags behind major global economies in EV adoption.

According to Nomura data, China's EV adoption in passenger cars accelerated sharply from just 5.7% in 2020 to 53.3% last year. EU is at 20% and the US is at 8%.

One of the biggest challenges remains charging infrastructure.

Public charging stations have grown from 2,000 to over 10,000 in the last three years, yet infrastructure is uneven across regions with just four of India's 28 states accounting for over 50% of the chargers.

Moreover, the sheer gap between India and China on charging points is staggering: China has now scaled to 20 million public charging points vs. India's 10,000.

"Range anxiety" - or worries about whether a battery charge will be enough to complete a journey - as a result of charging limitations, remains a key deterrent for consumers, according to Nomura.

The gaps in India's local supply chain are another major point of concern for analysts.

India depends heavily on a global supply of rare earths that go into making batteries. And even though the government has announced a plan to ramp up local production, China controls some 70-80% of lithium and cobalt refining and nearly 90% of rare earth separation, according to KPMG.

These underscore the geopolitical risks to the transition and could both delay "India's EV rollout and affect cost competitiveness", the consultancy said in a recent report.

There are no immediate solutions to the challenge: building an integrated mining to battery pack or magnet manufacturing supply chain can take longer than a decade. India will need a mix of "short-term measures for supply security and long-term initiatives aimed at developing domestic capabilities", KPMG says.

More immediately, though, from a buyer's lens, the timely implementation of CAFE-3 regulations will be a key propellent, Amitabh Kant, former CEO of Niti Aayog, the government's think-tank, wrote recently in the Indian Express newspaper.

Despite being under discussion for three years, the standards still remain tentative, though a final draft is said to be imminent.

"In the absence of regulatory clarity, manufacturers defer investment decisions, supply chains evolve more slowly, and the broader ecosystem remains uncertain," Kant writes, adding that what will drive adoption is certainty of policy.

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Reform council vows to call off climate emergency

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgp77q3dg4o, 11 days ago

The Reform UK administration at Suffolk County Council has said it plans to axe the authority's climate emergency declaration and will review all environmental projects.

The council under Conservative rule declared the emergency in 2019, which meant it would look to reduce its carbon emissions to net zero by 2030.

Leader Michael Hadwen said Reform had "inherited a catalogue of expensive, headline-grabbing environmental schemes" after taking power last month.

Andrew Stringer, leader of the opposition for the Green Party, said the council's net zero policies had actually saved £4m over the last financial year.

In a statement, the council said it would look to formally reverse the declaration of a climate emergency at the next full council meeting on 16 July.

There would also be a council-wide audit of all environmental schemes across the authority to ensure they "demonstrate clear benefits, practical outcomes, or real savings in order to continue".

If they do not, the council says they will be stopped and money reinvested elsewhere.

"Our job is simple - spend Suffolk taxpayers' money wisely and deliver real results for our residents," said Hadwen.

"Suffolk has fantastic landscapes, strong farming roots and outstanding local food. That's our real environment and I want to make sure we look after it properly and improve it where we can."

Stringer said: "We are appalled at the news that Reform UK have decided to reverse the climate emergency and review the council's environmental policies."

He said that without schemes setting the council on a path to net zero, council taxes would have been increased more than they did.

Net zero refers to a state in which the greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere are balanced out by those also removed.

The Climate Change Committee, which advises the UK and devolved governments, says achieving net zero is more cost-effective for the economy than continued reliance on fossil fuels.

Reaching net zero CO2 emissions is also essential to limit global warming, according to the United Nation's climate body.

Richard Rout, leader of the Suffolk Conservative Group, said: "You don't have to call it an 'emergency' to take it seriously but you certainly shouldn't spend your first weeks in office pretending it's less serious than it is.

"By their own test, that a scheme must show clear benefits or real savings, the council's energy efficiency programme, which we refined in January of this year, passes comfortably.

"So what, precisely, are they cutting? The answer appears to be nothing."

The Reform-led councils in Essex and Norfolk have announced similar moves against net zero schemes.

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This fish species survived 100,000 years without males. Scientists thought it should be long dead – but it's thriving

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260601-amazon-molly-the-fish-thats-lived-for-100000-years-without-males, 12 days ago

All-female species have been long thought to be evolutionary dead ends. So how has one remarkable fish survived for 100,000 years without males? The answer is revealing new insights into how nature keeps genomes healthy.

In the rivers of Mexico and southern Texas swims a fish that shouldn't exist. In the warm, slow-moving waters, she drifts among her all-female shoal, her silver scales brushing against males of closely related species. It's here that she selects a mate. But in an unusual evolutionary twist, his genes play no part in her offspring. This is a biological heist known as gynogenesis, in which she uses the male's sperm only to trigger egg development, but quickly discards his DNA. She produces only daughters, each a clone of herself.

This fish is the Amazon molly, named after the all-female warrior tribe in Greek mythology, and it has been puzzling scientists for nearly a century. Evolutionary theory suggests that asexual species should quickly die out, as without sex harmful mutations build up in their genomes over time. But this female-only species has persisted for around 100,000 years. By conventional thinking, it should have been a fleeting blip in the tree of life. Yet, this small, unassuming creature endures.

How has the Amazon molly survived when theory suggests it should be long extinct? As new research starts to unravel this mystery, scientists are finding that asexual species may be more resilient than once thought – challenging the long-held idea that life without sex is doomed to fail.

Why sex matters

To understand why the Amazon molly's survival without sex is so remarkable, it helps to know: why does sex exist at all?

"Sexual reproduction is a pretty weird and complicated way to reproduce, right?" says Edward Ricemeyer, computational biologist at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany, and co-author of the new study on the Amazon molly.

Sex is costly, Ricemeyer explains. Individuals must find and compete for a mate, and each parent contributes only half their DNA. Reproduction is often unequal, with females of many species investing far more energy than males in producing, birthing or incubating, and raising offspring.

Asexual reproduction, by contrast, sounds like a much better deal. No need to find (and deal with) a mate, and you can pass on 100% of your genes. Yet across the tree of life, sex – the mixing and recombination of genes from different individuals – is truly dominant.

"If you look at the overall picture, it's 99.9% sex," says Dave Speijer, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, specialising in the origins of sexual reproduction.

One such reason, Speijer argues, is that sex allows populations to explore the genetic "space of possibilities" more efficiently.

During sexual reproduction, the DNA of two parents is reshuffled through a process called recombination, giving each offspring a unique combination of genes. It's a little like shuffling and dealing out a deck of cards, each reshuffle creating a new hand for evolution to test out. This means there is usually more genetic variety within sexual species, as every individual has a different mix of genes – a unique hand of cards – which is typically beneficial to a species' survival.

Sex also offers protection. Without this genetic reshuffling, genomes face a slow, creeping threat called Muller's ratchet.

When DNA is copied, explains Speijer, "there are always errors". In sexual species, these mistakes can be shuffled out of the gene pool, but in clonal species, they are passed down over and over again. Over time, these harmful mutations are thought to build up like notches on a one-way ratchet – degrading the genome, click by click, until the species goes extinct.

According to this idea, asexual species should be short-lived, doomed to genetic decay. Yet some, like the Amazon molly, not only survive, but thrive.

Speijer thinks part of the confusion could stem from how the theory is interpreted. "Muller's ratchet doesn't say, 'Hey, if you don't have sex, then you'll get mutational meltdown.'" Instead, he argues, it is better understood as a broader constraint on all life. Any system must have a way of managing genetic "mistakes" and sex is just one such strategy.

Seen this way, long-lived asexual species are not necessarily defying evolutionary rules, but finding alternative ways around them. "There are always mechanisms that take care of the mutation rate," says Speijer, even if we do not fully understand them yet.

An 'evolutionary scandal'

The Amazon molly is not alone. Across the animal kingdom, there are several asexual creatures that appear to have persisted longer than theory would predict, from scrub-dwelling stick insects to blob-like "micro-animals".

These species differ from headline-grabbing cases of so-called "virgin births", or parthenogenesis, in which snakes or sharks in captivity reproduce without mates. These are not permanent alternatives to sexual reproduction. When conditions allow, these animals return to sex.

By contrast, the Amazon molly belongs to an exclusive female-only club of species committed to life without fathers, generation after generation. How these long-lived asexuals seem to evade the fate predicted by Muller's ratchet is still debated, but some species appear to have remained genetically healthy for millions of years with no obvious sign of sexual rescue.

Enter the bdelloid rotifer.

"They have been called an evolutionary scandal," says Chiara Boschetti, a leading rotifer expert and zoology lecturer at the University of Plymouth, in the UK.

These blob-like creatures are about the size of a grain of sand, yet are surprisingly complex, with a head, a digestive tract and two tiny toes. Widespread in freshwater environments across the globe, they are part of a small group known as the "ancient asexuals" – animals that have existed for millions of years without reproducing sexually. In the case of the bdelloid, tens of millions of years without males, making the Amazon molly's roughly 100,000-year history look short-lived.

"Frankly, we don't know how they've survived for so long," Boschetti says.

There are clues, though. One of the most unusual of these is their ability to acquire DNA from their environment – a process known as horizontal gene transfer. Unlike most animals, which inherit genes only from their parents, bdelloids "steal" genetic material from entirely unrelated organisms – something usually only seen in simpler forms of life, like bacteria.

But, for Boschetti, that's not the most surprising part. "These horizontally acquired genes are actually being used to survive," she says.

Some are linked to surviving dehydration, others to resisting pathogens. "You can dry them, you can cook them," she says, referring to their remarkable ability to endure extreme and novel conditions, from spaceflight to being frozen for 24,000 years in Siberian permafrost.

But whether this DNA theft is acting like an alternative to the genetic reshuffling of sex is less clear.

"It probably is creating diversity," Boschetti says, but "how much the horizontally transferred genes are helping with asexuality is not quite clear yet".

Horizontal gene transfer alone probably isn't the full story. Boschetti believes bdelloids may be relying on a "mosaic" of mechanisms to keep harmful mutations at bay. Still, after decades of study, they remain something of an evolutionary "black box", she says.

Until recently, the secret to the Amazon molly's longevity was similarly mysterious. Now, a new study has shed light on just how the molly does it.

A 'copy-and-paste' system

"The theory has been missing a piece," says Ricemeyer, who co-authored the study. "And this piece was gene conversion."

Gene conversion is a form of genetic repair, and it's not unique to Amazon mollies. It occurs in many organisms, including humans.

In sexual species like us, each individual usually carries two copies of most genes – one copy from our mother and one from our father. When DNA is damaged, for example by UV radiation, cells can sometimes use one copy of a gene as a template to repair the other. This process, known as gene conversion, is often described as a kind of "copy-and-paste" mechanism. Eventually, it can make two copies of a gene more similar to each other.

In humans and most animals, this mechanism largely acts as a background process quietly fixing DNA damage when it arises. But in the Amazon molly, it appears to play a far more front-and-centre role in maintaining its genome.

Ricemeyer and team used whole-genome sequencing to compare the DNA of Amazon mollies across generations. They observed that sections of the molly's DNA appeared to have been repeatedly "overwritten", not through the genetic reshuffling of sex, but rather by gene conversion acting more frequently in the molly than in most other animals. Here, it appears gene conversion is doing something similar for the molly's genome to what sex does for ours – helping to limit the accumulation of harmful mutations.

To understand how an asexual species could be capable of such extensive gene conversion, it helps to look back at the species' origin.

Like most asexual animals, the Amazon molly arose from a single, chance encounter. Research suggests this event occurred around 100,000 years ago when a female Atlantic molly mated with a male sailfin molly.

Unlike most hybrids, such as mules or ligers, this pairing did not result in infertile offspring. Instead, it produced a lineage capable of reproducing without sex. So now, every Amazon molly carries genetic material from two ancestral species – providing the species with high genetic variation from the outset, a biological headstart against Muller's ratchet.

This dual heritage is likely key to the molly's ability for such comprehensive gene conversion. Because her parent species are fairly closely related, their genes are similar enough to mostly perform the same functions, but different enough to offer a wide range of templates to work with.

What's equally surprising is that this copy-paste process appears to occur more often in some parts of the genome than others.

"The kinds of mutations that you expect to be the worst, the most dangerous, the most deleterious, those are the exact places in the genome where we see gene conversion happening the most often," says Ricemeyer. The result is a species that appears to be in remarkably good genetic health despite 100,000 years without sex.

The implications of this finding reach beyond the Amazon molly. Understanding these alternative strategies for dealing with genetic "mistakes" could have wider implications for human biology. Harmful mutations, after all, are not unique to asexual species.

"Cancer is a disease of mutations," says Ricemeyer. Though he is careful not to overstate the implications of their findings, he says that anything that can further our understanding of genetic mutation – and nature's strategies for dealing with them – will be helpful in the long run.

As for other long-lived all-female species, Ricemeyer believes that gene conversion is "very likely part of the story in other asexually reproducing organisms as well".

Whether the Amazon molly has developed a truly stable alternative to the reshuffling power of sex remains an open question. Scientists still don't know how long gene conversion can keep Muller's ratchet at bay.

But for a fish that evolutionary theory once suggested should not exist, the picture of her genetic health is unexpectedly strong.

"We thought sexual reproduction was the only proper way to keep a genome healthy… But now we found out that no, there's another way too," says Ricemeyer. "There's a different route to the same result."

For more science, technology, environment and health stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

'Mornings and nights no longer exist' at 47C: A day in the hottest place in India

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crmp0krp98ro, 12 days ago

By 6am, the sun over Banda had already forgotten it was morning.

The light had the hard glare of a summer afternoon. Shadows were shrinking before breakfast.

In May, this dusty district in India's Uttar Pradesh state spent days at the top of an unenviable national ranking: the hottest place in the country. Temperatures hovered at 47-48C (116-118F) for more than a week, an extraordinary run even by local standards.

Yet what was striking was the way in which people adapted. Banda's more than two million residents - many dependent on farming, construction, transport and other outdoor work - had little option but to endure the heat. They were rearranging their lives around it.

Thirty kilometres from the district headquarters, the vegetable market at Atarra was already winding down before most cities had properly woken up. Farmers arrived at dawn with tomatoes, gourds, chillies, lemons and melons. Everyone wanted to sell their wares quickly and get home before the heat intensified.

"Look at the sun," said Himanshu, a trader standing beside crates of tomatoes. "It's only 6.15am, but it feels like 8-9am."

The heat was shortening the life of his produce as surely as it was shortening the market day. "A box of tomatoes must be sold today or tomorrow. In this weather they won't last."

Where trading once bustled until late morning, activity now faded by 8am. By 10am, the market was almost deserted.

The same compressed timetable governs almost everything in Banda. Between the blazing sky and the scorched ground, people do what Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuściński once observed in another furnace-hot landscape in Africa: devote their energies to "the search for shade and a breeze".

Pappu Verma, a mason, now works from 7am until noon, then again from 4pm until 7pm. The four hours in between are spent waiting for the worst of the heat to pass.

"You still have to complete eight hours," he said. "Whether you work continuously in the sun or stop and start, the pay is the same." The break saves him from headaches and heat sickness, but stretches his day to 12 or 13 hours. "Otherwise," he shrugged, "whatever I earn would be spent on medicines."

Around 2pm one day last week, when Banda's temperature touched 46C, three women road workers crouched beneath a water tanker on a highway bridge over the Ken river, eating lunch in the sliver of shade cast by its chassis.

One of them, Shanti Devi, walked six kilometres to work every morning and six kilometres back. Her lunch was bread with onion, salt and pickle. "If we bring vegetables, they'll spoil by noon," she said.

Then she offered a sentence that could serve as the motto of Banda's heatwave. "Poor people don't have the luxury of worrying about the heat."

Their refuge above the Ken was fitting. The river lies at the heart of Banda's struggle with heat. Researchers say sand mining and groundwater depletion have weakened its ability to cool the surrounding landscape, creating a vicious cycle in which water scarcity and extreme temperatures reinforce one another.

The heat's economic effects are visible everywhere.

E-rickshaw drivers find afternoons barren of passengers. Shopkeepers open before sunrise and shut between noon and 4pm. Customers have halved. Entire towns retreat indoors during the fiercest hours, emerging again only in the evening.

Mobile phones buzz repeatedly with government alerts warning of severe heatwave conditions. Stay alert, stay cautious, the messages warn.

Local hospitals are seeing a steady stream of heatwave patients. "Since the heat intensified, we have been getting 15-20 cases a day, mostly children and the elderly," said K Kumar, chief medical superintendent of the Women's District Hospital. "The most common symptoms are diarrhoea, vomiting and fever."

Banda's ordeal is a local expression of a broader trend. Across India, heat is increasingly arriving not merely as high temperatures but as a combination of heat and humidity that places greater stress on the human body.

The Indo-Gangetic Plain, which stretches across much of northern India and includes Uttar Pradesh, is regarded by climate researchers as one of the world's emerging hotspots for dangerous humid heat.

A dense population, extensive irrigation, abundant moisture and large numbers of outdoor workers combine to create conditions in which even routine labour can become risky.

Uttar Pradesh is especially vulnerable because of its vast exposed population, dependence on outdoor work and limited access to cooling for millions of households, according to think-tank Climate Trends.

Scientists say the region's geography and development choices have combined to make matters worse.

Banda sits near the Tropic of Cancer, a latitude associated with some of the world's most intense summer heat. Rivers run low, exposing beds of sand, stone and gravel that absorb and radiate heat. Concrete has replaced vegetation.

Tree cover has fallen far below recommended levels. Research by Banda University of Agriculture and Technology found that nearly one-sixth of the district's dense forest cover disappeared between 1991 and 2022, largely due to mining and agricultural expansion.

Together, these factors have made Banda increasingly vulnerable to extreme heat.

According to Dinesh Sah, a meteorologist at the university, the district has seen temperatures of 48-49C before. In 2024, the mercury touched 49C on two consecutive days.

But what made this summer's episode unusual was its persistence. "For eight or nine days, temperatures of 47-48C continued without a break," he said. "That is what was new."

Prem Singh, a local farmer, says the annual spell of extreme heat in the region is nothing new and is essential for crops. What worries him is its growing intensity. He blames shrinking tree cover, extensive mining, rising fossil-fuel use and the spread of air-conditioning.

"This has made life harder for the poor while the well-off haven't been affected as much."

The heat lingers long after sunset.

"It feels as if mornings and nights no longer exist," said Sah.

By 7am or 8am in the morning it already feels like afternoon. Overnight temperatures remain around 30C. The result is a population that never fully cools down.

In Achharaund village, 20km from Banda town, the struggle is less about temperature than water.

A single well supplies much of the village's usable drinking water. Every day, women queue with buckets beneath a white-hot sky.

Kranti Vishwakarma, 18, spends four or five hours fetching water for her household. When there are power cuts in the afternoon, relief comes from the shade of a neem tree.

"We don't have coolers or air-conditioners," she said. "For us, the neem trees play that role."

Nearby, an 80-year-old woman named Chunubadi sat beside a repaired table fan held together with string and improvisation. The fan worked, but only just. It blew air that was dry and relentlessly hot.

"The sweat dries," she said, watching the blades turn, "but these gusts are hard for an old body to bear." Then came a darker reflection. "In my 80 years, I've never seen heat like this. Old people die in extreme cold or extreme heat. I don't know whether I'll be able to endure this one."

Across the village, animals were coping in their own way. Around noon, dozens of buffaloes stood in a pond. Some shepherds were waiting for them to come out.

There we met 60-year-old Rameshwar Yadav, a former private-school teacher who now reared buffaloes for a living. Curiously, he was dressed in heavy clothes more suited to winter than a 46C summer day, with a shawl wrapped around his head.

"We wear thick clothes because they slow the sun's heat from reaching the body," he said. "Heavy fabric protects us from the sun and the hot winds. Yes, it makes us sweat, but it also keeps us from falling ill."

Like everyone else in Banda, Yadav had adapted. But adaptation and relief are not the same thing.

On Friday, a western disturbance finally brought dust storms and rain. Temperatures dropped by 8-9 degrees. The district breathed again.

But the respite was temporary. The routines Banda's residents have developed - starting work before sunrise, retreating indoors at midday, seeking shade wherever they can find it - are increasingly becoming necessities rather than adaptations.

Research by Piyush Narang and Ashok Gadgil of the University of California, Berkeley, estimates that Uttar Pradesh could account for more than 8,000 excess deaths during a severe five-day heatwave, more than many other Indian states. The burden falls disproportionately on the elderly, outdoor workers and households without reliable access to cooling.

Yet Banda's residents sound less alarmed than many climate scientists.

They have lived with heat for generations. What worries researchers is not that the district is hot, but that it is becoming hotter, for longer, in a landscape losing the trees and water that once helped keep temperatures in check.

The road workers sheltering beneath a tanker had shrugged off the danger.

"You'll get heatstroke," they warned a visitor. "We're used to it."

The Amazon's 'lost city' has been widely misunderstood. This is its true story

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260529-the-real-story-of-the-amazons-lost-city, 14 days ago

This sprawling ancient metropolis in the jungle of Ecuador has revealed a unique form of urbanism found only in the Amazon. Sofia Quaglia visits the site for the story of this mysterious civilisation.

Archaeologist Alden Yépez hikes through a field of bright green grass, swinging his rusty machete left and right to carve a path in the shoulder-height tropical pasture. He's following his handheld GPS device with a certain haste: we must make it out of the grassland before sundown. At this pace, though, it takes just a swift 30 minutes to emerge from the body-slamming vegetation.

"We're here," he says, panting. He and I are now surrounded by small, steep hills forming something like a labyrinth around us. Once inside the system of formations, its man-made nature becomes clearer – amongst the tall grass there is a deep, long path and eight mounds organised in a geometrical pattern. One hill has a path sliced through it, and I see its interior of stratified mud with different shades of bright brown.

Yépez is an expert in ancient Amazonia from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Ecuador (Puce), and this is what is known as the Huapula Site. It is one of the densest networks of man-made mounds yet found inside Ecuador's so-called "lost city" of the Amazon – a sprawling system of dozens of such clusters.

Local archaeologists have known of some of these formations for 50 years, but the sheer scale of this 3,000-year-old urban landscape has only recently surfaced thanks to new mapping technology.

The discovery has helped upend the long-held idea that ancient Amazon-dwellers were only small groups of nomadic hunter-gatherers: instead reinforcing the theory that they were likely organised into sophisticated civilisations capable of creating complex urban networks.

However, as we learn more about these connected mounds, it's becoming clear they were not "cities" in the classical sense we understand them today, but rather a kind of urbanism unique to the Amazon jungle: low-density and multicentric, harnessing the strengths and weaknesses of the surrounding forest.

What is still unclear, though, is how and why this intricate world was made – and what will happen to it now that it's been discovered.

The urban Amazon

It was after a tip from a friend that Jesuit priest Pedro Porras started studying the first earthen platforms of Huapula in the valley of the Upano River of eastern Ecuador.

In 1978, under the shadow of the gurgling Sangay volcano, Porras spent more than 200 days digging up 15 different areas of the valley. One of his most famous excavation areas in the Huapula site is where he sliced open a large central mound to see the stratification of mud – the one Yépez and I walked through.

In the 1990s, archaeologists began to expand on his work with other small, scattered excavations and preliminary attempts at mapping. Then, in July 2015, the Ecuadorian National Institute for Cultural Heritage (INPC) decided to map a 600 sq km (230 sq mile) area using light detection and ranging (Lidar) technology.

Technicians working for INPC flew over the valley in an aeroplane, shooting millions of laser pulses to the ground. Lidar uses ultra-thin light beams that seep through tiny gaps in foliage, bounce off the soil, and return reams of data that can be used to make intricate 3D maps of the ground.

It is several recent analyses of this data, released around a decade after these scans were first made, which have revealed that Porras' preliminary discoveries were part of a much larger picture than was previously appreciated.

The site contains a massive, sprawling network of almost 7,500 man-made structures, according to one of these analyses, published in 2023 by experts commissioned by the INPC. These include over 5,000 earthen platforms, around 1,500 hills and hundreds of rounded mounds, plaza-like areas, terraces and paths, roads, ditches and drainages.

The platforms were connected by trenches and roads and their use may have changed throughout the seasons, according to another analysis of the same data by French researchers in 2024.

A further team of archaeologists in Ecuador, led by Yépez, has created a publicly-available 3D mapping of the sites and is working on further analyses.

The ancient Amazonian inhabitants, it seems, were making huge, sophisticated urban areas, shaping the forest floor's mud to make hills and mounds atop of which to live on and congregate, as well as roads and potentially rivers to connect them.

A sprawling network

"It's pure compacted earth that they shaped, oriented and positioned," says Rita Litben, an independent researcher based in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and part of the two-person team commissioned by INPC to first analyse its data. "We're talking about natural elements that they modified into massive earthworks."

For centuries, it was assumed that before the 15th-Century arrival of the Spanish in Latin America, the Amazon's geography and climate meant it could only host small, scattered populations of hunter-gatherers. This was crystalised in the now-discredited theory of environmental determinism, popularised in the 1950s and 1960s by American archaeologist Betty Meggers, which said that the harsh and hot tropical climate of the Amazon would naturally undermine human progress.

But the recent Upano Valley findings add to a growing body of research using Lidar – with studies conducted in Brazil, Colombia and more – suggesting that the Amazon has actually long been the home of budding sophisticated civilisations systematically changing their landscape to fit their social needs.

"In light of this new technology, we have to rethink Amazonian settlements, we need to reconsider our perspective on what Amazonian populations really were," says Litben.

The platforms throughout the networks are mostly organised in patterns of three to six units around a plaza-like space, often with another platform in the middle, the various analyses of the INPC data note.

Most of these mounds – tolitas or montículos, as they are called by locals – are about 2-3m (7-10ft) tall and rectangular shaped, with sides around 10m (33ft) by 20m (66ft). The Amazonian civilisations likely lived on top of these smaller mounds, researchers suggest, because that's where archaeologists have found small remnants of everyday life objects like jars, grinding stones and cooked seeds.

But some networks are made up of much larger platforms, taller than 4.5m (15ft), sometimes even reaching 8m (26ft) and measuring as much as 40m (130ft) by 140m (500ft). This is where the Amazonians likely performed some form of ceremonial functions, the researchers suggest, because archaeologists have not found much trace of human activity or food.

"Lots of people were needed to create those platforms, there were many people living there, many people working, and many people transforming the jungle," says Alejandra Sánchez Polo, an archaeologist at the Universidad de Valladolid in Spain and the other co-author of the INPC analyses.

Several of the experts are now trying estimate possible population sizes – working backwards from the mounds and calculating how much soil each person could have transported per day to make so many of them. Nobody feels comfortable putting a number on it yet though.

"It was a big surprise to see the extension of these cities," says Stéphen Rostain, a longtime Upano archaeologist and director of investigation at the French National Centre for Scientific Research. "Some say 10,000, 30,000, 100,000, but I cannot say anything without serious data that can prove it."

An 'almost perfect' checkerboard

Rostain's work suggests that the mound networks were interconnected by a sophisticated road system. The dug paths were anywhere between 2-15m (7-49ft) wide and 5m (16ft) deep. They could run as long as 25km (16 miles) and may have connected the networks to other communities in the valley, likely for trade.

The roads are also surprisingly straight, despite the natural irregularities of the terrain. "We never imagined before that it was possible to get such a large site organised in a checkerboard, it is almost perfect," says Rostain.

Rostain suggests there were also agricultural fields extending over hundreds of square metres in geometrical plot systems with intertwined small drainage canals and terraces.

In the highly fertile soil of the area, the Amazonians cultivated maize, beans, manioc and sweet potato, according to his examination of starch grains found in uncovered ancient potteries. They drank chicha, a fermented maize drink still popular today, and, given how many fragments of drinking bowls Rostain has uncovered in his years excavating the surrounding Upano areas, he speculates that collective drinking ceremonies were likely very common.

"The Amazon was not the end of the civilisation, it was the cradle of civilisation," says Rostain.

Don't call them 'cities'

Rostain's paper on the Upano Valley made a massive media splash when it was published in 2024. But it also received some criticism for possible inaccuracies, especially by Yépez's team, and for not adequately crediting the work of Litben and Sánchez-Polo, among other things.

Rostain fervently rebukes Yépez's teams' criticisms and says he didn't know about the INPC-commissioned analysis by Litben and Sánchez-Polo (which was published in Spanish) while writing his own.

The wide-spanning news coverage saw Upano Valley's earthen formations garner the nickname of the "lost cities of the Amazon" and the journal Science featured Rostain's paper on its front cover with the words "lost city". But the designation left some experts uneasy. In a 2025 paper, Kathryn Reese-Taylor, an anthropologist at University of Calgary in Canada, examined the way the media has overhyped several Lidar findings, including those in Upano Valley.

The word "lost", she notes, implies something is "no longer known" or "ruined or destroyed". But locals and local archaeologists knew and studied the mounds well before the new Lidar work, albeit not fully grasping the scale of their networks. Comparisons with Rome, reported in media including the BBC, she writes, impart a grandiosity on the findings, noting its size "hardly compares with Rome".

Rostain for his part insists his research never drew comparisons with Rome or described the discovery as a "lost city".

Some even argue calling the Upano Valley's network of mounds a "city" could be doing it a disservice.

"They're kind of like the alter ego of European city-based urbanism, in the sense they're multicentric, low density, and so… a form of urbanism without cities," says Michael Heckenberger, an anthropologist at the University of Florida. Heckenberger was not involved in the Upano Valley studies but researches Amazon urbanism in Brazil and has popularised the terms "garden cities" and "galactic urbanism".

"All of a sudden, the Amazon is showing us an alternative form of urbanism that isn't, you know, in an evolutionary sense beneath European cities, it's a different type of urbanism, equally complex," he says. Heckenberger notes, though, that Upano Valley lies very close to the Andes and has a unique topography, so shouldn't be touted as a model of all Amazonian urbanism.

And there is still plenty left to uncover about how this ancient urbanism may have worked.

An unfinished puzzle

In the car ride between visits to the mounds, Jonathan Panimboza Deleg, a geographical and environmental engineer analysing the data on Yépez's team at Puce, shows me a live 3D render of the Upano Valley on his computer. Pointing to a cluster of small pyramid shapes, he says they could be montículos, but the Lidar data isn't complete enough to tell just yet. He says as many as 90% of these data points are still unclassified and could reveal even more segments of the network.

The current results also represent only part of the full Upano system, with only half of the area scanned by the INPC studied so far. Rostain says the INPC has released the remaining data to him, which he'll use to expand his 2024 analysis over the larger territory.

Yépez and Panimboza Deleg have another theory about what the mounds and plazas of the Upano valley were additionally used for: water management.

On one of my days out with them looking for montículos hidden in the tall grasses, the rain drenched us non-stop for hours, with rivulets sweeping under our rubber boots and the mud coming up to my knees. This climate is why the two researchers theorise that the networks of mounds may have actually been designed as "osmotic cities". Rather than roads, many of the trenches could have been drainage canals that would fill up like rivers and channel the water according to the society's needs during the periods of heavy rain. The plazas may have been water reservoirs, Yépez adds.

This theory would be "even more of a testament to how skilled the Amazonian people were at adapting", says Yépez. His research team is now working to corroborate this hypothesis.

Rostain, however, calls this theory "ridiculous" and unfounded – while the climate was humid and wet, he says, this was not to a problematic extent, and there was no obvious need for massive water‑management systems.

Who built these cities?

It's still unclear when these mounds were first created. In interviews, the French team, the INPC-commissioned team and the Ecuadorian team led by Yépez all tentatively suggest around 3,000 to 2,500 years ago.

Crucially, it's also unknown whether the mounds were all built and inhabited at the same time. Lidar provides a flattened screenshot of what structures remain now; it doesn't tell us when they were made or how long they were used for. If they were all built and inhabited simultaneously, it would mean the civilisation was large, highly sophisticated and likely organised with some form of management structure. Building them slowly, a few at a time, would have required far less organisation and a smaller workforce.

It's also not known whether the settlements had a large permanent residential population or was more about large numbers of people coming and going for ceremonial activities, for instance, says Yépez.

He suggests the structures could have been made to mimic hummocks: small, natural deposits formed from the debris of the nearby Sangay volcano. He thinks the Amazonians likely first used the hummocks as platforms for their homes and then decided to try to replicate them as their populations grew. "They were looking for the most optimal in natural landforms," says Yépez.

Other researchers have examined the extent to which the ancient Amazonians cut down or built around the forest, and how much they farmed the land around them. "These forests can heal themselves remarkably quickly, which is why it's quite difficult to tell where people have been in the past," says Mark Bush, a palaeoecologist from Florida Institute of Technology. The Upano valley vegetation we see today, he says, comes from changes in the past 200 or 300 years, not ancient times.

Exactly what type of society lived on these mounds and what their culture was like also remains a mystery.

"Little has been done in terms of more anthropological questions," says Florencio Delgado, a professor of anthropology at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito who is among the Ecuadorian team now studying the montículos. It could be theorised that to move these massive amounts of soil, there must have been some top-down management, a plan and some form of chiefdom, he says.

"There are still a lot of things missing in the picture,” says Delgado. One glaring problem is that there are barely any traces of the humans who actually lived there. Excavations in the area are yet to find any burial grounds, or any skeletons at all. "One of the most important questions for me is, where are the people?" says Delgado.

Not so 'lost' after all

In the "lost city" rhetoric that has enveloped this Amazonian urbanism, the mound networks are often described as if they were hidden from the world, far away from civilisation, shrouded under the thick humid canopy of the jungle, where no one would have ever found them.

That’s not accurate, though. Like in ancient times, much of the Upano Valley is currently settled by humans.

While the montículo complexes are officially under the protection of the INPC, many are on people's private land. To access the mounds while on our archaeological explorations, we had to ask local farmers for permission to hike their grounds, dodge their cows and jump over their electrified fences.

Some farmers are upset that they cannot properly sow their land and routinely attempt to destroy the montículos on their soil, according to Carmen Quito, who manages the 1,450 hectares (3,580 acres) of farmland area which enclose the Huapula complex. But other locals, Quito included, are proud of the archaeological discoveries and work hard to protect them.

In Morona, a province with jurisdiction over more than 5,300 of the mounds catalogued so far, a group of seven local history buffs have started an independent, volunteer warden programme to safeguard the mounds. A motley crew – a data scientist, an architect, a tourism guide and a designer, among others – they call themselves the Guardians of Patrimonies. Since summer 2025, they have worked to systematically report any mound destruction to authorities, educate local landowners on the history of the mound network and organise tours for curious newcomers.

More like this:

• Why pink dolphins are the Amazon's 'great thieves'

• The 'dark earth' revealing the Amazon's secrets

• Meet the all-female patrol guarding Ecuador's Amazon Rainforest

In Pablo Sexto, a town in the province, a small archaeological park has been built to celebrate its mounds. Situated right by the town's central square, it contains three big ancient mounds beside large white plastic letters spelling the word tolitas and signposts with historical information.

Yajaira Ramón Rodas, the town's mayor, says she believes that in time the tolitas will bring benefits to the area's present-day residents. "[W]e always say to our citizens, 'Here you are going to have something of great value.'"

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US kills leader of Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang in airstrike, Trump says

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp36z37knlko, yesterday

The US military has killed the leader of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua in an airstrike, President Donald Trump has announced.

"At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Niño Guerrero," Trump wrote on social media.

Niño Guerrero, whose full name is Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, was the longtime leader of Tren de Aragua. The gang is one of the most notorious criminal groups in Latin America and has been a target of the Trump administration.

The president has accused the group of engaging in "irregular warfare" against the US and declared it a foreign terrorist organisation.

Trump posted footage of what appears to be the airstrike, showing a green building with a nearby shed being blown up, debris flying into the air. Trump said the military action was "coordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well".

Venezuelan authorities confirmed their involvement in what they described as a "joint operation".

In January, American forces seized then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from his compound in a dramatic overnight raid to face criminal charges in New York. The US accused him of collaborating with the gang. The indictment named Guerrero Flores as a co-conspirator.

Since then, the US has sought to tighten ties with Maduro's successor, Delcy Rodríguez, lifting sanctions on her and pushing to collaborate on the extraction of Venezuela's oil reserves - the most plentiful on earth.

Under Guerrero's leadership, Tren de Aragua expanded into Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile and diversified from extorting migrants into sex-trafficking, contract killing and kidnapping.

It was originally a prison gang that Niño Guerrero turned into a "transnational criminal organisation", according to the US state department, which had offered millions for information leading to his arrest.

Guerrero spent years in and out of prison. In 2012, he escaped by bribing a guard and was then rearrested in 2013.

Upon his return, he transformed the Tocorón Prison in the northern Venezuelan state of Aragua into a leisure complex, complete with zoo, restaurants, nightclub, betting shop and swimming pool.

In September 2023, Maduro - then still president - sent 11,000 soldiers to storm and wrestle back control of the jail. Guerrero escaped - again.

In and out of prison, he was still able to expand the gang's influence, seizing control of gold mines in Bolivar state, drug corridors on the Caribbean coast, and clandestine border crossings between Venezuela and Colombia, according to the US state department.

By most accounts, Tren de Aragua spread out of Venezuela when the country entered a humanitarian and economic emergency in 2014 that made crime less profitable, and now is believed to have nodes in eight other countries, including the US.

The group, in part, operates by forming alliances and partnerships with local criminal organisations.

In Ecuador, for example, the gang is believed to work with groups loosely affiliated with Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, while in Colombia some have alleged that they have worked with members of the left-wing National Liberation Army guerrilla group, or ELN.

Under the Trump administration, US forces have launched dozens of strikes on boats they say are part of a large-scale operation to ferry drugs into the US, including those it claims are linked to Tren de Aragua.

More than 200 people have been killed in strikes since September, according to US media.

But the military has not provided evidence that the attacked boats were carrying drugs or drug smugglers, sparking criticism of the operation and questions around its legality.

Some legal experts have argued that the strikes could violate international law by targeting civilians without offering them due process.

The Trump administration has said the killings are lawful. In a statement to Congress last year, the White House said US President Donald Trump had "determined" that the US was in a formal armed conflict with drug cartels and that crews of drug-running boats were "combatants".

World Cup kicks off in the US with performances from Katy Perry, Future and Tyla

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g9g9xy9y7o, yesterday

The United States have marked their first World Cup on home soil since 1994 with a vibrant, high-energy opening ceremony in Los Angeles.

Southern California native Katy Perry took to the stage minutes before the players entered the pitch, after earlier performances from East Coast rapper Future and other chart-toppers.

The USA team are now facing Paraguay, after Canada debuted earlier on Friday, and Mexico saw its first match on Thursday.

The 2026 tournament is being hosted in all three countries and is set to be the largest ever, with 48 nations competing.

Also performing in LA were Grammy-winning South African singer Tyla, Brazilian singer-songwriter Anitta and LISA, from the K-pop group Blackpink.

Earlier, Canada hosted its own opening ceremony in Toronto, featuring singers Alanis Morrisette and Michael Bublé, while the match in Mexico City featured featured Shakira and Nigerian artist Burna Boy.

Ahead of the game, thousands of fans headed to the Los Angeles Coliseum, including four dressed as iconic American greats Elvis Presley, George Washington, Uncle Sam and Davy Crockett.

"Los Angeles is a great city. A lot of different people. A lot of different communities," said Tommy Paun, dressed as Elvis.

The foursome said they paid $1,900 each for tickets to attend the game, adding that their seats may not be the best.

"We don't even know where we're sitting yet. We know that we paid a fortune for the tickets," said Jonny Haug, dressed as Crockett.

Dressed as Mario and Luigi, Joe Lucido and Migueli Lipari, travelled from Detroit to LA for the Team USA game.

"We spent too many coins," on tickets, they said, adding that they travelled over 2,200 miles (3,500km) to experience the atmosphere.

"We're all here for the same reason. We love soccer," Lucido said. "Doesn't matter who you, are or where you're from. We're here to have a good time and watch the most beautiful sport in the world."

Wearing Team USA jerseys, Tony Hacopian and his two daughters, Zoe and Mila, stood outside the venue hoping to find tickets in their hometown just before the game began.

"There's so much excitement," said 10-year-old Mila.

"Go outside. Wear your jersey," added her dad.

"Enjoy! This is the best time, connecting everyone from different parts of the world."

But the celebrity sighting weren't just on stage. Hollywood turned up at the stadium too, with stars Owen Wilson, Paris Hilton and Sofia Vergara in the spectator stands. Ted Lasso star Jason Sudeikis also took to the pitch to lead a mini-flag parade.

Earlier in the day, Canada tied in its first match against Bosnia and Herzegovina - gaining its first ever point in a World Cup.

"We've very excited. This is a long time coming," said Peter Giacobbe, a Toronto native who is attending Canada games in both Toronto and Vancouver, the country's second host city, along with his friend Robert McIntosh.

"We woke up this morning realising that this is making Canadian history together," McIntosh said.

Fans of the national Bosnian team were equally excited. Hundreds arrived to the stadium in a separate march following the Canadian fans. Some told the BBC they travelled from their home country to watch their team play in the World Cup for the first time since 2014.

Others, like Bosnian-Canadian Layla Mesic, were closer to home. Mesic was at the stadium with her Canadian mother, who donned a Team Canada jersey while Mesic proudly sported the traditional yellow and blue.

"To even qualify to the World Cup, it's a big point of pride of us," Mesic said. "Today I'm 100% Bosnian."

She added that, to her, this is a once-in-a-life-time experience. "It might have cost an arm and a leg, but I'm here."

Alanis Morissette performed the national anthem to a cheering crowd. Michael Bublé, who performed with a choir, led the fans in the stands in a rousing rendition of Bring It on Home to Me, by Mississippi soul singer Sam Cooke.

Along with Bublé and Morissette, performers for Canada's opening ceremony included Canadian singer Alessia Cara, Palestinian singer-songwriter Elyanna, and Toronto natives Jessie Reyes and Nora Fatehi.

William Prince, an indigenous artist from Manitoba, also performed.

Organisers said the list of performers was inspired by Canada's communities and "rich diversity".

Across the street from the stadium, hundreds of other fans gathered at the Toronto Fan Zone where tickets to enter were free on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Getting tickets for the actual game "wasn't even a consideration for us" because of the high cost, said Torontonian Angela Aco, who attended the fan zone celebration to cheer on Canada.

But she added it has been a great experience so far despite the heavier-than-normal traffic around the city. "It's great to see people from all over the place," Aco said. "We just role with the punches."

Her favourite part of the opening ceremony? "Oh, Bublé did it for me."

While big-name celebrities are in attendance, neither US president Donald Trump nor Canadian prime minister Mark Carney were present at either of their countries' opening matches.

Instead, US state secretary Marco Rubio represented the White House in LA.

Carney, meanwhile, is in France for a working trip ahead of next week's G7 summit. He is expected to meet with French president Emmanuel Macron on Friday.

Mexico's president Claudia Sheinbaum also skipped her country's first game on Thursday, saying she did so in protest over the tournament's high ticket prices.

Fifa is also planning a star-studded show for the closing ceremony on 19 July, where it will host its first-ever halftime show in its near 100-year history, modelled after similar spectacles at the Super Bowl.

Headliners include Coldplay's Chris Martin, Madonna and Shakira.

The final game will be played at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

Warner Bros $111bn sale to Paramount approved by US justice department

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjwgled9jxwo, yesterday

Paramount Skydance's $111bn (£82.8bn) acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery has been approved by the US Department of Justice.

The approval marks a key development in the merger that will reshape media, allowing the takeover bid of the Hollywood studio, which owns CNN and HBO, to continue.

The pending sale has been filled with contention, from Paramount's battle with Netflix over the company to scrutiny over industry consolidation and worries about politics. David Ellison, the leader of Paramount, is the son of Larry Ellison, a major donor to President Donald Trump.

But it's not a done deal yet, as states like California are reviewing the sale and could sue to block it.

In a statement on its decision, the justice department said it had conducted a "rigorous" investigation of the proposed deal and found it was "not likely to result in harm to competition or American consumers."

Instead, the department said it found the deal would likely "increase competition across the media and entertainment ecosystem, with benefits for American consumers and workers."

Rob Bonta, California's Attorney General, said in late February that he was concerned any takeover of Warner Bros would further consolidate and limit competition in the entertainment industry, which has seen layoffs and cuts in recent years.

Earlier this month, Bonta said he would soon decide on taking formal legal action to block the merger.

A spokesperson for Bonta told the BBC said there was no update on that review and said it "remains under investigation".

More than 1,400 Hollywood actors, directors and filmmakers in April signed an open letter opposing the merger.

"The result will be fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs, and less choice for audiences in the United States and around the world," the signatories said.

Skydance merged with Paramount in 2025 and cut about 10% of its workforce in the process.

While people in Hollywood fear jobs cuts and the impacts of fewer studios being in power, Paramount executives have said it was looking forward to what they say will be billions of dollars in cost-savings.

By taking over Warner Bros, Paramount will become one of the most powerful forces in Hollywood, adding news network CNN, TV networks HBO, TBS, TNT, TCM, as well as studios DC Studios and New Line Cinema to its current stable of assets. Those include Paramount Pictures, CBS, Showtime and Nickelodeon.

Paramount's control of CBS News and its 60 Minutes programme has come under intense scrutiny for programming decisions that critics say favour of the Trump administration, including new leadership firing long-time staff and well-known journalists.

Warner Bros put itself up for sale last year and came to an initial deal with Netflix to buy some of its assets, in a deal worth roughly $82bn (£61bn) including debt.

Paramount made a rival proposal, which was rebuffed by Warner Bros, but the company didn't back down and increased its bid to an amount that Netflix said was "no longer financially attractive" to attempt to counter.

Those in Hollywood weren't excited for the prospects of either company owning the iconic Hollywood studio, which created classics such as Casablanca and The Exorcist. Netflix, critics argued, would further

ICE detains wife of US veteran in latest detention of military spouse

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjwglled85xo, yesterday

The ICE detainment of a US Army veteran's wife on Wednesday marks the latest case of a US military spouse taken into custody over immigration status.

Arelys Barahona Martinez was detained after a scheduled immigration appointment in Dallas, Texas, then sent to a detention facility in Oklahoma, ICE records show.

She is originally from Honduras and first crossed the US border in 2005. She later left the US, but returned in 2018.

"I just don't understand, we have a family here, and they're breaking us up," her husband, retired Staff Sergeant Wilmer Trujillo, told the BBC. "They're breaking my family up. She's my backbone."

The couple lives in Princeton, Texas, and married in 2020. Barahona Martinez has a 20-year-old son, Trujillo, 45, told the BBC. He also has two daughters from a previous marriage.

A DHS spokesperson confirmed Barahona Martinez's arrest, noting she illegally entered the US in 2005 and was subsequently released.

Barahona Martinez "received full due process and was issued a final order of removal from an immigration judge on November 2, 2005," the DHS spokesperson said. "The Trump administration is not going to ignore the rule of law. She will remain in ICE custody pending removal from the US."

On Wednesday, Trujillo took Barahona Martinez to an immigration check-in, and waited while she met with immigration officers.

"To us, it was as a regular check-up day, we were always doing everything by the book," Trujillo told the BBC. "I told her to do everything by the book. I'm by-the-book, I've been brought up military."

"We thought everything was fine, until an officer came out and said, 'Your wife is not leaving today'," said Trujillo, who served in the US Army and Texas National Guard for nearly 20 years before retiring in 2021. He also did two tours in Iraq.

Barahona Martinez, 40, eventually called her husband and attorney, Mark Shmueli, from the office.

"I'm stuck here, I don't know what to do," Trujillo told the BBC on Wednesday, as he waited in the office parking lot for news. "They don't let me see her."

An order of removal was issued for Barahona Martinez after she illegally crossed the US southern border in 2005, Shmueli told the BBC, adding that she was unaware of the order at the time.

In 2018, after she returned, again crossing into the US illegally, immigration authorities granted Barahona Martinez a supervised release. She does not appear to have a criminal record in the US, according to public documents, which her husband confirmed.

Barahona Martinez and Trujillo met at a nightclub in 2019. He asked her to dance, he told the BBC, and she told him to ask again in 15 minutes.

"Those 15 minutes went by, and we danced. And ever since we danced, we've been together," Trujillo said. "We always laugh about it: 'I'm glad I gave you those 15 minutes.'"

After they married, Barahona Martinez applied for the parole in place programme, which allows people who enter the US without permission to stay, and obtain residency.

However, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) rejected the application in November 2024, during the Biden administration.

Because Barahona Martinez still had an active order of removal from 2005, the agency said the request needed to go through ICE instead. Shmueli has been working to have the 2005 order rescinded, to eliminate a key obstacle for her to stay in the US.

Shmueli has now filed a motion in a Texas court to prevent her deportation until a judge hears the case, he told the BBC. ICE acknowledged the motion to Shmueli on Friday and indicated her case could be eligible for a stay.

"I didn't expect this to happen to her yesterday," Shmueli told the BBC. "I don't understand why after all this time, why they detained her. Because I've seen the opposite with military folks."

Barahona Martinez is at least the third military spouse in recent months whom ICE has detained during a scheduled appointment.

In April, ICE detained and later released Deisy Rivera Ortega, the wife of an active-duty US Army solider in El Paso, Texas, after she and her husband went to interview for the parole-in-place programme.

DHS said that Rivera Ortega was a "criminal illegal alien from El Salvador" who committed a "federal offence" by entering the US illegally via the southern border in 2016.

ICE also detained Annie Ramos, the newlywed wife of an active duty US soldier, in April when she and her husband went to obtain her military ID. She spent five days in detention before her release. Ramos is an undocumented immigrant who came to the US as a toddler, and DHS has said she not have legal status.

Immigration advocates, as well as ICE's own memorandums and recent detentions, suggest a shift in the government's posture towards noncitizen family of US service members. President Donald Trump also has set ambitious deportation goals, with an increasingly strict interpretation of US immigration laws.

During the Biden administration, ICE issued a directive that active service by noncitizens' immediate family was a "significant mitigating factor" in enforcement decisions.

"Basically: You better have a good reason for arresting the spouse of a military member if you do," said Rachel Girod, an immigration attorney.

But in April 2025, under the Trump administration, ICE superseded the Biden-era directive. A new memorandum includes guidance for active duty military, but does not mention family members.

"DHS and ICE value the contributions of all those who have served in the US military," a DHS spokesperson told BBC in a statement.

"US military service alone does not automatically grant lawful immigration status, or exempt aliens from the consequences of violating immigration laws."

Its subsidiary, USCIS, has provisions to expedite naturalisation for military family members.

In a letter to US Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that between January 2025 and January 2026, USCIS issued 113 notices to appear – charging documents that initiate removal proceedings - to immediate relatives of former US service members who had their parole in place requests denied.

The government denied family members for reasons such as a failure to prove a legitimate relationship, criminal records or posing a risk to the public, DHS stated.

ICE does not track related data, but the agency told Warren, "A total of 282 aliens comprised of both former members of the US Armed forces and their immediate family members were placed in removal proceedings."

Trujillo, a naturalised US citizen originally from Colombia, told the BBC that he was "proud to be a Texan, and American."

Yet his wife's detention left him "speechless," he said. "I know I'm not the only service member going through this."

"She's trying to be an example to all other immigrants that want a better life here," Trujillo said. "It boggles me that they're not giving us that chance."

'I'm going to have fun either way' - Canadian fans navigate split loyalties in World Cup

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpd3qjljw0yo, 2 days ago

Nikola Vukelic is torn on who to cheer for in Canada's first Fifa World Cup game against Bosnia.

The Toronto resident has been a football fan for most of his life, supporting local clubs in his home country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Witnessing the Bosnian national team defeat fan-favourite Italy to qualify for this year's World Cup was "surreal", he said.

But Vukelic has also called Canada home since 1999.

So, Vukelic's strategy is to mix his Team Bosnia jersey with Team Canada shorts on Friday to watch the match at home with friends near Toronto's BMO stadium, where Canada's opening game is set to take place.

The game's victor does not matter much to him. "I'm going to have fun either way," he said.

Many Canadians, like Vukelic, are used to navigating dual identities. More than 35% of the population - or 13 million people - identify as having multiple ethnic or cultural origins, according to the last census.

That multiculturalism has been on full display on the streets of host cities Toronto and Vancouver in the lead up to the World Cup, where watch parties are being held in an Australian bar by Turkish fans, in the parking lot of a Balkan specialty food store, and at an Iraqi-owned hookah lounge – to name a few.

It has also been a selling point for Canadian football officials ahead of the North American tournament, which in the lead up has been complicated by US visa policies, travel bans and politics.

In his opening remarks at this year's Fifa World Congress in Vancouver, Canada Soccer President Peter Augruso said the country's diversity stands out "in a world that can feel divided".

"Here, the world doesn't just visit," he said. "The world lives, works, learns, and thrives together."

For Adis and Amir Mrakovic, the Bosnian-Canadian owners of Mrakovic Fine Foods in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke, Canada's inaugural match against Bosnia is a "perfect storm", Adis said.

"And we're right in the middle of it," his brother Amir added.

The pair first came to Canada in 1994. Their father started the family business soon after, selling smoked meat products. Over the coming years, the store grew in size and began serving foods to the wider Balkan diaspora – they're particularly known for their grilled ćevapi kebabs – and has now become "a staple in the community", Adis said.

The Mrakovic brothers watched Bosnia's road to the World Cup with excitement, but not too many expectations. The national team had not qualified for the tournament since 2014 and was facing fierce competitors like Austria and Italy.

"It was a shock for everybody," Amir said, when Bosnia defeated Italy in penalties at the fateful 31 March qualifying game, where the winner was set to face Canada in the first group round of the World Cup.

The brothers quickly decided to host a large watch party for the coming Canada-Bosnia match outside their Etobicoke store, complete with a 26-foot screen, a DJ and of course, grilled ćevapi. They are expecting hundreds of attendees, some travelling from as far as Montreal.

The event is not meant to just celebrate Bosnia, they said, but also their Canadian identity. "We felt an obligation to bring people together," said Adis.

His brother, Amir, added that the best case scenario for the game is a tie.

Across the city in Toronto's Little Italy, the Azzuri's loss was met with stunning disappointment, as many in the city's Italian diaspora were looking forward to watch their ancestral home take on their adopted home.

A week after Italy's loss, dozens lined up to swap their Team Italy kits with Team Canada ones at Cafe Diplomatico, an Italian restaurant that has doubled as a gathering place for Canadian football fans for decades, as part of a promotional campaign by Canada Soccer.

When fans arrived to the front of the line, organisers told them that they did not have to give up their Italian jerseys after all, but could hold on to both - a revelation met with tears by some, Canada Soccer's spokesperson Paulo Senra told the Canadian Press at the time.

"It's very rare to be in a country like ours where you're allowed to have multiple homes in your hearts," Senra said.

Excitement is also brewing across the country in Vancouver, home to several match-ups including Australia versus Turkey, New Zealand versus Egypt and Switzerland versus Canada.

While Australia and Turkey may be geographically far apart, both country's fans will be gathered at the same Vancouver bar on Sunday for a watch party hosted by a local Turkish band.

Ilyas Kayran, a member of Istanbul the Band, told the BBC that rivals cheering side-by-side is a normal sight in the western Canadian city. "This is Canadian identity," he said.

Even Canada's own national team is a reflection of the country's diversity. Their captain and star player, Alphonso Davies, was born in a refugee camp in Ghana before his family emigrated and settled in Edmonton, Alberta, where he launched his playing career.

It's the third time the country has qualified for the tournament - this time as a co-host - and first on home soil.

They face long odds but the squad hopes to be the first Canadian team to reach the tournament's knockout round.

Among the three host nations, Canada arguably has the smallest role hosting the global tournament of the world's most popular sport. While Mexico has three cities participating, Canada only has two. Both are hosting 13 matches each compared to the sprawling 78 taking place in the US.

The price-tag for Canada, however, is still steep. The Parliamentary Budget Officer, an independent parliamentary watchdog, estimated the cost to taxpayers to be just over C$1bn ($720m; £540m) – or C$82m a game.

Like other host cities, the cheapest tickets to attend Canadian games cost several hundred dollars, prompting criticism from fans who feel priced out from enjoying the tournament in-person in cities where the cost of living is already high.

Hundreds of tickets remain unsold in both Vancouver and Toronto, and hotel and Airbnb demand in both cities is also lower than what was anticipated.

But federal and provincial Canadian officials have embraced their hosting duties. Adam van Koeverden, Canada's FIFA Sherpa and secretary of state for sport, called it a "once-in-a-generation opportunity".

As have fans like Vukelic, who admitted that the Bosnia versus Canada game he is highly anticipating is too costly to attend in person. That hasn't stopped him from soaking up the World Cup spirit and the "buzz" it will bring.

"The only thing we have to be careful about is the traffic here," he said half-heartedly. "Other than that, Toronto is ready for this."

Ex-UK political aide Steve Hilton would overhaul California as governor, he tells BBC

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd95x25e2nqo, 2 days ago

Steve Hilton, the former senior adviser to David Cameron, has told the BBC his bid to be California's next governor is a campaign to "save" the state from what he describes as overbearing bureaucracy and economic decline.

In his first UK interview since advancing this week to November's election, he said his candidacy was rooted in what he called the state's "rebel spirit".

Hilton, who moved to California in 2012, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the state's tradition of innovation and economic dynamism had been undermined by 16 years of Democratic control.

He is running as a Republican in the overwhelmingly liberal state on what he calls a "common sense" platform rather than party ideology.

Hilton has presented himself as a political outsider, casting his campaign as a push to restore affordability and opportunity in what he described as "the most incredible place in the world".

Ultimately, Hilton said his campaign would hinge less on party identity and more on a broadly framed appeal to pragmatism.

"It's not ideological," he said. "It is just common sense."

"The quickest way we can get more money into people's pockets is for government to take less out," Hilton said, setting out a platform focused on tax cuts, deregulation and reducing what he called "bloat and waste" in state government.

He pledged a tax-free threshold on the first $100,000 (£74,485) of income, sharply lower energy prices and measures to reduce housing costs.

Hilton had had an unusual political journey, from architect of the UK Conservative Party's "Big Society" agenda under former Prime Minister Cameron to an early supporter of Trump in 2015.

Asked where he now sits on a spectrum between Cameron-era conservatism and Trump-era populism, Hilton rejected the framing, arguing that both were political movements that did not define him "personally".

Instead, he linked his positions to a broader critique of stagnating wages and inequality, citing decades of flat real earnings for most US workers as a driver of populist politics on both left and right.

That economic argument underpins his message in California, where he blamed Democratic policies for high living costs and business departures, as well as homelessness and crime.

"The record is a disaster," he said, citing what he described as the highest poverty rate, unemployment and cost of living in the US.

Hilton dismissed comparisons with left-wing figures such as New York City's Mayor Zohran Mamdani, saying he paid little attention to that campaign.

One political challenge remains Hilton's alignment with Trump, whose approval ratings are low in California.

The president has endorsed him, saying Hilton would work with his administration.

Asked whether that backing might be a liability, Hilton insisted it was an "asset for Californians", arguing co-operation with Washington could help deliver policy changes - particularly on energy.

He pointed to fuel prices as an example, blaming environmental restrictions for forcing California to import much of its oil despite domestic reserves.

"I will work co-operatively to expand energy production," he said, arguing this would bring down costs.

Immigration policy also featured prominently in the discussion. Hilton, the son of Hungarian immigrants, described himself as a candidate for the "legal immigrant community".

But he said he opposed California's "sanctuary state" policies, which limit co-operation with federal enforcement on immigration law.

As governor, he said he would not obstruct federal immigration authorities, instead favouring a return to what he characterised as a more co-operative approach seen during the Obama administration.

Pressed on civil liberties concerns - including cases where people without criminal records have been detained - Hilton argued such situations would be avoided through better co-ordination between state and federal authorities.

Meanwhile, his Democrat opponent Xavier Becerra, a former cabinet secretary under Trump's predecessor Joe Biden, has framed himself as a candidate fighting for the California dream who answers to the state's residents, not Washington.

Becerra has said that Hilton would hand the state over to US President Donald Trump and questioned whether Hilton could be trusted to safeguard the Golden State against claims of voter fraud by the Trump.

"Californians didn't build the greatest state in the nation to hand it over to a Trump errand boy dead-set on throwing our progress into reverse," Jonathan Underland, a spokesperson for the Becerra campaign, told the BBC.

"Voters know Steve Hilton means higher prices, rights stripped away, and an all-out attack on our values — and they don't want anything to do with it."

Hilton's path to the final stage of the race has already surprised many observers.

He advanced through a crowded primary field in part because of a split Democratic vote, and he acknowledged the scale of the challenge ahead in a heavily Democratic state.

But he argued that polling showing a majority of Californians believe the state is "going in the wrong direction" has carved out an opening for a change candidate.

He also pointed to the size of the Republican vote in presidential elections - more than six million in California in 2024 - suggesting that mobilising those voters, combined with appealing to independents frustrated with the status quo, could be enough to secure victory.

A proposed ballot measure on voter ID, popular with Republican voters, could help drive turnout, he added. Hilton has said that he has not seen evidence of voter fraud in the state, but has called for electoral reform, including ending the practice of mailing ballots to California's 23 million registered voters - a practise that largely causes the state's slow ballot count.

The contest will test if that message can resonate beyond the Republican base in a state long dominated by Democrats - and whether a figure once associated with Westminster can successfully reinvent himself in US politics.

With additional reporting by Nardine Saad

Surrounded by Knicks fever, Spurs fans in New York need to celebrate too

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20yewjzp9jo, today

New York City is pulsing with more energy than usual in the build-up to the Knicks facing the Spurs in a crucial game five of the NBA Finals tonight.

But in a city fiery with Knicks passion and a championship on the line, it can be tough for San Antonio fans living in the same city.

"Spurs fans that live in New York City are just as much part of the city as anyone else," said Dave Rizo, owner of Yellow Rose, a San Antonio, Texas-themed restaurant in Manhattan.

If the New York Knicks win tonight's game in the best-of-seven series, they will clinch the National Basketball Association championship for the first time in over 50 years - a huge moment for the team and its fans.

Yellow Rose is one of a few local establishments recognizing New Yorkers with Texas roots and Spurs passion - and it tries to show up for them.

A cardboard cutout of Spurs star Victor Wembanyama's face, a Spurs flag and painted banner, and a signed card from Spurs owner Peter Holt greet customers. But while it has livestreamed the Finals for customers, it's a restaurant - not a sports bar - and the vibe is pretty low-key. Rizo says he's keeping it that way.

"I don't want to unintentionally add more fuel to any of the fire that's going on," the San Antonio native told the BBC. "I want this to be a safe space for people that are Spurs fans."

There have been a few instances of violence in New York City against Spurs fans, including one assault that landed a fan in the hospital and another in which a fast food worker wearing a Spurs jersey was attacked, according to local reports.

Both Knicks and Spurs players have condemned the violence and harassment.

'City's gonna be crazy:' Knicks run electrifies NYC, as Trump's attendance locks down arena

"We're just playing a game out there. And I'm all for passion, but with respect for each other. It's unacceptable," the Spurs' Wembanyama said recently at a press conference.

The Knicks' Karl-Anthony Towns echoed Wembanyama's sentiment, urging fans to "leave the physicality to everyone on the court".

Finals fan harmony is possible though, according to those on the frontlines of frenzied watch parties.

At Whiskey Tavern in Manhattan, manager Alex told the BBC that the bar has been packed on game nights - with both teams' fans watching together.

"It's fun, it's good energy," Alex said. "Everybody's here just having a good time and celebrating either team. It is definitely heavily mixed."

She said she hasn't seen any clashes or tension between the groups - and she's even seen Knicks fans reserve seats for Spurs fans.

"It's all just people here together, she said.

Bartender Markie insists that the sports bar where she works is a safe space for anyone to watch the game. But with a laugh, she also acknowledges that she hasn't seen "a single Spurs fan" on game nights at the bar, which has a capacity of around 250-300 people.

Doris, a Brooklyn cocktail bar, also is striving for fan unity - sort of.

It began calling itself a "makeshift sports bar" when the series started, welcoming all fans "whatever that hometown may be" - but with a not-so-thinly-veiled favorite.

Its Instagram page features pictures of Texas' Lone Star beer, a mention of a Spurs legend Manu Ginobili jersey on display since 2013, and "go Spurs go" in all caps.

"Doris loves the Knicks, too! We just LOVE the SPURS more!" it says.

Before game three, Rizo walked around the city in a Spurs jersey, and kept hearing "you better be careful" or, "you're really bold for walking around like that".

"I didn't really think anything of it," Rizo said. But when he saw on social media the harassment and violence against Spurs fans, as a New York transplant for a decade, he said it made him sad.

He is hoping for a Spurs win, but as both a New Yorker and a Texan, he's excited no matter what, he told the BBC.

"Either way, I win," he said, laughing.

Ticketmaster says Knicks fans won't be locked out of game after last-minute panic

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yz7gj4x3yo, today

Ticketmaster is seeking to reassure Knicks fans that they can still attend Saturday's Game 5 of the NBA finals in Texas, despite its limits on ticket purchases.

In a note on its website for the game, Ticketmaster said purchases by those living farther than 150mi (241km) from the San Antonio arena would be cancelled and refunded without notice. Fans coming from New York to see the Knicks take on the Spurs worried they would be locked out.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul posted on social media: "Knicks fans finally get within one game of a championship and their reward is having their tickets canceled?"

But Ticketmaster said no tickets purchased on its platform "have or will be canceled".

"If fans are purchasing tickets on Ticketmaster, they can be confident that they're getting a real, authenticated ticket that will get them into tonight's game," a Ticketmaster spokesperson told the BBC on Saturday.

A spokesperson for the Spurs told the BBC that individuals whose billing ZIP code falls outside the designated area "are unable to complete a ticket purchase subject to that restriction".

But, "tickets that have been previously purchased are not being canceled or revoked," the spokesperson added.

The restriction, meant to give locals better chances of scoring seats to major games, has been in place since the NBA playoffs began in April, according to the Spurs. But panic - and later outrage - grew after US media outlet TMZ reported on the Ticketmaster note on Friday night.

Hochul had said fans who bought seats for the game at Frost Bank Center should be able to keep them.

"Until then, on behalf of Knicks fans everywhere, I'm calling foul," she wrote on social media.

New York Attorney General Letitia James too demanded the Spurs remove the policy and allow Knicks fans "and anyone who can buy tickets for tonight's game to be able to attend".

After fans were reassured they would be let in, James wrote: "I'm glad our Knicks fans will be able to attend the game tonight in San Antonio. Go Knicks!"

A representative for Madison Square Garden Sports Corp - the company headed by Jim Dolan that own the Knicks - said in a statement: "Contrary to prior reporting, we've confirmed with Spurs ownership that they will not be revoking any tickets that Knicks fans have to tonight's game in San Antonio and all ticket holders will be allowed in to Frost Bank Arena."

Ticketmaster said it's common for teams to place geographic restrictions on anticipated events to give local fans a chance to attend.

Residency is established based on credit card billing address.

Mother finds body of missing son two days after Kenya's Ebola quarantine centre protests

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crlw3w84w30o, yesterday

The mother of teenager Sylvester Muigai Ndung'u found his body in a mortuary in the central Kenyan town of Nanyuki two days after he went missing.

Warning: This article contains details some readers may find upsetting.

The 17-year-old was killed on Tuesday in clashes between police and demonstrators during a protest over a US plan to build an Ebola quarantine centre at a nearby military base.

Lucy Kagure had been searching for her son in hospitals and police stations and eventually discovered his body at the mortuary, where he was listed as an unidentified male.

"When I found him, half of his head had been split open. His clothes were soaked in blood," she told the BBC.

Witnesses said Muigai had been shot in the head, but a local police commander, Daniel Kitavi, told the BBC that the authorities were still waiting for a post-mortem to determine the cause of death.

Family members say police officers suggested he may have been killed by a tear-gas canister rather than a bullet.

Kagure said her son had left home on Tuesday to collect his school uniform from his aunt when he got caught up in the unrest.

"The police used too much force," she said through tears. "Are they not parents too?

"I have struggled to raise that boy as a single mother, earning just 300 [Kenya] shillings ($2.30; £1.70) a day doing casual work," she said.

"I brought him up from nursery school to form three, and then they just killed him."

His family described the teenager as a well-behaved boy who was always helping out at home.

A leader in the local church said he had ambitions of becoming a priest.

Muigai is the third person to have died amid protests against the planned 50-bed quarantine centre.

The isolation unit at the Laikipia Air Base is intended for US citizens affected by the current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The plan has sparked public concern in Kenya about cross-border infection risks and the lack of transparency from the government about the treatment centre.

Last month, the High Court said the opening of the facility should be halted after a rights group opened a case alleging it posed "grave and imminent risks" to public health.

Satellite imagery seen by the BBC show that construction has continued at the airbase despite the court halting it.

The US official last week said the administration was aware of the court case but "optimistic we can resolve objections".

Kenya's President William Ruto defended the plan, saying he had received a request from the US to establish the centre and a refusal would be "inhuman".

He called on Kenyans not to politicise a matter "so serious" as Ebola, asking politicians to avoid "reckless" talk about it.

On Tuesday, demonstrators had planned a peaceful march to deliver a petition calling for the facility to be relocated. But clashes broke out after police blocked access to the site.

Police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse crowds, while protesters erected roadblocks and lit bonfires across parts of the town.

The Kenya Human Rights Commission, a non-governmental organisation, has accused police of using excessive force, including live ammunition and arbitrary arrests during the demonstrations. The authorities have not responded to those allegations.

But a mourning mother now wants answers.

"I want justice for my boy," she said.

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

'Surrender or face full force' of state, Nigerian president warns armed groups

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c17ydzqr70do, yesterday

Armed groups operating in Nigeria must "surrender or face the full force" of the state, the country's President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has warned.

Speaking during a national broadcast marking Nigeria's Democracy Day, he said that although the year's celebrations had been "dampened" by the recent kidnappings of school children, security remained at the heart of the government.

Nigeria has long battled with an economic crisis and insecurity.

Public fear has been reignited as attacks on schools and villages as well as mass abductions for ransom have increased, largely in the country's northern and central regions.

Referring specifically to the abduction of children in Oyo and Borno states, Tinubu said the authorities "remain hopeful for their safe return".

"Democracy without security is not solid enough", he explained, as he announced more than 50,000 new police officers and allocated record 5.41tn naira ($4bn; £3bn) to defence and security in the yearly budget.

Thousands of new military recruits have also been approved.

Defending his government's security record since coming into office in May 2023, he said that the military had killed 13,000 "terrorists" in the past year, while civilian deaths as a result of insurgents were down by 81% since 2015.

Tinubu added that more than 124,000 fighters and their dependants had also laid down their arms under a government initiative called Operation Safe Corridor.

But security analysts have said attacks are continuing to affect communities across several states, and are now spreading to southern parts of the country.

Civil society groups have mobilised peaceful marches across Nigeria's major state capitals, calling for action against insecurity and economic hardship.

Millions of Nigerians are left struggling as Africa's most populous nation is hard-hit by rising food and transportation costs.

Labour unions and civil society groups have repeatedly expressed concerns over the impact of inflation on ordinary citizens.

The president said the economic reforms - ending the fuel subsidy and allowing the exchange rate to move freely - implemented by his administration were necessary to stabilise public finances and restore investor confidence.

Marking 27 years of civilian rule in Nigeria, Tinubu also used his address to pay tribute to national heroes for their efforts in the pro-democracy fight.

He paid special attention to those connected to the country's annulled presidential election in June 1993, including the late presumed winner, MKO Abiola.

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

Kidnapped Nigerian retired general dies in captivity

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgq4veq2eqo, today

A retired Nigerian army general who had been kidnapped by gunmen in the country's north-west has died while being held captive, the military has said.

Maj Gen Rabe Abubakar, who had a high-profile job as military spokesman between 2015 and 2017, was abducted with his wife while travelling in Katsina state last month.

No group has said it was behind the kidnappings.

The abduction and death of Abubakar highlights the continuing security challenges facing parts of north-west Nigeria, where criminal gangs known locally as "bandits" frequently carry out kidnappings for ransom, as well as cattle rustling and attacks on rural communities.

Some militant jihadists have also operated in the region. An alleged militant camp in Sokoto state was the target of a US airstrike on 25 December last year.

Katsina has been one of the states most affected by the violence.

Local media reported that the retired officer had been going to a wedding on 30 May when armed men attacked his vehicle and seized him, his wife and their driver.

Days before news of his death emerged, a video shared on social media appeared to show Abubakar in captivity. He was seen with an apparent injury to his left leg alongside his wife and other hostages.

The military said it chose not to comment publicly on the abduction while efforts to free those in captivity were being made.

"In deference to ongoing rescue efforts by security agencies, the Armed Forces withheld public comment while every operational resource was deployed in the hope of securing his safe return," the statement said.

The whereabouts and condition of Abubakar's wife remain unknown. But a military spokesman said that "ongoing operations have since been further intensified to bring perpetrators to justice and to dismantle all terrorist networks threatening our nation".

The military paid tribute to the major general, who local media reported was 61 when he died, describing the loss as "tragic" and offered condolences to his family and former colleagues.

A statement said he made "immense contributions to counter-insurgency operations… His commitment to duty and to the unity of Nigeria remains a shining example for all personnel."

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

South Africa trolled by African fans in wake of World Cup loss

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2jewrxvmjo, yesterday

The normal display of African unity in the early stages of a football World Cup was notably absent from social media as many fans from across the continent backed Mexico in the tournament's opening match against South Africa.

The memes were light-hearted - including sombreros, mariachi bands and tacos - but they pointed to a dark underbelly. The banter reflected anger over the reports of xenophobic violence in South Africa.

A poor South African performance on the pitch led to a 2-0 defeat against the World Cup co-hosts.

As the final whistle blew, social media lit up with a flood of mocking posts. But some South Africans pushed back, praising the spirit of their team, nicknamed Bafana Bafana.

South Africa is one of 10 African teams at this year's expanded World Cup, with the US and Canada co-hosting along with Mexico.

Ahead of Thursday's match, some African football fans justified their support for Mexico by linking it to the current tensions in South Africa over migration.

"You want people to cheer for you when you play soccer just because we're African?" one X user asked citing reports of mistreatment of migrants.

"We're supporting Mexico so that South Africa can go back home early to protect their jobs," another user posted, playing on the unfounded accusation that foreigners were responsible for South Africa's high unemployment rate.

"I hope South Africa is not blaming African migrants for the 2–0 defeat and two red cards in the match against Mexico," posted Ahmednasir Abdullahi, a prominent Kenyan lawyer.

Others shared memes playfully embracing Mexican culture for the day, changing their profile pictures to Mexican flags and adopting Spanish-sounding names, under the caption "Mexico versus xenophobia".

Daniel Kaniki, a Congolese football supporter who was at a fan park in the US city of Atlanta told the BBC: "Africa is like one country and if one is chasing others, we are not a family any more. That's why I'm supporting Mexico today."

Though not everyone agreed.

Ghanaian Vanlare Quist, was also at the fan park and said he was rooting for South Africa, adding that he was "a proud African" and blamed the anti-immigrant sentiment in South Africa on a few individuals.

In South Sudan, fans at public viewing centres in the the capital, Juba, were also backing Bafana Bafana. People there have a strong affinity to South Africa, linking their fight for independence from Sudan to the struggle against white-minority rule in South Africa.

"It was unfortunate that on social media we saw some African countries supporting Mexico and even wearing Mexico jerseys. As South Sudanese, we are behind South Africa and will continue to support South Africa - because they are representing Africa. So, all African countries must support South Africa during this World Cup," 23-year-old student George Kenyi Charles Rehan told the BBC in Juba.

In a statement, the South African government commended Bafana Bafana for their "spirited performance", adding that while the final score was not what the nation had hoped for, the team "represented South Africa with unity, determination, and a sense of pride on the world's biggest stage".

South Africans on social media were robust in their response to the trolling.

"We qualified for the World Cup alone without your support and whether we win or lose we will remain South Africans who love their country. And illegal immigrants will still leave our country whether you hate us or not," one posted on social media.

Another said: "They can support Mexico all they want we are not backing down. Come to South Africa legally."

In South Africa, migrants from elsewhere in Africa have been the targets of violence and intimidation in recent weeks.

Anti-migrant groups have set a deadline of 30 June for foreign nationals living in the country illegally to leave.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has warned against people taking the law into their own hands saying that "only authorised government officials can act against violations of our law".

But he also stated that South Africans' concerns "deserve to be heard, and they deserve to be addressed".

On Wednesday, Nigeria became the latest African country to repatriate some of its citizens from South Africa.

Ghana, Zimbabwe and Malawi have already carried out evacuations, saying that they were taking the anti-migrant threats seriously.

Many people from other parts of Africa moved to South Africa around the time white-minority rule ended in 1994, hoping for a better life.

But with South Africa facing an unemployment rate of more than 30%, anti-migrant sentiments have risen, with protest marches being held in major cities and people facing xenophobic attacks.

Additional reporting by Celestine Karoney in Atlanta and Nichola Mandil in Juba

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

Who is the Somali referee barred from entering the US for the World Cup?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8j27zkp94zo, 5 days ago

Refereeing at the 2026 Fifa World Cup was set to be the highlight of Omar Artan's career, but the Somali will miss out on the opportunity to take charge of matches on the game's biggest stage after being denied entry to the United States.

The 34-year-old, who was set to become the first man from his country to play an on-pitch role at the finals, was turned away by border officials in Miami despite holding a diplomatic passport and a single-entry US visa.

"Every referee's ambition is to go to the World Cup," Artan told BBC Somali in an interview last week before leaving home.

"When you are selected, you feel that all your hard work was worth it. It was a moment where everything came into focus.

"Years of effort finally made sense."

Artan, who was named the best male referee in Africa last year and took charge of two matches at the recent Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), had been hailed as "a symbol of inspiration for the new generation of Somalis" by the country's President Hassan Mohamud after being included in the list of Fifa match officials.

The Somali government is mounting diplomatic efforts in a bid to resolve the issue, but Artan looks set to be excluded from the World Cup after rising through the officiating ranks in a country which has been troubled by conflict in recent decades.

The US State Department told BBC Africa that it welcomes "legitimate travellers" to the World Cup and adjudicates each visa application on a case-by-case basis "after rigorous review and thorough vetting".

It also cited "national security and public safety" as other factors in their visa process.

For now Artan remains in Turkey's main city Istanbul following his removal from US soil, but it is believed he will return to Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Wednesday.

An important mentor

Artan's refereeing career began in Mogadishu on neighbourhood pitches after a leg injury ended his playing days.

He unexpectedly first picked up a whistle during a local match when a dispute over the referee prompted players on both sides to ask him to take over. He accepted and remained in the role.

Artan went on to officiate in organised competitions in the city, although much of his early development came while overseeing informal and semi-organised fixtures.

A key influence in his early career was Osman Jama Dirac, the former head of referees in Somalia.

Dirac provided technical guidance and personal support during a period when Somali football operated with limited institutional structure and little international exposure.

"He was like a father to us," Artan said.

"He did not just lead referees, he took care of us. If you were in Mogadishu and had nothing, he would make sure you ate, he would take you to a restaurant."

However, Dirac was killed in August 2017.

Artan has spoken of the timing with restraint.

"It was very hard," he said.

"He was preparing me to become an international [referee]. He would have been proud to see a Somali reaching this level."

Rising through the continental game

Artan became a Fifa-listed referee in 2018 and steadily moved through the African game, overseeing high-profile continental fixtures.

In January 2024, he became the first Somali to referee at an Afcon game, taking charge of the Group E match between Tunisia and Namibia.

He was recognised by Confederation of African Football (Caf) as its top male official in November, before being appointed by the continent's governing body to oversee the second leg of the African Champions League final between Moroccan club AS FAR and South Africa's Mamelodi Sundowns last month.

In April, praise came from President Mohamud after Artan was named among the 52 referees for the World Cup.

"I commend the effort, professionalism, and integrity shown by referee Omar," Mohamud said.

It was certainly a proud moment for Artan - and one he knew was a milestone achievement.

"It was not just my joy," he said.

"My family, Somali people, the federation and young referees all shared that feeling. It became hope for them that a Somali referee can reach that level."

In the months leading up to the tournament, Artan described an intensive preparation routine.

"Every morning I was on the pitch," he explained.

"Preparation for the World Cup is not small work... physically, mentally, and in knowledge.

"In World Cup football you are dealing with world-class referees at the highest level. You have to reach that standard and stay there."

Refused entry

Artan set off for the World Cup via Turkey on Saturday, intending to attend a pre-tournament seminar in Miami where Fifa referees' chief Pierluigi Collina has created a training base for the referees and 88 assistant referees selected for the finals.

But Somalia is one of several countries on a travel ban list introduced by US President Donald Trump's administration, and Artan ran into difficulties on arrival in Florida.

He told the New York Times he was questioned by immigration officials for 11 hours, with the Al-Qaeda-aligned militant group al-Shabab one of the main topics raised by border and customs officers.

Artan was placed on a return flight after US immigration officials cited "vetting concerns".

All on-pitch officials at the World Cup must be based at Fifa's Miami hub for training, preparation and security, and that requirement means it would not be possible for Artan to only be assigned to games which are being played in Canada or Mexico.

Fifa appears powerless to intervene in the Somali's case.

"Fifa is not involved in host country immigration processes, including visa adjudications, and has been informed by authorities that Mr Artan's status will not be changed at present," the game's world governing body said in a statement on Monday.

"A host government ultimately determines who receives a visa and who is admitted into their country."

Somalia's government says it is "deeply saddened" by the circumstances while Artan expressed gratitude to the "football family" for their messages of support.

"I would like to thank Fifa and Caf for all their support and I promise to keep my refereeing levels up as I concentrate on the future," he said in his own statement issued to Reuters.

"I wish my colleagues all the best success during the World Cup and I look forward to joining them again in future competitions."

Africa will now be represented by six referees at the tournament, which kicks off on Thursday and runs until 19 July, with those officials coming from Algeria, Egypt, Gabon, Mauritania, Morocco and South Africa.

But Omar Artan will not join them after a historic moment for him and Somalia was scuppered by US immigration officials.

He told us we were slaves - The fight for justice on a Scottish fishing trawler

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg7d83nl7no, 5 days ago

Joshua Amissah got up from his seat in the witness box and stepped away from the interpreter by his side.

The end was drawing near in a nine-year fight for justice, in a case of modern slavery on a Scottish fishing trawler.

The 40-year-old Ghanaian walked a few steps to the corner of the silent court room, crouched and covered his face. He was composing himself.

"He told us we were slaves," Amissah said.

"He said that his father had told him that any black person he worked with, he must treat that person as a slave."

Amissah had been employed aboard the Sea Lady - a vessel owned and operated by the Annan-based TN Trawlers.

He told the jury at Hamilton Sheriff Court of the time he had confronted his skipper over his poor treatment.

The company owner was Thomas Nicholson. The skipper in the dock was his son, Tom Jr.

On Monday, Nicholson admitted breaching a human trafficking court order in a Scottish legal first.

Just days earlier, his son Tom Jr admitted failing to provide adequate food and rest to five Ghanaian fishermen while he was a skipper at TN Trawlers.

It comes after a three-year investigation by the BBC into claims of mistreatment of migrant fishermen by the firm over a decade.

On board the Sea Lady the work was continuous. Amissah and his Ghanaian crewmates had devised a secret rota to get some sleep.

Such was the lack of food, another crewmate told the court that they had resorted to eating fish and octopus caught by the dredges to survive.

There was no induction, no training, the court heard.

"As soon as we got there, he said we should just get to work," Amissah said.

"[Tom Jr] said there was no time and that we needed to go hunt for scallops."

"There was no rest during the trip."

Then, after three days of evidence, the case suddenly ended.

After some amendments to the charge, Tom Jr had changed his plea to guilty.

He admitted failing to provide adequate food, rest or training to his Ghanaian crew as he skippered the vessel in the English Channel over months in 2017.

'It pains us, it cost us a lot'

Amissah, who is still a fisherman, spoke to BBC Scotland News outside Hamilton Sheriff Court alongside his fellow crew member, Kow Mensah.

"What we experienced nine years ago, that was tough," he said.

"People don't understand because they weren't with us at the fishing grounds.

"You don't have any choice to say anything, or speak out or challenge. You don't want to say anything that will cause you harm, or your family.

"It pains us. It has cost us a lot.

"We want the whole world and other fishermen or other skippers to know that this is not the right way to treat the crew."

Because of Tom Jr's sudden guilty plea, Kow Mensah and two other Ghanian men – Gershon Norvivor and Kojo Attah – did not get the opportunity to testify.

But the court did hear how an injury to another crew mate, Augustus Mensah, helped the men escape their ordeal on the Sea Lady.

During rough weather in the English Channel in December 2017, Augustus Mensah, 55, fell and struck his head on the deck.

They eventually found a first aid kit to treat his open wound, but there was only a single bandage.

After the vessel travelled to Portsmouth for medical treatment, the police became involved.

Augustus Mensah's story featured prominently in the BBC's 2024 Disclosure documentary "Slavery At Sea" and File on 4's "Invisible Souls".

He spoke to the BBC again last week. He said he waited "nine good years" to tell his story to a court.

He said: "I was grateful to give evidence because they tried to deceive the public.

"It wasn't easy for me, but I am very happy that at long last we got our justice."

Tom Nicholson Jr will return to court to be sentenced next month.

While his case was prosecuted under maritime health and safety laws, it started life as an investigation into human trafficking.

Dubbed "Operation Feature", the probe began when members of the Sea Lady and another boat, the Noordzee, were taken in by police at Portsmouth after Augustus Mensah's head injury.

The men from Ghana and India were later recognised by the UK Home Office as victims of modern slavery.

However, in late 2022, the Crown Office dropped the trafficking case

The Crown said: "There is no longer enough evidence to allow this case to carry on."

But after Augustus Mensah and others applied for a "right to review", the case was eventually resurrected under the Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Health and Safety at Work) Act.

The case was the second time a member of the Nicholson family appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court to face charges of breaching health and safety at sea.

In November 2022, Tom Nicholson Jnr's father Thomas Nicholson – who led TN Trawlers – admitted failing to get adequate care for a Filipino crewman, Joel Quince.

He was fined £13,500 and ordered to pay Quince £3,000 in compensation.

That case stemmed from a 2012 police investigation – "Operation Alto" – in which 18 crew from the Philippines were recognised as victims of modern slavery.

This week Nicholson, 63, was also fined £2,700 after breaching a human trafficking court order.

He is understood to be the first person in Scotland to receive and breach a Trafficking and Exploitation Risk Order (TERO).

'Concerning case'

Nicholson - who remains under investigation for trafficking - was given the order by Dumfries Sheriff Court to prevent him moving vessels without providing non-European crew details.

He breached an interim version of the order when he moved his vessel Olivia Jean from the Netherlands to Scotland without providing documents to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).

His defence said this was a "genuine mistake" and no foreign crew were aboard.

Phil Taylor, director of the charity Open Seas, described the fine as "paltry".

He also highlighted the awarding of more than £250,000 of public funding to TN Trawlers while human trafficking investigations were ongoing.

"This is a really concerning case, and it's hard to understand how this firm was provided with public funding," he said.

"It shouldn't be possible for ministers to hand out tens of thousands of pounds to a business under investigation for human trafficking.

"This case shows how important it is for government to scrutinise the work of firms it is supporting with public money, and to publish details of historical convictions and ongoing investigations on the UK fishing vessel register, to ensure those who break the rules are held accountable."

Det Ch Insp Paul McNamara, of Police Scotland, said: "This investigation was a long running, joint operation between the Home Office, Border Force, Maritime and Coastguard Agency, and Police Scotland.

"As part of this, a Trafficking and Exploitation Risk Order (TERO) was in place.

"Breaches of the conditions imposed were identified through intelligence and Thomas Nicholson was reported in connection."

He said TEROs served a critical role in protecting those at risk of trafficking and exploitation.

McNamara added: "They allow police to step in at an early stage to prevent harm and disrupt organisations while we investigate.

"Partnership working is essential as we share knowledge and skills to target those who make money by exploiting others.

"We want to make Scotland a hostile environment for organisations involved in slavery and exploitation, to protect potential victims and keep our communities safe."

Chris Williams, fisheries section co-ordinator at the International Transport Workers Federation, said there was a "structural, systemic problem" in migrant worker recruitment in the fishing industry.

He said: "What we need is a solution that enables workers from the Philippines, Ghana, Sri Lanka and India to come into the UK fishing industry with employment rights, minimum wage protections, and their hours of work and rest being recorded.

He said the UK should not allow a "race to the bottom" where workers can be exploited and abused.

Williams added: "We should be paying people fairly and treating them fairly if we're so desperate to have them to keep this food-producing sector working."

In 2024, the BBC identified 35 men who worked for TN Trawlers and were later identified by the Home Office as victims of modern slavery.

The Disclosure and File on 4 production featured contributions from former workers from the Philippines, Ghana and India who alleged they had been mistreated by the company.

In October 2024, another group of fishermen from Ghana were awarded £20,000 each in compensation by the UK government.

The crew were rescued in 2020 from the scallop-trawler Olivia Jean, also owned by TN Trawlers.

TN Trawlers denied any allegation of modern slavery or human trafficking and said its workers were well-treated and well-paid.

Additional reporting by Carla Basu, Jax Sinclair, Penny Macmillan and Paul Ward.

'A World Cup for them not us': Fans' anger at US travel bans and visa restrictions

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx212p8r28eo, 6 days ago

When Iraq's football team qualified for the World Cup at the end of March, Abdulla Adnan bought tickets for his country's matches against Norway and France, which will be played in the US cities of Boston and Philadelphia this month.

"To go to a match, a stadium, a crowd, cheering, and see my team - that is worth the world to me," he says. "It's a feeling that no other feeling can compare to." This is only the second time Iraq has qualified for the World Cup - the first was in 1986.

But getting a visa is proving difficult.

And Adnan is not alone. Fans from more than a quarter of the countries taking part in the World Cup are facing travel bans, tighter restrictions or high visa rejection rates, analysis of travel data by the BBC World Service shows.

However, Iraq is not on Trump's travel ban list, so in Adnan's case, the obstacle was an unexpected one.

After the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, the US suspended routine consular services in Iraq due to concerns about security in the region. This means there is nowhere in the country where Adnan and other Iraqi fans can get visas, as they have to attend an in-person interview.

So Adnan travelled to neighbouring Jordan to try to get a visa at the US embassy there. But when he arrived for his appointment, staff told him that because he wasn't a Jordanian citizen, that embassy could not give him a visa.

The tickets for the match and the trip to Jordan cost him about $1,800 (£1,300).

Adnan considered applying for visa in Turkey, but the process could take up to two weeks, he decided that he couldn't spend that much time away from home. He has given up on trying to get a visa.

Fans from several countries have told the BBC World Service that other obstacles are also causing widespread anger and upset.

One of the barriers is President Trump's list with bans and greater restrictions on visas for certain countries, including four competing at the World Cup - Haiti, Iran, Senegal and Ivory Coast. This means their citizens are barred from receiving the type of visitor visa that US authorities recommend for fans.

Strict immigration policies and a clampdown on undocumented migrants were a key part of Trump's re-election campaign in 2024. US authorities say their system needs to be rigorous due to the challenges they face in managing the huge flow of people that cross the country's borders.

Julien Kouadio Adonis from the Ivory Coast's fan association, the National Committee for the Support of the Elephants says: "It's a form of segregation that doesn't dare speak its name, but the proof is there.

"No European country has faced this kind of restriction. Why Africa?"

His association normally sends a group of fans to the World Cup but decided not to bother even trying to go to the US because of the regulations.

Although he is relieved they will avoid what he called "exorbitant" ticket prices, Adonis believes a country that doesn't want to welcome supporters from qualifying teams shouldn't be allowed to host the World Cup.

"Football is a spectacle and a spectacle needs people watching," he says.

Forty-two generally wealthier countries benefit from a visa waiver programme, where applications are made online through the US's Electronic System for Travel Authorization (Esta). This costs about $40 (£30). There are no African countries on this list.

The visa that the US recommends for World Cup fans who need one costs $185 (£137) and applicants must attend an in-person interview. The State Department says they must demonstrate "your intent to depart the United States after your trip, and/ or your ability to pay all costs of the trip".

However, in May the US announced it would drop the requirement for deposits of up to $15,000 (£11,000) for people from World Cup qualifying countries Algeria, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Tunisia, provided they have valid World Cup tickets. Supporters from Senegal and Ivory Coast had to secure visas before December, after which the restrictions began.

Seneglese fan Aliou Ngom has been to the last two World Cups in Qatar and Russia. For him, one of the highlights of the tournament is seeing "cultures coming together from all over the world".

A training camp in the US for Senegal's women's basketball team was cancelled last year when several players were denied a visa, and like Adonis, Ngom thought there was little point him applying for a visa as fan.

BBC analysis of US State Department data found that the visa rejection rate for citizens of 11 of the 48 countries that have qualified for the World Cup was higher than 40%. This includes applicants of all kinds, not just World Cup hopefuls.

That compares to an average rejection rate for B1 business and B2 tourist visa applications – the type recommended for fans going to the tournament - from all countries of 34%.

The data covers the year from October 2024 to the end of September 2025, so does not take in football fans who applied in the last eight months. The 11 countries are Ecuador, Egypt, Haiti, Algeria, Uzbekistan, Cape Verde, Jordan, Iran, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana and Senegal.

With a high rejection rate, it is hard for fans from these countries to know whether to risk spending a lot of money on match tickets before applying for a visa, which they might not get.

If they do buy tickets directly from Fifa, they can resell them on the Fifa website for a fee if they need and can use the Fifa Pass system to speed up the visa application process.

"Fifa Pass is a positive step because it tries to move ticket holders into priority visa interview appointments," says Celine Atallah, who runs an immigration law firm based near Boston in Massachusetts.

But she adds that while it makes the process faster, it doesn't make it any more likely a visa will be approved.

"The visa system is the invisible gatekeeper of the World Cup," Atallah says. "Fifa can sell a ticket, but the US government decides who gets a visa, and CBP [Customs and Border Protection] decides who actually enters."

Even with a visa, anyone travelling to the US is not guaranteed entry on arrival, as border officials can still turn people away.

Abu Kass is the head of the football fan association for Jordan, a country where 57% of visa applications for the US were refused in the year to the end of September 2025.

"They've been rejecting people over the past three to four months," he says, adding that he doesn't know of a single supporter who has received a visa. The Jordanian supporters association in the US told the BBC it only knew of one Jordanian fan who had received a visa.

Kass says he took more than 42 documents with him to his visa appointment in the Jordanian capital Amman, where his application was rejected. The US does not give a reason when it refuses a visa.

"This World Cup is not ours," says Kass. "It's not for Arabs this World Cup, it's for them. If the head of the fan association was refused, who will be accepted?"

A State Department spokesman told the BBC that the administration was "prepared to welcome visitors from around the globe for the largest and greatest Fifa World Cup in history" and that "most overseas fans did not need to use Fifa Pass because they are nationals of Canada or one of the 42 countries that qualify for visa-free travel" or already held a visa.

It said that in every case "we will take the time necessary to ensure an applicant does not pose a risk to the safety and security of the United States" and that "we adjudicate each visa application on a case-by-case basis after rigorous review and thorough vetting to determine whether the individual is eligible under US law".

The Department of Homeland Security is concerned about people remaining in the country after visas have expired and says there were more than 538,000 "overstay events" between October 2023 and September 2024. The Pew Research Center estimates that in 2023, before President Trump's crackdown on undocumented migrants, there were 14 million immigrants living illegally in the US.

Countries that hosted the last four World Cups set up special visa systems for fans, although approval for travel documents was still not guaranteed.

Canada and Mexico are joint hosts of the tournament, but 78 of the 104 matches, including the final, will be played in cities across the US.

Canada and Mexico's own immigration and visa schemes differ from those in the US. Neither have issued travel bans for specific countries, although Canada, like the US, has recently put entry restrictions on countries affected by the recent Ebola outbreak in Africa, which includes World Cup qualifiers Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Canada requires people to submit biometric data for visa applications and there are two countries that qualified for the World Cup, Iran and Cape Verde, where Canada does not have any facilities where people can be scanned.

Canada does not break down visa refusal rates by visa type or country but it's overall rate for 2025 was 54%.

Mexico does not publish visa refusal data. It requires applicants to apply in-person at an embassy or consulate. Of the countries that qualified for the World Cup there are eight - Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tunisia and Iraq - where Mexico does not have a diplomatic presence for people to go to.

Additional reporting by BBC News Afrique

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'It was either killed or be killed' - ongoing nightmares of an ex-child soldier in Somalia

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98r7zxdxe7o, 7 days ago

Shopkeeper Yusuf Ali still battles with memories of his time as a child soldier fighting on the streets of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.

The 34-year-old became embroiled in the Islamist insurgency, which erupted nearly 20 years ago, and while the city's urban landscape is healing, few resources are devoted to those still suffering with the psychological scars of the conflict.

Warning: This article contains details some readers may find upsetting.

When he was 14 years old, a coalition of Sharia courts seized power in Somalia and provided some sense of stability in a country that had been riven by devastating clan warfare since the regime of President Siad Barre collapsed in 1991.

But the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) marked the first instance of political Islam gaining a foothold in the African continent since al-Qaeda's 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.

Policymakers in Washington viewed the UIC with hostility, accusing it of having ties to al-Qaeda. Its military youth wing was known as al-Shabab, meaning "The Lads".

In December 2006, thousands of Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia under the cover of American drones with the aim of toppling the courts just six months after they had taken over.

Ethiopia's invasion was deeply unpopular in Somalia and was met with fierce opposition as al-Shabab and its allies, including a coalition of splinter groups known as the Muqawama, meaning "Resistance", clubbed together to fight it.

At the time Ali lived in Huriwaa, an impoverished district in the north of Mogadishu.

Aged one, he had lost his father - killed while taking part in what has been dubbed the "Battle of Mogadishu", when Somali fighters infamously clashed with US soldiers after the downing of two American Black Hawk helicopters.

It was hard growing up without his dad, but it was the guerrilla warfare that overtook Mogadishu during the Ethiopian invasion that changed him forever.

"At night, I'd often hear a buzzing sound. I was in secondary school and didn't realise it then, but these were planes surveilling our neighbourhood," Ali tells the BBC.

By the spring of 2007, fighting intensified with heavy shelling and bombardment of densely populated civilian neighbourhoods suspected of sheltering insurgents.

"On one of the nights, a large barrage of shells hit our area and some of them struck our neighbour's house. Our house shook and I felt like the soil under my feet had moved - then I started hearing screams," Ali recalls.

Frantic residents struggled to lift the rubble and that was when he saw a lifeless body.

"Someone aimed a torch and I saw blood stains and a body lying nearby. A young girl that looked around my age, but she wasn't moving. I've seen death, but nothing prepared me for that night."

The family fled to the Elasha Biyaha district north-west of Mogadishu, which had become a refuge for hundreds of thousands of people.

But many young people, including boys his age, were eager to return to the city and fight those referred to as "Gaalo" - a term in the Somali language meaning infidels, used to refer to non-Muslims.

"From the sermons at the mosque that called on people to defend their country from the Gaalo, everyone was fired up," he says.

This drew him to Muqawama, which included former army commanders.

"They trained us in small arms fire… We practised hit-and-run attacks," he says.

Ali, by now aged 16, then found himself in Mogadishu with other young combatants engaged in urban warfare. They were given guns - but not paid - and would eat together with the other fighters.

Some of those he was trained to kill were also young, including Somali soldiers allied to the transitional government who were fighting alongside Ethiopia troops.

"Street by street, from windows and doorways, we were firing on Ethiopian soldiers and the Somali soldiers with them," he says.

"At times I'd find myself shooting… and as we advanced and noticed a dead [Somali] soldier was around my age, I paused but then would keep moving because the fighting was so intense. It was either killed or be killed - and this was a cause we were willing to die for."

He says Somalis fighting on the side of the Ethiopians were viewed as traitors for "betraying their country". The transitional government was recognised by the United Nations, US and other Western countries as Somalia's legitimate authority.

From 2007 to 2009 Mogadishu was largely reduced to rubble. Ethiopia, backed by the US, found itself coming under growing international scrutiny over its intervention in Somalia, as accusations of war crimes committed by all warring parties intensified.

Its army eventually withdrew and the Islamist militants left behind splintered and turned against each other. One moderate faction joined the interim government against the hardliners.

Ali found himself at a crossroads, questioning if it was a war worth fighting: "Some of the men I fought alongside were now fighting their former comrades.

"My mother and siblings wanted better for me. And so did my uncle - and he urged my family to let me go to South Africa and live with him to start afresh."

In 2009, Ali was smuggled to Johannesburg by road where he remained for five years working in his uncle's shop.

But xenophobic attacks in South Africa - that often target outlets owned by foreigners - drove him home to Mogadishu.

He found a city rebuilding itself: a functioning airport, paved roads some lined with restaurants and street lighting keeping once-feared neighbourhoods alight after dark.

But politically it was a mess. Al-Shabab had morphed into a powerful, hardline militant group controlling large swathes of the country outside Mogadishu where it imposed a strict form of Islam, including restrictive dress codes and banning music.

It had a large network of spies inside the city - and organised frequent targeted assassinations against those working in the fledgling government, which was backed by the international community and an African Union force.

"No-one trusted each other. No-one dared to speak about politics publicly. Your own neighbours could be spying on you and you wouldn't even know it."

He felt partly to blame for how his community had been impacted: "We fought to defend our country, people and religion but only made things worse on them all these years later."

Even now - married and with a four-year-old son - Ali is constantly reminded of the battles.

"I still recognise some of the houses I had shot my gun from and wonder if the current family living there knows about the blood stains that once covered their home."

He has never had any counselling or other help to get over his experiences - nor have other ex-child soldiers he knows who have become drug addicts.

"In Somalia, we don't talk about our problems," he says.

"I try to find peace through prayer. We pray and keep things to ourselves. This is the culture here and is the reason why many people are hurting but most don't realise it."

Ilyas Adam, a human rights legal consultant with the Coalition of Somali Human Rights Defenders, says such mental anguish is widespread among young Somalis.

"The normalisation of violence in some areas means that trauma often goes unrecognised and untreated, making it a silent but pervasive crisis," he tells the BBC.

"When trauma is normalised, oftentimes individuals do not recognise their need for help. Complicating matters are the cultural barriers, where mental health is not openly discussed."

He feels post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be as debilitating as combat.

"The long-term effects include chronic mental health conditions, social exclusion and stigma or increased risk of re-recruitment or involvement in violence," Adam says.

A 2021 World Health Organization report said Somalia's mental health services were almost non-existent - with no community-based services. A WHO official quoted two years later said there were only 82 mental health professionals in the whole country.

Armed groups continue to recruit children in Somalia with more than 2,800 cases recorded by the UN between 2021 and 2024.

The use of children in combat - some as young as eight - was mainly by al-Shabab, still considered one of al-Qaeda's most successful affiliates, but the UN report did find 101 cases in the government forces.

Mursal Khalif, an MP and head of the Ministry of Defence's Child Protection Unit, says efforts to stop such recruitment can face resistance - "some even viewed it as a Western agenda".

But he says things are improving slowly with initiatives like vocational schools for former child soldiers.

Yet in Huriwaa, where Ali lives once more with his family, there are no state services - it is a neighbourhood still feared because it used to be an al-Shabab stronghold.

Government officials and employees of international organisations rarely venture into the area, and if they do, it is always under tight security.

At sunset, the call to prayer echoes as Ali heads to his local mosque - the site of a deadly raid in 2008 by Ethiopian forces who abducted 41 children suspected to be insurgent trainees.

After an outcry the children were all freed, but for Ali the mosque remains a reminder of the outrages of the past - and those the Somali people continue to suffer - and what appears to be the country's "never-ending cycle of violence".

The government is still battling al-Shabab, while this week government forces and opposition fighters exchanged gunfire in Mogadishu in a row over delayed elections.

"The fighting is still ongoing, people are suffering and two decades later, more countries than ever before have troops deployed in Somalia."

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

The cash-in-the-sofa saga that just won't go away for South Africa's president

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy429dv9kk0o, 8 days ago

Just like Watergate in the US, South Africa's "Farmgate" scandal started with a break-in but has since spiralled into something that could threaten the future of the sitting president.

Cyril Ramaphosa now faces the possibility of being removed from office as MPs have taken the unprecedented step of setting up a committee that will recommend whether or not he should be impeached.

This issue first came up in parliament in 2022, but last month, the county's highest court ruled that MPs had violated the constitution by blocking moves to impeach Ramaphosa.

At that time, the president's African National Congress (ANC) controlled more than half the seats in parliament, but after the 2024 election, he no longer has that majority to rely on.

What is Ramaphosa actually accused of doing?

It all started back in 2020 with a robbery at the president's private farm in Phala Phala, Limpopo province. Thieves broke in and allegedly stole $580,000 (£430,000) in US dollar bills that had been stuffed into a sofa.

But details only came out two years later when the country's former spy chief, Arthur Fraser, highlighted the alleged theft in an explosive dossier that he sent to the police.

Fraser, a close ally of former President Jacob Zuma, who Ramaphosa replaced, accused the head of state of hiding the theft from the police and tax authorities.

At the time Ramaphosa said there was "no basis for the claims of criminal conduct".

As the stolen cash was in foreign currency, it meant that exchange control laws could also have been contravened.

The reserve bank looked into the issue and found that there were no violations of the exchange control act and the public protector, who investigates allegations of abuse of power, found no wrongdoing on the president's part.

But parliament also began an impeachment process and established an independent panel to investigate the allegations.

It came to some damning findings, including saying there was "substantial doubt about the legitimacy of the source of the currency that was stolen" and concluding that Ramaphosa "has a case to answer".

What did the president say?

Ramaphosa has always been clear that he did not do anything wrong and resisted calls to resign.

In 2022, he confirmed that a robbery had taken place and that the money - he gave a figure of $580,000, though Fraser had mentioned $4m - had been from the legitimate sale of buffalo from his livestock business.

In response to the independent panel's report, he filed a legal application to have the report set aside.

That was dropped once parliament had voted against accepting the report but the president has since revived it, arguing that the independent panel had "misconceived its mandate, misjudged the information placed before it and misinterpreted the four charges advanced against me".

How does the impeachment process work?

According to South African law, the president can be removed for:

* violating the constitution or law

* serious misconduct or

* an inability to perform the functions of the job.

Ramaphosa is accused of violating the first two.

Parliamentary rules spell out the process followed for impeachment.

The independent panel's report is part of that process, but now a committee of MPs has been established to examine the charges against the president and make a recommendation.

If it recommends impeachment, the matter is put to a vote.

But according to the constitution, at least two-thirds of MPs must vote to remove the president.

Is Ramaphosa likely to be impeached?

The two-thirds rule may be what saves the president.

Ramaphosa needs at least 133 MPs to reject an impeachment motion and the ANC currently has 159 seats in the National Assembly.

Political analyst Sandile Swana told the BBC it was unlikely that the ANC MPs would turn on Ramaphosa if it came down to a vote.

"The ANC has made it clear that it is not in the business of impeaching its own president, regardless of the facts," he said.

What is less clear is which way the MPs from the other parties in the 10-party governing coalition will vote.

Ramaphosa has not always enjoyed smooth relations with the second-largest party in government - the Democratic Alliance (DA).

"The work of the committee must continue [and] … should not be unnecessarily delayed," DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis was quoted as saying by local publication IOL News.

Makashule Gana, a member of another coalition partner Rise Mzansi, has been elected as chairperson of the impeachment committee. He said Ramaphosa's legal challenge to the report would "not stop the work of the committee".

Smaller parties in the coalition, like the Patriotic Alliance, have thrown their weight behind Ramaphosa and vowed to vote against impeachment.

Of course, the president's legal challenge to the 2022 report, which is due to be heard in September, may stop all this in its tracks.

Richard Calland, public law professor at the University of Cape Town, argued that there was a "good chance" the president would be successful. He believes the panel's report was "flawed" and riddled with "errors in law".

"It would make no sense to continue with the impeachment committee while that application is being dealt with," he said.

Ramaphosa has said he will not seek to prevent the committee from operating while it carries out preparatory work but will do so if it gets under way while legal proceedings are in place.

Has this ever happened before?

Ramaphosa is the first president to face impeachment proceedings under new rules introduced in 2018.

These introduced the creation of an independent panel and an impeachment committee.

In 2016, Zuma faced and survived an impeachment vote in parliament thanks to the ANC's large parliamentary majority.

He faced the vote after the Constitutional Court said he had breached the constitution by failing to repay public money used to upgrade his private home in KwaZulu-Natal.

What does this mean for Ramaphosa's political future, and the ANC?

According to Calland, if it gets to a vote in parliament, opposition parties most likely know the impeachment vote will fail because of the numbers, but "they want to harm the president and… the ANC through this process".

Ramaphosa's credibility and authority could well take a knock but as, under the two-term rule, he is unable to become president again after the 2029 election, he himself will not suffer at the ballot box.

The ANC, though, has removed two previous presidents as party leader - Zuma and Thabo Mbeki - once it felt they may be a liability and it could do that again in 2027 if it feels its electoral chances are taking a hit with Ramaphosa in charge.

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

What is Ebola and why is stopping the latest outbreak so difficult?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz72p75zg4qo, yesterday

An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been declared a public health emergency of international concern, by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The latest outbreak is challenging because it involves a rare species of Ebola for which there is no vaccine, and the epicentre is in an area affected by conflict.

What is Ebola and what are the symptoms?

Ebola is a rare but deadly disease caused by a virus.

Ebola viruses normally infect animals, typically fruit bats, but outbreaks among humans can sometimes start when people eat or handle infected animals.

It takes two to 21 days for symptoms to appear. They come on suddenly and start like the flu or malaria, with fever, headache and tiredness.

As the disease progresses, vomiting and diarrhoea develop and it can lead to organ failure. Some, but not all, patients develop internal and external bleeding.

The virus spreads from one person to another by contact with infected bodily fluids such as blood or vomit.

Ebola outbreaks used to be small and contained to remote rural areas. However, urbanisation is pushing larger populations closer to these natural reservoirs of Ebola and increasing the risk of transmission.

Why is this Ebola outbreak different and is there a vaccine?

This outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo species of Ebola, which had not been seen for over a decade.

Named after a district in Uganda where it was first detected, Bundibugyo has only caused two previous outbreaks - in 2007 and 2012.

One study showed that it killed about a third of those infected, far less than the more common Zaire (66.6%) and Sudan (48.5%) species.

Initial blood tests for Ebola in the affected areas were negative as they were designed to identify the more common species of the disease.

There is no approved vaccine for Bundibugyo, but experimental ones are in development. It is possible that a vaccine for the Zaire species may offer some protection.

There are also no drugs that target Bundibugyo, making it harder to treat. The WHO has recommended the evaluation - under strict protocols - of the experimental anti-viral drug obeldesivir, developed during Covid, to see if it is effective in stopping those who have been in contact with Ebola patients from getting sick.

A further complication is that the outbreak is taking place in a conflict zone, with a quarter of million people displaced from their homes and people moving across porous borders into neighbouring countries.

Trish Newport, from medical charity Doctors Without Borders, who is heavily involved in efforts to tackle the outbreak, told the BBC World Service that territory constantly changed hands between different armed groups, making it difficult for emergency response teams to simply drive to Ebola hot-spots.

She pointed out that a further problem was bad roads, with a 90km (56-mile) journey from Bunia city to Mongbwalu, one of two gold-mining towns where the majority of cases have been reported, taking more than three hours.

However, the WHO's declaration of a public health emergency of international concern does not mean we are in the early stages of a Covid-style pandemic. The risk Ebola poses outside Central and East Africa is minimal.

How did the current Ebola outbreak start?

The first known case was a nurse who developed symptoms on 24 April, which means the virus had been spreading undetected for weeks.

The nurse died in Bunia, the capital of eastern DR Congo's Ituri province, according to Congolese Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba.

The victim's body was repatriated to Mongbwalu.

Kamba said one of the reasons the virus spread so quickly was the number of people exposed to the body during the funeral ceremony.

Africa's public health agency, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), told the BBC World Service that funerals were a particular concern, as they also helped spread the disease during previous outbreaks.

Africa CDC director Dr Jean Kaseya said public health information campaigns were "providing information on how to handle funerals" and the importance of basic hygiene and sanitation, as well as providing protection measures for health workers.

Kamba said there had been delays in reporting Ebola cases because infected communities believed the disease to be "witchcraft" or a "mystical illness", resulting in people seeking treatment from prayer centres and witchdoctors rather than hospitals.

How many Ebola cases have been reported and where are they?

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic".

On 10 June, the WHO said there had been 635 confirmed cases, including 127 deaths from the virus in DR Congo.

These figures are lower than those mentioned in earlier reports as they had reflected suspected cases, many of whom later tested negative. The death toll includes five health workers who the Congolese health ministry has described as "courageous".

Thirty people have also recovered from Ebola so far, including four nurses whose discharge from hospital was celebrated at a special ceremony.

Ituri province is the epicentre of this outbreak.

Officials in neighbouring Uganda have so far confirmed two deaths from Ebola - individuals who had travelled to Uganda from DR Congo. The authorities there have also confirmed 19 cases with five people discharged from hospital.

American doctor Peter Stafford tested positive after treating patients at Nyankunde Hospital in Bunia, where he has worked since 2023.

In early June, he was discharged from a hospital in Germany, where had been evacuated to for treatment.

Cases have also been confirmed in North Kivu (44) and South Kivu (3), provinces partly controlled by the rebel AFC-M23 alliance. These discoveries signalled the outbreak's spread from its epicentre in Ituri.

What is being done in DR Congo to tackle the current Ebola outbreak?

The Congolese government has established four laboratories in Ituri - in Bunia, Mongbwalu, Beni and Aru - which can test blood samples for the Bundibugyo species of Ebola. Results can now be delivered within 24 hours, removing earlier delays.

Surveillance systems, contact tracing and the treatment infrastructure, with dedicated centres in several affected towns, have also been expanded, according to the health minister.

The WHO has dedicated $3.9m (£2.9m) to tackling the outbreak, while Africa CDC has announced a $319m budget. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has pledged an initial $5m to support the agency's plan.

A toll-free number, 151, has been provided for reporting symptoms and people are being reminded to:

* avoid contact with bodies of people who died with symptoms, or with dead animals

* not eat raw meat, as undercooked food may transmit the virus

* practise social distancing.

How have the rebels responded to the latest Ebola outbreak?

The AFC-M23 group says it is creating an Ebola response team to prevent the spread of the disease in the areas it controls.

On 17 May, spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka said the group had "immediately activated" response mechanisms in conjunction with health services and local medical facilities.

Neither the government nor the rebels have explicitly said whether they are prepared to work together to tackle the outbreak.

However, a case in Goma, North Kivu's provincial capital, was confirmed by a state-run body, the INRB.

Caitlin Brady, the country director for the Danish Refugee Council, was in Goma to prepare her organisation's response. She said she had been informed by the rebels that they were using contact tracing and all appropriate measures to contain the virus.

She told the BBC World Service's Newsday programme that "a lot of the health officials and healthcare workers stayed and continued working" after rebels seized the city, meaning "the capacity to respond has remained".

What are Rwanda and other neighbouring countries doing about the Ebola outbreak?

Rwanda has closed its borders with DR Congo, while Uganda has temporarily suspended flights, buses and all other public transport crossing the border with DR Congo.

Authorities in Uganda have told people to avoid hugging and shaking hands.

President Yoweri Museveni also postponed the Martyrs' Day pilgrimage, a Christian holiday held on 3 June each year, which usually draws thousands of Congolese nationals to join festivities.

Several other African countries are tightening border screenings and bolstering health facilities.

Africa CDC has warned that other countries on the continent - namely Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia - are at risk from an outbreak.

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

Nigeria evacuates citizens from South Africa as anti-migrant sentiment rises

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq512vgyzl9o, 3 days ago

Nigeria has become the latest African state to repatriate some of its citizens from South Africa following a rise in anti-migrant sentiments in the country.

A flight carrying 268 Nigerians has landed in Lagos after leaving Johannesburg on Thursday morning. The passengers were part of around 1,000 people who the Nigerian consulate in South Africa says have registered to be repatriated.

Ghana, Zimbabwe and Malawi have already carried out evacuations, ahead of a 30 June deadline set by some campaigners for undocumented migrants to leave.

Many people from other parts of Africa moved to South Africa around the time white-minority rule ended in 1994, hoping for a better life.

But with South Africa facing an unemployment rate of more than 30%, anti-migrant sentiments have risen, with protest marches being held in major cities and people facing xenophobic attacks.

At the main international airport in Johannesburg, Justin, one of the Nigerian passengers, told the BBC that he had lived in South Africa since 1998.

"I'm leaving because of the conditions they've given us here. They say we must leave on or before 30th June. And because of the way they are killing people, killing our brothers, so I'm not safe," Justin said.

Justin told the BBC that he had already been targeted.

"Recently they attacked me in a taxi. I ran away and left my things. I left my phone and everything.

"They call us names and say you must leave this country. When we tried to beg them, they started insulting us."

After landing in Lagos, hairdresser and mother-of-three Chinwe Osuala said she had experienced violence during an earlier wave of anti-migrant attacks.

"I was personally attacked in my business premises. But after everything I called the police. Police helped me."

She said the attack left her deeply concerned about her family's future.

"You can't even walk around freely. You'll be scared, the children are scared that's the main reason I came back, because of the children"

Despite her decision to leave, she said she would miss many of the friends she had made in South Africa.

"Most of them, they were crying because I was leaving. When you talk about South Africans not all of them are xenophobic there are people who love you deeply, genuinely."

The head of Nigeria's Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, told the BBC that the country's emergency management agency would transport returnees to destinations across Nigeria's 36 states.

She said they had received financial assistance of more than 100,000 naira ($73; £55), along with mobile phone credit.

There have been no official figures regarding the number of deaths in South Africa caused by xenophobic violence in recent weeks.

The police have said two Mozambican men were killed in Western Cape province earlier this month but have not given a motive.

The Mozambican authorities said the death toll was higher, and their citizens have been killed as a result of xenophobia.

Some of the protesters have pointed the finger at migrants for South Africa's high unemployment rate, and putting pressure on public services like schools and hospitals.

However, Nigeria's Consul General in South Africa, Ninikanwa Okey-Uche, told the BBC that migrants made up less than 10% of South Africa's population, and could not be "blamed for broken systems in education, health care, policing, unemployment".

"They are not and cannot be the problem. So, migrants are basically being scapegoated," Okey-Uche added.

A spokesman for South Africa's Border Management Agency told local TV station Newzroom Afrika that none of the passengers on the flight had documents to live in South Africa legally.

Okey-Uche said she did not have the figures, but delays in processing applications could lead to some people ending up as undocumented migrants.

She added that the South African authorities need to do more to act against people "propagating these xenophobic attacks and anti-foreigner sentiments".

"There are a lot of top South African politicians who have spoken up against what's happening, saying it's absolutely wrong.

"But down on the street, we need to see arrests. We know the people in charge. They're not hiding. They've caused mayhem in people's lives, but they're walking free. Some of them are running for election," Okey-Uche said.

South Africa is due to hold local government elections in November, with some analysts believing that migration is being turned into a major campaign issue.

On Sunday, President Cyril Ramaphosa made a televised address responding to the protests, announcing new measures to crackdown on illegal migration.

These include jailing employers who hire undocumented workers, setting up dedicated courts to speed up the deportations and having a biometric database for everyone in the country to avoid identity theft.

He also warned South Africans not to take the law into their own hands by targeting those they suspect of being in the country illegally.

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

Deadly Sudan drone strike targets funeral procession

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70yeee2jvqo, 3 days ago

A drone strike on a funeral procession at a cemetery in the Sudanese city of el-Obeid has killed at least four people and injured several others, two rights groups, Sudan Doctors Network and Emergency Lawyers, have said.

Both groups blame the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for the attack. Emergency Lawyers said it was part of a series of drone strikes that started on Wednesday evening in which at least 23 people have died in all.

The RSF has not commented.

El-Obeid, currently in the hands of the army, is a key battleground in Sudan's three-year civil war which began after the leaders of the army and RSF fell out over the future direction of the country.

The fighting has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis with more than 11 million people forced from their homes and 28 million facing acute hunger.

There are no reliable figures for the death toll, but it is thought to be at least 150,000 and could be as much as 400,000.

In addition to the attack on the cemetery, Emergency Lawyers said that drones struck homes in a residential neighbourhood, the airport district and areas surrounding an army base. Thirteen civilians were killed, the group said, as civilians gathered near destroyed houses.

It also reported that five civilians were killed in earlier attacks.

"It is tragic. The roofs of houses collapsed on their occupants. When you look at some houses, you feel no-one could have survived," one resident told the AFP news agency in the wake of the attacks.

In another attack a driver of a lorry carrying food supplies died when his vehicle was struck on Thursday, both Emergency Lawyers and Sudan Doctors Network have said.

The two groups describe systematic and repeated attacks on civilians in el-Obeid for several days.

The city is in the country's oil-rich Kordofan region - which is divided into North, South and West Kordofan states.

It become a major front line in the war due to its strategic significance, sitting between RSF-controlled areas in the west and eastern areas where the army is mostly in charge.

Analysts say whoever controls the region effectively controls the country's oil supply, as well as a large chunk of the country.

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

Manhunt under way in South Africa after 12 killed in mass shooting in Johannesburg

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c79yzqw0z0wo, 4 days ago

Police in South Africa have launched a manhunt after 12 people were killed in a mass shooting at an informal settlement in Johannesburg.

At least 10 suspects, heavily armed with rifles, entered the Jumpers Informal Settlement in the suburb of Cleveland late on Tuesday night and opened fire before fleeing in a white vehicle, police said.

The motive for what police called a "heartless" and "barbaric" attack, in which another nine people were injured, is still being investigated.

Members of the Jumper's community believe the shooting may be linked to a turf war between groups of illegal miners living in the area.

Illegal mining has been on the increase in South Africa, which has one of the highest murder rates in the world.

Shootings in informal settlements are not uncommon, sometimes linked to gang violence and personal disputes.

The local police department said its officers responded to a "complaint of shooting in progress" at about 23:10 local time (21:10 GMT) on Tuesday.

"It is alleged that more than 10 suspects were dropped off by a white Toyota Quantum near a petrol station in Cleveland," the police said in a statement.

"The suspects allegedly entered the informal settlement through both entrances and moved through the area, opening fire on residents and community members at multiple locations before fleeing the scene in the same vehicle," the statement added.

Police said eight men and three women died at the scene, while another man died from his injuries in hospital.

At least nine others were taken to various medical facilities for treatment of gunshot wounds.

The police have said that the motive for the attack is not known and forms part of the investigation.

During a visit to the scene on Wednesday, provincial police commissioner Lt Gen Tommy Mthombeni reiterated this stance, but added that investigators could not rule out a connection to illegal mining.

"As you know, this area is adjacent to the illegal mining area. We are having those suspicions," he told reporters, calling the attack "heartless" and "barbaric".

Illegal mining is a lucrative, informal activity - with groups targeting disused gold mines and selling their finds on the black market.

The trade is often violent - earlier this year, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa deployed the military to some communities to help close down operations.

Last year, nine people were killed in a mass shooting at a tavern in Johannesburg.

There are about three million legally held firearms in South Africa and at least the same number of unlicensed weapons, according to statistics cited by Gideon Joubert from the South African Gunowners' Association.

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

Jailed South Korea ex-president gets 30 more years for sending drones into North

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c17ydny8zyro, 2 days ago

A South Korean court has sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to 30 years in jail for sending drones into North Korea.

Prosecutors argued that Yoon ordered the operation in October 2024 to provoke Pyongyang and create a pretext for his failed martial law bid later that year.

When Yoon declared martial law on 3 December, he had claimed he was protecting the country from "anti-state" forces that sympathised with North Korea. But it soon became clear he was driven by domestic troubles and he rolled back the order in the face of mass protests.

Yoon was impeached and is now serving time in prison after he was sentenced to life for insurrection over his botched martial law attempt.

On Friday, the Seoul District Court found Yoon, as well as his former defense minister Kim Yong-hyun, former head of the Defense Counterintelligence Command Yeo In-hyung and former head of Drone Operations Commands Kim Yong-dae guilty of treason and abuse of power.

Kim was sentenced to 30 years in jail, while Yeo received 15 years and Kim Yong-dae received three years in prison with a five-year suspended sentence.

"The defendants used the guise of a military operation to induce provocations from North Korea with the aim of creating a state of emergency," the court said.

It added that all three officials had "provoked North Korea", thus "increasing the risk of a military conflict", but concluded that Yoon bore the "greatest responsibility" in this event.

Yoon's lawyers had argued that his actions were a "legitimate" response to North Korea's "provocations with rubbish balloons".

This was a reference to North Korea dropping hundreds of balloons in 2024, which were later found to contain "filthy waste and trash", across the border in the South.

The two countries have used such "propaganda balloons" in their campaigns since the Korean War, where messages are put inside the balloons.

But tensions shot up in 2024 when North Korea accused the South of flying drones into its capital. These drones allegedly scattered propaganda leaflets all over Pyongyang, in what the North described as a provocation that could lead to war.

It was Yoon who sent these drones into the North expecting it to strike back, said a judge in Friday's ruling.

Apart from insurrection, Yoon has was also sentenced to five years in jail for abuse of power and obstructing his own arrest.

Yoon's martial law attempt and the protests that followed created months of chaos in the country, ending in an election which saw the opposition Democratic Party's Lee Jae-myung win a decisive mandate.

Three Indian sailors killed in US strike on oil tanker

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy73dr081p8o, 2 days ago

Three Indian sailors have been confirmed killed after the US military struck a tanker in the Gulf of Oman which it accused of violating its blockade on Iranian ports.

The MT Settebello came under attack on Wednesday, with 24 Indian crew on board, of whom 21 were rescued. In a post on X, India's Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said the three men's bodies would be brought home soon.

On Friday, the operator of Settebello, iOS Marine, said in a statement that it "holds no affiliation whatsoever with Iran or Iranian oil".

The US has struck three ships in the Gulf this week, all with Indian crew on board.

On Thursday, Delhi said all 20 crew on the Jalveer were safe after a strike off Oman. Three days earlier the 24 Indian crew on sanctioned oil tanker the Marivex were rescued before it sank. Centcom confirmed it struck both ships.

India's Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Additional Secretary Mukesh Mangal said the three seamen on board the Settebello who died were Aditya Sharma, a cadet, Shivanand Chaurashiya, a fitter, and Patnala Suresh, a chief engineer.

In a post on X, the US Central Command said one of its aircraft fired "precision munitions" into the engine room of the tanker "after the crew repeatedly failed" to follow directions.

In its statement, iOS Marine denied Centcom's accusation that the tanker ignored warning calls.

"To the best of our knowledge and based on information available to us, no warning call, message, or communication was ever successfully established with the vessel prior to the actions taken against it," the statement said.

The operator also denied any affiliations with Iran or Iranian oil.

"The vessel was a civilian merchant vessel engaged in legitimate commercial operations and should be viewed as such. Any assertions to the contrary are rejected and should be subjected to independent scrutiny as part of a transparent international investigation," the statement added.

iOS Marine also claimed that the tanker had "remained stationary at its position for approximately 10 days prior to the incident and had made no movement whatsoever during that period" - and was hence, not transitioning through the area or "engaged in any aggressive or evasive manoeuvres".

The BBC has reached out to Centcom for a response to the statement.

On Monday, US forces hit The Marivex, also a Palau-flagged oil tanker, in the Gulf of Oman after it failed to comply with US instructions, Centcom said. All 24 crew were rescued by the Omani military, Indian authorities said.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said when the Palau-flagged Settebello was struck, India "lodged a strong protest" with the US.

"We called in the American CDA [chargé d'affaires] and informed them of our deepest concerns about the ongoing incidents of attacks," he added.

But on Thursday, Ministry of External Affairs Additional Secretary Aseem Mahajan said a third vessel - the Guinea-Bissau-flagged MT Jalveer - had come under attack in the vicinity of Shinas port in Oman.

He said the Royal Navy of Oman was helping evacuate the crew.

Although the three vessels involved in incidents were foreign-flagged, a majority of their crew were Indians.

Rajesh Sharma, father of Aditya Sharma, a cadet on board the Settebello who died in the strike, told the BBC that the family was waiting for his body to be returned to them.

He said his son was due to return home in May, but his duty got extended. He added that he had last spoken to his son on Sunday.

He questioned why the captain of the tanker chose to go near the Strait of Hormuz and called for an inquiry.

"Who is responsible for the deaths [of the three Indian sailors]? The circumstances that led to the deaths must be investigated," he said.

The US military blocked access to Iran's ports after Tehran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which some 20% of the world's oil and gas supplies are transported, during the ongoing conflict.

US forces have disabled eight vessels and redirected 134 others since initiating the blockade on 13 April, according to Centcom.

The Indian government has maintained that "targeting of commercial shipping and civilian infrastructure in the region must end".

Manoj Yadav, general secretary of the Forward Seamen's Union of India (FSUI) had earlier told the BBC that they had begun reaching out to the families of the sailors to inform them about their deaths.

Yadav told The Economic Times newspaper that he "refused to believe" that the US lacked information regarding the nationalities of the people on board those ships.

"If the ships failed to heed their instructions, detaining them was a viable alternative," he said.

According to India's shipping ministry, there are at present 562 Indian seafarers on Indian-flagged vessels, including 329 in the Gulf region, west of Hormuz, and 233 in the Gulf of Oman, east of Hormuz.

"There are more than 18,000 Indian seafarers in total in the whole Gulf region," Mangal said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, tensions between Iran and the US show no sign of easing. Both countries have exchanged strikes for a second consecutive day, putting more strain on a fragile ceasefire arrived upon in April.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump had threatened to hit Iran "hard", saying it was taking too long to sign a peace deal and was playing Americans "for suckers".

The war began on 28 February, after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran that killed the country's supreme leader.

Iran responded by launching attacks on Israel and US-allied states in the Gulf. The fighting escalated quickly across the region, with Lebanon drawn into the conflict in March.

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Thai Princess Bajrakitiyabha dies after more than three years in coma

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgzzndx780o, 2 days ago

Thailand's Princess Bajrakitiyabha, who had been in a coma for more than three years, has died, the royal household has announced. She was 47.

She collapsed in December 2022 while exercising her dogs. Her doctors attributed it to a severely irregular heartbeat, caused by a mycoplasma infection in her heart.

With her death, the Thai royal family has lost its most visibly accomplished member, and someone who might have played a pivotal role in an as yet unclear succession.

She was the eldest of King Vajiralongkorn's seven children, born on 7 December 1978 to his first wife and cousin, Princess Soamsawali.

"The medical team provided the closest and most intensive care possible, but her condition continued to decline progressively," the palace said in a statement on Friday morning, adding that she passed away at 19:48 local time (12:48 GMT) the previous day in Chulalongkorn Hospital.

She trained as a lawyer, getting two post-graduate degrees from Cornell University in the US. She worked briefly at the Thai mission to the United Nations in New York, before returning to Thailand to work in the Attorney-General's offices in Bangkok and elsewhere in the country.

From 2012 to 2014 she was Thailand's ambassador to Austria, where she built a relationship with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

She started speaking out on the need for penal reform, with a particular focus on vulnerable women who end up in prison; Thailand has one of the world's highest numbers of female inmates.

Once back in Thailand she became the UNODC's Ambassador for the Rule of Law in South East Asia, and continued to advocate reform of Thailand's criminal justice system, in which severe sentences are often handed down on people convicted of relatively minor drug possession charges.

In 2021 her father made her a chief of staff in his private bodyguard, giving her the rank of general.

Princess Bajrakitiyabha was also a fitness enthusiast who often took part in long-distance runs.

Her abilities, and the trust her father appeared to have in her, made her an inevitable topic of speculation about the royal succession.

King Vajiralongkorn, who is 73 years old, has not yet named an heir. Thai custom dictates that the heir should be a male, but a 1974 amendment to the constitution does allow a female to take the throne.

The king has five sons, but four by his second marriage were disowned in 1996 and have lived since then with their mother in the US. His fifth son, Dipangkorn, by his third wife, is the presumed heir, although questions have been raised about his ability to perform the role of monarch, in a country where the royal institution carries so much influence.

For many Thai royalists, Princess Bajrakitiyabha seemed the most promising figure to succeed her father, either as queen or as a regent to help Prince Dipangkorn.

Her death leaves the question of the succession in Thailand unanswered, and the severity of the country's lese majeste law rules out any public discussion of it.

Indonesian students protest against state spending, fuel price hike

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqx18d47pzjo, yesterday

Hundreds of students took to the streets of Indonesia's capital on Friday to protest government policies they said could "bankrupt" the country.

The students were demanding President Prabowo Subianto stop what they called wasteful state spending and scrap his flagship free meals programme, which has been dogged by mass poisonings and allegations of corruption.

They were also protesting the government's decision to raise fuel prices, which will hurt the middle class.

Friday's protest comes amid rising public anger which has simmered for months over perceived mismanagement of the country. The local currency, the rupiah, has also recently slid to fresh lows.

"Fuel prices are going up, and our lives are getting harder," university student Zaki was heard shouting at police officers.

"Why are you afraid of student voices? They say demonstrations are guaranteed by the constitution? That's not happening today," he continued.

Pictures from the protest show policemen holding shields trying to stop the students as they marched towards the Hotel Indonesia roundabout, a Jakarta landmark.

Video from BBC Indonesian shows people then trying to push and kick their way through the police barricade. Some objects can also be seen being thrown into the air.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

On social media, the protesters posted under the hashtag #MenujuIndonesiaBangkrut, which means "Towards Bankrupt Indonesia".

The protest comes less than a year after last August's violent anti-government protests, when the death of a delivery rider sparked anger over elite rule and alleged state mismanagement.

Earlier this week, state-run Pertamina raised prices of two widely-used types of fuel, known as Pertamax, by more than 30%. Indonesia has largely kept fuel prices steady, but Prabowo's programs, like free meals, has put pressure on the budget.

Free meals is the centrepiece of Prabowo's agenda and it figured heavily in his 2024 presidential campaign.

But university student Rina said it had "been unclear from the start".

"There have been incidents like mass food poisoning, and now corruption. The public has been calling for it to stop, but those demands have been ignored," she said.

At an annual cost of $28bn (£20.8bn), it aims to tackle child malnutrition, improve education outcomes and stimulate the economy. Officials have described it as "an investment in Indonesia's future".

But last week, Prabowo fired the head of the agency responsible for the free meals programme, following mass poisonings and allegations of corruption.

Thai court sentences two men to death over Bangkok shrine bombing

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg8v51g9lno, 3 days ago

A court in Thailand has found two men guilty of carrying out the country's worst ever terrorist attack and sentenced them to death.

The two men, both from China's Uyghur minority, were convicted of planning and detonating a powerful bomb on the evening of 17 August 2015, next to a shrine in central Bangkok that is popular with foreign tourists.

Twenty people were killed and more than 120 were injured.

However, flaws in the police investigation, and in the ten year-long trial of the two men, who both pleaded not guilty, have left questions hanging over this verdict.

The bomb exploded a short distance from the BBC bureau in Bangkok, and I was there within a couple of minutes.

The blast had ripped through people praying at the Erawan shrine, and knocked over motorbike riders waiting at the nearby intersection, setting some of them on fire.

Paramedics and ambulances were quickly on the scene and began treating the injured, or laying sheets over the dead.

I watched them helping a man, whose wife lay lifeless next to him. His injuries were not life-threatening, so they gently asked him to wait, getting him to hold his wife's hand, while they tended to other casualties.

It was loud, chaotic, and profoundly shocking. I had seen plenty of political violence in Bangkok, but a bomb attack of this size was unprecedented. Who could have carried it out, and why?

From the start the official investigation was less than reassuring. Worried about the impact on the all-important tourist industry, the government ordered the scene of the attack to be cleaned up as quickly as possible. The shrine was reopened two days later, the crater left by the bomb cemented over.

Many of the security cameras in the area were found to be not working, but some grainy video did show a man with long hair and thick glasses leaving a backpack under a bench and walking quickly away.

His trail was lost, but the police showed video of another man in a different location kicking what turned out to be a second bomb into a canal, where it exploded harmlessly. They said they were looking for several suspects, but insisted the bomb was not an act of terrorism.

Within two weeks of the attack they had arrested the two men who have now been convicted.

Bilal Mohammad was found hiding in a house on the outskirts of Bangkok where the authorities also discovered chemicals suitable for making bombs. He had a forged Turkish passport, under the name Adem Karadag. Yusufu Mierali was apprehended in Cambodia, and handed over to Thailand.

Both men were identified as Uyghurs, but initially the Thai police said neither was the person who planted the bomb. Later they charged Bilal Mohammad with the crime, although he bore little resemblance to the man in the video. Arrest warrants were also issued for 13 other people, some of whom had already left the country.

Unsurprisingly people began to link the bomb to the controversial Thai decision the month before to forcibly repatriate 109 Uyghur men to China, which provoked angry protests by Uyghur sympathisers in countries like Turkey. The shrine was well known as especially popular with Chinese visitors. It looked like an act of retribution.

But the military government refused to accept this possibility. At one point they suggested it might be disgruntled opponents of the military junta which had seized power the year before. Later they insisted that it was just human traffickers angry at the government's efforts to shut down their activities.

In a bizarre twist the police offered a reward of $80,000 to anyone who led them to the culprits – then awarded it to themselves once they had their first two suspects in custody, despite acknowledging that many more suspects were still at large. Case closed, they said.

Both suspects were kept in military custody, and complained that they had been tortured into making confessions. They withdrew these once the trial, in a military court, began.

Bilal Mohammad appeared to be extremely distressed, shouting that he was being mistreated . He testified that he had been waiting at the house where he was apprehended for a smuggler to move him to Malaysia, from where he wanted to fly to Turkey, a well-established route used by Uyghur asylum-seekers.

Then the delays began. Usually it was because the Thai authorities said they could not find a Uyghur-speaking translator. The defendants rejected those offered by the Chinese embassy. The delays went on and on, for more than ten years.

The International Commission of Jurists is one of several human rights groups which have criticised the procedures and extraordinary duration of the trial, arguing that it was so problematic the two suspects should have been released.

"The investigation, prosecution, and trial of Bilal Mohammed and Yusufu Mieraili have been rife with human rights violations and have exposed some of the systemic deficiencies of Thailand's criminal justice system."

However the judges ruled that there was sufficient evidence to justify convicting them, in particular records of phone calls submitted by the police that show both men near the scene of the crime at the time of the bombing, and communicating with each other.

The lawyer for the two men has said they will appeal against the verdict.

Family of British toddler criticises police as Australian inquiry into cold case murders begins

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0rygl7y1l0o, 3 days ago

The brother of a British toddler who disappeared from an Australian beach has told an inquiry the family has lived with the consequences of police failure for more than 50 years.

"If [the police] had done their job in 1971, we would have known the truth years ago," Ricki Nash told a New South Wales (NSW) parliamentary inquiry looking into cases of unsolved murders and long-term missing people.

Cheryl Grimmer, 3, disappeared from Fairy Meadow beach in Wollongong, south of Sydney, in January 1970. Despite extensive searches, there were no leads.

A suspect was charged with her abduction and murder in 2017, but his trial collapsed after his teenage confession was ruled inadmissible.

The man, known as "Mercury", denies any wrongdoing and prosecutors dropped the case.

Cheryl's disappearance happened almost two years after her emigration from Bristol to Australia with her parents and three brothers.

"Cheryl was not a case file, she was an amazing funny little girl," her elder brother Ricki Nash, told the inquiry on its first day of public hearings.

The twin brother of Kay Docherty who went missing near Wollongong in 1979 at the age of 15, also spoke at the hearing.

"Both my parents went to an early grave without answers or knowing what happened to their only daughter," said Kevin Docherty. "They virtually died of a broken heart eight years apart."

Kevin Docherty was one of several families detailing the failures of police in handling the disappearances of their loved ones.

"As mum always said, when she went to that police station that night, there was one good cop, there was one bad cop," he said, telling the inquiry that the police wrote her off as a runaway and as a result, little was done to try and find her.

The case of Kay Docherty is one of several being examined in the inquiry that may have links to the notorious Australian serial killer, Ivan Milat.

Between 1989 and 1992, Milat kidnapped and murdered at least seven victims aged 19 to 22 - three Germans, two Britons and two Australians. The backpackers were picked up when hitchhiking on a long stretch of road between Sydney and Melbourne. Each was taken into NSW's Belanglo State Forest.

The family of Keren Rowland also gave a submission to the inquiry outlining their belief that she may have been Milat's first victim. Rowland was just 20 and five months pregnant when she disappeared in February 1971 in Canberra.

Speaking to the inquiry, Rowland's cousin Dr Andrea Hughes said there had been more than five decades of "ignorance, poor leadership, parochialism and arrogance" in relation to the investigation.

Forensic criminologist Dr Xanthe Weston also gave evidence from her research into the serial killer.

Milat was "egocentric," Weston told the inquiry, adding that when Milat's sister died and he "lost control of his personal life, he compensated by killing."

There will be further hearings over the next few months.

NSW police have been contacted for comment.

Chinese police detain man after dog torture videos spark outrage

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp3xngy9vvxo, 3 days ago

Chinese authorities have detained a man who has caused public outrage for torturing dogs and filming the abuse to sell the videos online.

The man allegedly posed as a keen "adopter" of animals but ended up abusing several cats and dogs he took in.

His actions came to light after a friend of a woman who put her puppies up for adoption shared her experience online. More than 100 protesters gathered outside the man's home in the south-western city of Chongqing early this week.

Police have not disclosed what offence the man was being investigated for. Animal cruelty is not punishable by law in China. However, there has been growing awareness of animal welfare issues in recent years.

The man, whose goes by the surname Li, put up an advertisement on Chinese social media platform Douyin early this month, saying he wanted to adopt dogs for free.

He claimed that his two children "absolutely loved puppies", according to local media reports.

On Sunday, volunteers from an animal rights group discovered one of the adopted puppies abandoned in the stairwell of Li's housing block with a broken limb, a severed tail, and a swollen head, the reports say.

Videos posted online show more than 100 people gathered outside his home, some of them holding posters in protest.

"Those who abuse animals are merely practising cruelty towards humans!" one of them read.

Another said: "Stop animal abuse. We strongly call for laws against animal cruelty."

Several clips show police officers dragging protesters away from the premises, while some protesters say they were banned from taking photographs and circulating them online.

People have called for a severe penalty following news of the man's detention.

"This is appalling. I'm all for severe punishment!" read a comment on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.

Thousands march in Pakistan-administered Kashmir as clashes kill at least 15

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdxdyn5716xo, 3 days ago

At least 15 people have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, local authorities say.

The violence comes after an alliance of activist groups called on people to protest against the reservation of legislative seats for refugees who migrated to Pakistan from Indian-administered Kashmir decades ago.

Authorities responded by accusing the group of sedition and violence, banning it and offering a bounty for the arrest of its leaders.

This did not stop thousands of people marching towards the regional capital Muzaffarabad, angry that nearly a quarter of assembly seats remain reserved for people living outside the territory.

Those killed in the recent clashes include 11 civilians and four security officers.

Local officials say that a massive convoy of protesters - more than 10,000 by official estimates - is 4km (2.4 miles) outside the city of Rawalkot.

The Poonch district commissioner of Pakistan-administered Kashmir Sardar Waheed Khan told BBC Urdu that security officials were patrolling the area to ensure law and order, while residents had been told not to leave their homes.

He added that the convoy of protesters would not be allowed to pass through Rawalkot to go to Muzaffarabad.

BBC Urdu reporters say that local mosques are broadcasting announcements asking people not to leave their homes. There are fears of further violence but Khan said that rule of law "would be ensured".

Authorities in the region have stepped up security, with helicopters flying surveillance flights in the state capital Muzaffarabad as well as in Rawalakot.

A helicopter crashed in Muzaffarabad on Wednesday, killing all 22 people on board. The military says a "technical fault" shortly after take-off was to blame.

Why are people protesting?

The reservation of 12 seats for Kashmiri refugees - who do not live in Pakistan-administered Kashmir - in the local legislative assembly election to be held on 27 July has been a contentious issue in the region. It effectively bars people who live inside Pakistan-administered Kashmir from contesting the seats, which make up almost a quarter of the legislature.

The reservation was introduced decades ago to ensure people displaced from Indian-administered Kashmir - and who settled in Pakistan hoping one day to return to their homes if a long-standing dispute over the region was resolved - still had a say in the territory's governance.

The Joint Awami Action ⁠Committee (JAAC), a collective of activist groups, has called for the abolition of the reserved seats, arguing that it undermines local representation and that all the seats in the legislature must go to those who actually reside in the region.

But the authorities say the seats are essential.

They banned JAAC on 5 June under anti-terrorism laws, claiming that the group "engaged in terrorism" and behaved "in a manner prejudicial to the peace and security of the state", local media reported.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan-administered-Kashmir also ruled that the seats are constitutionally protected and cannot be altered through administrative measures, political agreements, or public pressure, according to a detailed advisory opinion issued on a presidential reference.

Pakistani-administered Kashmir is a semi-autonomous region with its own regional government.

Kashmir has been a source of conflict between India and Pakistan for more than 70 years following the Partition of British India.

Delhi and Islamabad both claim the Himalayan region in full, and have fought two wars and a limited conflict over Kashmir.

Today, each of the neighbours control only parts of it.

What has led to the violence?

The unrest follows deadly clashes last year between security forces and the JAAC, who issued a list of 38 demands.

Government figures say it accepted 37 of them - but the remaining demand of abolishing the refugees' seats cannot be achieved.

BBC Urdu reports that the situation first escalated in Rawalakot earlier this week when protesters and security forces clashed. Twelve deaths, four of them security personnel, were reported on Sunday.

Another three people died in clashes in the city of Kotli on Tuesday, officials told the BBC. At least 50 people have been injured in the clashes and it is feared the number of dead could rise.

Amnesty International said in a statement on Tuesday that the "violent and sweeping crackdown" on the protests, which includes "an internet shutdown, mass arbitrary arrests, and deadly use of force", "continues an alarming deterioration of human rights in the region".

But despite the violence, the march to Muzaffarabad is still continuing, and the JAAC has also called for a general strike. An uneasy silence has now blanketed the city, with streets empty, businesses shuttered and police on patrol.

It's unclear if these businesses were closed because of safety concerns, or if they were going on strike in solidarity with the JAAC.

One trader in Muzaffarabad told BBC Urdu that they had closed their shop not because of any organisation but out of their own free will. They said they would continue striking until their demands were met or an end to the strike was announced.

The unknown man in my mother's coffin: A year after Air India crash, families still waiting for answers

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c15y9g2ndkno, 2 days ago

Miten Patel remembers the day hospital staff in Ahmedabad drew two vials of his blood to help identify his parents.

He had landed in the Indian city hours earlier with his brother, carrying dental records for Ashok and Shobhana Patel.

"We had to fly Air India to get there, because there were no other flights," he said.

Miten didn't know anyone in India. But he was grateful that his parents had taught him Gujarati, the local language in Ahmedabad. It gave him and his brother the means to navigate the chaotic aftermath of the tragedy that changed their world.

"I didn't even know what the word repatriation meant."

A year ago, on 12 June, his parents were flying home to London when their Air India flight crashed just 32 seconds after take-off from Ahmedabad. They were among 260 people - 241 on the plane and 19 on the ground - who were killed in one of the worst aviation accidents in India's history. One passenger miraculously survived the crash.

It took more than a week for the Patels' remains to be returned to the UK.

Four days later, Miten received a call in the morning from police in London. They asked to meet him that evening, refusing to tell him the reason over the phone.

A CT scan had revealed that his mother's casket also contained the remains of someone else. Miten was told there were additional "skeletal parts".

Police asked Miten not to tell anyone, not even his family, for weeks.

He insisted on meeting the coroner.

"I said to them, look, I would sincerely request that you separate my mother from whoever else," he said.

Further testing showed that his mother's remains had been mixed with those of an unidentified man.

The Patel family waited another month before they could cremate her remains, postponing Ashok's last rites so they could be done together.

A UK inquest has been opened into the death of the man in Shobahana Patel's casket, who still hasn't been identified.

In a hearing this week, UK Coroner Fiona Wilcox said that they had "sent palm prints and DNA to India in an attempt to identify this gentleman but to date we have had no confirmation as to his name". She added that it was "obviously very unusual" to open inquests nearly a year after the death.

"The identity of the unidentified male remains outstanding. I hope that identification will be forthcoming," Wilcox added.

The challenge for emergency workers at the crash site was immense, with hundreds of casualties, and many bodies burned and torn apart.

The wreckage was scattered across 37,000 sq m, the equivalent of five football pitches, as the plane collided with accommodation for medical students, and broke apart.

One local resident who had rushed to help described struggling to pull out bodies from the debris, with seatbelts that were too hot to touch strapping in the victims.

An independent forensic expert deployed to identify victims of the crash, Dr Deepak Venkatesh, told the BBC that the scale of the disaster made identifying the victims even harder.

The bodies of 90% of those killed were severely charred, and "extreme thermal damage destroyed fingerprints, facial features and other visual identifiers", according to India's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

The NDMA has since drawn lessons from the Air India crash and used it as a case study in new identification guidelines issued in January.

"It's a lesson learned," Dr Venkatesh told the BBC.

The BBC contacted the Indian foreign ministry, the hospital responsible for the identification process in Gujarat and the UK foreign office but has not received any responses.

In July last year, about a month after the crash, the Indian foreign ministry told the BBC that it had "been working closely with the UK side from the moment these concerns and issues were brought to our attention".

The statement continued: "In the wake of the tragic crash, the concerned authorities had carried out identification of victims as per established protocols and technical requirements.

"All mortal remains were handled with utmost professionalism and with due regard for the dignity of the deceased."

There is at least one other case in the UK where a family received the wrong remains.

Amanda Donaghey returned to the UK believing she was carrying the remains of her son, 39-year-old Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek. She later discovered she had received the remains of 70-year-old Indian woman, Vasuben Narendrasinh Raj.

This week, Wilcox, the UK coroner, said they had "only recently been able to make contact with the son of Ms Raj".

Donaghey is still in search of her son's remains.

James Healey-Pratt, a lawyer representing both Donaghey and Miten Patel, told the BBC that while the scale of the disaster created identification challenges, "there still needs to be transparency and accountability, because the families deserve it".

He added that throughout this past year, "at no stage has anybody in India in a position of authority accepted responsibility".

"It's highly embarrassing, and it makes them look incompetent."

Dr Venkatesh was deployed days after the crash to help identify remains. He described scenes that still haunt him.

For months, teams searched through rubble and debris, in temperatures reaching the mid-40s Celsius, surrounded by decomposing remains.

He told us body parts were numbered and eventually sent to local laboratories for processing.

Families were asked whether they wanted the entire body of their loved one returned to them, a process that could take months longer as all remains were tested and matched.

At the time of the crash, the NDMA's focus remained on "relief, rescue and rehabilitation", according to Dr Venkatesh. In the immediate aftermath, emergency workers were focusing on saving lives, not identifying the bodies.

"The recovery environment presented challenges for maintaining the separation of remains, which can contribute to commingling," Dr Venkatesh said.

Commingling is when the remains of multiple individuals are mixed together. However, he is not aware of any cases where the families have challenged the identification of their relatives.

He said a "meticulous" and "systematic" search began after the initial emergency response, with teams dividing the crash site into separate zones.

The NDMA's updated guidelines in the wake of the crash acknowledged "Comprehensive Disaster Victim Identification and Management have not received adequate systematic attention in the disaster management framework so far".

While Dr Venkatesh said dental records are recognised globally as a fast and reliable way of identifying victims, authorities prioritised DNA verification instead based on their previous protocol.

That created a "bottleneck" at the forensic lab in Gandhinagar, near Ahmedabad, according to the updated NDMA guidelines. The report said "the sudden influx of challenging DNA samples strained the capacity" of the laboratory.

It concluded that India needed more regional DNA-testing facilities, as well as greater use of dental identification.

"The fight continues," Miten says. "At the end of the day, my mother came back home with somebody else."

Most of the time, Miten parks his grief. Then, at 11pm, he retreats to a room alone and watches videos of his late parents.

He believes the battle he is fighting, for himself and other families, is the least he can do to honour them.

"I don't want to die and meet my parents up there and they…" Miten pauses.

"I want them to say to me, Beta (son), we are so proud of you. You did everything you could after we went."

Additional reporting by Prem Boominathan in Ahmedabad

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In pictures: Thai Princess Bajrakitiyabha dies at age 47

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg532g72156o, yesterday

Thailand's royal household has announced the death of Princess Bajrakitiyabha, the eldest daughter of King Vajiralongkorn, at the age of 47.

She had been in a coma for three and a half years after collapsing while exercising her dogs.

She was the most visibly accomplished member of the royal family, a lawyer and one-time Thai ambassador to Austria, who pushed for reforms to her country's criminal justice system.

She was close to her father. And although King Vajiralongkorn, who is 73 years old, has not yet named an heir, she might have played an important role in a future royal succession.

An Everest guide's miraculous survival raises questions for tourism industry

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1ly4p25jyvo, 3 days ago

A cleaning team was combing Mount Everest's perilous upper slopes for rubbish last Thursday, after a busy climbing season, when they spotted a man in a bright blue summit suit crawling at the foot of the Khumbu Icefall, widely regarded as one of the most dangerous sections of the world's highest peak.

It was Hillary Dawa Sherpa, a climbing guide who got separated from his clients when descending the mountain six days earlier. He had been presumed dead – yet another life claimed by Everest's treacherous slopes. By the time the 57-year-old reappeared, his family had already begun funeral rites for him.

Although frostbitten and thoroughly spent, Hillary Dawa could still sit upright and talk to those who found him, before he was airlifted to a hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital.

News of his miraculous survival made international headlines and sent shockwaves throughout the mountaineering community.

However, it also raises troubling questions for the booming high-altitude tourism industry, and shines a spotlight on the deadly risks Sherpas who work on Mount Everest face.

Himalayan Traverse Adventure (HTA), the company that Hillary Dawa was working for, maintains that all its processes in handling the incident were above board, and that poor weather hampered rescue efforts.

But many are asking whether the company, known for offering packages below market rates, has done enough to look after their guides.

Hillary Dawa was hired as a camp cook – why then was he leading clients up the 8,849m (29,032ft) mountain? Why was a search launched only three days after he disappeared, and would it have begun sooner if he had been a client and not a guide?

The Sherpa's family has filed a police report accusing HTA of negligence, and Nepal's tourism department is investigating the incident.

Disaster at 7,500m

HTA had initially employed Hillary Dawa as a cook to be stationed at Camp 2, but ended up using him as a substitute for a guide who "fell sick at Base Camp", the company said.

He took up the spontaneous change in assignment because he "wanted to earn some extra money", HTA manager Angfurba Sherpa tells the BBC.

That's how Hillary Dawa ended up accompanying two clients, British climber Chris Thrall and Polish climber Mariusz Chmielewski on his ill-fated trek up Mount Everest. Also with them was fellow guide Pasang Kaji Sherpa.

On the southern route to Everest there are four camps established above the main Base Camp, which climbers typically use as resting and acclimatisation points. Camp 4, which sits at 7,920m above sea level, is the highest.

The group started their descent from Camp 4 on 29 May, with Pasang Kaji and Chmielewski going first, as Chmielewski was running out of oxygen.

Thrall, who followed behind with Hillary Dawa, said the Sherpa had stopped to sit on his backpack just above Camp 3, at around 7,500m, "as he had done hundreds of times before to take a short rest".

"I turned around and said, 'Hillary, are you okay brother?'" Thrall recounted in a video on Instagram. "He says, 'Yes, yes, I'm fine Chris, please go.'"

The former British soldier described his dilemma of whether to turn back for Hillary Dawa or catch up with the rest.

"Do I go back for the Sherpa who's probably going to rock up and be fine as he has done hundreds of times before, or do I help my fellow climber who's got no oxygen, frostbite in his fingers, and obviously, you're never far off hypothermia up there?"

Responding to allegations that the team had left Hillary Dawa behind to die, Thrall said: "It's really different on Everest, folks. I had one tank of oxygen that's half empty [by then].

"To try to get back up... would have taken pretty much all of my oxygen. I'm not trying to offload my responsibility. I'm just saying you've got to be real."

In a subsequent interview with BBC Newshour, Thrall said he decided to "turn to the weakest member of the trio", referring to Chmielewski, with whom he shared his dwindling supply of oxygen as they continued down the mountain amid a severe snowstorm.

The conditions were so bad that Thrall and Chmielewski both recorded farewell messages for their loved ones, thinking they may not make it back alive.

The group took some 38 hours to finally arrive at Base Camp. At this point, they had assumed Hillary Dawa was dead.

"It was a complete whiteout," Thrall said. "All the ropes were a foot under snow… In none of the time when I looked back up the mountain did I see [any sign of] Hillary."

Chmielewski, meanwhile, has also accused HTA of negligence.

"Look, Hillary Dawa was left alone; he rescued himself," Chmielewski tells the BBC. "This shows the sad truth about how Himalayan Traverse regards its employees. Customers are treated similarly."

Chmielewski claims that Pasang Kaji Sherpa, the other mountain guide in their group, had notified the company on 30 May that Hillary Dawa was missing, but that no search operation was launched until days later.

Chmielewski, who was also admitted to hospital with frostbite, further suggests that decisions were made haphazardly during the expedition, and that the company appeared unprepared.

"I have huge reservations about the agency that organised this expedition," he says. "I think they should lose their licence."

'I didn't think I would be alive'

Hillary Dawa maintains he was "forced to stay behind" near Camp 3, which sits about 7,200m above sea level, because he had run out of oxygen and could no longer walk.

Without supplemental oxygen, a fully acclimatised climber would typically survive only two to three days at that altitude.

"I couldn't walk… I didn't eat anything for the first two days. Then I began chewing ice, but it pained my teeth," Hillary Dawa told BBC Nepali from HAMS Hospital in Kathmandu. "I didn't think I would be alive."

Then he discovered chocolates in his pocket, and managed to get some melted ice to drink.

He made his way down slowly, only to fall into a crevasse, according to two people who spoke to him about his ordeal.

Then, an avalanche that sent snow tumbling into the crevasse gave him the first hope he had had in days.

"Stepping on the snow, I stood up and looked above... It felt like I could get out from there," he said.

Once he scrambled out, he found ropes nearby that helped him manoeuvre further down. It was there he saw the cleaning team, the first people he had encountered in almost a week.

Hillary Dawa was transferred from the intensive care unit to a general ward early this week and is "recovering well", his family tells BBC Nepali.

HTA's founder and president Dawa Sherpa said that when his company had realised on 30 May that Hillary Dawa was uncontactable, it had notified its partner, 8K Expeditions, the larger expedition company that helped issue Thrall and Chmielewski's climbing permits.

"The search operation was delayed solely due to adverse weather conditions, but it does not mean there was negligence," he tells the BBC.

"The weather was really bad, it was a whiteout, meaning we had deep snow continually for a few days. It wouldn't have been possible to send a helicopter [immediately]. I would have been sending the rescuers to die."

Dawa adds that 8K Expeditions should be the company executing the rescue, because they were the ones who issued the permits, but 8K Expeditions maintains it was not responsible for providing the logistics or operational services for this particular expedition.

"Nevertheless, as part of our responsibility and commitment to supporting the mountaineering community, we did our best to assist [in] the search," the company's managing director, Lakpa Sherpa, tells the BBC.

Lakpa confirmed that HTA had indeed made first contact on 30 May, but later fell off the radar. HTA did not respond to these claims.

"We attempted multiple times to contact Himalayan Traverse Adventure for further information and co-ordination," Lakpa says. "However, they were unreachable… On 2 June, we established contact with Hillary's family and co-ordinated an aerial search operation."

That search came up empty.

8K Expeditions has called Hillary Dawa's ordeal a "true self-rescue" and "nothing short of a miracle".

The cook who accompanied clients up Everest

Everest experts say camp cooks are rarely equipped to scale the mountain.

"Generally, local guides that take clients to the summit of 8,000m peaks are trained specifically for this purpose," says Ben Ayers, a longtime Everest reporter for Outside Magazine.

"Hillary Dawa had experience working in this capacity in previous years, but he was late in his career."

Chmielewski, the Polish climber, says HTA told them Hillary Dawa was re-assigned as a climbing guide "because [their original guide] had drinking problems and a health problem".

"We weren't told exactly what it was," he tells the BBC.

In a second call with the BBC, HTA manager Angfurba claims the two clients did not want to pay the additional cost for a more experienced guide when they could no longer take the original guide.

Thrall and Chmielewski each paid about $37,500 (about £28,000) for the expedition, which includes an attempt up Everest and the 6,189m Island Peak, Angfurba explains.

"They paid one of the cheapest prices and yet they expect VIP service," he says, adding that other companies charge six-figure sums for similar trips.

Chmielewski dismissed this comment as "absurd and outrageous". The climbers paid an additional "several thousand dollars" expecting a qualified climbing guide, he says, but Hillary Dawa was put on the job "due to a lack of personnel".

Angfurba also suggests that Hillary Dawa should have established contact to let the company know he was still alive.

"He had a functioning walkie talkie with extra batteries," Angfurba says. "It would have taken 10 seconds."

Hillary Dawa's family and friends, however, argue that the Sherpa was abandoned. As he recovers in hospital, they demand that justice be served to those accountable.

"I believe this problem occurred because they took him as a cook but used him as a guide," his longtime friend Pasang Dawa Sherpa told BBC Nepali.

"Our main question is: why wasn't a search initiated right after he got trapped? We want to know why there was such negligence."

The furious dispute over what caused Air India flight 171 to crash

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyk9exxp2qo, 3 days ago

It was a hot and dry afternoon on 12 June last year, when Air India Flight 171 left the terminal at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Airport in Ahmedabad in the western Indian state of Gujarat. Settling into their seats for the nine-and-a-half-hour journey to London were 230 passengers - including 169 Indian nationals and 53 Britons. Looking after them were 10 cabin crew.

On the flight deck were Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a pilot with decades of experience, and his younger colleague, first officer Clive Kunder. Just 32 seconds after take-off the plane crashed, killing all but one of those on board. Another 19 people on the ground were also killed.

CCTV footage from the airport and a social media video show the aircraft taking-off in what looks like a normal fashion, but rather than gain height it appears to hang in the air, before gliding gently downwards.

It disappears from view behind buildings and trees. Seconds later a huge cloud of flame and black smoke appears, and the magnitude of the disaster becomes apparent. What is not at all clear from the footage, however, is what actually caused the crash.

Finding out why so many people died is the job of India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), part of the country's Ministry of Civil Aviation. Under international law, as set out in Annex 13 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, the country in which an accident occurs is directly responsible for the official investigation.

Other parties, including the country where the aircraft or its engines were built, can also take an active part as "accredited representatives". In the case of AI171, that means the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The NTSB sent a delegation which included technical experts from Boeing, which made the plane itself and GE Aerospace, which built the engines, as well as the US aviation regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration.

According to Annex 13, "the sole objective of the investigation of an accident or incident shall be the prevention of accidents or incidents. It is not the purpose of this activity to apportion blame or liability".

Nevertheless, there is a great deal at stake.

For Boeing, a company already reeling from years of safety scandals, it is about the integrity of one of its premium products: the 787 Dreamliner, an aircraft with a hitherto impeccable safety record. Air India, a loss-making airline belonging to the Tata Group, can ill-afford to see its brand tarnished. Families of those who died, meanwhile, want to know what really happened to their loved ones.

The final conclusions of the investigation have yet to be published, although more could become apparent in the coming days. But it has already generated intense controversy, which has exposed deeper questions about the way inquiries into major air incidents are carried out. So can national authorities be trusted to conduct investigations that critics say are vulnerable to perceptions of political pressure and corporate influence?

The inquiry backlash

In theory, the inquiry should be impartial and informative – a learning process focused solely on improving passenger safety. But in the case of AI171, the information revealed by the investigation so far has triggered a major backlash from safety campaigners, pilots' groups and lawyers acting for the bereaved relatives.

A key factor in this has been the preliminary report issued by the AAIB a month after the accident. The 15-page document did not draw any conclusions about the causes of the crash, or make any recommendations.

Nonetheless, just two short paragraphs generated a great deal of controversy.

First, it was noted that according to the aircraft's flight data recorder, the two fuel cutoff switches - normally used when starting the engines before a flight and shutting them down afterwards – transitioned from the run to the cutoff position seconds after take-off. This would have deprived the engines of fuel, causing them to lose thrust rapidly.

The report then says: "In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cutoff. The other pilot responded that he did not do so."

This brief statement, provided without a transcript or any indication of who was speaking, sparked intense speculation about the actions of the pilots. Newsweek, for example, focused on the "troubling possibility: that a seasoned captain may have deliberately doomed his jet – and nearly 250 lives". Former NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt told CBS News the report showed "this was not a problem with the airplane or the engines. Instead…somebody in the cockpit shut the fuel off to those engines."

A few days later, The Wall Street Journal weighed in. Citing people familiar with the matter, it claimed that recordings of dialogue between the pilots suggested it was the Captain, Sumeet Sabharwal, who had flipped the fuel switches.

It is important to note that this was merely a preliminary report, and within days, the AAIB issued a statement condemning "selective and unverified reporting" in the international press as "irresponsible". It urged the public and the media to "refrain from spreading premature narratives that risk undermining the integrity of the investigative process."

By then, arguably, the damage had already been done.

"When a pilot is alive he can defend himself" says Capt. CS Randhawa, president of the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP). "When the pilot is dead, all the agencies can collude – and they put the blame on the pilot, to save the manufacturer. And this is seen the world over. It's not the first time".

His organisation, which represents around 6,000 pilots, condemned the preliminary report as "irrevocably compromised". Together with Sumeet Sabharwal's 91-year-old father, Pushkar Raj Sabharwal, they took their concerns to India's Supreme Court, demanding a judicial investigation into the crash.

Former UK air accident investigator Tim Atkinson agrees that there is always a temptation to blame a dead pilot for a serious accident.

"It's incredibly, incredibly convenient for all concerned," he says. "You know, the regulator's off the hook, the operator's off the hook, the manufacturer's off the hook. And that's why you have to push back against it so hard."

However, he personally believes that in this case, there is no other credible explanation – a view that is common among aviation professionals.

"I am in absolutely no doubt this is a homicide-suicide. And if you set out to investigate one of those, and try to show it is an aviation accident, you'll fail – because it isn't", he explains.

Nevertheless, safety campaigners in India and the US, along with the FIP, have pushed back vigorously against the pilot suicide theory. They point to reports alleging prior faults with the aircraft, as well as apparent anomalies in the timelines set out in the preliminary report, as evidence that the crash could realistically have been caused by a serious electrical failure.

The plane – registered as VT-ANB – was delivered to Air India in 2014. According to the Foundation for Aviation Safety, a US body led by the former senior Boeing manager turned whistleblower, Ed Pierson, it suffered from a series of serious electrical problems throughout its lifetime. Air India denies this.

Documents seen by the BBC show an incident of "burning" in one of the plane's main power panels in 2022. Air India says repairs were "carried out in accordance with Boeing-approved maintenance procedures" and that "the aircraft was returned to service only after applicable airworthiness requirements had been satisfied".

The preliminary report, meanwhile, notes that the aircraft had been permitted to fly with a known fault in its "core network", a framework that links the aircraft's computers and associated electronics and is often described as the "central nervous system" of the plane.

Boeing has referred all questions about what happened to the Indian AAIB.

Competing theories

A key theory put forward by campaigners is that the crash may have occurred because a major electrical failure caused the aircraft's main flight computers to reboot seconds after takeoff. They say this created a situation where the aircraft's systems briefly believed the plane was actually on the ground, even though it was in the air. A safety system detected dangerous levels of engine thrust, assumed a malfunction, and ordered the fuel supply to be cut off, the theory goes.

Under this scenario, fuel switches in the cockpit were not actually touched – the flight data recorder may instead have registered the electronic command to cut the fuel supply, rather than the physical movement of switches.

Rachel Chitra, an investigative journalist who has published a series of technically detailed articles in India, has promoted this theory. In her work, she points out a series of inconsistencies in the preliminary report. Among these is an account of how the engines attempted to relight after their fuel supply was restored.

The report indicates that "Engine 1's core deceleration stopped, reversed and started to progress to recovery. Engine 2 was able to relight but could not arrest core speed deceleration…". But Chitra claims her research, which she says is backed up by engineering documents, suggests that any such relight would have been physically impossible at the speed the aircraft had reached and with the power sources available.

Meanwhile, lawyers acting on behalf of victims' families have focused on the moment at which an emergency power system began to operate. The Ram Air Turbine (RAT) is a small propeller which can rotate in the airstream to provide electricity and hydraulic pressure when other systems in the plane fail. On AI171, CCTV footage shows that the RAT had deployed immediately after take-off.

According to the preliminary report, the RAT was providing hydraulic power within five seconds of the fuel switches being cut off. However, simulator tests, the results of which have been shared with the BBC, appear to demonstrate that it would actually need 14-18 seconds. This would imply that it had actually deployed far earlier, potentially while the aircraft was on the ground, and well before the fuel was cut off.

Mike Andrews is an attorney with the Beasley Allen law firm which represents the families of 135 victims of the crash. He says the findings raise important questions, which cast doubt over the pilot suicide narrative.

"The RAT deployment is a symptom of something else going on," he explains. "In order for it to be out, something has happened…if it is out prior to the fuel switch allegation, our question still is: why?

"It is a symptom of something that has gone wrong".

Safety consultant and author Eckhard Jann thinks such controversy in a case like this is inevitable.

"We have gotten used to safe airline travels," he says, and as the reason for the B787 crash in Ahmedabad is unknown, it "rattles the world".

Former investigator Tim Atkinson thinks the "incredibly complex multiple electrical failure scenario" is unrealistic. He believes the physical architecture of the plane's systems would not allow it to happen.

For him, the controversy over AI171 comes down to "just the difficulty we all have talking about homicide and suicide".

Under Annex 13, those investigating a serious air accident are meant to publish a final report within 12 months if they can. However, this is not always possible. If a final report cannot be issued, an interim report must be published on the anniversary of the accident.

This means India's AAIB must publish an update of some kind by Friday, 12 June.

There is now widespread doubt that it will be conclusive. In May, India's civil aviation minister muddied the waters when he told reporters the investigation into the crash was into its "last stage", and that the final report would "mostly…come after a month".

Controversy and cynicism

Whatever report is published, it looks highly unlikely to reverse the wave of controversy and cynicism that has already engulfed the AI171 investigation.

A great deal of that stems from perceptions that the companies involved are being protected from blame.

Boeing, certainly, can ill-afford to see questions raised about the safety of the 787. Although it suffered severe teething problems in its early days, including a major battery fire on one aircraft at Boston airport in 2013, the 787 has since racked up a very impressive safety record. AI171 was the first time a 787 had been lost due to an accident. However, production of the plane has proved deeply problematic over the years with reports of defects and manufacturing problems, while whistleblowers have drawn attention to what they considered to be dangerous practices on the production line.

Boeing has consistently denied allowing potentially dangerous planes to enter service.

The manufacturer's corporate culture has, however, come under fire thanks to a series of issues involving the smaller 737 Max - including two fatal crashes. It has been forced by regulators to implement a comprehensive safety and quality improvement plan.

Air India, meanwhile, has struggled for years, racking up heavy losses. After being under government ownership until 2022, it was then taken over by the giant Tata Group. This was meant to herald a turnaround, but it has continued to struggle in what has been a difficult environment for the industry as a whole. It can not afford further damage to its brand.

This is not the first time the current system for investigating major air accidents has faced criticism. It has however highlighted ongoing concerns about the integrity of high-profile and often politically sensitive inquiries.

According to the non-profit Foundation for Aviation Safety, asking the country where the accident occurs to oversee an investigation "can trap the process within local bureaucracies or political pressures. Even more troubling, manufacturers' technical experts, while ostensibly assisting investigators, may face intense pressure to deflect corporate culpability."

"Diagnosing an extremely complex airplane with an outdated playbook is impossible," says the Foundation's executive director, Ed Pierson.

Eckhard Jann points out that the current system is still largely founded on principles set out in 1944. In today's more globalised world, he thinks "investigating authorities are having more and more difficulty fulfilling their duties: to investigate independently and make solid recommendations in order to improve aviation safety."

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the UN agency which oversees international air travel, is well aware that investigations can be vulnerable to conflicts of interest. In March, it set out a series of changes to Annex 13. These set out guidance on what states can do to enhance credibility and improve transparency, including by delegating investigations to a third party if necessary. The new measures will take effect in late 2028.

But according to Jann, this is just a sticking plaster. "Whatever ICAO is trying to change and improve is only trying to reduce the symptoms, but global aviation, global manufacturers and global airlines demand a global answer," he says.

Such an answer, he believes, would be "a global investigation authority with enough power to demand changes based on their recommendations."

But others question whether such investigations are even worthwhile in the modern era, given the tremendous cost and effort involved, among them, former investigator Tim Atkinson.

"This cycle of an accident happens, you investigate it impartially, make recommendations, prevent future occurrences… it doesn't really happen any more.

"The things that prevent people dying these days are nothing to do with that. They're to do with better technology."

However, if investigations are to continue, he says, much more transparency is needed, with information being provided much more freely at an early stage.

"I've always believed that", he says. "And I've never seen negative consequences of it".

Top image credit: EPA/ Shutterstock and Reuters

World's largest chipmaker does not rule out price rises as costs increase

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce3ez4zzzlvo, 4 days ago

The world's largest chipmaker has told the BBC that inflation is pushing up the cost of doing business, and did not rule out price rises.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) makes the most advanced chips designed by companies such as Nvidia, AMD and Apple, so any increase in pricing could ripple through to the cost of AI infrastructure, and potentially over time, the prices customers pay for their electronic devices.

However, the firm's chief financial officer, Wendell Huang, said it would not introduce sudden "fourfold, fivefold" price rises. "We reflect our value," he said, pointing to its "technology leadership" and "manufacturing excellence".

In an exclusive and wide-ranging interview, Huang also denied that the AI boom was a bubble and that the firm's global expansion was due to geopolitical pressure.

The global chip industry and TSMC sit at the centre of escalating US-China trade tensions, with Washington pressing leading chipmakers to expand production in the US to secure critical supply chains.

Taiwan, the US ally and self-governed island that Beijing claims, produces the majority of the world's most advanced chips, the tiny processors that sit inside smartphones, laptops and AI data centres.

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned at a recent summit with US President Donald Trump that mishandling Taiwan could put the relationship between the two superpowers in an "extremely dangerous situation".

The BBC travelled to Hsinchu Science Park, a dense cluster of fabrication plants or "fabs" south of the capital Taipei, for TSMC's annual shareholder meeting and for a rare interview with Huang.

TSMC is expanding manufacturing in the US, Germany and Japan as well as in Taiwan itself, but Huang pushed back against the idea that this was a response to pressure from either Washington or Beijing.

"We go out of Taiwan to build capacity based on customers' demand. The customers want us to go there. It's not the request of government," he said.

But on the question of where the world's most advanced chips will be made, Huang was clear: the most cutting-edge production will remain in Taiwan.

Moving the manufacturing ecosystem to the US, he said, would take "five or 10 years, or even longer" - a timeline that directly challenges the ambitions of US industrial policy, which has pushed TSMC to commit $165bn to its Arizona operations.

AI boom or bubble?

While Huang stopped short of committing to price rises, he said: "Inflation, yes, did cause [our] costs to increase."

Earlier in the day, the company's chairman and chief executive CC Wei told shareholders that he would "like" to raise prices, as its competitors have done.

TSMC's shares have surged over the past year as demand for AI chips has accelerated, and Huang described a company under pressure to keep up.

"We're doing everything we can, wherever we can, and however we can," he said.

"The customers ask us to grow so much, but all we can do is try to grow as fast as possible. So far, still trying."

There is pressure in the stock market too, as investors around the world grapple with questions about whether the huge spending wave on AI infrastructure can be sustained.

Tech shares in Asia tanked earlier this week following a similar sell-off in the US on Friday amid growing concerns about stretched valuations.

It came after an extraordinary period of gains across global chip and AI-related equities.

But Huang insists the AI boom is not a bubble about to burst.

"Our conviction in this AI megatrend is very strong. We talk to the customers and also the customers' customers… who are mainly the hyper-scalers," he said.

"These companies are financially very strong with a lot of financial resources, so we believe that they're able to continue to invest."

Additional reporting by Jaltson Akkanath Chummar

'I will come home safely': Indian sailor's last words to wife before a US strike killed him

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx24vlj2nvyo, 2 days ago

"He told me he would be home soon. I never imagined he would return like this," says Patnala Bhargavi, whose husband Patnala Suresh, an Indian sailor, was killed in a US strike near the Gulf of Oman this week.

The couple were looking forward to celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary this month. Instead, Bhargavi is trying to come to terms with a future without him.

Suresh was one of three Indian sailors killed when the US military struck the MT Settebello, an oil tanker, in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday. The attack was part of Washington's effort to enforce a blockade on Iran-linked shipping, with the US military saying the tanker had ignored repeated warnings and was carrying Iranian oil. The vessel's managers dispute that account, saying it had no connection to Iran and received no warning before it was hit. Twenty-one other crew members were rescued.

The deaths have reverberated across India, from Bhargavi's home in the coastal city of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh to towns and villages hundreds of kilometres away, where other families are mourning loved ones who left home to earn a living at sea.

As they grieve, many are also seeking answers about the circumstances of the strike and waiting for the sailors' bodies to be returned home.

In a post on X, Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said efforts were under way to bring the sailors' bodies back, describing their deaths as a "profound loss" to India's maritime community.

India has also lodged a strong protest with Washington over the strike, summoning a senior US diplomat and calling for an end to attacks on commercial vessels in the region.

For Bhargavi, however, the wider geopolitical fallout feels distant.

Visitors have barely stopped coming home since news of Suresh's death reached them. Amid the condolences, Bhargavi keeps returning to their last conversation.

"There have been attacks in this area and some people have been killed. But don't worry about me. I'll come home safely, and we'll celebrate our anniversary properly," she recalls him saying.

Surrounded by photographs of Suresh and their two children, the 39-year-old now struggles to reconcile that promise with her husband's death.

Suresh had spent around 15 years at sea, working as a marine engineer and travelling the world.

As the ship's chief engineer, he was entitled to six months' leave each year. But he rarely took that much time off, according to his father Ramakrishna.

"He loved his work and preferred to spend most of his time at sea," he told the BBC.

His family had long grown accustomed to the months he spent away from home.

The couple usually spoke on video calls every few days, sometimes with other crew members joining in to say hello. But from 5 June, the calls became increasingly difficult. By 9 June, they had stopped altogether.

"I thought it was just a network problem because they were at sea," Bhargavi said.

For two days, she waited for news, before finally finding out that her husband had been killed in the strike.

At first, the family clung to hope that there had been some mistake and that Suresh would be found alive. But that hope quickly faded.

On Thursday, Bhargavi said the ship's management told the family that there had been no chance of escape when the strike happened. Suresh was inspecting a fault in one of the ship's generators at the time, she said.

The family is now calling for his body to be brought back to India and seeking financial assistance from the government, saying he was the household's sole breadwinner.

Suresh leaves behind two sons and two nieces he helped raise after Bhargavi's elder sister and brother-in-law died.

"The entire family depended on his income. Now I don't know how I'll educate or raise the children," Bhargavi says.

The same questions echo through the homes of the two other sailors killed in the strike.

In Hamirpur district in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, the family of 23-year-old Aditya Sharma is mourning the loss of their only son.

"I want my son's body to be returned to us. We should also be told what happened in his final moments," his father, Rajesh Sharma, told BBC Hindi.

Rajesh Sharma also questioned whether enough had been done to save the crew.

"The others were rescued, so why couldn't these three be saved?" he asked.

More than 1,000km (621 miles) away in Deoria district in Uttar Pradesh, the family of 35-year-old Shivanand Chaurasia is grappling with the same grief.

A fitter by profession, Chaurasia had left home around eight months ago to work for a foreign shipping company.

"We spoke to him the night before last. He told us everything was fine," his father, Ramji Chaurasia, told ANI news agency. "Now we have been told that he is no more."

Like Bhargavi in Visakhapatnam, both families are waiting for their loved ones' bodies to be returned.

For them, the geopolitical tensions that brought the tanker into the spotlight feel far away. What matters now is the chance to see their sons and husbands one last time, they say.

Additional reporting by Syed Moziz Imam and Saurabh Chauhan for BBC Hindi.

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Alleged Bondi Beach gunman charged with another 19 offences

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg0l7g7n9no, 4 days ago

The man accused of killing fifteen people in an attack on a Jewish festival at Sydney's Bondi Beach in December has been charged with 19 additional offences.

Naveed Akram was already facing 59 charges after the shooting including 15 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder, and one count of committing a terrorist act.

According to court records seen by the BBC, new charges were filed in April but have only now been confirmed by authorities.

The fresh charges are 10 counts of "shoot at with intent to murder", six counts of discharging a firearm with intent to resist arrest, and three counts of causing wounding or grievous bodily harm with intent to murder.

Akram, 24, has made a series of short court appearances but is yet to enter a plea to the charges. He is due back in court in August.

On Wednesday, prosecutors told the court that investigators from the Joint Counter Terrorism Team were "progressing" steadily through the evidence.

It includes 230,000 CCTV images as well as content on several devices belonging to people with alleged links to Akram which need to be translated, prosecutors said.

Outside court, Akram's lawyer Leonie Gittani told the media that the extra charges were not a surprise to her client.

"He was sort of aware of it on the last occasion, but [in] a matter of this magnitude, it's not unusual for additional charges to be laid," she said, according to the national broadcaster ABC.

"It's a process now that we've got to follow."

Asked about the CCTV images, Gittani said: "It's an unprecedented matter and so... there's a lot to come. We've got a job to do, and that's what we intend to do".

Akram's father Sajid Akram, 50 - who was also armed and shot at the crowd on Bondi Beach - was killed by police at the scene of the shooting on 14 December 2025.

The younger Akram was critically injured by police and later transferred from hospital to prison.

Court documents released in late December alleged that the two shooters "meticulously" planned the attack on Bondi Beach for months and visited the location for reconnaissance two days prior.

One video - taken on one of their mobile phones in October - was described as showing the men sitting in front of an image of an Islamic State group (IS) flag.

They could be heard making statements about their motivations for the attack and condemning "the acts of 'Zionists'", police said.

Police said separate footage from October showed the father and son "conducting firearms training in a countryside location", believed to be in New South Wales.

They were seen "firing shotguns and moving in a tactical manner", officials added.

In April, Akram lost a court bid to suppress the identity of his immediate family due to safety concerns.

The attack was Australia's worst mass shooting in almost three decades and prompted sweeping gun law reforms and a crackdown on hate speech.

It led to a royal commission into antisemitism in Australia. which began public hearings in February.

Father and daughter battle storms and health scare as they sail around the world

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c172k1p8kzxo, 7 days ago

A father and daughter from Australia have been putting their relationship to the ultimate test - by sailing together around the world.

Rob Donald and his 19-year-old daughter Freya set sail from New South Wales, Australia in March 2025, heading for Norway.

The pair have been through storms, a serious health scare and a close encounter with a tiger shark in an adventure that Freya said had been weird and difficult at times but also one that she "wouldn't trade for the world".

The BBC caught up with the Donalds in Penzance, Cornwall, as they rested and prepared for the final leg of their epic voyage.

The all-wood yacht Misha was built in 1937 by a famous Dutch boat building company.

Rob bought the 9.8m (31ft) vessel in 1989 in France then sailed it to Australia and then did another trip to France and back.

He had a dream to take the boat back to the Netherlands and show them it was still going after all these years, and that is what inspired the present voyage.

Rob, 59, said his wife Hanne, did not want to go on the trip and his daughter Freya, who was 18 at the time, said she would go instead.

The experienced sailor who has captained big boats for 30 years said people thought Freya would not last a week, yet they have logged 18,000 nautical miles in 15 months.

Freya said she passed the time by crocheting and watching movies, but really enjoyed the sailing experience, adding: "It was really really weird for starters but I got used to it pretty quickly but there were definitely points when I was very sick of it, but looking back, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

"We did an Indian Ocean crossing and it was 24 days at sea in quite rough seas, and then we got to Madagascar after all those days and it was just the most beautiful country ever.

"Chilling with the lemurs was top of my bucket list so that was probably the best experience I've had."

Cancer treatment mid-voyage

It is a journey that has had its challenges.

Rob said: "We left Sydney via Darwin, to Bali, Indonesia and then across to Madagascar and then down to Mozambique and then into South Africa and down around the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Town.

"When we got there I found out I had prostate cancer," he said.

"It was a bit of a shock."

Rob said he flew back to Australia and was the first in the country to undergo robotic surgery in a single-port operation.

He added: "The surgeon said 'come back next month' and I said 'no, I can't. I've got to get back to my boat. I'm going sailing, I've got to finish my trip to Norway'."

Luckily, Rob said the surgeon gave him the all clear: "If I had left the boat in Cape Town any longer I would have missed the weather window, to get from Cape Town out to St Helena."

Rob said he and his daughter had been able to stay friends by respecting each other's space in the cabin.

"We have our boundaries," he said.

"She has her bunk and I have my bunk, she's got her headphone and downloads movies and things."

Tuna v shark

They were able to supplement their diet by towing a fishing lure behind the boat, another activity that was not without its dramas.

"We caught half a yellowfin tuna once because a tiger shark took the other half," laughed Rob.

"For the next week we just had tuna every day, it was a bit like Forrest Gump and the shrimp, we had curried tuna, fried tuna, battered tuna, beer-battered tuna, raw tuna."

Freya, who turned 19 on the trip, was quick to catch a train to London to meet up with her best friend after tying up in Penzance harbour.

"I love the city, it's probably the thing I miss most about being at sea, and hanging out with friends, it was really really tough like that, it got to me at some points," she said.

"Coming to London, one of the biggest cities ever, was just amazing, very happy."

Rob said: "The last passage to Penzance from the Azores was quite challenging.

"It was 50 knots, huge 6m (20ft) seas and then when we got in the Bay of Biscay it went calm."

While Freya is enjoying herself in London, her father has been meeting up with old friends in Penzance.

Freya will rejoin her father in Falmouth and they will be joined by Hanne, who is flying in to celebrate his 60th birthday.

The intrepid pair will then set sail for the Netherlands, then on to Norway.

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Our sons are playing for two different countries at the World Cup

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0lygw3zpy8o, 2 days ago

For most Scots following the World Cup, who they're supporting isn't even a question.

And football-mad Jack and Heather Souttar of Luthermuir in Aberdeenshire have more reason than most fans to be heading to the USA this week.

Their son John is making his World Cup debut in the blue jersey of Scotland.

But that's where things get complicated.

Because their younger son, Harry, is turning out in the gold of Australia.

They're proud of both boys and looking forward to watching them play.

But their sons' success means Jack and Heather need to get to two first-round games which are 3,000 miles and six days apart.

And they're keeping their fingers crossed and options open should both teams progress.

As Jack says: "It's a big thing, I suppose. We want to support both kids and both countries. Then the ball's in the air for the rest of it."

Both defenders, John now plays at Rangers after stints with Dundee United and Hearts, while Harry - who also started at Tannadice - had a spell at Stoke before joining Leicester City.

John first played for Scotland in 2018 and Harry has been a feature of the Australian national squad since 2019, thanks to mum Heather being born there.

According to their parents, having two sons playing at the highest level means they can enjoy both their successes, and the boys enjoy a friendly and supportive rivalry.

Jack says: "They're fairly close brothers, though there was a bit of scrapping when they were younger.

"They're always talking to each other about games. They're always looking out for each other, that's for certain."

The beautiful game has played a big part in the lives of all the Souttars.

Jack turned out for Brechin in his youth and the next generation of three sons and two daughters all played and follow the game.

Managing all that took a lot of commitment and organisation over the years.

"I think the big thing is that it was never a task for us," Jack says.

"We trained at Dundee twice a week. Then we were going down to Glasgow twice a week and training down there."

The boys' burgeoning careers took them all over the UK, including Dingwall, Fleetwood and Stoke.

"We were all over the country supporting them and, to be fair, we both really enjoy football. It was excellent. We didn't want to be grumpy parents. We treated it as a holiday."

This World Cup is not the family's first.

In 1998, the last time Scotland made it to the finals, Jack was there with oldest son Aaron, among a gang of family and friends.

But toddler John was too young to make the trip and stayed at home with Heather, who was heavily pregnant with Harry.

"I never made it," Heather says. "I was very pleased that they went and I said 'well, I'll go to the next one'.

"But here we are, 28 years later for the next one. I've waited a while."

Of course, 28 years later that toddler and baby bump are now playing at the World Cup.

This time, four generations of extended family as well as friends are going, with Heather at the centre organising it all.

Aaron, the oldest of the five siblings, won't be in the USA this year. He died in July 2022 at the age of 42 after a long battle with motor neurone disease.

Both players credit their brother with helping shape their careers and talk of him as a role model.

Harry played for Australia at the Qatar World Cup in 2022 but this year marks John's debut.

Two boys, two teams, one family. But what happens if the stars align, Scotland end up playing Australia, and the brothers end up playing against one another?

"I think the feelings are very similar for both the kids," Jack says. "I don't think, because we're from Scotland, our feelings for Harry are any less.

"We're just so proud - as any parent would be - for their kids doing well. In any sport or any walk of life."

For Heather, USA 2026 marks the chance for their family to make some new memories.

"On the football side we'll have new stories, because we've heard the France '98 stories for years, so we'll have lots of new stories and new memories for all the family," she says.

"Memories and stories forever and that's all you can want for families, isn't it?"

'Iconic' Australian BBQ chain goes out of business after almost 50 years

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czde5lj4qljo, 4 days ago

Australian retailer Barbeques Galore has gone out of business after attempts to revive the struggling chain failed, leaving about 500 workers without jobs.

Founded in 1977 by Max Mason, the chain - selling BBQs and outdoor furniture - went into voluntary administration in February. A rescue deal was in the works but this week, the company said those efforts had met a dead end.

From next week, 62 company-owned stores will start closing down with "transitional arrangements" for 27 franchisee-owned stores. All staff will be paid their entitlements, the company said.

With its bright red logo, the chain's collapse has been described by analysts as a "tragic final chapter" for an "iconic" brand.

In a statement, the company said receivers had hoped to avoid winding up or liquidating the brand and proposed negotiating a deal with landlords and suppliers to "reestablish acceptable commercial trade terms moving forward".

But in recent weeks, those talks had not led to any deals, the company said, and the chain would be wound up, with assets to be sold from 16 June.

"Importantly, all employee entitlements and benefits... will be paid in full," the company said.

It added that gift vouchers can still be used in stores until the end of June but on the condition that the customer spends AU$2 for every $1 of the voucher.

For example, to redeem a $50 voucher, a customer must spend $100 themselves on a total purchase of $150.

Analyst Roger Montgomery said Australia's economic climate made it hard for a struggling business such as Barbeques Galore to be saved.

"This is a tragic final chapter for an iconic Australian retail brand," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"If you can't sell barbecues to Aussies, who can you sell them to?" he asked.

Australian ex-minister launches crowd-funded inquiry into Aukus submarine deal

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn7p3ky2yl1o, 12 days ago

A former environment minister will head up a crowd-funded review of the multi-billion-dollar Aukus submarine deal, Australia's biggest ever defence project.

Peter Garrett, who served as environment minister between 2007 and 2010, said an independent inquiry into the A$368bn ($239bn; £176bn) deal - where Australia will buy second-hand US submarines to replace its ageing fleet - was "long overdue".

Garrett, the frontman of rock band Midnight Oil, said Aukus was the "most expensive" defence deal ever in Australia but the chance to "question, debate and decide has been taken out of the hands of the parliament and the people".

The review will hold public hearings with a report due in October.

Garrett will lead the inquiry with four other commissioners including Admiral Chris Barrie, the former chief of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and Carmen Lawrence, a former premier of Western Australia.

Karen Lester, the daughter of an Aboriginal man who went blind due to British nuclear tests in South Australia in the 1950s, will also be one of the inquiry's commissioners.

Independent MPs David Pocock and Andrew Wilkie have thrown their support behind the review, which is being organised by not-for-profit group Australian Peace and Security Forum.

Other supporters include former MPs, retired military and naval officers, human rights lawyers and union leaders.

A spokesperson for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government welcomed "appropriate oversight and transparency" of the submarine deal.

One of the issues the five-month inquiry will look at is whether acquiring the nuclear-powered attack submarines will make Australia safer and what impact it will have on the country's standing in terms of regional peace and security.

Key questions the inquiry wants to answer include whether Australia will receive the submarines it will pay for, where and how the nuclear waste will be stored, and if the deal undermines the country's sovereignty.

The inquiry will also ask how the deal will affect Australia's relationship with China, its largest trading partner.

The Aukus deal was first announced in September 2021 and while it is not explicitly stated, it is believed to be about countering China's growing presence in the Indo-Pacific region, and its role in rising tensions in disputed territories such as the South China Sea.

China condemned the agreement as "extremely irresponsible" when it was first announced.

Earlier this week, the government detailed changes to the deal, with Australia to buy three second-hand submarines from the US, replacing a former agreement that Australia would get at least one new vessel.

From 2027, the pact will allow both the US and UK to base a small number of nuclear submarines in Perth, Western Australia.

The UK reviewed the pact in 2024 after Keir Starmer's Labour government won power and the US launched a review into the deal last June.

Australian doctor who underwent world-first brain tumour treatment dies

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c14yz5jg476o, 6 days ago

Pioneering Australian doctor Richard Scolyer has died, three years after being diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour.

Scolyer, 59, made global headlines for his decision to undergo a risky world-first experimental treatment for his glioblastoma at the hands of his friend Professor Georgina Long - based on the pair's own scientific breakthroughs in skin cancer.

Their work on advanced melanoma - once a death sentence - has saved countless lives, and their encouraging findings in treating Scolyer's brain tumour have triggered an early stage clinical trial in the US.

"I wanted to keep contributing, even in my darkest hour," Scolyer said in an open letter announcing his death.

"I pen this letter as a final goodbye to all those I have had the immense privilege of loving, sharing life's adventures with, working alongside and meeting during what can only be described as a life filled with happiness, optimism, opportunity and passion."

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called Prof Scolyer "one of our brightest lights and one of our biggest hearts".

"Every day, this remarkable man - the cancer specialist who became his own subject - took us into his confidence, and he lifted us all in the process."

One of the country's most respected medical minds, Prof Scolyer became a national treasure. In 2024, he was named Australian of the Year alongside Long.

As co-directors of the Melanoma Institute Australia, over the past decade the pair's research on immunotherapy, which uses the body's immune system to attack cancer cells, has dramatically improved outcomes for advanced melanoma patients globally. Half are now essentially cured, up from less than 10%.

Scolyer also pointed to the mentoring of up-and-coming pathologists as a source of pride in his career.

"I have always been driven by the belief that we all have a responsibility to try to change the future for others and leave the world a better place... I have lived that ethos to the fullest."

Becoming a 'guinea pig'

Speaking to the BBC in 2024, Scolyer said he refused to take his shock diagnosis lying down.

Glioblastomas, found in the brain's connective tissue, are notoriously aggressive and the general protocol for treating them - immediate excision then radiotherapy and chemotherapy - has changed little in two decades. Most patients with Scolyer's form of tumour survive less than a year.

"It didn't sit right with me… to just accept certain death without trying something," Prof Scolyer said.

"It's an incurable cancer? Well bugger that!"

Long was similarly determined. She spent the hours after she was told of her friend's diagnosis grieving, then plotting.

In melanoma, her team discovered that immunotherapy works better when a combination of drugs is used, and when they are administered before any surgery to remove a tumour. And so, Prof Scolyer in 2023 became the first brain cancer patient to ever have combination, pre-surgery immunotherapy.

He was also given a vaccine personalised to his tumour's characteristics, which boosts the cancer-detecting powers of the drugs.

Scolyer and Long knew the odds of a cure were "minuscule", but hoped the experimental treatment would prolong Prof Scolyer's life.

Subsequent scans appeared to show a positive immune response in the brain - and a small clinical trial is now trying to replicate those results.

"This was science in action!" esteemed melanoma surgeon John Thompson AO said in a statement paying tribute to his friend.

Describing Scolyer as a "cheery, down-to-earth, lad from Launceston" and a brilliant, internationally recognised scientist, he said: "He will be remembered as a truly great Australian."

Albanese said in a statement on Monday: "Richard's journey was difficult and confronting. 'My uncertain path', as he termed it with characteristic understatement. Yet it was one he travelled with courage, determination, and a grace that never ceased to be remarkable. The way he shared it with us was an act of profound generosity."

Scolyer is survived by his wife, fellow pathologist Katie Nicholl, and his three children.

In his letter, he said he was "perhaps lucky" that the physical and cognitive impacts of his brain cancer meant he was unlikely to have been fully aware of his own decline over these final weeks.

"I write this knowing that my wonderful family would have been by my side every minute, as they have been throughout my cancer journey… They are shining examples of the best of humanity and make me extremely proud."

Scolyer - who documented his treatment online - also thanked Australians for the outpouring of love.

"You've laughed with me, cried with me, and provided encouragement and support to keep going just when I needed it most. I haven't sugar coated my journey and I sincerely thank you for allowing me the space and opportunity to share it with you, warts and all."

He issued a call for scientists to keep being brave and inquisitive, and for governments to fund their innovations.

"We can and should continue to push boundaries to propel the cancer field forward."

Man dies after shark attack in Western Australia, police say

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74yl98kv37o, 8 days ago

A male diver has died after being bitten by a suspected 4.5m (14.8ft) shark in Western Australia, according to local authorities.

The 35-year-old, who has not been named, was spearfishing with family off Michaelmas Island, south-east of Perth, when he was attacked at 11:25 local time (03:25 GMT) on Saturday, police said.

He was taken by boat to shore where he was met by paramedics, who were unable to revive him.

Police said they would prepare a report for the coroner, in a statement shared by local media.

The BBC has contacted officials to confirm the reports.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) said it was assisting police and local authorities with the incident.

It has also urged residents to report any shark sightings, local media report.

It comes less than a month after a father-of-two died after a separate shark attack in Western Australia.

Steven Mattaboni, 38, was attacked by a 4m (13ft) shark at Horseshoe Reef, north-west of the popular Rottnest Island near Perth.

Shark attacks around Australia are more common than in many other parts of the world, though they are often not fatal.

Popular swimming and surfing spots tend to have measures to protect against attacks.

Judge urges Melbourne orchestra and pianist to resolve case over Gaza comments without him

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdxpxygqqdvo, 9 days ago

A judge has urged the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) and an acclaimed pianist to resolve a court case over Gaza comments between themselves.

Jayson Gillham is suing the MSO for workplace discrimination after it cancelled his next performance citing a statement he made during a 2024 concert, where he said Israel had killed more than 100 Palestinian journalists in Gaza.

Justice Graeme Hill adjourned the case on Friday after a three-week trial, saying the two sides should resolve the matter "without me having to say the things I need to say in a judgement".

The court has heard evidence from almost two dozen witnesses including Gillham and former senior executives of the MSO.

"I know there's been two attempts to resolve it already which were unsuccessful," he said, adding that while he usually makes judgements "pretty quickly", this was "not that sort of case".

"I'm afraid it might take me some time to go through everything and work out the right answer," but this gave both sides "more time to think about" reaching a "negotiated settlement rather than a judgement from me".

The case centres around a short introduction that British-Australian pianist Gillham read out during a performance in Melbourne on 11 August 2024. He said more than 100 Palestinian journalists had been killed by Israel since October 2023 when the war in Gaza began.

Gillham said Israel was carrying out "targeted assassinations of prominent journalists as they were travelling in marked press vehicles or wearing their press jackets".

"The killing of journalists is a war crime in international law, and it is done in an effort to prevent the documentation and broadcasting of war crimes to the world," he told the audience of about 150 people during the Sunday morning concert.

In its most recent update, the Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent organisation that promotes press freedom, reports that 206 journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 2023.

Gillham's comments attracted three complaints and prompted the MSO to cancel an upcoming performance by him on 15 August 2024.

That decision prompted almost 500 complaints, with the MSO cancelling the entire concert due to safety concerns.

The MSO said it had made an "error" in cancelling the show and said it was trying to reschedule the performance but Gilham sued the organisation in late 2024, saying it had rejected "reasonable requests to remedy the situation".

In an email to patrons at the time, the MSO had said they were blindsided by Gillham's comments and he had put them in a "difficult situation".

"The MSO does not condone the use of our stage as a platform for expressing personal views", it added.

Gillham's lawyers argue that it was his workplace right to express his political belief, which is a protected right in the state of Victoria, and that an employer cannot mistreat an employee because of that belief.

On the first day of the trial, Gillham said that following the public backlash after his performance was cancelled, the MSO had asked if he would come back for the second show but only on the condition that he would not say anything on stage.

In her closing statements on Friday, Gillham's barrister Sheryn Omeri said the MSO's decision to cancel Gillham's show and then ask him to come back was "insulting".

In response, MSO's barrister Justin Bourke KC said the matter was a "highly pressured situation".

"You can't ignore that it was a highly controversial statement made in a setting where this was the biggest issue in the world," Bourke said.

Giant hissing cockroaches among $200,000 worth of illegal insects seized in Australia

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjwpwv18910o, 9 days ago

More than 100,000 illegal exotic cockroaches - some as big as the palm of a hand - have been seized by Australian authorities from a commercial breeder in New South Wales.

The seizure, worth $AU200,000 ($143,000; £106,000), included Madagascar hissing cockroaches and dubia cockroaches from a breeder in Bathurst, 200km west of Sydney. Both species cannot be legally imported into Australia or kept, bred or sold.

It is the largest seizure of illegal exotic invertebrates, authorities said. The illegal insects can spread disease and harm native wildlife and agriculture, they added.

The illegal cockroaches, often fed to pet reptiles, will be killed and disposed of by authorities.

"We're seeing illegal breeding and trading of exotic cockroaches and we're putting pet businesses and pet owners on notice," a spokesperson for the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW) said.

"If you are found to possess, breed or trade exotic cockroaches such as dubia cockroaches and Madagascar hissing cockroaches they will be seized and you could face penalties under federal law."

The spokesperson urged reptile owners who have been using dubia roaches as feeders to seek legal alternatives such as crickets and wood roaches.

Madagascar hissing cockroaches, one of the largest species in the world, are so called because they can produce a hissing sound loud enough to be heard.

Bathurst snake catcher Stefanie Lesser said she had seen the illegal invertebrates being sold online as reptile food, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

"People do have them because they are big, they're sort of like the size of your palm of your hand," she told the ABC.

"They probably are cost-effective, rather than feeding each lizard three or four woodies, which are quite small, you could only give them one."

Sweden ditches plan to imprison 13-year-old serious offenders

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0qy0dqldqjo, 3 days ago

Sweden has dropped plans to imprison serious offenders as young as 13 due to a lack of parliamentary support.

The country is currently grappling with children being recruited into violent gangs, with more than 50 children aged under 15 appearing in court last year on murder or attempted murder charges, Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer said.

Sweden's centre-right government will now draft legislation to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 14 from its current limit of 15.

"By lowering the age of criminal responsibility... fairer and proportionate sanctions can be imposed, and we will be able to create better conditions for rehabilitation than today," Strommer said.

Currently, children under 15 who are convicted of violent crimes are sent to youth homes, which Strommer said led to more inmates later re-offending.

The government will now seek to lower the age of criminal responsibility by just one year instead of two ahead of legislative elections, due to take place in September.

Eight existing prisons have been tasked with preparing special sections for children, where they will be kept separate from adult inmates.

The aim of the measure was "to protect society from life-threatening crime, to protect victims of crime [who are] often themselves children", Strommer told reporters.

However, Maria Frisk, secretary general of Swedish children's rights organisation Bris, said the youth homes - known as SiS homes - needed to be strengthened.

"Nothing indicates that lowering the age to 14 will turn the situation around," she said in a statement.

However, many SiS homes have also become recruiting bases for criminal networks in recent years.

The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra) reported a significant rise in homicides over the last 10 years, with 121 in 2023 compared to 87 a decade prior. However, this number decreased to 92 in 2024.

One of Sweden's most violent criminal gangs, called Foxtrot, has often used teenagers for criminal errands, ranging from shooting at the door of a rival to detonating explosives or contract killings.

In 2023, the violence peaked when Foxtrot gang leader, Rawa Majid, entered into a deadly feud with a former friend named Ismail Abdo, who had become the leader of a rival gang called Rumba.

Abdo was arrested in Turkey in 2025, while Majid is believed to now be somewhere in the Middle East.

Several attacks involving suspects as young as 13 or 14 have targeted locations linked to Israel, including defence firm Elbit Systems in Gothenburg and the Israeli embassy in Stockholm.

Sweden's security service Sapo has said the attacks could be linked to Iran, accusing the country of recruiting Swedish gang members to carry out attacks on Israeli or Jewish sites.

Iran's foreign ministry has previously condemned the allegations as "unfounded and biased", and said they were based on what it characterised as misinformation coming from Israel.

In 2025, both the US and UK sanctioned Swedish gang Foxtrot and its leader Majid, stating this was "due to their involvement in violence against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe on behalf of the Iranian regime".

Pope Leo visits Canary Islands to highlight perilous journeys of migrants

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn59w6p3vd0o, 3 days ago

Pope Leo XIV began a two-day visit to the Canary Islands on Thursday by listening to the stories of migrants, who have risked long and perilous journeys across the Atlantic to reach Europe.

"You are not numbers or files, you are people," the Pope told a gathering on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, adding that he "bowed" before their dignity.

That recognition and solidarity is the theme of the Pope's visit to the island, a clear counterpoint to the portrayal of migration in Europe by others as a crisis or invasion.

Data from the UNHCR show the number of arrivals by sea to Spain has fallen significantly this year, partly due to more interceptions off the West African coast by naval patrols funded by the EU.

But many people are still trying to cross - and dying.

So, in the southern port of Arguineguín - often used by migrants - Pope Leo stressed the need for alternative "legal and safe pathways" above all. He called on the "conscience of Europe" not to "grow accustomed" to its seas becoming unmarked graves or to a world where "so many risk death to seek life."

That includes entire boatloads of migrants that have disappeared without trace.

The Pope then threw a wreath of flowers into the waves in memory of all the dead, lowering his head to pray.

Bakary Jaiju considers himself among the lucky ones.

He was 19 when he climbed into a wooden boat in the Gambia in search of a better life. He would be at sea for seven frightening days, supplies of food and water gradually running out.

"You can't even sleep in case you fall in," he recalled, now in Tenerife after finally reaching shore late last year.

"I decided to go, whether I survive or I die, because I want my family to be in a good condition," Jaiju said, explaining why he had left behind his wife and baby boy and set out on the treacherous route.

Among the 160-or-so people packed into his boat were women and children. When their fuel ran out off the tiny Spanish island of El Hierro, they were eventually spotted and rescued.

Jaiju then spent three "very cold, very difficult" months in a migrant camp until he joined a project helping him to learn Spanish and find a way to stay in Tenerife legally.

The driving force behind that is Padre Pepe, a chatty parish priest in jeans and checked shirt rather than a dog collar.

He realised the number of young migrants on the island was growing, but local authorities only looked after them until they turned 18. From then on, they were on their own.

"But the streets will eat you up, young people are like carrion there," said Padre Pepe.

The Good Samaritan Foundation now offers accommodation and all kinds of workshops to about 170 young men. "The labour market could absorb all these people, there is huge demand," the priest insists.

"It's hard for me to understand why the human heart is so hard," is the priest's take on toughening attitudes in Europe to migration. "If we do it well, integrate people well, there is nothing bad in it at all. Quite the contrary."

Bakary Jaiju's own route to residency has been eased by a rare opportunity.

Pedro Sánchez's Socialist-led government in Madrid is currently allowing hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants to "regularise" their status, so anyone who arrived before last December can apply for residence and work permits.

Padre Pepe's team are scrambling to help everyone submit their paperwork before the deadline.

The one-off move has been criticised by Spain's opposition.

The conservative Popular Party has condemned an "irresponsible" move that goes against all EU immigration policies. And the far-right Vox party has called it an "invasion" that would attract more migrants to the country and cause the "collapse of the health service, housing and security".

For Spain's government, though, the move is a mix of the humanitarian, pragmatic and political: with an ageing, shrinking population it needs more workers – like all of Europe.

"We couldn't find local people who wanted to work with us," said Diana del Molino Rodriguez at the Domingo Alonso Group workshop in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Unable to recruit bodywork painters or panel beaters, the car firm hooked up with the local government to hire young migrants once they turn 18 and leave state care.

Molino Rodriguez says they faced fierce criticism initially, with social media comments about people "stealing" Spanish jobs: "It was a really hard thing to do because immigration was not something seen as positive. Nobody was looking at migrants like persons."

Her firm now has around 30 people on its books, including 19-year-old Tiene Lama, who says he's able to send several hundred euros each month back to his family in Ivory Coast.

Dozens of companies, including big hotel chains on the holiday islands, have now signed up to the scheme.

As the Pope pushes against the tide, trying to change the tone on migration, a new EU pact kicks in this week aimed at tightening Europe's borders still further.

The idea is to make it easier to detain and deport those arriving by sea.

For young men like Bakary Jaiju, already prepared to risk everything, it is little deterrent; for human rights groups it brings new fears for asylum seekers and their struggle to be heard.

But it is officials on the Canary Islands, where that policy should play out, who are most damning.

"We have no-one to work in the hotels, drive our buses or work in construction; we don't have masons or mechanics," warns Francis Candil, deputy minister for welfare.

"What we need is a real migration policy that means people from African countries don't have to risk their lives but can come to Europe and have options for work."

"Instead, we have Europe trying to protect itself behind walls - and to expel people."

The college scam that promised students fleeing war a new life in Finland

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgrprx55zpvo, yesterday

When *Ma Naw Phaw was given the chance to go to a vocational school in Finland, she took it immediately.

"It didn't matter what I studied," the 19-year-old says. "I just knew I needed a degree to find a good job and earn a decent salary to support my family."

She had been living as a refugee in Mae Sot, a Thai border town, after fleeing the devastating war in Myanmar.

Ma Naw Phaw had just started secondary school when Myanmar's military overthrew the democratically elected government in February 2021.

It crippled education as thousands of teachers left their roles, and students like Ma Naw Phaw refused to enrol in junta-controlled schools.

In Mae Sot, she joined a high school set up for refugees, and that's where she heard about an agency offering students the opportunity to study in Finland.

She decided to enroll in Finnish classes as she prepared for a new life on the other side of the world.

But that dream shattered in April, along with the future she had thought was in her grasp.

She had paid about 10,000 euros ($11,500; £8,600) to an agency called Brighter Future Way (BFW), which was operating in Mae Sot.

The money was supposed to pay for Finnish language classes in Mae Sot, the application for the vocational school, where she was going to study nursing, and a residence permit to live in Finland.

It was a huge sum for her family and it took them nearly a year to raise it, she says, but they were glad to do it for an opportunity that promised to turn the tide.

But then Finland rejected Ma Naw Phaw's request for a residence permit, which BFW had told her she could easily secure.

She wanted a refund but she could not reach the agency. Weeks later, she learnt that the founder, Min Min Soe Shwe, had been arrested in Finland.

BFW co-founder Phitak Pakay, who is based in Thailand, told the BBC the company has "lost contact" with Min Min Soe Shwe and that it will soon cease operations as "there are no students left in the dormitory".

Finland's Border Guard has also announced a "large-scale investigation" into an education agency which had offered to help some 350 Burmese students enrol in vocational schools across Finland, between 2022 and 2025.

"It is suspected that at least some of these students have been charged exorbitant amounts of money under the guise of arranging study places, residence permits and language exams," it said in a statement, noting that some of the victims have been left in debt.

"This situation could lead to many of the students ending up in a vulnerable situation and predisposed to being further exploited financially or otherwise," Juho Sillanpää, who is leading the investigation, told the BBC.

He says that he has been involved in several investigations over the years where education agents have misled clients or the Finnish authorities, but previous cases have "mostly been smaller in scale".

This case could amount to "aggravated extortion", he added, but declined to reveal the identities of the organisation or the individuals under investigation.

Piecing together interviews with six affected students, a Finnish vocational school, and a BFW co-founder, the BBC understands that BFW is the agency in question.

The BBC has reached out to Min Min Soe Shwe's lawyer and family, but they have declined to be interviewed.

According to its website, BFW "specialises in language training and student recruitment services for individuals from Myanmar who are preparing to live, study, or work abroad".

Among the vocational courses listed on its site are nursing, property maintenance and catering.

The company, which has registered offices in Myanmar, Thailand and Finland, says its mission is to "support our students every step of the way, ensuring they are well-prepared and cared for during their transition period".

Agencies like BFW have sprung up in recent years because students outside the EU can enrol in Finnish vocational and higher education institutions through these third-party "commissioners", a list that also includes local governments.

These agencies can "commission" specific programmes, tailoring them to suit the demands of students they are recruiting.

It is unclear how many students have signed up for programmes with BFW, and how many of them actually made it to Finland.

*Ko Myo is among those who did. The 26-year-old, who says his family knows Min Min Soe Shwe, told the BBC he is working in a nursing home after completing the vocational course.

He says the agency allowed him to defer some payments until after he started working, but that option was not given to any of the other students who spoke to the BBC.

EduSavo Oy, a vocational college in the Finnish town of Iisalmi, was due to receive its first batch of students through a programme commissioned by BFW in the autumn.

By May, however, it still had not received any tuition payments from BFW and decided to call off the partnership, EduSavo Oy's CEO Mira Repo told the BBC.

"We received information regarding the ongoing police investigation and information indicating that BFW was currently unable to complete the payment. My understanding is that Min Min Soe Shwe was detained by Finnish authorities."

Finland's education ministry said it is not involved in the investigation but that it is "naturally concerned about the suspected violations".

"So‑called intermediary agents are widely used in the recruitment of international students worldwide, including in Finland," communications director, Thomas Sund, told the BBC.

He stressed, however, that new laws will come into force in August, which will allow all international students to apply directly to vocational training schools in Finland, rather than through intermediaries.

"I felt inspired when I saw some of my seniors move to Finland for university after graduating," Ma Naw Phaw says.

Countries like the US and UK have tightened visa restrictions on Burmese nationals after the coup, driven by concerns that student visas were being used to secure refugee status.

So agencies such as BFW began promoting Finland as an alternative. Once the country offers a residence permit to those pursuing higher education, their families are eligible to apply for it as well.

All of this made Finland an attractive prospect for young Burmese desperate to flee the war and poverty in Myanmar — living and learning in "the world's happiest country", with the possibility of bringing their families over in the future.

In online ads, several agencies also touted "easy visa approval and free education", "world-class secondary education", and the ability to "work while studying to cover your expenses".

Ma Naw Phaw even met BFW's founder Min Min Soe Shwe who assured her that what might seem like a pipe dream was, in fact, within reach. Her mother sold two plots of farmland to cover the fees.

"I was excited because I'd be going there with my friends," she says.

But when she turned up for language classes at the BFW "school" in Mae Sot, Ma Naw Phaw found, to her shock, that there were no teachers. "I kept wondering why we had to pay so much money to teach one another."

She wanted to withdraw from the programme after a few months but she was told to stay on as she would not get her money back.

The six students who spoke to the BBC, including Ma Naw Phaw, each paid about 10,000 euros to BFW — 8,000 euros to learn Finnish and 2,000 euros for visa application fees. Despite receiving admission offers from Finnish institutions, five of them were denied residence permits because of "insufficient financial proof" and "delayed documentation", the students say.

"All the visa application work, preparing documents... We had to do everything ourselves. What did they take our money for?" Ma Naw Phaw asks.

*Ko Myint, 21, says his parents emptied their life savings to fund his BFW programme in 2024, and even borrowed more money from relatives. They hoped that he would be able to make enough to pay them back once he landed a good job in Finland.

Ko Myint was working with his parents at a food factory in Thailand, where they were paid about 10,000 baht ($305) a month. As Burmese migrants, they struggle to find jobs that pay better.

"I wanted to move forward in life by getting a better job... [Min Min Soe Shwe] told me that if I studied hard, he could help me. That's how my Finland dream began," he says.

Ko Myint says Min Min Soe Shwe initially agreed to accept a lump sum of about 8,000 euros. But he later demanded another 3,500 baht a month as payment for accommodation.

Unable to shell out the additional fees, Ko Myint dropped out of the programme despite having been offered a place to study nursing in Helsinki. "They told me that not a single baht of my money was left, but I never even got a visa. I don't understand how all the money could be gone."

When Ko Myint spoke out about his experiences with BFW on Facebook last year, he says he got harassed by Min Min Soe Shwe's supporters online.

"Even members of his family confronted me. Being one person against many, I felt mentally exhausted," he says. "I'm now working both day and night shifts at the factory to pay off my debt."

Ma Naw Phaw has moved to another city in Thailand as she felt "too ashamed" to return to her hometown in Myanmar. She says her mother struggled with how she had lost so much money, and it "strained my relationship with her".

"Only after news of Min Min Soe Shwe's arrest emerged did she finally understand we've been scammed."

*Names of students have been changed on request

French town buries murdered child as questions mount over police failings

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy9rq21dqego, yesterday

An 11-year-old girl called Lyhanna, murdered two weeks ago in south-western France, has been buried amid persistent public anger at failings that left her suspected killer at large.

Fellow residents joined the girl's family for a funeral ceremony before she was interred in the cemetery of the small town of Fleurance, 50km (30 miles) west of Toulouse.

Mayors across the broader Gers region called on people to gather in support of the family outside town halls, where flags were flown at half-mast.

Lyhanna's murder provoked a wave of revulsion across France after it emerged prime suspect Jérôme Barella, 41, was denounced nine months ago to police for alleged repeated sexual abuse of a 10-year-old.

He was not questioned even once by investigators.

And, according to newspaper Le Monde, US authorities had alerted French police after Barella's online activity suggested he could be accessing images that showed child sex abuse.

French police only discovered this after conducting a trawl for Barella's name following his arrest last week. The French National Office for Minors (OFMIN) said the signal came in 2023 and was judged to be "weak". The office said it received around 300,000 signals every year.

New sexual allegations have also emerged, regarding not just Barella, but his father and brother, too.

On Wednesday, Barella's brother Yannick was placed under investigation for rape following complaints by two women, one of whom was a minor at the time of the alleged crime. The other woman is his former partner.

Yannick was taken into custody this week when he went to police to complain of defamation. He denies the allegations against him.

The Barellas' father Joël, 71, is also under investigation after state prosecutors in Béziers this week re-opened a 2019 case in which he is alleged to have sexually abused his partner's granddaughter.

A second granddaughter has also made allegations of abuse in French media. He has always denied the allegations.

Jérôme Barella's daughter was a friend of Lyhanna, who was seen in his car on the Friday of her disappearance after being let out of school. He was arrested three days later and her body found on a nearby farm eight days ago.

A horrific crime turned into a national scandal as France realised the scale of official blunders that had left Barella at liberty.

He had already been identified in three separate sex abuse cases when he was denounced in August last year for the alleged rape of a 10-year-old girl called Rosa.

Medical examination showed the girl's claims to be true. But justice officials and gendarmes acted so slowly that over the next nine months Barella was not even contacted.

The case has emerged at a time of growing public anxiety about how the French justice system treats sex crimes against women and minors.

Paris city hall has had to fend off charges of negligence after several school assistants were charged with sexual abuse - while this week, one of the country's best-known singers, Patrick Bruel, was placed under investigation for rape and sexual assault, which he denies.

Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin has resisted calls for his resignation, and an opinion poll Friday showed that two-thirds of those asked thought he should stay in his job.

He said that blunders in the run-up to Lyhanna's murder were not the result of a lack of resources or manpower in the justice system – as some have been arguing – but of a failure to give proper priority to what was obviously a serious case.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has vowed to toughen the legal arsenal by lengthening jail sentences for child-rapists and setting a time limit for investigations into claims of sex abuse of minors.

But campaigning groups say they want a new overarching law covering sexual violence against women and children, as well as a new budget line of €2.7bn (£2.3bn; $3.1bn) to implement it. They have promised to stage protests outside courts around the country every Monday.

"This isn't female hysterics. We need structural change," said Sophie Binet, head of the CGT union.

Sardinian beach bans umbrellas for 10 to 65-year-olds

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8728yrr14ro, 2 days ago

Visitors to a picturesque beach on the Italian island of Sardinia have been told they can only erect an umbrella if they have a child under 10 or they are aged over 65.

Authorities at Punta Molentis beach, on Sardinia's south-east coast, say wildfires that ravaged the beach, dunes and car park last year mean they have to impose a maximum of 150 visitors at a time.

"It's therefore necessary to limit human impact and ensure protection of this heritage for future generations," the local town of Villasimius has decided.

Sardinia's idyllic beaches have long attracted big numbers, and Punta Molentis is not the only one trying to impose limits this summer.

However, Villasimius Mayor Gianluca Dessi this month signed an official order, imposing a compulsory fee of €10 (£8.60) per visitor arriving at the beach by land, while anyone arriving by boat needs to pay €5.

Under the new rules, vehicle access to Punta Molentis is curbed at 70 cars per day until 31 October, and reservations to attend the beach will also be compulsory, according to the order posted on the Villasimius council website.

Parasols or umbrellas are banned for everyone, except for families with children under 10 or for those over-65.

"The ecosystem of Punta Molentis is one of the most valuable in our territory but also one of the most fragile," the official notice reads.

Beachgoers at Punta Molentis were forced to flee wildfires by boat in late July, 2025, as fires licked the water's edge and black smoke billowed out to the Tyrrhenian Sea. Dozens of cars were left burned out in the beach car park.

Not everyone is happy with the new rule.

One Sardinian, posting on the Villasimius social media page, wondered whether people would soon need to hire young children or older people to visit the beach, arguing that the only solution for the beach to recover from the fires would be to close it for a few years.

Sardinia's tourism website describes Punta Molentis as "one of the pearls of Villasimius", lying at the tip of a promontory jutting out on the island's southern coastline.

Discovery of €1.2m jewellery prompts fresh probe into former Spanish PM

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjeg9p1xqdwo, yesterday

Former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is facing a new investigation following the discovery of luxury watches and jewellery in his safe.

Zapatero, a Socialist who governed from 2004 to 2011 and who remains influential in the ruling party, had already been facing a probe into alleged influence peddling relating to his role in the 2021 government bailout of Spanish airline Plus Ultra.

That inquiry prompted authorities to raid his office last month, where Spanish media reported they discovered necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings valued at €1.2m (£1.02m).

Zapatero's spokesman, Luis Arroyo, said "he will provide explanations before the judge" in relation to the jewels.

The jewellery was made with gold, sapphires and emeralds originating from Zambia or Thailand, according to Spanish media.

Investigators say Zapatero is suspected of being unable to show proof of payment of customs duties on the jewellery. He is now under investigation for tax fraud and smuggling.

Associates of the former prime minister said at the time that the items were linked to family inheritance, Agence France-Presse reported.

He has been summoned to testify in court later this month.

While other Spanish prime ministers have been called to testify in corruption cases, this is the first time in the country's recent history that a former premier has been placed under formal investigation.

The inquiry is the latest scandal to hit the Socialist Party of current Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, of whom Zapatero is a close ally.

In the Plus Ultra case, Zapatero is accused of using his influence to secure a €53m government bailout of the airline in 2021 and receiving a commission in return. He has consistently denied wrongdoing or having ever received payments from Plus Ultra.

The bailout was approved under a government fund established to support strategic companies hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Last month, police raided the Madrid headquarters of the Socialist Party and seized a number of documents as part of an investigation into alleged corruption.

Searches were also carried out at the homes of senior party figures and a leading businessman.

A number of figures, including Sánchez's wife and brother, also face charges. All deny wrongdoing.

Ryanair investigated over charging parents to sit with children

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czj87rvx349o, 3 days ago

Ryanair is being investigated by the UK's competition watchdog over charges it imposes on parents to sit next to their child on flights.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was looking into whether the airline's policy, which the watchdog said typically led to a fee of £8 each way, was "unfair" under consumer law.

It said Ryanair's terms and conditions state a parent must sit with their child if aged between two years and 11, and this is done through what the airline calls a "mandatory family seat" that the parent must pay a fee for.

Ryanair called the investigation "bogus" and insisted its family seating policy "fully complies with all relevant laws".

The CMA is looking at whether the airline's "approach to seat reservations may mean parents are being charged for the airline to meet its child safety and disability‑related obligations as set out under aviation rules – and will investigate to determine whether or not this practice is in line with consumer law".

The watchdog said it understood that Ryanair was the only major airline flying from the UK to impose such a charge.

It said other airlines offered to seat children next to a parent or guardian without a fee, or allocate seats together automatically during booking for free.

The CMA added that its investigation had just started, and it had "reached no conclusions about whether Ryanair has broken the law".

Ryanair said adults travelling with children pay one reserved seat fee, "but can select reserved seats beside them for up to four children on the same booking FREE OF CHARGE".

"This means that parents travelling with children pay for only one (adult) reserved seat but pay nothing for the four other reserved seats for their children travelling with them," it added.

"This bogus CMA investigation is a failed effort by the Starmer Govt to pretend it cares about consumers when it has failed to abolish APD [Air Passenger Duty] which would immediately deliver lower fares for all consumers and growth for the UK aviation, tourism and wider economy.

"Ryanair looks forward to disproving these false CMA claims during this bogus investigation."

The CMA said it would also examine whether "the mandatory family seat fee is 'dripped' during the booking process and whether consumers are presented with the total price that they will pay".

The CMA's director of consumer protection, Hayley Fletcher, said extra charges can quickly bump up the price for families saving up for an affordable summer holiday.

"Our investigation will consider Ryanair's approach to family seat reservations and how the cost is presented to consumers to determine whether they comply with consumer law.

"For the past year, we've told businesses to ensure their customers are shown the total price upfront – those who don't face the very real possibility of action from the CMA."

In its advice for planning trips, the UK Civil Aviation Authority said airlines are legally required to include all compulsory charges in the displayed ticket price. The cost of optional extras, such as hold luggage, should be clearly displayed during the booking process.

It noted that many airlines charge for seat selection. Carriers "should aim to seat children under 12 in the same row, or no more than one row or aisle away, from their accompanying adult and make all reasonable efforts to seat a disabled person or person with reduced mobility with the person accompanying them".

While it says most airlines have processes to ensure this happens, it recommends travellers contact them to confirm their seating policy.

Consumer rights body Which? welcomed the investigation.

"Which? has repeatedly highlighted Ryanair's harsh approach to separating families and making parents pay a fee to sit next to children as young as three," said Rory Boland, travel editor at Which?, "so it's good to see the regulator investigating the airline's behaviour."

He added: "Ryanair doesn't have to wait for the outcome of the CMA's investigation, it could stop charging these unreasonable fees today and we would encourage them to do that."

The investigation is part of the CMA's wider aims to help ease cost of living pressures. Under new powers, it can fine companies up to 10% of their global turnover if they breach consumer law.

Zelensky under pressure to end row with Poland over WW2 name of army unit

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c992r4kn5j9o, 4 days ago

Ukraine is facing a major diplomatic fallout with key ally Poland, after Kyiv decided to name a military unit after controversial World War Two fighters, reopening a painful chapter from the past.

Polish President Karol Nawrocki is considering stripping Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky of the country's highest state honour, the Order of the White Eagle.

Nawrocki has already consulted with the council of the order and says he will decide whether to revoke the honour "in due course".

The spat began when Zelensky issued a decree late last month naming a military unit of the Special Operations Forces after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which existed in the 1940s and 1950s.

Many in Ukraine regard the UPA's members as heroes who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Soviet Red Army as well as Nazi Germany and Polish authorities. So for Ukrainians the title "Heroes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army" is a major honour.

Poland, however, accuses UPA of carrying out a genocide of ethnic Poles in Volhynia (now Volyn in Ukraine) in 1943-45. Zelensky's decree caused significant outrage in Poland, and Nawrocki condemned it as "glorification of bandits and killers".

There has been criticism from across the political spectrum – from far-right to left-wing groups.

Many felt Ukraine was ungrateful to Poland, which opened its borders to millions of Ukrainians fleeing the full-scale Russian invasion, and continues to provide shelter to almost a million refugees.

Some MPs from the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) have called for "a drastic reassessment of relations" with Kyiv.

The leader of the far-right Confederation party, Krzysztof Bosak, has demanded that Warsaw stop funding the Starlink satellite services that Ukraine's army has come to rely on, as well as blocking Ukraine's accession to the EU until Kyiv reverses its decision.

Nawrocki himself said Zelensky's decision showed that "Ukraine is not ready to join the European family".

Even politicians regarded as "pro-Ukrainian" have strongly condemned Zelensky's controversial decree.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has urged Kyiv to look for solutions: "If not, it will mean that not empathy but hard business will determine our relations."

For Ukraine, the UPA is a symbol of resistance and struggle for independence, even though Warsaw says about 100,000 ethnic Poles were killed in the Volhynia massacres.

The group's red and black flag is often used by Ukrainian troops on the front line today. That's why, in his decree, Zelensky said he was using the UPA's name "with the aim of restoring the historical traditions of the national army".

Kyiv has not officially responded to the criticism from Poland, although the foreign ministry has stressed it had no intention to cause offence.

But Zelensky's chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov, travelled to Warsaw last weekend following Nawrocki's threat to strip the Ukrainian president of the Order of the White Eagle.

Budanov's mission was to ease tensions and end the crisis, but it appears his trip failed as after his visit Nawrocki gathered the council of the Order to discuss this issue further. Even Tusk later admitted that "diplomacy has yielded no results".

The Ukrainian leader, who usually makes foreign trips from the Polish airport of Rzeszów chose this week to fly to the UK via Moldova.

Tusk has made clear that the airport is not closed to Zelensky: "I am not going to tell him where and how to fly."

However, analysts worry that stripping Zelensky of the order may lead to a major diplomatic rupture that can have serious repercussions for both countries.

Discontent among the Poles already threatens to overshadow an upcoming conference on Ukraine's post-war reconstruction scheduled later this month in the northern Polish city of Gdansk. Poland's foreign minister has indicated Zelensky may choose not to attend.

The tensions could also strengthen parties on the right that have been critical of support for Ukraine, observers believe.

The Polish Order of the White Eagle bestowed on Zelensky in 2023 by then President Andrzej Duda can be revoked if he is deemed to have "committed an act making them unworthy" of the honour.

However, commentators suggest such a move may require the support of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

And Tusk is seeking to dampen the spat, appealing to both Zelensky and Nawrocki to have "a direct and honest conversation" before things spiral out of hand.

"Co-operation serves the interest of both our states and nations, while conflict serves Moscow's interests", he said.

'No dead ends': What the Dutch can teach us about tackling youth unemployment

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cnvpn253re4o, 6 days ago

A landmark report last month found Britain is grappling with a youth engagement crisis - with nearly one in eight 16 to 24-year-olds not in education, employment or training (Neet).

Alan Milburn, the former health secretary who authored the report, warned one in six young people could become Neet within five years unless urgent action is taken.

He identified that the Dutch approach was one the UK could learn from. The Netherlands has one of the lowest Neet rates in the world, at 4.9% among 18 to 24-year-olds. The equivalent figure in the UK is 15.1%.

So can the UK learn from a Dutch system that is designed around a simple principle?

"No dead ends" is the philosophy which underpins Dutch education and youth employment policy - every stage of a young person's journey is designed to lead somewhere.

Under Dutch law, it is compulsory for children between five and 16 to attend school - then they must stay in education or training until they either secure a qualification or turn 18.

One of the Netherlands' key tools for cutting school dropout rates is through the kwalificatieplicht (qualification requirement).

From around the age of 12, Dutch pupils are streamed into one of three secondary tracks, based on teacher recommendations and primary-school test results:

* VMBO - the practical route that usually leads to vocational training

* HAVO - which typically leads to universities of applied sciences

* VWO - the academic route to research universities

The system is controversial, with critics warning that early streaming can disadvantage some children and be detrimental to a young person's self-esteem.

Across the UK, young people can leave school at 16, but after that the rules vary. In England, they must stay in education or training until 18, through full-time study, an apprenticeship or part-time learning alongside work.

In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, there is no equivalent legal requirement, although schools and public agencies still encourage young people to stay in education or training.

At 10 years old, Amelie was told to choose the vocational VMBO track at high school.

She says this took a toll on her confidence - in the Dutch school system the VMBO track is not the most academic route.

However, when she started exploring secondary schools aged 12, she felt more optimistic. "We had a textiles class, there was a blacksmithing area," she explains.

Amelie went on to study fashion but struggled to secure an internship and left her course aged 17. She then spent six months working and travelling, and felt like her academic path had gone off track.

At this point Amelie says, if leaving education had been an option available to her - as it is in the UK - she may have taken it.

"If I had the freedom to drop out of school, I don't know what would have happened," she says.

But without a qualification, that wasn't an option for Amelie.

From education to sustainable employment

The Dutch system creates the opportunity for lots of hands-on experiences through work-study pathways, employer partnerships, and state-supported apprenticeships. Businesses can even request customised college programmes tailored to their company's needs.

How much students are paid, and whether or not there's a full-time job at the end of it, varies between different professions. Amelie said it was almost like businesses were queuing up for students graduating with an in-demand trade.

Through the beroepsbegeleidende leerweg (vocational training pathway) students aged 16 and over can combine part-time employment alongside study, typically working most of the week while attending school on one or two days.

Young people who pursue a vocational qualification are treated as worth investing in, and a valuable asset to society, according to Asja van der Helm, a high school teacher in The Hague.

"Many skilled tradespeople - electricians, roofers, installation specialists, technicians and craftspeople - are earning excellent incomes and are desperately needed by society," Van der Helm explains. "It's a very money-driven society for young adults. When they see a carpenter doing what they like and making a lot of money fast, they see that as aspirational."

Destiny moved to the Netherlands from Bonaire in the Caribbean. There had been few opportunities for her there and she was attracted by the options available in the Dutch education system.

Through a beauty therapy course in the Netherlands, an internship became paid work in a salon.

Her journey illustrates exactly what Dutch policymakers are trying to achieve: ensuring young people move seamlessly from education into work before they become completely disconnected.

For students who struggle with these formal pathways, a host of alternatives exist, funded by school budgets.

Alternative pathways

Alexander Koppelle is owner of Mooi Jong (Beautiful Young), an organisation based in The Hague which works with school-referred pupils at risk of becoming Neet.

He sketches out what looks like a spider's web where each strand represents a point at which a teenager could drop out of education, lose a job or disengage entirely. Then he starts filling in the gaps. At every junction there is another organisation, another intervention, another chance.

"I'm not sure we have the golden key," Koppelle says, yet both his experience and the data suggest that "there are lessons to be learned from the Netherlands".

Schools receive state funding for health and wellbeing, which they can use to bring in specialist organisations such as the Mooi Jong Academy, creating a layered safety net designed to keep students engaged and reduce drop-out.

Tackling truancy

Every absence is logged. Repeated lateness triggers conversations. Schools also notify municipal attendance officers.

Support mechanisms are activated before a young person disappears from the system altogether. Sometimes pupils are signed off, increasingly with mental health issues like anxiety.

While they wait for the appropriate referrals, they are classified as "thuis zitters" literally translated as "people sitting at home". The school still receives a budget for them, which can be used to cover the cost of external support.

Truancy without an explanation can trigger sanctions including fines, community service orders or juvenile supervision measures.

In England, if a child is skipping school without a valid explanation, local councils and schools can use various legal powers, including fines.

But the Dutch blueprint isn't foolproof - youth unemployment is rising.

In response, the government is making it easier for young people to claim benefits, supported by the Dutch Employee Insurance Agency, or UWV, a body that supports these who are out of work, administers welfare payments, and helps connect jobseekers with employers.

For young people at risk of becoming Neet, it's a one stop shop for support, guidance and opportunities.

Despite what she describes as a turbulent journey through school, Amelie believes that without the flexibility to change path along the way she might have dropped out altogether.

Now aged 20, she hopes to pursue a career in education and is currently training to become a teaching assistant at a vocational college in The Hague, ROC Mondriaan.

One day, she hopes she will be able to support young people who face the same challenges she once did.

You can also get in touch by following this link

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Steve Rosenberg: Russia's economic forum overshadowed by drone attacks on St Petersburg

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9q2gp52rgro, 7 days ago

An evil sorcerer is the last person you'd expect to see at an economic forum.

But there he stood working his wizardry.

With sleight of hand Russian folklore villain "Koshchei the Deathless" (or, rather, someone dressed as him) produced coins out of thin air, "broke" and reassembled someone's glasses and shocked passers-by with occasional puffs of smoke from his fingers.

"Russians are unpredictable people," he declared. "We do things no one expects."

Perhaps.

But in St Petersburg this week, the unexpected was delivered most dramatically by Ukraine.

Ukrainian drones attacked the St Petersburg area on the opening – and closing – days of the set-piece International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

The abiding image of SPIEF 2026 will be the huge plume of thick black smoke which dominated the St Petersburg skyline on Wednesday. Without specifying what was hit, local officials admitted that drones had damaged "infrastructure". All the delegates saw the smoke as they arrived at the expo centre on the edge of the city.

Few could have predicted what came next.

Volodymyr Zelensky published an open letter to Vladimir Putin. Ukraine's president taunted Russia's leader about his age and about Russian setbacks in the war but proposed the two leaders meet in a neutral country to talk peace.

President Putin's response?

Nothing unpredictable about that.

The Kremlin leader, who had rejected previous calls for direct talks with President Zelensky, criticised the letter's "rude" tone and dismissed the offer.

"It's not the author of the letter I need to respond to," President Putin said, "but our soldiers on the frontline…I say to them: keep at it, brothers!"

Vladimir Putin is not ready to end Russia's war on Ukraine.

Not unless it's on his terms.

I listened to what he said at the forum's plenary session. There were few surprises.

The Putin we saw is the Putin we expected to see - uncompromising, unrepentant, determined to project an image of strength and unwavering conviction. He tried to appear confident about the war, and about Russia's economy.

"There are wars and sanctions. But the economy is developing," Vladimir Putin claimed. "Everything is stable."

Applauded by entrepreneurs, friendly foreign dignitaries and officials, inside the congress hall the Russian president could style himself as a super strong leader.

His problem is what's happening outside.

The massive battlefield losses that Russia has suffered in its war on Ukraine.

The long-range Ukrainian drones now penetrating deep inside the country.

At the forum when I asked senior officials about the war, their responses had one thing in common: they quoted the Kremlin. A reminder, perhaps, of whose idea the so-called "special military operation" was in the first place.

"The war is in its fifth year," I pointed out to Alexander Zhukov, deputy speaker of the Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament. "Do you think it will it end soon?"

"I can only respond in the words of our president. He said this situation must be resolved soon," replied the MP.

"Drones targeted St Petersburg this week," I reminded Vasily Anokhin, the governor of Smolensk region. "And your region too has in the past come under drone attack."

"As our president says," the governor began, "our enemies, unfortunately, are trying to hurt us."

The Russian economy is hurting. There are no signs of imminent collapse, but war and sanctions are creating considerable pressure. Growth has stalled in most sectors. Russian economists speak of "stagnation" and, in some areas, "decline". The ongoing conflict is sucking massive resources, both human and financial.

On a recent trip to Lipetsk region, small business owners told me they were struggling to stay afloat.

With its shiny stands and big-budget presentation the St Petersburg forum presented a more rose-tinted view of Russia's economy.

"Interest rates are a bit too high," conceded Kirill Dmitriev, President Putin's special envoy on foreign investment when we spoke at the forum.

"We believe rates should be lower for more investments. But Russia's economy has proved resilient over the last five years: something that many Western analysts believed was impossible."

Even in a challenging economic environment some businesses here spy an opportunity.

"A few years ago, Russians flocked abroad on holiday," businessman German Galperin told me, "but the situation doesn't always allow that now due to sanctions and because attitudes to Russians abroad have changed.

"That's prompting the development of modern tourist centres in Russia."

Unlike sorcerer "Koshchei the Deathless", the Kremlin cannot abracadabra coins out of thin air. It would certainly ease the budget deficit if it could.

It did, though, magic up some attention-grabbing guests for the forum.

"I do give a good hello from your friend President Trump," Rodney Mims Cook Jr told President Putin in St Petersburg. As chair of the US Commission of Fine Arts, Mr Mims Cook Jr is overseeing the controversial White House ballroom project.

Russia trumpeted his presence and claimed he was heading the first official US delegation at the St Petersburg forum in a decade.

But there was no fanfare from the US State Department.

"I am not aware of the delegation that went," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week. "I'm aware of the event. I know they were hosting one, but I don't think it would have been a high-level official."

Walking round the exhibition halls at this year's SPIEF I noticed an eclectic mix: everything from boxing robots to singing, dancing grannies.

One of the most eye-catching installations was a ginormous Russian 'nevalyashka', or tumbler doll. As generations of Russian children know, the roly-poly 'nevalyashka' wobbles a lot, but never falls down.

I often think that's how the Russian authorities want the world to view their country: as a giant tumbler doll that cannot be knocked down or defeated, no matter how hard you push it. Despite more than four years of war, and battered by sanctions, Russia is still standing.

A defiant image? Certainly.

But perhaps not the best advert for attracting long term foreign investment.

For that, the fewer wobbles the better.

Armenia votes as Russia piles pressure on pro-West government

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3626n1epd5o, 7 days ago

Armenians have voted in an election that could decide whether the country continues edging towards the West, or returns to its traditional ally Russia.

The small South Caucasus country of three million people has been under mounting economic pressure from Moscow, as Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan seeks re-election on a promise of European integration.

Sunday's election has drawn significant international attention to Armenia, which has steadily grown closer to the West while still intertwined with Russia, its largest trading partner.

The rapprochement with the West is largely Pashinyan's doing.

Since coming to power in 2018, the prime minister has steered his country away from Moscow, passed a law to launch the process of joining the EU, and accelerated the peace process with neighbouring Azerbaijan via a US-brokered agreement. The latter has won him US President Donald Trump's endorsement.

Pashinyan also hosted a large summit of EU leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the capital, Yerevan, earlier this year.

Yet despite these successes, Pashinyan's domestic support has fallen from 54% in 2021 to around 30% today.

The main reason is Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave inside Azerbaijan that was home to 100,000 ethnic Armenians until Azerbaijan took it by force in 2023.

Pashinyan's critics have never forgiven him for making concessions in favour of peace with Azerbaijan, like refusing to campaign for the release of former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh who are in jail in the neighbouring country.

The peace deal with Azerbaijan, too, remains deeply divisive, with one recent poll showing 44% of public opinion in support and 41% opposed.

Pashinyan's critics now form several opposition parties and alliances. One of the main ones is the Armenia Alliance, led by former president Robert Kocharyan. Former president Serzh Sargsyan's Republican Party is not fielding candidates but has urged its supporters to vote against the incumbent.

Both ex-leaders argue that restoring deep military and economic ties with Russia is Armenia's only path to national security.

And Pashinyan's main challenger is billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, who made his fortune in Russia. He is under house arrest - accused of plotting to overthrow the government - and is conducting the campaign through his nephew.

The latest International Republican Institute poll shows Pashinyan's Civil Contract leading with 32%, while around 40% of voters say they trust no political figure.

If the opposition candidates worked together, they could match Pashinyan's vote, but divided they cannot beat him.

Russia's economic weapon

Over the vote looms Moscow.

Last month, Vladimir Putin listed the economic benefits Armenia stood to lose if it pursued closer ties with the West, and pointedly noted that "the crisis in Ukraine began with efforts to move toward EU accession".

Tangible economic measures follow the rhetoric. In the two weeks preceding the election, Moscow banned the export of Armenian flowers, mineral water, cognac, fresh vegetables and fruit.

Russia is Armenia's leading trade partner and accounted for 36% of its foreign trade in 2025.

Moscow "is trying to somehow impact the final results of voting on June 7," said Haykaz Fanyan of the Armenian Centre for Socio-Economic Studies. "We in Armenia believe it is very highly correlated with current political processes."

He notes that Armenia's dependence on Russian military equipment has shrunk dramatically, with around 95% of Armenia's military imports now coming from India, France, China and other countries.

"The only way Russia can impact Armenia now is economic," Fanyan said.

But that is still a significant weapon for Moscow to wield. Russia supplies Armenia with gas at $177.50 (£132.90) per 1,000 cubic metres, while European market prices, as Putin pointed out to Pashinyan in April, exceed $600.

In late May, the Russian president also called on Armenia to hold a referendum "as soon as possible" on whether to join the EU or remain in the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), a customs bloc from which Armenia benefits.

Pashinyan swerved the challenge. Despite his developing, good-natured relationship with European leaders, Armenia doesn't even have EU candidate status yet, and membership of the bloc is still a long way off.

"We will continue to work within the EAEU until the choice between its current membership and the EU becomes unavoidable," he said. "Today this choice is theoretical in nature."

Still, the EU is not standing back idly. On Thursday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged €50m (£43m) for Armenia in the face of what she said was a case of "Moscow weaponising economic relations for political pressure", and added the EU would ease trade with Yerevan for goods targeted by Moscow.

A tense campaign

Pashinyan has been campaigning under the slogan 'Stand for Peace!".

But the campaign has not been without confrontation - notably between Pashinyan and displaced Karabakh Armenians. One incident ended with the prime minister using offensive language against civil activist Artur Osipyan, who was later arrested on charges of obstructing the election campaign and went on hunger strike in protest.

Such incidents have led opposition figures to accuse Pashinyan of growing authoritarianism and of using state resources - including pressure on civil servants to attend his rallies - to his advantage.

"Pashinyan and his regime are using all possible and impossible administrative levers. They are spreading the atmosphere of fear and blackmailing," said Artur Khachatryan, a member of parliament from the opposition Armenia Alliance.

"I cannot remember any campaign as tense as this one."

Pashinyan is running on his doctrine of "Real Armenia" - a country at peace with Azerbaijan and integrated into Europe, rather than one defined by territorial ambitions and dependence on Moscow.

His support may have collapsed – but for many voters he remains the only alternative to a return to a past tinged by corruption and authoritarianism.

For ordinary Armenians heading to the polls the question is harder than any geopolitical framing: are they willing to bear the economic costs of the direction Pashinyan has chosen – costs Russia is making sure they can feel – knowing that a European future is still a distant prospect?

On 7 June, that question gets an answer.

Giant banquets rile radical left in France

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c78q215vyd7o, 8 days ago

Three-and-a-half-thousand hungry Alsatians wolf down platters of charcuterie and periodically burst into noisy chorus.

No, it is not the police dogs' annual convention, but the latest iteration of a feasting phenomenon that is sweeping provincial France.

The Alsace town of Colmar – famous for its half-timbered medieval centre – was the scene last weekend of one of the banquets géants – huge banquets whose popularity in the country has suddenly become a hot political issue.

Run by a company called Le Canon Français (The French Cannon), the banquets are massively attended – €81 (£70) buying you four courses of local gastronomy, all the wine you can drink, and several hours of sing-along camaraderie.

But not everyone is cheering. For the radical left party La France Insoumise (LFI - France Unbowed), the banquets have a dark side.

LFI says it has evidence of racist chanting, and of immigrant staff being insulted. With pork regularly on the menu, they say the feasts are purposely designed to exclude Muslims and vegetarians.

And they point to the financial involvement of an ultra-conservative entrepreneur called Pierre-Edouard Stérin as evidence of a masked ulterior motivation - to promote the agenda of the hard right.

Stérin, a billionaire who made his money in the experience gift-voucher sector, set up a think tank pushing right-wing ideas such as rolling back immigration, stopping abortion and promoting France's Christian heritage, which many in France would perceive as nationalist and exclusionary.

"If they were in good faith, Le Canon Français would never have accepted Stérin as an investor. But they did - they took his money," says Emma Fourreau, an LFI member of the European Parliament.

"And that is because they share the same political ecosystem, whose aim is to bring the far right to power."

At the Colmar banquet, held in a vast hangar-like space on the edge of town, such accusations are dismissed as out of hand.

In a festive atmosphere, the punters are seated on long tables with 50 down each side. Many men are in what has become a kind of Canon Français uniform of berets and braces. A few women are in traditional Alsace dress.

There is a brief address from management reminding diners of the "charter" committing them to behave with respect and decorum, and then the fun begins. An army of servers brings out platters with choucroute, then Alsace cheeses and the traditional kougelhopf pudding. Wine flows.

Periodically the revellers down forks and join in song. Old standards by performers like Michel Delpech and Joe Dassin are the favourites. These are songs from an earlier generation, but the participants - who look like they are mainly in their 20s and 30s - know them by heart.

"We come for four things: atmosphere, friends, alcohol and food," says one young man in a response which is echoed over and again. No-one wants to talk politics, except to say that they think the whole controversy has been blown out of proportion.

"None of this was an issue, but then Stérin became a shareholder and that gave the LFI an excuse to attack. Don't forget there are elections next year," says Quentin from Besançon.

The crowd in Colmar was predominantly – but not exclusively – white, and many said they were happy to be able to celebrate in a traditional way among friends. But the BBC saw no behaviour and heard no language that could be construed as offensive.

Le Canon Français is the brainchild of two entrepreneurs – Pierre-Alexandre de Boisse and Géraud de la Tour – who began selling wine over the internet to help a beleaguered winegrower friend during the Covid-19 pandemic. From there they started staging events to raise money for heritage projects – and success in that led to the banquets.

De Boisse says they are merely reviving an old French tradition of dining en masse with good local fare that goes back into the depths of medieval history. After the French Revolution, which led to the abolition of the monarchy, there were banquets républicains - marking the arrival of the new system - and, until recently, every village used to have its annual banquet populaire - a kind of people's feast.

"Nowadays people waste so much of their time alone, in their homes, on social media. They've lost the habit of being together and talking. What gives us the most pleasure is when we see the lawyer sitting next to the baker, chatting away," says de Boisse.

The accusations from the hard left have clearly nettled de Boisse, who insists they are unfounded.

"Of course we cannot police the minds of all the people who come. And occasionally maybe someone drunk says something stupid. But our rules are quite clear and set out in the charter, to which everyone signs up when they buy a ticket," he says.

He says the LFI is wrong to say they only serve pork. It happens regularly – because charcuterie is part of the French country tradition – but not exclusively. And he is angry at allegations that a Nazi salute was seen at one banquet. "I spoke to the guy and he said the accusation was total nonsense," he says.

Describing himself as a Catholic from the impoverished aristocracy and an entrepreneur, he says it would offend against both his ethics and his business sense to exclude people from the banquets. As for Stérin, he says he has never met the investor, who "bought a 30% stake purely because he could see we were very profitable".

For the LFI's Fourreau, the banquets are "backward-looking – a caricature".

"They don't represent modern France, which is a place rich in its diversity."

Her party is trying to get local authorities to stop the banquets, and has had an initial success in the Brittany town of Quimper.

In Caen, where a banquet was held in April, a preliminary investigation is being held by police into allegations of racial provocation by people attending.

De Boisse does not deny that many – maybe most – of his punters are probably from the right, or hard right. "But look at the elections. That is how more and more people in the countryside are voting," he says.

"Look, I create jobs, I create happiness for the people who come to the banquets. OK, these politicians don't like the shareholder, they don't like the people who come to the banquets, they don't like my name – but why do they have to go on the attack?

"Why can't they just leave us alone?"

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney begins two-day visit to Ireland

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2xpv8v7v9o, today

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has begun an official two-day visit to the Republic of Ireland.

He and his wife Diana Fox Carney arrived at Dublin Airport at about 10:00 local time and met Taoiseach (Irish PM) Micheál Martin.

It is the first bilateral visit to the country by a Canadian prime minister since Justin Trudeau's in 2017.

Gardaí (Irish police) said the impact on traffic will be "localised and minimal," but there will be temporary rolling road closures to facilitate events and security escorts over the course of Saturday.

Saturday's meeting will take place in Government Buildings and later he will be hosted at a dinner in Dublin Castle.

The two leaders will agree a framework for a strategic and economic partnership.

He is also expected to visit Trinity College and give a speech.

Martin said it would be an "excellent occasion to celebrate and strengthen the bilateral relationship between Ireland and Canada".

"With such strong Irish heritage, it will also be an opportunity for Prime Minister Carney to celebrate and explore his Irish heritage, and I know Mayo is looking forward to welcoming him home."

On Sunday Carney, who has Irish heritage, will travel to County Mayo, in the west of the country, to visit the home of his paternal grandparents in Aghagower.

Carney's grandparents left the village more than 100 years ago for Canada.

While visiting Aughagower, Carney will attend Mass in the parish church and visit the nearby cemetery, where some of his ancestors are buried.

He also has a third grandparent from County Cavan.

He will later meet Irish President Catherine Connolly in Westport.

The Irish government said that the taoiseach and Canadian PM will announce a new bilateral cooperation framework to "strengthen the partnership between the two countries across key areas including trade and investment, life sciences, research and innovation, and security and defence".

According to the Irish government, trade and economic ties between Ireland and Canada have expanded "significantly" in recent years.

Bilateral trade in goods and services has grown from €3.2bn (£2.76bn) in 2016 to more than €12bn (£10.35bn) in 2024.

They added that Canadian investment in Ireland has increased by 131% since 2016, while Ireland is now Canada's eighth largest foreign investor.

Peru election result close as vote counting continues

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cewq151pw78o, 5 days ago

Peru's presidential election is stuck in a statistical tie, echoing previous vote counts that have dragged on for days or even weeks.

About 94.9% of votes have been tallied in the latest official count, which has put the left-wing candidate Roberto Sánchez on a marginal lead of 50.10%, compared with the right-wing Keiko Fujimori on 49.90%.

Fujimori led early results and exit polls, but Sánchez has been gaining ground since Sunday night as ballots from rural regions come in.

Fujimori is a mainstay of Peruvian politics, while Sánchez has promised broad economic reforms. Concerns over crime and political instability have dominated the race.

The vote tallying is into its second day, but re-counts will likely be needed to confirm the winner, a process that could take weeks.

Peru's ONPE electoral authority said a full count was expected to be completed by July.

Early numbers from pollster Ipsos showed Fujimori dominating the capital Lima, carrying the urban vote and the coast, while Sánchez swept the rural vote and the mountainous Andes regions. Sánchez is expected to continue to gain ground as ballots from rural areas are tallied.

International polling stations, that are expected to favour Fujimori, have yet to be counted.

Sánchez said he was "confident and optimistic, but we'll wait for 100% of the vote".

Fujimori urged patience as she watched her early lead dwindle.

"We're going to wait until the last [vote] and that's what I hope all Peruvians do," she said.

Sánchez has reiterated he would seek a "presidential pardon" that would free former left-wing president Pedro Castillo.

In 2021, Castillo also ran against Fujimori and finished with a similarly close result, which led to the declaration dragging on for weeks. Castillo was eventually jailed after trying to illegally disband Congress and govern by decree, and Sánchez served as a minister in his government.

Fujimori is one of the most well-known figures in Peruvian politics, and this is her fourth time running for office.

Her late father, Alberto Fujimori, was formerly the president of Peru and was eventually jailed for crimes against humanity. But his supporters credited him with a tough crackdown on violent insurgencies and implementation of social programmes to help some of the country's poorest.

His controversial legacy is one she leant into throughout the campaign, promising a tough military crackdown on organised crime, in particular extortion incidents that have soared in recent years.

Fujimori began election day on Sunday by having breakfast in the Lima suburb of San Juan de Lurigancho, the most populous district in Peru, where impoverished neighbourhoods crowd the steep, dusty mountains. She was welcomed by crowds of supporters gathering for selfies with her.

"She will fight crime like her father did years ago," one supporter, Alicia, said.

"It's about time a woman governed us, one who makes us feel valued," another, Catalina Solana Guamá, added.

"Previous presidents didn't remember towns like ours, our hillside where we live, the needs people have. Her father travelled around, walking through the mud and sludge here, I want her to go out, not to be an office-bound president, and to be for the people and fight like that," she said.

Catalina welcomed Fujimori's pledge to use the military to tackle crime, saying she wanted her to "fight against those criminals who are killing drivers and bus conductors".

"It's not right that we go out to work and don't know if we'll come back alive."

Another, Jennifer, said "right now things are very bad, especially in this district of San Juan de Lurigancho, there's extortions and killings, she wants to fight that".

Sánchez fought his campaign promising sweeping left-wing reforms to the state and economy including a greater role for the state in Peru's natural resources, investing more heavily in rural areas, reforming the tax system, and reviewing mining contracts.

He argues this is necessary to tackle inequality and redistribute wealth from Peru's rich mineral, gold and copper reserves more equally and has enjoyed subsequent support in more rural areas. But his policies have rattled financial markets.

His supporters fiercely criticised Fujimori and her father's legacy. One, Giovanna, who stood in a crowd waiting to watch Sánchez speak following the results, said Fujimori's family had "done a lot of damage to our country", referencing Alberto Fujimori's forced sterilisation programme.

Some supporters said that if he did not win, they would protest.

"Our voices must be raised, if we have to rise up, at the very least I would do it," Giovanna said.

"Everyone is going to protest, we are going to go out into the streets, we voted for change," a street vendor, Hilda, said.

"Previously we voted for Pedro Castillo, but our president who was elected has been removed and is in prison. That's why we're voting for Sánchez."

A chaotic first round led to accusations of fraud and threats from both sides, after some polling stations faced delays receiving electoral materials.

Election observers and ONPE said voting in the second round had taken place without major issues.

World Cup kicks off in Mexico with Shakira, dancing, and protests

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2ly928xz8go, 2 days ago

The 2026 World Cup has begun in Mexico City with an opening ceremony filled with colour, dancing and a performance by global music star Shakira.

Thousands of fans arrived at the legendary Azteca stadium in Mexico City with a real sense of excitement for the first World Cup on their home turf in 40 years.

But outside the stadium, there were sporadic violent clashes as radical protesters attempted to disrupt the event and were met by a heavy security response.

For the most part, though, football took centre stage and there were wild celebrations as Mexico kicked off their campaign with a 2-0 win over South Africa.

Javier Pérez came with his family for the opener and told the BBC that the excitement now outweighs any hassles experienced up to this point.

"We were lucky to get hospitality tickets and it's a unique experience. I have never been to a World Cup before so to bring my family is wonderful," he said.

"I just want Mexico to get off on the right foot, win today and score a load of goals! And then we'll see how far we can go!"

Despite a heightened security presence around the 82,000-person stadium, the clashes between police and protesters temporarily shut down nearby metro stations.

Mexican officials said that nearly 200 hooded individuals broke away from two groups of around 800 protesters and clashed with law enforcement, but the situation "was brought under control" by police.

Meanwhile, teachers and families of those who have gone missing in Mexico's drug war marched in various protests, to highlight their causes while the country is in the global spotlight.

Mexico is co-hosting the 2026 tournament alongside the US and Canada, with those teams hosting their own opening ceremonies on Friday.

Ahead of the match, fans in the stadium were treated to performances from Shakira, Colombia's J Balvin, Afrobeats star Burna Boy and Latin music star Danny Ocean.

Mexican singer-songwriter Fher Olvera of the pop punk band Maná took the stage to sing the classic Oye Mi Amor.

"Bienvenida a México. Welcome to Mexico," a performer announced to start the tournament.

"We are a nation of diversity, heritage and pride. Football carries the same heartbeat, uniting generations."

Performers wore indigenous clothing, while others were dressed in all gold and held giant golden footballs above their heads.

A packed stadium of fans dressed in their own colourful outfits, many wearing Mexico's team colours.

Tyla sings South African national anthem

Opera superstar Andrea Bocelli and K-Pop singer Ejae performed the tournament's official anthem DNA, which was officially released on Wednesday.

Mexican singer Alejandro Fernández, who is the son of veteran crooner Vicente Fernández, sang the Mexican national anthem in unison with many of the 80,000 fans.

Grammy-winning South African star Tyla performed her nation's anthem.

Tyla, whose hits include the song Water and the Fifa song Game Time, will return to the World Cup stage on Friday to take part in the US opening ceremony in Los Angeles alongside Katy Perry, Future, Lisa and Anitta.

Fifa has tapped a bevy of global artists for the ceremonies, several of whom are featured on the 18-song Official Fifa World Cup 2026 Album.

Additional reporting from Elizabeth Conway, BBC Sport at the Azteca Stadium.

Delcy Rodríguez visits India: Will oil talks lead to an energy deal?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czx29k97kzlo, 10 days ago

Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela's acting president, is in India and will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday for talks on trade, investment, healthcare and renewable energy.

But the relationship between the two countries still revolves around a single commodity: oil.

India, the world's third-largest importer of oil, has sharply increased purchases of Venezuelan crude in recent months, turning the South American producer into an increasingly useful supplier just as the Iran war has choked energy flows from the Gulf.

India imports about 90% of its oil. Roughly half its crude imports - around 2.5-2.7 million barrels a day - pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow Gulf chokepoint now effectively closed by the conflict.

That gives Venezuela an importance that far exceeds its place in India's trade statistics.

Bilateral trade was worth just $679m in 2024-25 - a tiny fraction of India's global commerce. Yet whenever Delhi seeks to diversify its oil suppliers, Caracas becomes hard to ignore.

Venezuela was India's fifth-largest source of crude oil imports in May, supplying about 266,000 barrels a day, or roughly 5.3% of India's total crude imports, according to maritime analytics firm Kpler. Only Russia, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Brazil supplied more.

After a year-long interruption triggered by US measures against buyers of Venezuelan crude, Indian refiners resumed imports in February following a sanctions-easing agreement between Washington and Caracas.

Whenever Delhi seeks to diversify crude supplies away from the Middle East now, the world's largest proven oil reserves become hard to ignore.

That is the backdrop to Rodríguez's sixth visit to India, where she is due to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.

Michael Kugelman, a senior fellow for South Asia at the Atlantic Council, said Venezuela offers India an opportunity to diversify its energy supplies beyond the Middle East, while potentially aligning with Washington's preference that India reduce its reliance on Russian oil.

"Ramping up imports from Venezuela could also give a boost to India's ties with Washington," Kugelman told the BBC.

However, he cautioned that Venezuela's political volatility could complicate any new energy partnership and that Delhi "will also need to be careful not to appear to be seeking energy alternatives to Russia at the behest of Washington".

According to Kpler, India imported around 280,000 barrels a day of Venezuelan crude in April and May, the first cargoes after a nine-month hiatus, with June arrivals expected to rise to above 300,000 barrels a day.

Venezuelan crude's return coincides with growing concerns about supply disruptions in the Middle East and uncertainty around the Strait of Hormuz.

"However, the timing of the initial cargoes suggests they were likely secured well before the recent disruptions, highlighting a longer-term sourcing strategy rather than a purely reactive response," Sumit Ritolia, lead research analyst at Kpler, said.

For Indian refiners, however, the attraction is not merely geopolitical.

Relatively cheaper to buy but challenging to refine, Venezuelan crude is a heavy, sulphur-rich oil. India's sophisticated refineries are among the few that can process it efficiently into fuels such as diesel and jet fuel.

The renewed interest marks a partial return to an earlier relationship.

Before US sanctions halted imports in 2019, Venezuela had become one of India's most important oil suppliers, rising to third place in 2012 and remaining among the top five thereafter. By 2019, it was shipping nearly 16 million tonnes of crude a year, helping push bilateral trade to $6.4bn, overwhelmingly driven by oil.

Yet Venezuela is unlikely to transform India's energy mix, experts say.

Output has risen by roughly 400–500 kbd (thousand barrels per day) this year, but remains far below historic levels, limiting its ability to replace major suppliers.

"Instead, Venezuelan barrels are best viewed as an attractive diversification option - providing Indian refiners with access to economical heavy crude while reducing reliance on any single supply region," said Ritola.

Whether Venezuela can become a bigger supplier will depend on production, sanctions and geopolitics.

But Delhi sees scope for a deeper energy relationship.

As the Indian government puts it in a statement, Venezuela has been "an important partner" in energy and investment, with Indian state-owned firms already holding significant stakes in the country's oil sector and "keen to explore opportunities for further enhancing their presence".

But while both sides are signalling a desire to deepen cooperation, expectations of any major breakthrough may need to be tempered.

"Delhi will tread carefully during this visit and not be willing to commit to much on the energy front just yet. We'll likely see a big push for deeper cooperation, but not necessarily with the announcement of a new energy deal," said Kugelman.

Author honoured with Caribbean literature prize

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crkvdgv06pmo, 4 days ago

An author from Guyana said she was "honoured" to win the highest prize in Caribbean literature for her memoir which explores losing her mother to dementia.

Tessa McWatt, a professor in creative writing at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, was awarded the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature in a ceremony held in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago.

The prize is widely regarded as the leading international award for Caribbean writing.

She said the recognition was a "real joy, as it feels like a win for my mother, who is the central figure in the book and my heart's inspiration".

The memoir reflects on her mother's experience with dementia and examines collective grief following the environmental destruction caused by global pandemic, war and climate change.

"The journey is the grief of my mother with dementia and us losing her and her having to move out of her home," she said, speaking to BBC Look East presenter Susie Fowler-Watt.

"In the background is climate grief and I lost a friend in that period and another friend was diagnosed with stage four cancer, so it's all of that grief at once.

"I was looking at a way to embrace it."

'The award was for my mother'

The story - The Snag: A Mother, A Forest, and Wild Grief - spans a period of two months.

"A snag is a dead or dying tree in the forest and although it might look like its lost it's importance, it is the most important tree in the forest.

"You shouldn't take a snag out of the woods it should be allowed to decay there.

"It became a metaphor for my mum and richness of the elderly and the richness of watching someone go through dementia. I was learning some amazing things from her."

Receiving the award in Trinidad was pertinent for McWatt, whose mother went there every year.

"It felt like going home and to give that honour to her there, it was really lovely. It was an award for her," she explained.

"My advice to other writers is always the same — write your truth, don't stop."

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Mexicans chase a world record wave - but is the trend even Mexican?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2ly1q0940qo, 7 days ago

It's a tradition repeated in stadiums across the world, with crowds of spectators rising up in a rippling roar.

The largest wave so far, according to Guinness World Records, was at a Nascar racing event in the American state of Tennessee in 2008, when 157,574 people joined a wave that swept around the stadium.

Now, as part of the countdown to the World Cup, Mexico City is attempting to surpass that mark.

The chosen location was not a stadium, but an urban setting ideal for spreading a visible, continuous wave: the emblematic Paseo de la Reforma, an iconic arterial road inspired by European boulevards.

On Saturday, thousands gathered along the avenue and, after several practice runs, made their record attempt.

"Mexico, Mexico!" crowds shouted as they threw their arms in the air, many dressed in the bright green jersey of the Mexican national team.

Guinness officials are now analysing the effort to determine whether a new world record has been set.

The city is a fitting venue: it was here, 40 years ago, that this unique form of collective expression first captured global attention.

Since then, the phenomenon has become closely associated with Mexico.

But many believe George Henderson - or Krazy George - from the US deserves credit for initiating and directing the first ever wave, which is known as the Mexican wave outside North America.

He believes this took place at a baseball game in California in 1981 between the Oakland Athletics and the New York Yankees.

"The Oakland A's had already lost two away games," he remembers. "In the third inning I thought about trying something no one had seen before. I found three sections and started explaining what I wanted."

The first two attempts failed, but on the third try the wave went all the way around the stadium. And on the fourth, he managed to create a continuous wave.

"The place was going crazy," he says.

Because the game was televised, fans of other sports adopted it.

But it was at the Fifa World Cup in 1986 in Mexico that it was broadcast to an enormous global audience - and so became a global phenomenon.

How many people does it take to kick off a wave?

Fifteen years later, the phenomenon caught the curiosity of a scientist from the statistical and biological physics group at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest.

"The reason we became interested in stadium waves is that, apparently, people very often behave like particles," physicist Illes Farkas told the NPR network.

Together with two colleagues, Tamas Vicsek and Dirk Helbing, he set out to determine the rules that produce the wave.

For their research, published in the journal Nature in 2002, the team discovered that a typical human wave travels clockwise and moves at a speed of about 12 metres - or 20 seats - per second.

How many people does it take to start a wave? In large stadiums, only 25 to 35 people.

The mathematical model they built to explain this behaviour wasn't new; it was the same one used to describe the spread of a forest fire or the propagation of an electrical signal through heart tissue.

A sign of passion or boredom?

The wave may be universally considered a symbol of collective euphoria - but it can also represent a loss of interest on the part of spectators.

It can suggest a demand for action from the players, and a way of getting something out of the match, Chris Hunt, the author of World Cup Stories, told the BBC.

"When a match drags and nothing interesting is happening on the pitch, fans feel it's a way to make the most of the money they paid for their tickets," he explained.

If the match is a draw in the final minutes of a World Cup final, there will be no wave.

If it's a friendly where the home team is winning emphatically, then there probably will be.

Insecurity and instability drive voters in Peru's tight presidential race

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9d21184e7yo, 7 days ago

"If you don't meet our demands, we will kill your drivers."

This message, demanding about $15,000, was sent by a criminal gang to a bus company in a poor suburb of Peru's capital, Lima. It preceded an armed attack on bus driver, Toño.

"They shot me in the legs and abdomen. I was out of work for four months, now I work with fear. Although my wounds are dry, internally I feel pain," he says.

Toño's case was one of nearly 30,000 extortion incidents reported in Peru in 2025, many targeting small businesses or transport workers.

This issue, along with rising homicides, is why insecurity and crime have become top concerns for voters in Sunday's presidential election in Peru.

The right-wing Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the late former president, Alberto Fujimori, is running for a fourth time against left-wing Roberto Sánchez.

Fujimori has defined her campaign with an array of "tough-on-crime" policies, while Sánchez has promised sweeping changes to the state and higher public spending.

In Lima's suburb of San Juan de Lurigancho, dusty hilltop neighbourhoods sprawl precariously down the slopes. Armed police guard the gate to the bus depot where Toño works. They say this is Lima's worst district for extortion.

Toño, who now drives with plain-clothed armed police on board for his protection, wants whoever the next president is to have a "strong hand against crime".

According to an independent observatory of crime and violence, 239 drivers were killed last year.

"I've never been so afraid to leave my young children. If I had money, I'd leave the country," he says.

Eiffel Calla, head of security at the depot, says five drivers from their company have been attacked. One was killed, another was left in a vegetative state.

Fears of insecurity have driven other Latin American nations further right in recent elections, boosting leaders who promise a hardline approach to law and order.

At her final campaign rallies, Fujimori declared "war" on extortionists, promising to deploy the military against organised crime, control prisons, and work with financial institutions to block extorted money.

She's invoked the memory of her father, Alberto Fujimori - president from 1990-2000 - whose hardline approach resulted in him being jailed for human rights abuses. His supporters, though, remember him for bringing order to the country and stabilising the economy.

At a Fujimori rally, supporter Piero argues a heavy-handed approach to insecurity is "sorely lacking in these times" and describes Peru as "overflowing" with crime.

Another, Janeth, says "for economy stability, we choose Keiko Fujimori".

Despite having churned through eight presidents in the last 10 years, Peru's economy has remained relatively stable. It is a major exporter of critical minerals and metals such as copper.

Fujimori's supporters pit her free market approach to the economy and pledge to attract more US investment against Sánchez's proposals to review mining contracts, increase some corporate taxes, raise the minimum wage and give the state more control over natural resources – ideas that have unsettled financial markets.

He argues Peru's wealth originating from its natural resources doesn't reach ordinary people or the often rural communities where a lot of mining takes place.

His supporters, such as María Elena Linares, disagree that his policies will bring economic instability.

"We are going to nationalise, but we are also going to accept foreign countries that want to contribute to our country. Don't believe this negative idea that communism throws out foreign investors – they're grossly wrong," she insists.

"Our raw material, our gold, our copper, goes to other countries... we are experiencing misery."

Another supporter, Raúl, backs Sánchez's plans to expand the state and hopes it will bring more investment in health and education, as well as infrastructure outside of Peru's major cities.

Sánchez has also promised to free former left-wing president Pedro Castillo, who was imprisoned after trying to dissolve congress and rule by decree to avoid impeachment.

No party has a majority in Peru's congress, which has led to regular presidential impeachments, though Fujimori's party has the largest minority bloc.

Many Peruvians are fatigued by this instability. Last year, "Gen Z" protests erupted, with young people arguing the state was failing to tackle crime, corruption and inequality.

On Friday, a judge said Sanchez could stand trial over alleged undeclared campaign finances from regional elections from 2018-2020. He denies the accusations and is expected to appeal.

Fujimori spent years under investigation over campaign financing allegations too, which were dropped last year. But she spent nearly a year-and-a-half in jail in pre-trial detention from 2018-20.

Under-30s make up about a quarter of Peru's electorate, and many who protested feel neither candidate can deliver real change.

Consuelo, 21, vice-president of the student federation of Peru's Pontifical Catholic University, cites "political exhaustion" with the "political class".

She feels deciding between the final two options in Sunday's vote is like choosing the "lesser evil".

However, she is concerned about Fujimori's pledge to replicate some of her father's policies.

"To talk about Fujimorism is to talk about authoritarianism, and that is something that for many students represents an enormous fear."

Fellow student Cielo, 23, has taken part in "anti-Keiko" protests, despite crime being a top issue for her after her own family's small business was extorted.

Alvaro, 22, says his first choice of candidate failed to make it to the final round, but he would vote "critically" for Sánchez to keep Fujimori out.

"I'd like a more modern right with free-market values, but represented by someone who is not so vindictive and wants to work for Peru," he says.

What these students share with more passionate supporters on both sides is a desire for the instability to end so policies on crime, corruption and inequality can actually be implemented.

With no majority party in congress and two candidates at very different ends of the political spectrum, many analysts think this is still a long way off.

José Luis Pérez Guadalupe, interior minister from 2015-16 and professor at the Pacific University, says "great polarisation" means "whoever wins, it's going to be difficult for them to implement their plans".

"We've had eight presidents in 10 years, 24 justice ministers, 32 interior ministers. That's high volatility."

It's no surprise then that many Peruvians share Consuelo's frustrated verdict: "Whether Fujimori wins, or Sánchez wins, we know there will most likely be a lot of instability.

"In reality, it's a pretty hopeless choice."

Israel carries out air strikes on Lebanon, state media says, as Iran claims deal with US near

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c39y02x98k8o, today

Israel has carried out air strikes in the south of Lebanon after ordering people to leave about 20 locations, Lebanese state media has said.

At least one person has been killed following a strike on the town of Marrakeh, in Lebanon's Tyre district, according to the Lebanese National News Agency.

Israel's prime minister had previously warned his country would strike Hezbollah if it continues attacks against northern Israel.

The strikes come as Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose country is mediating talks between the US and Iran, wrote on X "we are closer to a peace deal than ever before". Finalisation is "likely expected in the next 24 hours", he added.

Iran's foreign minister said earlier that a deal to end fighting with the US is close. The agreement also envisages an end to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Seyed Abbas Araghchi also said.

Araghchi said the deal includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz and told state TV it includes the lifting of a US blockade of Iran. However, he said talks on Iran's nuclear programme would begin later.

US officials have confirmed some of the details of the agreement, saying economic benefits for Iran would depend on Tehran meeting its obligations.

Previous reports from the US have suggested Lebanon may not be part of this deal - with Iran reportedly insisting on it.

Despite having agreed a ceasefire in April, the US and Iran have exchanged intermittent fire, including two rounds of tit-for-tat strikes this week.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he had cancelled "scheduled attacks" against Iran, because negotiators had "just made a great settlement" - a deal that was likely be to signed imminently.

On Friday, Iranian media published some details from the alleged 14-point deal which Trump said had "nothing to do with the terms that were agreed to" and "bears no relation to the truth".

A few hours later, Pakistan's prime minister said the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the US and Iran had been agreed and awaited finalising.

On Saturday, Sharif wrote on X that his country "is preparing for the electronic signing of the peace deal... followed by technical level talks next week".

Iran's Araghchi was quoted in state media saying there are "supporters and opponents" of the latest terms of the deal among Iran's top security body, the Supreme National Security Council.

However, he added that a collective decision had not been reached. "For now, we must wait. If approved, the agreement will be signed remotely," he said.

Israel is not involved in the talks which are meant to lead to an extension of the ceasefire and the start of negotiations on key issues, including Iran's nuclear programme.

In a detailed briefing with journalists on Friday afternoon, US officials said the deal would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, in return for the US lifting its blockade on Iranian shipping.

Those steps would come into effect more or less immediately. This would be followed by a 60-day period of negotiation - focusing on Iran's enriched uranium - an essential ingredient to make a nuclear bomb. Officials said that this would result in all that material being destroyed on site and then removed from the country, though the precise mechanism for doing so is still to be worked out.

On the economic side, officials stressed there would be no money provided up-front - an apparent rejection of earlier Iranian news reports suggesting some Iranian assets would be unfrozen before substantial negotiations had begun.

Instead, US officials said, there would be a staged reintegration of Iran into the global economy, with measures such as the lifting of sanctions and the potential unfreezing of assets happening incrementally.

The deal calls on Iran to stop funding proxy groups in the region - a reference to Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies across the Middle East.

The US officials emphasised that the MOU was not based on trust or promises, but on "performance" - Iran would only receive economic benefits when it could be verified it had implemented measures it had committed to.

Even though there is a sense of cautious optimism from all sides - the US, Iran, Pakistan and Qatar which has also helped with mediation efforts - there is still a small distance to go. Variations of this agreement have been expected several times over the past month or two, only to fall away at later stages.

The difference now, according to the US administration, is both a greater level of optimism and a greater openness about the substance of the agreement.

For his part, the Iranian foreign minister said that "as soon as the final stages of our negotiations are completed, this agreement will be signed and announced".

"This could happen in the coming days. I am very hopeful," Araghchi told state TV.

He stressed that the first point mentioned in the MOU was the lifting of the US naval blockade of Iran.

As for the Strait of Hormuz - the crucial waterway through which some 20% of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas normally transits - Araghchi said its administration would "no longer be the same as before". Since closing the Strait, Iran has insisted on a fee to be paid by vessels seeking to cross, with the US insisting passage should be free to all shipping.

Additional reporting by Olivia Ireland, and White House reporter Bernd Debusmann

Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon kill 17, reports say

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpq3d44l907o, 4 days ago

Israeli air strikes have killed at least 17 people in southern Lebanon, Lebanese media say.

Nine people were killed in a series of strikes in the town of Tayr Debba, according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA).

Meanwhile, the Iranian-backed armed group Hezbollah said it carried out more attacks on Israeli troops occupying parts of the country's south.

On Tuesday, 15 people were reportedly killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon, as Israel rejected a warning from Iran not to continue its campaign against Hezbollah.

Iran's leaders are demanding that any deal to end its war with the US and Israel also covers Lebanon, complicating negotiations with US President Trump.

NNA reported that Israeli air and artillery strikes intensified across the south of the country on Wednesday, with attacks in a number of cities, towns and villages.

It said nine people were killed when Israeli jets and drones carried out at least four strikes in Tayr Debba, just east of the port city of Tyre.

Two Israeli strikes killed three other people in the nearby village of Deir Qanoun el-Nahr, while two people were killed in Seddiqin, south-east of Tyre, it added.

Later, there was an attack in the centre of the city of Sidon, which is located on the coast roughly halfway between Tyre and the capital Beirut.

An AFP news agency correspondent said they heard an explosion before seeing a car burning. Two people were pulled from the vehicle by rescuers, they added.

NNA said the car was targeted by an Israeli drone and that the two people died.

One person was also reportedly killed in the Massaken al-Shaabiya area of Tyre.

On Tuesday, Israeli strikes in Massaken al-Shaabiya and elsewhere in Tyre killed 11 people, the Lebanese health ministry said, as the Israeli military issued a new evacuation order for the city that included its Christian quarter for the first time.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on Wednesday's strikes, but it issued a statement earlier saying it had struck six Hezbollah infrastructure sites in Tyre and ready-to-use Launchers in several other areas of southern Lebanon on Tuesday.

Hezbollah announced that its fighters had targeted gatherings of Israeli troops and military vehicles in the southern Bayada and Yohmor areas with rocket barrages and shellfire.

Meanwhile, UN human rights chief Volker Türk announced on Wednesday that he was sending a team of human rights investigators to Lebanon, at the request of the Lebanese government.

The team will look at possible human rights violations committed by all sides since the start of March, and is expected to present its findings at the end of July. Evidence gathered could be used in possible prosecutions for war crimes.

Israel has been informed of the mission, but it remains unclear whether it will co-operate.

Lebanon was drawn into the war between Israel, the US and Iran on 2 March, when Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel in retaliation for an Israeli strike that killed Iran's supreme leader.

Israel responded by launching a bombing campaign across Lebanon and invading a significant part of the country's south.

Lebanon's health ministry says at least 3,696 people have been killed there during the conflict, while Israeli authorities say 30 soldiers and four civilians have been killed on both sides of the border.

Almost one million people in Lebanon - a fifth of the population - remain displaced from their homes and that 1.4 million need humanitarian aid, according to the UN.

The US brokered a ceasefire deal between the Israeli and Lebanese governments on 16 April, but the conflict has continued since then.

The exchange of fire between Israel and Iran – their first in two months - was triggered by events in Lebanon.

On Sunday, Israel struck Beirut's southern suburbs - a stronghold of Hezbollah also known as Dahieh - after the group fired two rockets over the border.

Iran fired some 30 ballistic missiles at Israel in response, while Israel said it carried out two waves of air strikes on Iran.

After a tense calm was restored on Monday, Iran warned it would resume hostilities if Israel continued to attack Lebanon. But Israel insisted it would not accept a "new equation" and that it would continue to operate against Hezbollah.

Bowen: Trump and Netanyahu wanted to reshape the Middle East - now they risk a permacrisis

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjdgl548x3eo, 5 days ago

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu believed that victory over Iran would reshape the Middle East.

The region is being reshaped. But not in the way they expected. The Islamic Republic of Iran has not been defeated. The risk now is of a long, attritional permacrisis that will lurch in and out of outright conflict.

The Iranian regime has proved to be a much harder nut to crack than Trump and Netanyahu had assumed. Their judgement was wrong, and they have lost control of the consequences.

The latest of those is Iran's downing of the US Apache helicopter. It is another reminder that Iran's rulers can still hurt the Americans and will not budge in their determination to come out of this war on top. For them, victory equals survival and enhanced deterrence, in the shape of acknowledgement of their control of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most strategic waterways.

The president and his generals will try to calibrate their response to the loss of the helicopter, to show just as emphatically that they cannot be pushed around, but at the same time to preserve the sluggish and so far unproductive diplomatic process. The Apache's crew survived. Had they been killed, a much harsher response would have been likely.

Trump has been banking on a deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and agree the terms of much longer-term talks over the big issues, starting with Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium and its wider nuclear plans.

The war is unpopular in America and he wants a way out he can present as a victory. It is proving to be a tough challenge.

Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are learning an old lesson.

Ever since humans discovered the art and curse of war, leaders have found out that it is easier to start a war than to end one with a clear victory.

When they led their countries to war with Iran on the last day of February, both issued video statements, choosing words that reflected an assumption that a moment of historical change was coming. The regime that had ruled Iran since the Shah was overthrown in 1979 was on the way out.

In the small hours of the morning at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, Trump, picked up on the promise he had made to Iranian opponents of the regime in January that "help is on its way."

"To the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don't leave your home. It's very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations."

The next morning, Netanyahu stood in the sunlight on the roof of the Kyria, Israel's high rise defence ministry in central Tel Aviv, to record his address. Like Trump, he spoke as if victory was certain.

"This coalition of forces allows us to do what I have yearned to do for 40 years: smite the terror regime hip and thigh. This is what I promised – and this is what we shall do."

Throughout his political life, Netanyahu has argued that the real threat to Israel comes from Iran, not from the Palestinians or his country's Arab neighbours. He had tried and failed to get other American presidents to join him in attacking Iran. Trump was different.

For more than two years, since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, Netanyahu had told Israelis that the power of their military, backed by America, would vanquish their enemies and usher in a richer and safer future. Force, not diplomacy, was the answer.

Netanyahu had the air of a man whose moment had come. In contrast, when he faced the cameras after Trump told him to cancel his plans to attack Beirut on Monday, the leading Israeli newspaper columnist Ben Caspit said he looked like a deflated balloon.

Caspit is one of the prime minister's most vociferous critics. But it is clear that Netanyahu's strategy of using force to bend the region to his will has failed.

Trump expected a quick victory. He had watched with delight as the US military abducted the president of Venezuela and his wife, sent them to a jail in New York and installed a compliant successor in Caracas. Textbook regime change, he believed, way better than the forever wars fought by his predecessors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran would be next on the list.

Both men must be wondering what went wrong. The United States has the world's most powerful military. Israel is the superpower of the Middle East.

Trump and Netanyahu saw a regime in Tehran reeling from economic crisis caused by sanctions, mismanagement and corruption. Israel had delivered hammer blows to its allies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Its other key ally, Bashar al Assad had been deposed as president of Syria and fled to Moscow. In January the regime crushed huge demonstrations against it by killing thousands of Iranian citizens.

They underestimated the resilience, ruthlessness and guile of the Islamic regime. They believed that killing its supreme leader and his closest lieutenants would cause the regime to collapse from within.

They overestimated the efficacy of military force against a regime that had faced repeated threats for almost 50 years, had engineered itself to survive an attack and had thought hard about a conception of national security backed up by its religious and ideological convictions.

The Gulf oil states, allies of the US, and in the case of the UAE and Bahrain of Israel too, have suffered hammer blows. It is not simply lost revenue from petrochemicals and their byproducts, like fertiliser. They have built their futures around creating an oasis of stability and multi-billion-dollar business in the Gulf. Potential investors, and tourists, see the war turning that vision into a mirage.

The Iranian regime believes its survival and the ease with which it put a chokehold on the world economy by closing the Strait of Hormuz and attacking its Gulf Arab neighbours can be translated into long-term deterrence against the US and Israel.

The men who have replaced the old guard of Iranian leaders killed by Israel and the US are just as ideological as their predecessors but much more willing to take risks in what they see as an existential struggle. They believe that words alone will not stop more attacks in the future from the US or Israel. Instead, they want to demonstrate that more attacks on Iran will lead to painful consequences.

A key part of its strategy is linking the war in Lebanon with the war in the Gulf. The regime's message to Trump is that he cannot hope for any kind of deal if Israel continues to bomb Lebanon and to try to destroy Hezbollah, the militia and political movement that it has nurtured since the 1980s as its forward defence against Israel.

By curbing Israel's plans to attack Beirut, on the grounds that a deal was near (a claim he has made before, erroneously), Trump has shown implicitly that he accepts the link between what happens in Lebanon and what happens in the Gulf.

On Monday, Netanyahu said he would not accept the linkage. It was he said, "intolerable and completely unacceptable." His problem is that Trump will put his interests and desire to end the war ahead of Netanyahu's determination for it to continue until he can declare the Islamic regime in Tehran has been crippled.

Netanyahu cancelled a planned attack on Beirut, but since then Israel's military, the IDF, has continued to hit southern Lebanon very hard.

When the Strait of Hormuz was closed in March, there were dire warnings of global economic consequences if it was still closed by June.

Not only does the vital waterway that was open until the US and Israel attacked Iran remain closed. Without remarkable diplomatic breakthroughs, it is hard to see it reopening any time soon.

'They destroyed the future': Palestinian anger at rise in Israeli demolitions in East Jerusalem

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cewpwjr9rj4o, 2 days ago

There is the loud din of a demolition below Jerusalem's walled Old City, and from a hillside I watch a large Israeli excavator tearing into a Palestinian house.

Some 59 properties have now been destroyed in the al-Bustan area of the Silwan neighbourhood since late 2023. With world attention diverted by the war in Gaza and now in Iran and Lebanon, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of Palestinians being pushed from their homes in Israeli-occupied east of the city.

"There is no future. They destroyed the future and everything else," says Fayez Awad, 58, who is sitting in the only remaining floor of his property when I reach him.

"We spent our whole lives building this house. This is all we managed to achieve in life. They brought us back to zero again, me and my children."

Holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims, Jerusalem is at the heart of the Israel-Palestinian conflict and competing claims to the land. Israel captured the east of the city, including its holy places, along with the rest of the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East War and later annexed it in a move that is not recognised by most countries.

For some 20 years, Israel's Jerusalem Municipality has pursued plans to turn al-Bustan into a biblically-themed park, the King's Garden, to be run by a Jewish settler organisation. Recently, demolition orders enforced by Israeli courts have accelerated along the narrow streets here.

Settlements and the forced transfer of a population from occupied land are illegal under international law.

The Jerusalem Municipality told the BBC in a statement that it was working "for the benefit of all city residents" and that it aimed "to build a park in a zone that suffers from a severe shortage of open public spaces".

Palestinians point out that Israeli construction permits in East Jerusalem are almost impossible for them to get. According to the Israeli human rights group Bimkom, in 2025, only 7% of new housing approved in Jerusalem was for Palestinians, who account for some 40% of the city's population. People in al-Bustan say that their efforts to reach a compromise on alternative planning proposals were rejected by the local authority.

Half of the homes here have now been demolished. Many residents facing demolition orders are opting to take sledgehammers to their own properties to avoid hefty costs and fines imposed by the municipality which typically total tens of thousands of dollars.

"We're being given warnings that in the coming months they'll destroy the rest of the houses," says local activist Fakhri Abu Diab. His home was previously demolished, and he and his wife are now threatened with eviction from the caravan they set up by the rubble.

"Israel is using the geopolitical situation to finish the issue. It's very difficult and painful and the international community has left us all alone," Abu Diab goes on. "The municipality is waging a war of bulldozers against us and our presence

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing 700,000 Jews in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

While most Israelis see all of Jerusalem as their united capital, Palestinians want the east as the capital of their hoped-for, future, independent state. The current Israeli government has pledged "to bury" the idea of Palestinian statehood – and is taking steps accordingly.

According to the UN, some 200 Palestinian households - about 900 people - are facing eviction cases filed against them in the Israeli courts, mostly by settlers.

Israel uses laws allowing takeovers of property owned by Jews before the state was created in 1948, so that settlers can move in. This is currently happening next to al-Bustan, in another part of Silwan called Batn al-Hawa. Palestinian families who have long lived there are now classed as "illegal squatters".

Israeli law does not allow Palestinians to claim back properties within Israel that they owned historically.

Silwan's proximity to a key holy site, the al-Aqsa mosque compound - or al-Haram al-Sharif as it is known to Muslims and Temple Mount to Jews – is central to its importance to Israeli authorities and settler groups. It is the holiest place in Judaism as well as the third holiest place in Islam.

"Silwan sits on a very important site called 'City of David'," says Yonatan Mizrahi from the Israeli anti-settlement NGO Peace Now, referring to an Israeli archaeological project. "Part of the plan is to create a touristic area that very much emphasises the Jewish narrative, the Jewish belonging to this land."

"We see more and more settlers coming in and unfortunately more and more Palestinians forced to leave."

In the Christian and Muslim Quarters of the Old City, Israeli flags mark buildings where settlers now live. A large one is mounted on the side of a religious nationalist Jewish school, or yeshiva, involved in another high-profile eviction case.

An original yeshiva here, set up in the early 20th Century, was abandoned in 1929 during major sectarian riots in the British Mandate period. But a Palestinian Muslim guard, Mohammed Basha Abdulghani, kept it safe in return for being allowed to live in part of the building.

Now, in a case brought by part of the Israeli justice ministry, Jerusalem courts have ruled that the dozen remaining members of the Basha family - most of whom are elderly - must leave. The current yeshiva argued that it needed additional space for its students.

"What will we do?" asks 76-year-old Mufid Basha, Abdulghani's son, in his tiny apartment. "We've nowhere else to go. This is the only home I've ever known."

He recalls how his father was lauded when he handed over the key of the intact historic yeshiva after Israel captured East Jerusalem. Thousands of religious texts were discovered inside.

"He kept the books, kept the place - everything the same," Mufid Basha says. "And this is the gift that we get!"

The rabbi for the modern-day yeshiva declined to comment to the BBC.

Jerusalem's District Court recently issued a temporary injunction preventing the Basha family from being evicted while it considers their legal request for an appeal.

While Palestinians face being forced out of their homes in East Jerusalem, there is a shortage of places for them to move to within the city.

A recent Bimkom report also highlighted how a new land registration process introduced in East Jerusalem in 2018 was being used by the state as another tool for large-scale land appropriation and Palestinian displacement.

"Today, Palestinians in Jerusalem know that they are unsafe, unsafe even in their homes," says Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher with another Israeli anti-settlement NGO, Ir Amim. The group believes that Jerusalem should be a shared city for Israelis and Palestinians.

"With the Israeli government all restraints are off," Tatarsky continues. "They are rushing to cement a reality of a Jewish supremacy in the city that does not really tolerate Palestinian rights or maybe even Palestinian presence in Jerusalem."

In recent weeks, Jerusalem district planners have approved a long-delayed, highly controversial project to build a vast ultra-Orthodox yeshiva at the entrance to Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem.

The Israeli government also set up an inter-ministry team to explore the seizure of dozens of Palestinian-owned properties by Chain Gate inside the Old City, an entrance to the al-Aqsa mosque compound or Temple Mount.

Back in al-Bustan, I join a tour of foreign diplomats. Local Palestinians are calling for the international community to stand up for international law and help them stay in their homes.

The European Union did recently issue a statement calling the situation "dire" in East Jerusalem and in Silwan in particular.

"The EU reiterates its strong opposition to Israel's settlement policy and activities," it read.

The last visit with the diplomats is to 97-year-old Yusra Qweider, who is unable to leave her bed. She has been displaced three times since 1948, when her family fled from Jaffa. Now her house of the past half a century faces an eviction notice.

"They want to kick us out of here," Yusra tells me. "I am sick and I can't walk. We are counting on God."

Vance says Israeli PM Netanyahu 'has got some things wrong'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9q2lq3vv7zo, 3 days ago

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has "certainly gotten some things wrong", US Vice-President JD Vance has said, as ties between the two partners in the war against Iran appear to have become strained in recent weeks.

While Vance would not provide examples, he told CBS News, the BBC's US partner, that Netanyahu "aggressively asserts the interests of his country" but that they were not always aligned with those of the US.

His comments mark a further public admission that relations between the two allies have come under pressure of late.

Recently, US President Donald Trump reportedly clashed with the Israeli leader over military action in Lebanon that brought renewed strikes and threatened peace talks with Tehran.

The US and Iran exchanged strikes for a second consecutive day overnight, straining a ceasefire between the two nations that has remained in place since April.

It came after Trump said Tehran had taken "too long to make a deal" to end the war, though the renewed hostilities were triggered by events in Lebanon, where Israel has continued an operation aimed at the Iranian-backed armed group Hezbollah.

Last week, Trump told an Axios journalist that he had called Netanyahu "effing crazy" in a phone conversation, saying he had been "a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon".

In an interview due to air on Sunday, Vance said: "Prime Minister Netanyahu, look, he governs a country that has obviously been a very close partner of the United States.

"But, even when we've been close partners, sometimes we have interests that are perfectly aligned and sometimes we have interests that are misaligned.

"And what I've seen with the prime minister is that he aggressively asserts the interests of his country – sometimes that means we're on the same page, sometimes it means we're not."

The US vice-president went on to say that it was the job of the Trump administration to focus on what was in America's best interests, "and where that diverges, we - unfortunately for the Israelis - have to choose the side of the American people".

Asked for examples of instances in which Netanyahu had got things wrong, Vance said "those conversations sometimes are better left in private".

Trump has typically been an ardent proponent of Israel during both his terms in the White House - but his attempts to extricate himself from a potentially drawn-out and increasingly costly conflict in the Middle East have been frustrated by Israel's ongoing operation in Lebanon.

Tehran is demanding that any peace agreement also cover Lebanon, which Israel has argued was not part of the ceasefire struck two months ago - and threatened to suspend peace talks before the renewed strikes began.

Israel has conducted strikes across Lebanon and occupied a significant portion of the south of the country in a bid to beat back Hezbollah fighters, who launched strikes on northern Israel shortly after the Iran war began in retaliation for an Israeli strike that killed Iran's supreme leader.

At least 3,696 people have been killed in the conflict, according to Lebanon's health ministry, while Israeli authorities say 30 soldiers and four civilians have been killed on both sides of the border.

Trump is seeking a deal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz - ending a global energy crisis caused by an Iranian blockade - and limit Iran's nuclear programme, a long-held ambition of the US president.

The souring of relations reflects sentiments in the US: opinion polling suggests the Iran war is increasingly unpopular among Americans, who will vote in Midterm elections this November and who are taking a dimmer view of Israel.

Netanyahu, too, faces elections this year, in which he will have to convince Israeli voters that he is winning the war with Iran and its regional proxies.

Netanyahu, for his part, has sought to downplay any rift with the Trump administration.

"Sometimes we have, as in the best of families, you have these tactical disagreements," he told CNBC last week. "We always find a way to work them out, and we do so as great friends."

Israeli air strikes hit Lebanese city of Tyre despite Iranian warning to stop attacks

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c36y16nkr5no, 5 days ago

Israel has carried out strikes across southern Lebanon, despite a warning from Iran not to continue attacks in the country.

The Lebanese health ministry said eight people were killed in Tyre, where the Israeli military issued a new order for residents to leave the southern city, including its Christian quarter for the first time.

Israel and Iran paused hostilities on Monday, after an Israeli strike on Beirut targeting the Iranian-backed armed group Hezbollah triggered their first exchange of fire since a truce in April.

Iran warned that it could hit Israel again if it did not stop attacks in Lebanon. But Israel vowed to continue its campaign against Hezbollah.

The conflict is complicating President Donald Trump's efforts to strike a deal to end the war between the US, Israel and Iran.

Lebanese media reported that Israeli air and artillery strikes across southern Lebanon killed at least 13 people on Tuesday.

Two people were killed in a pre-dawn drone attack in Kfar Roummane, next to the major town of Nabatieh, according to the state-run National News Agency (NNA).

Later, the Israeli military again told residents of Tyre and its surrounding area to leave their homes immediately and move beyond the Zahrani river, about 30km (20 miles) to the north.

But for the first time, the evacuation order included the Christian quarter, in the city's north-west, where the military alleged that Hezbollah fighters were operating last week.

Roads heading north were busy as residents fled in response to the warning, with mattresses and bags tied to car roofs.

Among them was Elias Barbour, who said he was going to his sister's home in Beirut.

"What have we done wrong? What are we supposed to do?" he told AFP news agency.

Mohammed Mustafa, who was heading to Sidon with his daughter, said he did not want to go.

"It's a lie when they say Hezbollah is here... This is a lie to scare people," he added.

The Israeli military posted its order on social media minutes after reports emerged of air strikes on several buildings in Tyre's eastern al-Massaken al-Shaabiya area.

The Lebanese health ministry said at least eight people were killed and 32 were injured, but added that the figures were provisional because rescuers were still searching through rubble.

In the afternoon, two Syrian nationals were killed in Israeli strikes in the villages of Ansariyeh and Aadloun, which are on the coastal highway north of Tyre, according to NNA.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

However, the Israeli military's chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, said Israeli forces continued to operate in several areas of southern Lebanon and were dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure.

The Israeli military also said in a separate statement that troops operating in the Ramim Ridge area of northern Israel's Galilee region had shot dead a "terrorist" who crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon and opened fire towards them.

Hezbollah said on Tuesday that its fighters had launched rockets at a new Israeli military site in the southern border town of Maroun al-Ras, and targeted Israeli troops and military vehicles further north in Qantara and Zawtar al-Sharqiyeh with attack drones.

Lebanon was drawn into the war between Israel, the US and Iran on 2 March, when Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel in retaliation for an Israeli strike that killed Iran's supreme leader.

Israel responded by launching a bombing campaign across Lebanon and invading a significant part of the country's south.

Lebanon's health ministry says at least 3,666 people have been killed there, while Israeli authorities say 30 soldiers and four civilians have been killed on both sides of the border.

Almost one million people in Lebanon - a fifth of the population - remain displaced from their homes and that 1.4 million need humanitarian aid, according to the UN.

The US brokered a ceasefire deal between the Israeli and Lebanese governments on 16 April, but the conflict has continued since then.

The escalation between Israel and Iran began on Sunday.

It followed an Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs - a stronghold of Hezbollah also known as Dahieh - after the group fired two rockets over the border.

Iran fired some 30 ballistic missiles at Israel, while Israel said it carried out two waves of air strikes on Iran. Two Iranian officers were killed, according to Iran's state broadcaster.

On Monday, Iran's armed forces announced that they had stopped operations after delivering a "painful response" to Israel. They also pledged "more severe and crushing measures" if Israel carried out more attacks, including in Lebanon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was holding fire "at the moment". But he stressed that the struggle against Iran and Hezbollah was "not finished" and warned that Israel would "respond with overwhelming force" to another Iranian attack.

"Iran's attempt to dictate new rules and alter the reality will fail. We will continue to operate and deepen the damage inflicted on the Hezbollah terrorist organisation while defending the communities of northern Israel," Gen Zamir told Israeli military commanders on Tuesday.

UK and allies sanction 'networks' enabling settler violence in West Bank

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cddl4dl9m3po, 5 days ago

The UK, Australia, Canada, France and Norway have imposed sanctions on what they call "networks" involved in financing and enabling attacks against Palestinian civilians by Jewish settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The move is designed to "hold extremist settlers accountable for the horrific levels of settler violence", the five countries said.

France also barred far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich from entering the country. He has wide authority over government policies on settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law.

Israel said it rejected the "disgraceful measures", calling them political acts "camouflaged as measures against violence".

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

There has been a surge in attacks by settlers on Palestinians and their property in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, which was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.

The UN documented 1,835 attacks by settlers against Palestinians in 2025 that resulted in casualties or damage to property, in around 280 communities across the West Bank.

At least seven Palestinians were killed and 832 injured in those attacks - both representing 130% increases compared to the previous year's figures.

Settlement expansion has also risen sharply since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in 2022 at the head of a right-wing, pro-settler coalition.

It has approved more than 100 new settlements across the West Bank, according to the Israeli watchdog Peace Now. Some already existed as settler outposts that were built without government authorisation and have now been made legal under Israeli law.

"For too long, violent settlers have been able to act with near impunity, and settlement expansion and creation of outposts continue with the support and facilitation of the Government of Israel," said the joint statement from the British, Australian, Canadian, French and Norwegian foreign ministers. "In some cases, settler violence takes place under the protection of Israel's security forces"

"We continue to urge the Government of Israel to take action to ensure meaningful accountability for violence in the West Bank," they added.

The Foreign Office said the UK was imposing sanctions on six entities and one individual accused of being "involved in financing, enabling and carrying out settler violence in the occupied West Bank".

They would face asset freezes, as well as travel bans and director disqualifications where appropriate, it added.

The entities included an association that provided financial support to settler farms and outposts, and a construction company whose resources had been used to destroy Palestinian land and property, the Foreign Office said.

It also announced that, for the first time, the UK's official guidance would "explicitly advise businesses against economic and financial activity in illegal settlements".

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told the House of Commons: "We believe that violent settler groups should not be profiting from the land that they have seized from Palestinians."

She added that the Israeli government had "condemned some settler violence, but that rings hollow when there is scant accountability".

France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said it had banned Bezalel Smotrich from entering the country because he "actively promotes the annexation of the West Bank, which he openly claims, the creation of new settlements in the West Bank, the re-colonisation of Gaza, the economic collapse of the Palestinian Authority and its harmful consequences for the Palestinian population".

Four leaders of settler organisations and 21 "violent settlers" had also been barred, he added.

Norway said it was barring "20 violent settlers" from the country, while Australia published co-ordinated sanctions alongside New Zealand last week.

Last June, the UK, Australia, Canada and Norway sanctioned Smotrich and far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over what they said were "repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities".

Israel's foreign ministry condemned the latest sanctions.

"The real essence of these steps is the attempt to impose a political stance regarding the right of Jews to settle in the Land of Israel and concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - camouflaged as measures against violence," it said in a statement.

The ministry said such "anti-Israeli policies" only served to fuel the antisemitism that was "rampant" in the countries involved.

The Palestinian foreign ministry welcomed the joint statement by the UK and its allies, which it said rejected "the occupation's measures to annex the West Bank".

Israel and Iran flare-up could strengthen Tehran's negotiating hand

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8lm75186lo, 5 days ago

Israel's tit-for-tat strikes with Iran over the weekend, despite US President Donald Trump's call for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold fire, threatened to thrust the Middle East back into another round of direct confrontation between Tehran and Washington.

Israel bombed sites in Iran for the first time since a ceasefire in April, after Iran fired missiles at Israel, in what Tehran said was retaliation for Israeli strikes on Lebanon's capital, Beirut.

The current web of fractious alliances and dysfunctional ceasefires shows how dangerously destabilised the region remains, more than three months after the US and Israel launched their war on Iran.

The escalation also highlights three points about the current trajectory of the war:

* Trump can't or won't contain his Israeli ally to the extent he publicly proclaims, a point not lost on Tehran, which aims to prise open any differences between the US and Israel

* Tehran is prepared to risk retaliation against its own territory in order to link the fates of the US-Iran war with the one between Israel and Hezbollah

* Trump's longed-for deal on the nuclear issue is not imminent, as Iran senses his appetite for risk is currently low and is seeking to extract more from Washington at the negotiating table

After Iran's missile attack on Israel on Sunday, Trump spoke to several journalists telling one he was "going to call [Netanyahu] right now and tell him not to retaliate".

The implication was an Israeli counterattack could jeopardise his perilously fragile diplomacy with Tehran.

Hours later, Israel attacked Iran. Trump told the BBC on Monday afternoon that Israeli planes were "already on their way" when he spoke with Netanyahu.

In a brief phone call with the BBC, the US president denied the Israeli PM had defied him, saying: "If I tell him to do something, he does it."

On the face of it, Trump failed to stop Netanyahu, another escalation in a tense series of exchanges between the two leaders.

"We're in the final throes of what will be a very, very good deal," Trump said on Tuesday.

When asked whether it would be matter of days or weeks, he said it could take "two or three days" and the Strait of Hormuz would open immediately after.

Last week, Trump reportedly dished out an expletive-laden rant at Netanyahu, calling the Israeli leader "crazy" for wanting to attack Beirut.

Netanyahu said strikes on Beirut were necessary amid the Hezbollah threat against northern Israel.

Trump felt his behaviour threatened his own attempt to reach a deal with Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and secure assurances on Iran's nuclear programme.

In an interview with the New York Post last week, Trump said he was perturbed by Netanyahu's "constantly fighting with Lebanon".

So did Netanyahu defy Trump with its latest strikes on Iran?

Although that's one prevailing narrative, the answer is almost certainly no.

Israel's subsequent actions suggest Washington at least gave limited consent, but as the president would see it, proceeding with caution and pushing for one round only.

As the veteran US negotiator Aaron David Miller told the BBC on Monday morning - Trump gave Netanyahu a "blinking yellow light".

As a practical matter, Israel could not have have attacked Iran without at least Washington's tacit approval.

The US currently has its biggest military buildup in the region since the invasion of Iraq.

It has hundreds of military personnel in Israel liaising with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

In this case Israel would have needed to co-ordinate with US forces in the region over air routes.

The IDF briefed Israeli journalists after the strikes there was "full co-ordination" with US Central Command.

It said the US military also helped shoot down missiles fired by Iran at Israel.

By Monday afternoon Washington time, both Israel and Iran were signalling the round between them was over.

This is where Trump would want things to stand.

His messages on Sunday night that he would stop Netanyahu may have been meant for Tehran's consumption to distance Washington from Israel's strikes.

Or he may have genuinely intended to stop him, but was persuaded otherwise by Netanyahu.

While the Israelis will have calculated they could not let Iran's missile strikes pass without retaliation, Iran's calculation for launching the strikes here is critical.

This was the first time Iran fired at Israel in response to an Israeli attack on Lebanon (rather than in direct retaliation for an Israeli strike on Iran).

Iran was trying to force its point about linking two ceasefires - its own with the US and one that exists in name only between Israel and Hezbollah.

It was also testing Trump's response.

How far would the Americans support an Israeli counterattack on Iran?

Would the Americans join in themselves?

The more dispute they can create between the US and Israel over the future direction of the war, the better as far as Tehran is concerned.

In the end, Trump chose distance - at least in public - continuing to push the diplomacy with Tehran.

In an interview with NBC on Sunday, hours before the flare-up, he reiterated his view that a deal with Iran was "very close".

After it, he framed Israel and Iran in a similarly dismissive light, saying each had had "their fun" and now it was time for the talks.

Iranian leaders appear emboldened by the outcome of the confrontation.

President Masoud Pezeshkian suggested Iran's military strikes on Israel strengthened its negotiating position with the US.

He called "diplomacy and defence" the "two wings of national power".

"We have neither abandoned the field nor the negotiating table," he posted on social media.

Iran's economy is under massive pressure, worsened by the US naval blockade of its ports.

Its leadership wants at least two things from the negotiations with Washington as a priority.

One is access to money, in the form of sanctions relief and the unfreezing of tens of billions of dollars from its oil revenues.

The other is to limit Israeli escalation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, as it sees Hezbollah as deterring further Israeli strikes against itself.

Given the pressures on the US economy from high oil prices caused by Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz, in a US midterm election year, Tehran is likely to have sensed that Trump's appetite for risk is currently low (although each further escalation may be pushing his patience).

That means Iran is likely to keep trying to push its two points up the agenda, to try to "front load" sanctions relief and unfreezing assets in the proposed deal with the US, sensing Trump is keener to get an agreement than to return to war.

Trump was asked in his interview on Sunday if he would unfreeze any Iranian assets or lift any sanctions upfront as a part of a deal.

His answer: "No."

That might be one reason there's still no agreement.

But the chance remains significant of growing destabilisation in the region potentially pushing the US and Iran into another round of direct fighting.

'Please send help': Crew's distress call after ship hit by US missile

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq51ep28165o, 5 days ago

The Indian crew of a sanctioned oil tanker urged authorities to "please help" after the ship was hit by a US missile off Oman on Monday, saying it was on fire and sinking in a distress call shared with BBC Verify.

US Central Command (Centcom) said the ship, Marivex, had violated its blockade of Iranian ports and a "precision munition" was fired into the ship after the crew failed to comply with US instructions.

All 24 crew were rescued by the Omani military, Indian authorities said.

Marivex is the seventh ship disabled by the US for violating the blockade, Centcom added.

The US military has been blockading Iran's ports after Tehran effectively closed the busy Strait of Hormuz through which some 20% of the world's oil and gas supplies are transported.

Opesh Kumar Sharma of India's ministry of ports, shipping and waterways said that a fire first broke out on the tanker - which was not loaded with oil - at about 13:30 India time (08:00 GMT), but did not comment on the cause of the fire.

Centcom later confirmed that an F-18 Super Hornet fighter jet from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln "fired a precision munition into the ship's engineering and steering spaces".

Images shared with BBC Verify by a crew member show a ship with features matching a US San Antonio-class warship sailing past Marivex after the strike.

With the ship's engine disabled and a fire breaking out on board, the crew began to send out distress calls.

"Sir, this is motor tanker Miravex ... we have a fire on board and vessel is sinking," said a crew member in a distress call given to BBC Verify by the Forward Seamen's Union of India (FSUI).

"US Navy attack, the missile on our engine room. We have hole at the bottom ... 24 crew. All crew Indian. Please help quickly, we need immediate help," the distress call said.

The FSUI told BBC Verify distress calls were received at 14:15 India time (08:45 GMT). The union then posted on the social media platform X a video taken by the crew and said the ship's location was 28km (17 miles) off the coast of Oman.

The All India Seafarers Union said it also received distress communication from a crew member of the tanker shortly after the fire broke out.

India's Embassy in Oman replied to the FSUI post on X at 09:13 GMT to find out more about the incident.

Flight tracking data shows a Royal Air Force of Oman helicopter took off from an air base on Masirah Island at about 09:55 GMT and appeared to reached Marivex's location just over 20 minutes later.

Verified videos show the crew being lifted off the tanker into a helicopter. The helicopter in the footage matches one seen in a photograph later shared by the FSUI showing the crew on Oman's Masirah Island after the rescue.

Centcom did not answer BBC Verify's question about whether they had contacted the Omani or Indian authorities before the strike.

Miravex was sanctioned by the US for links with Iran under a previous name - Arihant. The US has also sanctioned the ship's owner, Arihant Shipping Inc, and has accused the ship of transporting "hundreds of thousands of barrels of Iranian fuel oil and bitumen within the Gulf since July 2025"

Ship-tracking data shows Marivex last stopped at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas in early April where it loaded with cargo and then sailed to two cities on India's west coast - Mangaluru and Karwar, according to MarineTraffic data.

The ship then crossed back across the Arabian Sea and has spent most of May and early June sailing up and down the coast of Oman where it has been captured multiple times in satellite images.

Centcom said Marivex was unladen and had "violated the ongoing blockade against Iran by attempting to sail to an Iranian port".

Sea drone rescues US army helicopter crew near Strait of Hormuz

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy0l44ex5wo, 4 days ago

Two crew members of a US army helicopter that crashed near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday were rescued by an American sea drone, US officials have confirmed.

It was the first time the US military publicly confirmed that type of vessel was used in such an operation.

US Central Command (Centcom) said the two "soldiers were safely rescued within approximately two hours and are in stable condition" after their AH-64 Apache helicopter went down "near the coast of Oman while patrolling regional waters".

US President Donald Trump accused Iran of shooting down the aircraft while it was patrolling the Strait of Hormuz and in response, ordered retaliatory strikes in the country.

The crew members were rescued by an uncrewed surface drone - a US Navy Corsair - that was operated by Task Force 59, said US Navy Captain Tim Hawkins.

The task force is a Bahrain-based unit that the US military launched in recent years to focus on "the operational deployment of unmanned systems teamed with manned operators to bolster maritime security across the Middle East region".

The 24-foot drone has a speed-boat style design, according to its manufacturer Saronic Technologies. It is capable of carrying up to 1,000 pounds (453.5kg) over 1,000 nautical miles with a top speed of 35 knots.

In December 2025, the US Navy awarded the Texas-based defence technology firm a $392 million (£293.3m) production contract for its Corsair autonomous maritime vessels.

Hawkins said that Task Force 59 began fielding these drones in the Middle East in late March.

He told the Associated Press that the unmanned vessel located the two soldiers after they spent about two hours in the water.

In its statement on Tuesday, Centcom said the two crew members had been rescued at 19:33 EDT (23:33 GMT) on Monday.

"Rescue efforts were led by US Naval Forces Central Command and the 82nd Airborne Division, with support from US Air Force and Navy units including US 5th Fleet's Task Force 59," the statement added.

Iran's strike on Israel suggests the regime's sense of resilience is growing

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly72ryrd1jo, 6 days ago

When Iran launched missiles and drones at Israel overnight in response to Israeli attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon, the immediate military significance of the attack appeared to be limited. The political significance, however, may be far greater.

For years, Iran has generally justified direct attacks on Israel as retaliation for actions against Iranian territory, commanders or interests. This time was different. Tehran acted after an attack on one of its allies, following an Israeli strike on what it said was a Hezbollah-linked building in southern Beirut.

On Monday, Iran's military said it would stop strikes on Israel, but the decision to strike at all raises an important question: why did Iran's leadership feel that the time was right to take such a step, knowing it risked renewed Israeli military action and potentially jeopardising fragile peace negotiations with the United States?

Part of the answer may lie in how Iran's leaders assess their position after months of conflict.

The Islamic Republic emerged from the war weakened in some respects but also with a stronger sense of its own resilience.

Despite extensive Israeli and American military pressure, economic sanctions and a US naval blockade, the state survived. The government is still in power, its security apparatus remains intact, and no mass uprising materialised despite repeated predictions from its opponents.

That experience may have altered Tehran's calculations.

Rather than seeing itself as a vulnerable actor seeking to avoid confrontation at all costs, Iran may increasingly view itself as a power that has weathered the worst and can now afford to enforce new red lines.

The strike on Israel may therefore have been intended less as retaliation and more as deterrence. Tehran could be signalling that attacks on its regional allies will no longer be treated as separate from attacks on Iran itself.

Such a message would have particular importance for Hezbollah, Iraqi militias and other members of Iran's regional network known as the "Axis of Resistance". The credibility of Iran's influence has always rested partly on the belief that it will stand behind its partners. Failing to respond after publicly warning Israel could have damaged that credibility.

Viewed in this light, the strike was not simply aimed at Israel. It was also directed at US and Israeli allies across the region who were watching closely to see whether Tehran would act on its threats.

The timing is equally intriguing.

US President Donald Trump had recently suggested that a deal might be within reach. Conventional logic would suggest that Iran should avoid actions that could endanger diplomacy.

Yet Tehran may believe the opposite.

Iranian leaders could have concluded that demonstrating strength through a limited or calculated military action may actually strengthen their position at the negotiating table rather than weaken it.

From Tehran's perspective, demonstrating a willingness to use force may be intended to remind both Washington and Israel that Iran still possesses options.

That does not necessarily mean Iran wants the talks to fail. Tehran appeared to have taken action to establish a precedent and send a political message, but not on a scale that would make escalation unavoidable.

Whether that calculation proves correct remains to be seen.

Ordinary Iranians' reactions to the latest exchange reflect the wider debate.

Some see Iran's actions as a justified response. One BBC Persian audience member said: "Iran joining the conflict to defend Lebanon is loyal and right. Since the nuclear deal, Iran hasn't broken international laws, and this attack was in response to the other side breaking ceasefire rules."

Others question Tehran's priorities: "For nearly two months there has been some fighting (bombing) in southern Iran, but no serious response. It seems that southern Lebanon is considered more important than southern Iran."

For many, however, the dominant feeling is concern about where the confrontation could lead. "Honestly, my heart sank when the war started again," one audience member told BBC Persian.

Others believe the exchange is unlikely to escalate into a major conflict. One viewer argued: "This clash isn't very serious and won't turn into a full war like the last two. Iran knows America doesn't want a direct war anymore, so it's taking the lead. It's partly for show and propaganda, to make their supporters feel like they're winning."

Another possibility is that the strike reflects growing dissatisfaction with the direction of negotiations. If Iran believes it is being asked to make concessions without receiving meaningful benefits in return, this action may be a way of increasing leverage before the next phase of talks.

Either way, the attack suggests a leadership that is feeling more confident than many outside observers expected only a few months ago.

The key question is not whether Iran was willing to absorb another round of Israeli bombing. It is whether Tehran now believes it can do so while simultaneously pursuing diplomacy. If that is the case, Iran may be attempting to establish a new regional reality: one in which it negotiates from a position of strength while actively enforcing its own red lines.

As risky as that approach may be, it would represent a significant shift in how the Islamic Republic sees both its security and its place in the Middle East.

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Sailors stressed and exhausted after months trapped by Strait of Hormuz blockade

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy02rz27l32o, 11 days ago

The sea is sometimes so tranquil that Captain Hassan Khan forgets his ship has been stuck in the middle of a war zone for three months.

"It is really strange that everything looks normal outside, but people inside are not calm," says the Pakistani sailor, who doesn't want to use his real name.

Things may look normal in this part of the Gulf, but they are certainly not. Khan and 20,000 other sailors have been trapped in or near the Strait of Hormuz by the US-Israeli war with Iran since late February. What was once one of the world's busiest waterways, used to transport a fifth of the globe's oil and gas, has ground to a halt as missiles fly overhead and mines are laid beneath the waves.

Despite this, the crew on Capt Khan's ship has been trying to follow the usual work routine - although no one wants to leave the ship for rarely-allowed shore breaks, while cheerful banter has given way to anxious silence punctuated by the buzzing of phones. People jump at the smallest sound, even in their sleep.

"The stress stays in our mind all the time," Khan says. "Everyone is just exhausted – both physically and mentally."

Crossings and supplies

Even without the danger posed by the missiles and mines, the 1,600 ships that the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) estimates to be stuck on the wrong side of the Strait of Hormuz are unable to leave. Days after the war began, Iran shut the narrow waterway - the only way out of the Gulf - and refused to let anyone through without its express permission.

"It is as if we are trapped in a pond. There's only one way out, and that's Hormuz," explains the captain of another vessel, Shafiqul Islam.

Islam, whose Bangladesh-owned ship the Banglar Joyjatra is carrying about 37,000 tonnes of fertiliser bound for South Africa, has twice tried to leave in the months since.

Both attempts have ended in failure.

After the announcement of a ceasefire on 8 April, Islam caught wind that another ship had been given permission by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to cross. He then steered his ship towards the critical waterway along with four other vessels. Shortly after, they were warned not to proceed.

Nine days later, Islam tried again as Iran said the strait would be "completely open" for all commercial vessels in line with the ceasefire. But Iran quickly reversed the decision after the US kept the blockade of its ports in place.

By then, Islam's ship had already come within 30 nautical miles of the strait. He had no choice but to turn it away as warnings of attacks continued to crackle over the radio.

Ships have moved to different ports or anchored offshore within the Gulf for safety. But now, getting supplies of food and water has become increasingly pressing.

Doing so is still possible without necessarily entering ports, as the Gulf region - especially around Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait - has well-established supply services. But deliveries are now unpredictable.

Among all essential items, the price of water has increased the most, says Banglar Joyyatra's chief engineer Rashedul Hasan. "We purchased about 180 tonnes of water for the ship two days ago. Earlier, it would cost between $1,500 and $2,000. Now, it costs us $11,000."

"It also feels like some food and water suppliers are trying to take advantage of the situation and make excessive profits," says a Korean sailor who doesn't want to be named. He is on a different ship.

The stranded ships will need even more water as summer is coming. The air temperature has already exceeded 30C in May – and it can go as high as 45C.

On Khan's ship, they "still have food and water, but things are simpler now". While he can still get beef and chicken, vegetables and lentils are hard to come by.

Death and diplomacy

But then, Islam still considers himself lucky. On the second day of the conflict, his ship was only 200m (656ft) – barely the length of a medium-sized tanker – from Dubai's Jebel Ali port, which was targeted by an Iranian strike.

Since then, Islam and his 30 crew members have lost count of the attacks they have witnessed. "Sometimes missiles fly over one ship, and sometimes debris falls on the next," the captain says.

"Whenever attacks continued throughout the night, none of us could sleep," says Hasan, the engineer. "We have witnessed horror and devastation with our eyes."

They are scared for good reason. At least 11 sailors have been killed and another is unaccounted for in 39 verified incidents, the IMO says.

Tension eased somewhat after the ceasefire, but the ongoing military activities in the strait are reminders of its fragility.

Some sailors continue to see drones and fighter jets, while others spot naval ships and submarines regularly.

"These ships use bright lights. We also hear announcements over the loudspeakers. The captain says the Iranians are doing this to stop anyone from passing through," says Sajid Masood, a Pakistani who works as a cook on an oil tanker. His name has been changed to protect his identity.

So is there any way out for the trapped sailors?

Shipping companies, which are facing huge losses, are hoping they may be able to cut staffing costs.

Many sailors' contracts are expiring and large-scale crew rotations are overdue. Given the circumstances, it will be difficult to find enough hands to man these ships – even after the war is over.

"This crisis has shown how dangerous the job can become," says Pakistani sailor Kamil, who spoke to the BBC using an alias. "Many sailors may think differently about this profession."

He is worried that access to international waterways will become weaponised in future conflicts.

Masood, the cook, is also having second thoughts about his seafaring career – he has only one month left on his contract.

But before making the big decision, he is just looking forward to returning to Pakistan and bringing gifts from Dubai for his family: Barbie dolls for his daughters and a toy airplane for his son.

"I thought I would be home soon, but we are still stuck," he says.

"Every day my family asks when I will come back, but I have no answers for them."

There are some ships - an estimated 750 since 28 February, according to maritime data firm Kpler - which have managed to get through the Strait of Hormuz.

Their owners appear to have relied on international direct diplomacy with Iran, with most coming from China, India and Pakistan, says Dr Jonathan Schroden of CNA, a Washington DC-based non-profit research organisation.

It appears they have also "paid a fee of some millions of dollars per ship", he adds.

Diplomacy is now the Banglar Joyjatra's best hope – and the Bangladeshi government has been working with its owner Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC) to secure its exit.

But that has proved difficult as well.

BSC managing director Commodore Mahmudul Malek said initially Bangladesh agreed to pay the toll Iran demanded. But the plan was dropped after the US threatened sanctions against any country for doing so.

"We are in a double crisis now," he says.

Additional reporting by Hyojung Kim of BBC News Korean

Bowen: Trump needs this war to end but Iran is not backing down

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cedp3lee059o, 12 days ago

The United States and Iran have both signalled that they would prefer not to go back to the war that has been on hold since the ceasefire was announced on 8 April.

Neither side has allowed the steady drumbeat of military exchanges between them to end the talks being mediated by Pakistan, Qatar and others.

The US still has powerful naval and air forces within striking distance of Iran.

It is safe to assume that the Iranian regime will have kept its forces on high alert and will be using the ceasefire to re-organise and repair damage done by the US and Israel.

Armed tension in the area in and around the Gulf opens up a clear risk for both sides of miscalculation and misperception.

The US is trying to keep the pressure on the Tehran regime to make concessions by demonstrating that they are close by and capable of causing great damage.

The Iranians are reminding the US that their determination to resist is undiminished and, if necessary, they will attack American bases and the wider infrastructure of the Arab gulf.

The first objectives on what would be a long and perhaps unreachable road to a wider deal between the US and Iran is a continuation of the ceasefire and an agreement on a "memorandum of understanding" on the agenda of more talks between them.

Getting to that is proving difficult.

Israel's declaration that its bombers would return to Beirut has narrowed down Donald Trump's options even more.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not worry if his renewed offensive in Lebanon makes an American deal with Iran harder to get. He didn't want the ceasefire with the Tehran regime in the first place. As far as he's concerned, any deal between America and Iran is a bad deal.

The Iranians continue to support Hezbollah, their ally and proxy in Lebanon.

They have indicated that a wider deal with the US will have to include an end to the Israeli offensive. President Trump seems, for now, to be trying to restrain Israel.

As for the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranian regime will require a price, perhaps in the form of sanctions relief or unfrozen assets to reopen the Strait, which looks to be a prerequisite for serious negotiations.

Only a trickle of ships is getting through what had been a vital and busy waterway. Iran closed it after it was attacked by the US and Israel on 28 February.

Saudi Arabia is piping some oil to its Red Sea ports, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has a pipeline to terminals on its small patch of coast that faces the Gulf of Oman, beyond the Strait of Hormuz.

But the rest of the world has still lost around 20% of its usual supply of oil and gas, as well as other vital exports.

Keeping the Strait closed spells disaster for much of the world economy. The US no longer depends on Gulf oil, but petrol prices in America are still set by the global oil market.

Trump is in a bind. He is enmeshed in the consequences of the gross blunder he made by going to war assuming an easy victory.

The US president and his close ally Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel fatally underestimated the degree to which the Islamic regime was prepared to resist and ride out their attacks.

Trump has no easy way out and the Iranian regime wants to keep it that way.

He needs to get the Strait reopened. The war against Iran is deeply unpopular in the US and re-escalating it will turn even more Americans against it.

Trump's problem is that the concessions Iran will require to reopen the Strait are opposed by hawks in his own Republican Party and by his own desire to parade a victory.

The US president is deeply allergic to any adverse comparison between any deal he makes with Iran, even an arrangement to extend the ceasefire for more talks, and the nuclear deal made under Barack Obama in 2015. Trump condemned it and in his first term in the White House pulled the US out.

Iran's rulers believe with some justification that they are fighting for the existence of their regime.

It is pretty clear that more strikes from the US with or without Israel are not going to budge them on that.

The wealthy Arab oil states of the Gulf have suffered long term economic damage and do not want to suffer any more.

Their model for business and the long-term development of their countries depends on a foundation of the Gulf being a stable hub for the global economy and safe for foreign investment.

The war has inflicted a severe blow and restoring their aura of stability will take years.

Qatar is a full mediating partner, along with Pakistan, in the diplomatic attempt to restart talks.

The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have responded to Iran from different angles.

The Emiratis have doubled down on their strategic relationship with the Israelis, who deployed the Iron Dome missiles defence system to the UAE, along with Israel Defense Forces soldiers to operate it.

It has emerged that the Saudis have attacked Iran, they say in retaliation for Iranian attacks. But significantly, senior Saudi sources say they made it clear to Tehran that they were acting independently, not as part of the US-Israel coalition.

When Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu went to war with Iran both men said that their countries' considerable air power would be enough to remove the Islamic regime in Tehran.

They were wrong.

They misunderstood the nature of a regime that has survived for almost half a century despite severe tests imposed by war, sanctions and isolation.

Now the US and Israel are living with the consequences - and so is the rest of the world.

More than 50 Iranian military bases damaged in US strikes since start of war, satellite images show

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd6p6z7pq9wo, 2 days ago

More than 50 Iranian military bases, including the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), have been damaged by US-Israeli attacks since the war began, satellite images show.

Bases across the country have been heavily damaged by US strikes, the images reviewed by BBC Verify show, with experts identifying damage to air force jets, warships and ballistic missile facilities.

US officials say they have hit more than 13,000 targets across Iran since the conflict began on 28 February.

On Tuesday and Wednesday night, US and Iranian forces exchanged fresh waves of strikes following the downing of a US helicopter in the Gulf. Over the weekend, Iran and Israel also traded attacks, with Israel striking southern Beirut as well as military sites in the Islamic Republic.

While a temporary ceasefire has been in place for more than a month, President Donald Trump claimed late last month that the US has "defeated them [Iran] militarily".

"Their navy is totally gone - 100 per cent" he told his daughter-in-law and Fox News presenter, Lara Trump. "The air force is totally gone - 100 per cent."

But despite the attacks seen to Iran's bases across the country, some of the images reviewed by BBC Verify appear to show that Tehran has been using the fragile ceasefire to conduct repairs to tunnel entrances at some key missile sites.

Throughout the conflict it has been difficult to determine the scale of damage to Iranian military bases as the US has sought to limit satellite coverage of the region. The Pentagon asked Planet, a major provider, to restrict new images of Iran and most of the Middle East in March. The company justified the move, saying that it wanted to ensure its images were not used "by adversarial actors to target allied and Nato-partner personnel and civilians".

However, BBC Verify used older Planet images and alternative international providers to record damage at 51 military sites across Iran, including air bases, naval facilities and IRGC compounds.

The analysis is a likely only a partial assessment due to the secretive nature of many Iranian facilities. The private intelligence company Janes estimated that there are a total of 197 military and IRGC bases in Iran.

Satellite images show that runways and aircraft have been hit at more than a dozen locations, which experts say has helped to give the US complete control over Iranian airspace.

At Mehrabad International Airport strikes on 7 March destroyed at least 17 aircraft in the military section of the facility, while at Shiraz Airbase US-Israeli attacks between 2-17 April hit at least 13 planes.

Strikes have also targeted Iran's fleet of warships. Multiple vessels and buildings were damaged during attacks on the Bandar Abbas Naval Base - the headquarters of the navy - in the opening days of the war.

Satellite images showed smoke billowing from a damaged ship and the administrative section of the port on 4 March, while multiple ships were also heavily damaged at Konarak naval base.

Meanwhile, satellite images appear to show extensive damage to the IRGC's naval headquarters and its general headquarters in the eastern suburbs of Tehran. The naval force's commander, Gen Alireza Tangsiri, was also killed in an Israeli operation in late March.

Experts told BBC Verify that despite the extreme blows suffered by Iran's navy and air force in these repeated attacks, Tehran still has the capacity to damage the US and its regional allies.

"Iran's ability to defend itself stems less from its conventional forces, such as its air force, than from its capacity to conduct counterstrikes via missiles or drones," said Zev Faintuch from the security firm Global Guardian.

Tehran has used small, cheap drones to strike infrastructure across the Middle East, including a number of US military sites, and it has long exported its Shahed model to allied states like Russia.

Raphael Cohen, Director of the National Security Program at the RAND School of Public Policy, said that Iran's "mosquito fleet" of small, fast vessels will allow it to continue to pose a threat to US forces and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran also appears to be using the fragile ceasefire to conduct repairs to at least four of its ballistic missile bases, satellite images show.

Photos appear to show that roads have been cleared of debris at Tabriz missile base. Tunnels which were damaged by US-Israeli strikes appear to have been excavated and what look like construction vehicles and heavy machinery are visible in the images.

But Kamran Bokhari, senior fellow at the Middle East Policy Council, said Iran's economic struggles, which predate the war, could hamper efforts to fully rebuild military capability.

"Iran will be constrained by the amount of resources that they can deploy to rebuilding, because they will also have to address basic economic conditions."

In addition to military bases, many civilian buildings have been hit across the country. According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), more than 1,700 civilians have been killed since the conflict began. However, Adm Brad Cooper - the US military officer overseeing the war - has challenged the suggestion that there have been thousands of civilian deaths.

US attacks also targeted internal security forces loyal to the clerical government, inclusing the IRGC compounds and bases belonging to the Basij paramilitary - a volunteer force controlled by the IRGC and often deployed on the streets to suppress dissent.

Satellite images show that its command centre in Tehran was damaged by a strike around 4 March, with an adjacent building entirely levelled by the attack.

At the outset of the war, President Trump hinted that one of his goals was to enable anti-government protesters to overthrow the clerical regime - though this has since been downplayed.

"These attacks were therefore almost certainly primarily aimed at increasing the likelihood of bringing about the conditions for regime overthrow which was an Israeli, and to a lesser extent, US goal," Lewis Smart, a principal analyst with Janes said.

"Such a move would be necessary to help aid any government overthrow from below and comes off the back of the December 2025 - January 2026 protests and riots that were brutally suppressed by Iran's internal security forces."

Throughout the ceasefire, Iran and the US have traded strikes across the region. Last week BBC Verify revealed that Tehran has damaged at least 20 US military sites since the start of the war.

The attacks hit standalone US bases and shared facilities with host nations in eight countries, causing millions of dollars of damage to state-of the-art air defence systems, refuelling aircraft and radars. This week it also downed a helicopter that had been patrolling the Strait of Hormuz.

In response, the US said on Wednesday that it had completed a wave of "self-defence strikes" targeting military, surveillance and radar sites in southern Iran. Tehran responded to the attack with a round of strikes targeting US military assets across the region in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan.

Additional reporting by Barbara Metzler.

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The Nowak murder has lit a match under British politics. This is how we got here

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c39297vxmw2o, 8 days ago

Henry Nowak's mum and dad were being shown round the Victorian maze that is the Houses of Parliament when they heard politicians talking about their 18-year-old son's murder.

They were being taken on a tour of the labyrinthine building in between meetings with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and their appointment at Downing Street with the prime minister. They'd climbed the steep steps to the crammed public gallery to take a peek at the Commons Chamber when, by chance, the leader of the Commons, Alan Campbell, and his opposite number, Jesse Norman, both paid tribute to their son, and the dignity of the family.

In a terrible week of grief, I'm told they were touched to hear their son's death being acknowledged calmly in the country's parliament.

The same would not apply to the ugly conversations of the day before. The family were, mercifully perhaps, not present to hear the vicious argument with shouts of "condemn it", cries of "shame", and jeers and boos on Wednesday.

MPs had rounded on Reform leader Nigel Farage as he repeated his claim that "growing millions" in the UK believe we live under what he has long described as "two-tier policing" – that's the suggestion that police are more lenient towards ethnic minorities than white people for fear of causing racial tensions or being accused of prejudice. And he warned that the anger seen "spilling out" in Southampton was "in danger of getting considerably worse" if the public lose trust in the police.

But the Hampshire Conservative police commissioner, Donna Jones, who has been helping support Nowak's parents, told me: "Farage's comments on Wednesday were irresponsible and will lead to more division on Britain's streets – the Nowaks had called for calm reflection and reiterated that to me on Friday, and asked me to represent that view".

Now,  this weekend, to the horror of Downing Street, even the vice president of the United States has piled in. A torrid political argument is raging, one that's gone way beyond the tragedy of one family – it's a new fault line in British politics, involving the Trump administration too.

Claims of "two-tier" policing, which conveniently for the prime minister's critics, can be made into the damning rhyming jibe of "two-tier Keir", first started to circulate in mainstream politics in the summer of 2024. Although claims of a "two-tier" system had been made by the convicted far-right activist Stephen Yaxley Lennon (Tommy Robinson) many years before.

But two years ago, there were violent protests in towns and cities across England and Northern Ireland after fatal stabbings at a children's dance class in Southport on 29 July. Unrest had been stirred by misinformation on social media that the suspect was an illegal migrant.  It was not until 1 August that the identity of the girls' killer was made public.

Public anger at the girls' deaths, and the digital howlround about what had happened, led to clashes with police, attacks on mosques and asylum hotels. There were more than 1,800 arrests, and suspects were fast-tracked through the courts.

The new prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, wanted to stamp his authority, and fast. But accusations started to emerge that the summer rioters, mainly white, were being treated more harshly than protestors had been at other recent demonstrations. The optics of other offenders being released early because of prison overcrowding was an uncomfortable contrast too.

Claims of an unfair approach were strongly rejected by the police and later, an independent committee of MPs found there was no evidence to back up the "two-tier" allegation – the response had been strong and swift because the disorder was serious, they reported. But the idea had gained traction, not least because the prime minister's unflattering nickname had been used online by Elon Musk - yes, the world's richest man, who just happens to own one of the biggest social media platforms in the world.

Fast forward to the start of 2025, when long-held fears about gangs of South Asian or British Pakistani men abusing young girls in British towns, as happened in Rochdale, Rotherham and Telford, reared their heads. Oldham Council's request for another inquiry into what became known as "grooming gangs" had been turned down.

When that was reported, opposition politicians started to push the prime minister for a national inquiry. And Elon Musk piled in again with extraordinary accusations against the prime minister and one of his ministers, Jess Phillips, but the nickname of "two-tier Keir" spiked again.

Unlike the allegations that 2024 rioters had been overly harshly treated because they were white, which were not proven, there had been evidence for years that investigations into grooming gangs of mainly Pakistani men were affected by concerns over race.

Dame Louise Casey, who led the inquiry into what happened in Rotherham, and later, looked at the situation across the country, even revealed that in one file she'd seen the word "Pakistani" tippexed over, suggesting that "do-gooders" had covered up the identify of abusers out of fear of stirring up racism.

It is broadly acknowledged now, across the political spectrum, that girls were terribly let down, in part because the authorities were worried about stirring up community tensions. And despite his own record of challenging and convicting those abusers as the director of public prosecutions, that row gave Keir Starmer's critics another chance to make the argument there the authorities do not treat everyone equally, fuelling the claims of "two-tier Keir".

But let's set aside the contested claims of the 2024 protests and the shame of grooming gangs scandal, and take a look at the overall picture. Even a glance at statistics suggests that, overall, ethnic minorities fare overwhelmingly worse in the police and justice system.

Black people are seven times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people, and five times more likely to be subjected to the use of force. There is a long, shameful and well-documented record of racism in the police, from the Stephen Lawrence murder back in the 1990s to an undercover Panorama last year that revealed those attitudes on display in a London police station even now.

There is a genuine political debate about whether recent efforts to right those wrongs in the police have gone too far. Ministers have acknowledged already that guidance to forces is clunky and ought to be reviewed. But they also say there is a history of racism in policing that needs to be recognised. The Conservatives have called for an "independent rapid review" into the circumstances surrounding Nowak's death. And the shadow home secretary Chris Philp has said: "Two-tier policing is real. It is hardcoded into policy documents, recruitment, and training".

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey called the killing "an evil murder made so much worse by the police response" but said we must avoid attempts to politicise the death and "divide our country".

Some officers have reported pressure to change their conduct out of the fear of allegations of racism, as my colleague Sima Kotecha has been reporting. But that does not mean it is accurate to make bold claims that the whole system is definitively stacked against white people. And Farage, now aided by the White House, has been using the occasion to make a wider claim about our overall culture, that he believes the rights of ethnic minorities are being protected over whites. In his words: "We're living in a two-tier culture in this country where the rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities."

JD Vance even claims that Nowak's death was a result of a "mass invasion" of migrants, making dramatic comments about the decline of European civilisations, which Farage has reshared online. We don't know if Vance doesn't care, or isn't aware, that Nowak's killer was born in Britain. Nor do we know if he's aware that by crashing into the political debate, he has done precisely what Nowak's family did not want.

In the specific tragedy of the Nowak case, there is no way of knowing yet exactly why the police behaved as they did. What led the officers on the ground to arrest and handcuff him as he lay bleeding on the ground? Why did they ignore his appeals that he couldn't breathe? Did they not question Digwa sufficiently because of fears over race?

Before there are answers to those fundamental questions, can any politician use the case to "prove" one thing or another about policing, let alone to come to firm conclusions about the culture of the UK in 2026?

What is clear is that Nowak's family did not want their son's death to provoke an angry conversation about race, or divide the country. They do want answers and accountability for the police's action. They want Digwa's 21-year sentence to be reviewed. And they want the law changed so that large Sikh ceremonial knives are not exempt from the rules on carrying weapons.

They are pressing that case with senior politicians, and have met the prime minister and Kemi Badenoch. They've also received a letter of condolence from Sir Ed Davey. As I write, despite his very public mentions of the case,  the family has still not had any direct contact with Nigel Farage.

There is, of course, an important conversation to be had about modern policing. There is a serious debate to be had about whether fears of causing offence or being accused of prejudice alters behaviour, particularly in the public services on which we all rely.

But Reform is overtly using this case aggressively to make their wider arguments about the country, safe in the knowledge that while other politicians, and some of the public, find their arguments repellent and wrong headed, some of their supporters are on side.

Polling from the fractious summer of 2024 for the research group More In Common suggested that only 18% of voters overall believed the police treat ethnic minorities more favourably than white people. But among Reform voters, that number jumped to 47. This is a message that appeals to Farage's base, and he's not afraid to use it.

But a horrendous tragedy for one family is being used by some politicians to stir online outrage, and provoke a debate about race. A textbook example of politics in the 2020s – a terrible event on the streets of Southampton – now an angry transatlantic argument about race.

The deeply contentious debate around what it means to be English

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3626n0lgj3o, 9 days ago

A friendly dragon is waddling along the sun-drenched centre of Swindon, smiling at passers-by. It's St George's Day and the blow-up dragon is on hand, along with Swindon's town crier, to do a bit of PR on behalf of England.

Mid-morning shoppers give the dragon, who was, of course, slain in the legend by England's patron saint, sympathetic looks.

Fay Howard, the then mayor of Swindon, arranged the April parade because she felt the English could do more to celebrate their national day.

The mayor posed for pictures with shoppers in a mock picture frame decorated in the English national colours of red and white. But, ahead of the May elections, there was no sign of the Cross of St George flag.

"I've been careful about using the flag this year because it is an election time and because I represent everybody in Swindon and I want to be fair to everybody in Swindon."

There, in a nutshell, is the dilemma around English identity: a mayor seeking to bring her community together but nervous that the nation's flag could be seen as divisive.

And that sensitivity comes as the perennial debate about English identity has taken on a harder edge since February last year. Influential figures on the right have provoked a highly contentious debate by saying that English identity cannot be acquired. It is, to them, related to ancestry, potentially dating back centuries.

The striking moment last year came when the Russian-born podcaster Konstantin Kisin suggested that Rishi Sunak could be considered British but not English because he is a "brown Hindu". Kisin made his remarks after the political journalist Fraser Nelson told him on the "Triggernometry" podcast that the Southampton-born former Conservative prime minister is as English as "Tizer and Y-Fronts".

A short while after that podcast, the former Conservative home secretary, Suella Braverman, described herself as 'British Asian' but not English. Braverman, who was born in England of Indian heritage, questioned in a Daily Telegraph column how many generations it could take to become English, raising the prospect that it could be as many as five or six.

Englishness can evoke two broad emotions: a benign feeling or divisiveness.

English warmth is epitomised in the lines of its unofficial anthem of Jerusalem: "And did those feet in ancient time, Walk upon England's mountains green".

Flags can appear in the spirit of those balmy emotions – cue the World Cup. But sometimes English flags are associated with different emotions. Some took exception to the Raising the Colours campaign last summer when English and Union flags appeared on motorway bridges.

But the debate has been taken to a whole new level with the controversial suggestion that to be considered truly English you need to trace your lineage back multiple generations or even centuries.

Sunder Katwala, who runs the British Future think tank, says he respects Braverman's belief that she is not English. But he takes issue with her suggestion that it could take five or six generations to acquire an English identity.

Katwala, who is of mixed Indian and Irish heritage, sets out what he sees as the flaw in her suggestion: "I think maybe the Huguenots didn't think they were English, but their grandchildren certainly did." Around 50,000 French Protestant Huguenots settled in England in the 17th century to escape persecution.

Katwala says that around 90% of people believe that if you are born in England, identify as English and are brought up in England then you are seen as English.

In the wake of the row over English identity, the group More in Common polled people in March 2025 on attitudes to this subject. The poll suggested that 74% of English people believe that someone can be English regardless of their skin colour or ethnic background.

The value of Englishness

High above the Thames Estuary in Essex, the ruins of Hadleigh Castle have a commanding view over the waterway heading to England's capital city. Work started on the castle in 1215, the same year as Magna Carta, the foundational declaration of English liberty, was signed.

Hadleigh Castle now lies in the Castle Point area of Essex, which recorded the highest number of people within England citing English as their national identity in the last census.

A short walk up from the castle lies the quintessentially English town of Hadleigh. Harriet, who was having a coffee with her daughter Hermione, is clear about two things: she is English and she doesn't like to be made to feel guilty about that. "I am English. Always put it down, even on a job application form, even though you shouldn't, but I do. That's why I probably don't get a job. Because it's not ethically correct, is it? I'm British, but no I'm not, I'm actually English.

"Everyone nowadays gets offended by everything, don't they? And so you want to hold onto something that you're entitled to hold on to despite offending everyone."

England is - of course - the largest nation in what Boris Johnson described as the "awesome foursome" of the UK. And in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) there is a curiosity. In England there is a perennial debate around English identity but a consensus around the constitutional membership of the UK. In Wales and Scotland it is the other way round — consensus around national identity but divisions around the constitutional question.

The feeling that Englishness is not valued is echoed by Matt Goodwin, the author and GB News presenter who came second for Reform UK in the Gorton and Denton by-election in February.

Goodwin cites the Raising the Colours flag campaign last summer when flags flew from motorway bridges. "Many people in England who put the St George's flag up felt that the establishment were now saying they no longer exist."

Goodwin agrees with Konstantin Kisin that Englishness is related to ancestry. "I think of Englishness as being mainly an ethnicity…with a sort of defined ethnic group and ancestry that is quite different from Britishness which of course can encompass different parts of the island. So Englishness…has always been a much more specific, distinctive identity that actually cannot just be transferred from one group to another.

"You cannot just simply walk into England and say I'm English in the same way that I couldn't walk into Japan and say I'm Japanese because the Japanese would say, well, clearly that's not the case. So I view Britishness as a nationality and Englishness as an ethnicity."

Goodwin suggested that being white can be considered an important part of the overall British national identity. "In Britain one of the symbols of who we are is the white British people. Part of the makeup, it's part of our composition as a nation. There's nothing inherently bad about saying that, it's simply the reality of who we are."

Although Goodwin also said earlier in the interview: "Yes, it is possible to be black and be English. It is not as likely as it is to be white British and English, but it's possible."

The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, takes a different view to Goodwin. He says he does not want to draw 'ethnic lines' on what being English is.

But Joe Mulhall, the research director of Hope not Hate, a campaign group focused on combating extremism on what they describe as the far right, has stronger words. "I think the moment we inject any form of ethnic segregation into identity, it becomes a problem.

"Is it about colour? How white do you have to be? How British do you have to be? How many grandparents and all of a sudden you end up in some pretty nasty and pretty dangerous sorts of graphs of histories and bloodlines and all these sorts of things that we thought we had confined to history."

Ancestral importance

The leader of His Majesty's Opposition is in an apologetic mood. Kemi Badenoch is running late for her interview with Radio 4 because she wanted to prepare carefully for an area close to her heart: national identity. The interview took place on 20 May, before political debate erupted over policing, following the release of bodycam footage showing the handcuffing of murdered teenager Henry Nowak as he lay dying.

Badenoch took issue with Matt Goodwin's stress on ethnicity as the key factor in defining Englishness. The Conservative leader, who was born in England to Nigerian parents, said: "How we define Englishness, in my view, is very complicated. There are two sides to it. There is a side that is down to ancestry, ethnicity, your parents being from here perhaps for hundreds, if not thousands of years. And there's another side of it, which is civic, which is about the culture, which is about the values, the behaviours, the norms, the commitments to place. And I think those two things go side by side."

A leader with a reputation for speaking her mind in plain terms, Badenoch questioned the way some podcasters have, as she put it, taken to policing identity. "I think that we need to be worried," she told me.

But elements of the left do not escape censure. She describes ethno-nationalism – the belief that national identity is linked to ancestry – as a backlash against those who attack English identity by using phrases like "white privilege".

Badenoch raises concerns about political parties using what she calls a political conflict to target voters from one community. No party was mentioned in her Radio 4 interview. But in the wake of the Gorton and Denton by-election in February she said it was "appalling that separatist campaigning was carried out in Urdu by the Green Party".

The Conservative leader then issues a stark warning: "Parties which do that, politicians who do that, they may get to benefit in the short term, but in the long term, that's how you end up with civil war."

The Green Party were approached for comment.

Across the political spectrum and another politician unafraid to take aim at the left and the right is adjusting her Zoom link to speak to me on Radio 4. Lisa Nandy, the Labour culture secretary, is speaking from her Wigan constituency which was proudly festooned with bunting during the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee in 2022.

Nandy was dismayed by some Labour colleagues in Westminster who raised eyebrows at the celebrations. "I can't understand it really because this is about celebrating, being proud of who you are, where you're from, coming together and being, making common cause with people. I'm just not sure what could be more left-wing than that really."

The culture secretary, who is of mixed Indian and British heritage, has no truck with the idea that nationality has to be related to ancestry. "I do think it is a bit offensive to be honest. But I also think if it's designed to sort of appeal to working class communities like mine in Wigan, I don't think it has that effect at all. I think people just think it's weird."

Back at the St George's Day celebrations in Swindon, opinions are divided. Jo is thinking warm, bucolic thoughts as she observes the ragtag procession. "Leather on willow, country pubs and just the loveliness of England," she muses wistfully.

But across the street Ethan was not impressed although his two-year-old did enjoy the free chocolate. "It could be a bit more extravagant," he said of the parade. "Everything else can be celebrated but us.

Swindon, for so long a political bellwether, is perhaps providing a parable of Englishness. The town's civic leaders have been working hard to encourage a benign identity. But England is a nation divided over its identity and even over how to celebrate its patron saint.

England's Identity Crisis, 1.30pm on Sunday 7 June on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

Lead image: Getty

SpaceX's stock market blast-off could be Musk's biggest gamble yet

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8d9e4lzv1o, 3 days ago

It's 07:25 am, 13 October 2024, at Starbase, near Boca Chica on the Texas side of the US/Mexico border, and on the launch pad stands the biggest rocket ever made. Its engines fire and it climbs into the skies over the Gulf of Mexico to cheers and screams in the SpaceX control room.

But the launch is not the main event. What goes up must come down – and how it comes down will become a milestone in space exploration.

Seven minutes later, the massive rocket booster that blasted the craft towards space starts falling back to Earth – until its engines reignite as planned. It slows its descent and guides itself with pinpoint precision so it can be captured by a clasp called Mechazilla, or "the chopsticks", by engineers who have achieved something that's never been done before.

Amid the whoops and high-fives in SpaceX's control room, Elon Musk tells his millions of social media followers that this is a "big step towards making life multiplanetary" - a reusable rocket that will slash the costs of launching things into orbit, to the Moon and one day to Mars.

A company with a futuristic vision, led by what some would call a maverick unconventional genius, SpaceX and Musk have drawn comparisons with Tony Stark, leader of Stark Industries and also known as Iron Man of the Marvel Comics Universe.

On 12 June, trading will begin in a chunk of shares in a company that, up to now, only Musk and a select group of rich private institutions have been able or invited to own.

It is perhaps little wonder that more than one UK stockbroker has told the BBC that there has been "a surge" in interest in signing up for the chance to buy shares in this exciting company, controlled by a talismanic individual, that has captured the world's imagination. UK retail investors are likely to be allocated around £1.5bn worth of shares and one of the UK's leading investing platforms hopes this could encourage a new generation of investors.

Simon Belsham, Chief Client Officer at Hargreaves Lansdown said: "While we recognise this IPO might not be right for everyone, it's an exciting moment for many of our clients. We're expecting this might be a first foray into investing for many."

Even if you don't apply directly to buy shares, if you have retirement savings invested in shares - as almost everyone with a pension plan does - then it is very likely you will soon be a part-owner of a company, whether you like it or not, that sits at the crossroads between technology and geopolitics and, as Musk would have it, the very future of the human race.

The chance for normal Earthlings to buy shares in SpaceX is one of the most important moments in the history of stock markets and is close at hand – and one that will almost certainly make Elon Musk the world's first ever trillionaire.

On the first few pages of the prospectus – or sales brochure – for SpaceX shares is this modest mission statement: "To build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary, to understand the true nature of the universe and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars."

But SpaceX isn't just about rockets – it's not even mainly about rockets. It's a bet on the future of artificial intelligence (AI). And the success or failure of its imminent partial sale to the public is an important test of the hitherto unbridled investor optimism – and some people's dismay - that AI will hoover up large parts of the world economy.

The continued concentration of power in a few US mega-corps also poses important questions about the way business, economics and politics works here on Earth. And many think this is Musk's Icarus moment – when he flies too close to the sun. "I think it's an Elon Musk ego project," says Sinead O'Sullivan, an economist who has worked for Nasa in the past.

So should we be pleased we will all likely be passengers on his astral journey?

A staggering valuation

SpaceX has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) of its shares. Although it's only selling a portion of the company to the likes of us, the price of the shares Elon Musk is selling means we can calculate the price tag of the whole company.

The bankers selling the shares have put a target price tag on the company on $1.75trn - which puts it comfortably in the top 10 most valuable companies on Earth.

That is a staggering valuation for a company that lost nearly $5bn (£3.7bn) last year. So what are we buying?

SpaceX is in fact several businesses in one company. It designs rockets as well as manufacturing and launching its own and other people's satellites. Its launch capabilities alone dwarf that of any other company – or indeed country on Earth.

Its own satellites also form the basis of the Starlink communications network, which has proven to have crucial geopolitical importance during Ukraine's defence against the Russian invasion.

This is a profitable business and one that generates significant income. But even the most optimistic estimates value this part of SpaceX at around $300bn - less than 20% of SpaceX's $1.75trn target valuation.

Big bet on AI

The real bet is on AI because bundled into SpaceX is Elon Musk's AI company xAI, along with a deeper space programme with plans to create data centres in space providing vast computing power – powered by the sun, cooled by the chill of space - while creating human-crewed bases on the Moon and eventually Mars.

The success of SpaceX depends to a huge extent on its AI business. Of the $28.5trn market that SpaceX has identified for its services, known as its total addressable market – $26.5trn of that is in AI.

To believe that, you need to believe that the AI industry will be comparable in size to the entire economy of the United States or all of Europe.

The SpaceX prospectus estimates that the space and communications sector is less than 10% of the $28trn total - and yet those are the only businesses that SpaceX has demonstrated commercial and technical advantages.

"If we look at the business itself, it's really unclear as to what business or industry SpaceX is even in," says O'Sullivan.

"The logo, the brand is built on two decades of rocketry but most of the capital expenditure is actually on data centres and an AI company that seems to be more about social media than anything to do with space," she adds. "All of these are just in a kind of conglomerated business under Elon Musk's name."

The prospectus admits that SpaceX will have to do things no company has ever done before. It says it "requires, building, commercialising and operating products and services… at a scale that has not been previously achieved".

O'Sullivan is sceptical. "When we look at the massive share price that they are trying to get here, you're buying a share of the Elon Musk brand more than any kind of space industry."

Ownership without control?

But there is no shortage of evangelists who will point to Musk's staggering ability to raise money, challenge orthodoxy and prove his doubters wrong.

He took on the combined might of the global car industry and within 20 years of its founding his carmaker Tesla was worth more than Toyota, Ford, General Motors and Volkswagen combined.

The other reason that some investors intend to pass on the opportunity to invest in Musk's greatest adventure yet is their objection to the total control he will exert over the company.

Musk is listed as founder, chief executive, chief technical officer and chairman of the board.

Even though he only owns 42% of the company, his shares come with extra voting rights meaning he effectively controls 85% of the company.

Financial journalist Robert Armstrong asks: "What is holding shares in a company? It's ownership - but what kind of ownership is this? Do you really own something you can't control?"

Armstrong adds that investors should get a discount for forfeiting control: "I want to pay less for a company where my ownership does not include control."

But as one large institutional investor told the BBC, "the cult of Elon Musk requires disciples to pay a premium for the questionable privilege of having no real say in how the company they own is run. But people seem happy to do that."

And that control is in the hands of a man who has used his power and wealth in controversial ways. He spent nearly $300m on Donald Trump's second run for office. He has secured billions in US government contracts and dabbled in the internal affairs of other nation states by supporting right-wing figures in the UK and elsewhere.

The Musk effect

Nevertheless, betting against Elon Musk has not been a wise strategy in the past. He didn't become the world's richest man – with a personal fortune of over $700bn, and soon to be over $1trn – without proving his doubters wrong.

Since 2020, estimates of SpaceX's value have risen from $40bn to a price tag of $1.75trn – a more than 40-fold increase - while shares in Tesla have risen tenfold in the same period.

And that has happened even as Tesla's car production numbers have plateaued.

The renewed upward trend in Tesla's share price despite falling sales speaks to another of Musk's great gifts, dangling new and ambitious targets to justify the valuation – in this case a promise to pivot towards robotics with a target to build one billion humanoid robots.

That ability to swerve and adapt prompted one big investor to tell the BBC "he's more [the famous showman] P.T. Barnum than Rockefeller or Buffett".

Another dot com boom?

But FOMO – the fear of missing out – is a powerful emotion when it comes to investors' feelings about Elon Musk. Tesla naysayers were proved wrong and missed out on huge gains.

The SpaceX IPO is the biggest sale of its type in history but it's just the first of a slew of mega-sales of shares in the companies at the frontier of the AI economy.

This flood of new shares into the market has some worried that we may see a repeat of the dot com boom and bust we saw at the turn of the century when companies with big targets but little or no history of profit tried to sell as many shares as they could to the public.

However, SpaceX is selling only 5% ($75bn) of the total shares available in the company at first – and it's likely that AI competitors Anthropic and OpenAI will similarly dip their toes in public markets.

Once you've sold a bit, you can start to sell more – and that means potentially trillions of dollars worth of new shares coming to market over the coming months and years.

These could create a glut of supply that demand may struggle to absorb – meaning prices of those shares could fall.

One important difference between now and the dot com bust is the explosion in the popularity and scale of index funds that automatically buy shares in the companies that are in the stock market indices and may help soak up some of that supply in time.

Anthropic and OpenAI will join SpaceX at the US mega-corp top table – exerting hitherto unseen power and influence across the globe and unprecedented dominion over its citizens if its champions are to be believed.

And so as in 2024, all eyes are on the SpaceX launch pad for the most significant share sale in stock market history.

Top image credit: Reuters

How the High Street became a window on our political instability

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq5p59286v5o, 6 days ago

For a number of years, people around Britain have spoken of what they perceived to be "dodgy shops" on their High Street. To many, it seemed new businesses were popping up that had little obvious purpose or, in many cases, a huge number of direct competitors already in situ. Rumours spread between neighbours about money-laundering mini-marts and gang-owned vape stores.

There was a vague feeling of unease about all of this - but it was difficult for ordinary people living nearby to prove there was anything amiss.

And so when we started looking into the topic last February, I didn't truly appreciate the scale of what was really going on on our High Streets.

Our BBC team has travelled across the UK - including to Plymouth, Rochdale, Shrewsbury, Newport and Bradford - exposing what we have found to be brazen criminality on the High Street.

In Hull, we unearthed underground tunnels supplying sacks of illegal cigarettes to High Street mini-marts. In Swansea, we watched as officers smashed in windows of "stash cars" that were used to hide illegal cigarettes during the day, and deal drugs at night. And we exposed a network of high street shops selling illegal tobacco fronted by "ghost directors" masking the real owners.

Freedom of Information requests revealed for the first time that more than 3,600 shops across the UK had illegal goods - such as counterfeit cigarettes, tobaccos, and vapes - seized over 2024-25. The then-Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described some of our findings as a "disgrace". Throughout our reporting we were repeatedly attacked and threatened.

In lots of places, it seems, High Streets have become a front for organised crime. The National Crime Agency (NCA) estimates that at least £1bn of criminal cash is laundered through UK High Street stores each year.

"People want to feel safe… [going] down the local High Street," says John Herriman, chief executive of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute. "The concern is that they don't feel as safe as they used to."

Every episode of High Street criminality causes local angst. But when you look at the national picture - as we have done over the last year - another broader lesson emerges. High Streets seem to offer insight into Britain's troubles. Like a cracked mirror, they reflect other trends in British society, including lacklustre income growth, inequality and the boom in online shopping.

And some analysts tell us that obvious criminality on the High Street is shaping politics too, turning voters away from long-established parties and towards political newcomers.

So how did it get to this? And is there a solution for the decline of Britain's High Streets?

The psychological effect

Organised crime has always existed on the High Street, says Elijah Glantz, a research fellow into organised crime at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), a security think tank.

"Nail bars, pubs, certain restaurants - anything that's cash-intensive has always been vulnerable to organised crime exploiting it," he says. Criminals like cash because unlike card transactions or bank transfers, it is largely untraceable, which makes it useful for both transactions and money laundering.

But in the last decade, he says, both the police and Trading Standards - a body enforcing consumer protection laws - have been squeezed. In 2002, there were 4,260 staff employed by Trading Standards, but in 2025 there were 2,378. Since then, crime has seemingly become more visible.

"There does seem to be an increase in the visibility of it. We're looking at organised crime that has manifested because nobody has put it away, nobody has forced it underground," says Glantz.

And that brazenness has a sharp psychological effect, analysts say - particularly on politics.

Nick Plumb, a director at the Power to Change think tank, says that the sight of open criminality on the High Street fuels feelings of "powerlessness" - a force that's proving potent in UK politics.

"The sense of a lack of control… has been a key feature of our politics over the last decade," he says. "High Streets are incredibly important [to] how people feel about the country… and politics."

And it's not just criminality that people care about. There is the issue of empty shops too.

In particular, Plumb's analysis showed that in the 2024 general election, support for Reform UK was higher in the 100 places in England with the biggest increases in persistent High Street vacancy relative to the rest of the country. This is based on parliamentary seats they won, or came second in. It built on previous research - from academics at the universities of Warwick and Oxford, and Imperial College London - that linked visible High Street decline to support for the United Kingdom Independence Party, an earlier political outfit of Nigel Farage, between 2009 and 2019.

Plumb says that "High Street decline is only partially explained by deprivation," and points to the "rise of online shopping and out-of-town retail, distant and uninterested ownership [and] changing working habits" as a factors behind the decline.

This decline often starts with those vacant units.

Glantz from Rusi thinks that as legitimate businesses close, crime moves in. "Rents are down, there's a lot of empty spaces, so landlords are willing to pretty much take just about anybody," he says.

Plumb came up with a new name for these areas: the "shuttered front", a string of constituencies with struggling High Streets that Power to Change think could play a pivotal role in future elections.

Indeed, Reform's Nigel Farage and Richard Tice were among the first mainstream politicians to regularly talk about visible signs of High Street criminality.

In 2024, Farage said at an event: "You can see High Streets with five, six, seven barber shops in them." Tice added: "Seriously, how come lots of these new barber shops have got no customers in them? How come they all want cash only? These are fronts for money laundering and drug money, and someone has to talk about it."

And in a social media video he made last year - one that quickly set parts of the internet alight - Robert Jenrick, who was then the shadow justice minister, listed "weird Turkish barber shops" as a visible sign of decline, alongside bike theft, phone theft, and drugs in town centres. "It's all chipping away at society," he said. He later clarified that he was "obviously not talking about all Turkish-style barber shops". Jenrick defected to Reform earlier this year.

Some politicians argue the language around High Street decline is in danger of becoming racially coded. In January, Miatta Fahnbulleh, then the devolution, faith and communities minister, agreed when asked by the Guardian if she thought the focus on Turkish barbers had racist overtones. "Yes, I do. The fundamentals aren't to do with the colour of the skin of people running our High Streets. It's to do with long-term decline and neglect."

At the time a Reform spokesman was quoted as saying: "This is not a matter of ethnicity.

"The National Crime Agency itself has said many of these establishments are used as fronts for money laundering as well as a whole range of criminality which is why they carried out hundreds of raids on them last year."

Meanwhile, immigration - the issue that voters consistently highlight as among the most pressing, and that Reform campaigns heavily on - came up in our investigation too. We exposed a Kurdish gang that was enabling migrants to work illegally in mini-marts the length of Britain, by offering to put their own names to official paperwork. Trading Standards told us they find a constant supply of staff from asylum hotels, who are vulnerable to abuse by employers, working in those shops.

Josh Nicholson, a researcher at the Centre for Social Justice think tank, says, "Chaos and flux in Westminster are reflected in our High Streets.

"People feel powerlessness, they look at Westminster and see an inability of politicians to grapple with the basics and that feeds down to a local level."

This feeling of helplessness came up again and again in our travels.

"Nothing is going to change," Daniel, in Swansea, told us about the criminality on his High Street, which has become a hub for counterfeit rolling tobacco. He has seen violence on the High Street and an increase in raids on High Street shops. He's a dual British and Chinese national and was considering moving to Hong Kong.

"It doesn't make me feel safe. I've got kids."

Economic hardship

Oscar Selby, who researches troubled High Streets at the Centre for Cities think tank, sees them as a "bellwether" for the wider economy.

"High streets are ultimately… downstream of the broader economy's performance," he says. "The reason why people are so frustrated about High Streets is that people are also just annoyed that incomes have stagnated for the last 15 years. I think it all comes together in one package."

He thinks troubled High Streets are a "visual manifestation of the economic hardship that a lot of places feel".

High Street criminality sheds light on how bricks-and-mortar stores have been hammered by the boom in online shopping, with footfall 15-20% lower after the Covid lockdowns, according to a study from 2024. Amazon's net sales in the UK, however, have doubled since 2020. This has been exacerbated by the woes in the commercial property market, which was hit by the shift to working from home since lockdowns were introduced, and rising interest rates.

Of course, it's an uneven picture across the country. Some town centres appear to be thriving, and in those places you won't notice much visible sign of criminality - though the NCA did find organised High Street crime gangs in every part of the UK during an operation last year. Research from the Centre for Cities points to Cambridge, York, Edinburgh and Manchester as relative success stories. But this reflects another problem: inequality, because it tends to be places that are already wealthier that have less High Street crime. Towns that are already struggling, meanwhile, are the ones that attract money-laundering gangs.

Now, amid calls for Sir Keir Starmer's resignation, Westminster is paying more attention. Housing Secretary Steve Reed directly linked the state of High Streets to people's faith in politics.

"Each of the last four prime ministers have been the most unpopular ever and the reason for that is the public are very angry about the state of the economy, very angry about the state of our public services and very angry about what they see around them when they look at their High Streets and their hometown," Reed told the BBC.

So, what can be done about it?

The government has announced a new High Street organised crime unit, which will cost £30m over three years. About two-thirds of that will go towards the NCA, funding 75 officers. The rest will go to Trading Standards, with a small amount given to tax and immigration authorities.

The promise is that rogue barber shops, vape stores, mini-marts and sweet shops will face thousands of raids.

Glantz from Rusi thinks the extra cash will make some difference, and hopes the new officers hired at the NCA will spend time looking in detail through company documents and help to "peel back the layers of ownership structures, which is very difficult to do".

He adds: "If you get specialist investigators at the NCA to look, you will get a better threat picture and start to understand who is at the end of it."

But he doesn't think £30m over three years is enough to make up for long-term cuts to police and Trading Standards budgets - though he does say that a small number of flashy, highly visible raids on shops, if shared widely on social media, could have a deterrent effect.

"There hasn't been that visible community policing that might have in the past deterred these very obvious shops from springing up."

Strategic direction

To take truly tough action, Glantz says, authorities need extra powers.

Currently, if Trading Standards want to shut a business, they usually have to use anti-social behaviour powers. But it requires lots of paperwork, and it's a tough bar to meet: it must be proved that a business is a serious nuisance, or that disorderly, offensive or criminal behaviour is likely to occur.

On the few occasions when Trading Standards can shut a business permanently, it's generally by working with landlords, who evict tenants.

Instead, Trading Standards wants stronger, direct powers to close illegal shops quickly, and to shut down crime networks operating in multiple premises across High Streets (to end the whack-a-mole strategy where criminals simply shift their illegal goods to another shop they own next door).

Partly in response to the BBC's journalism, the government has now ordered a "rapid review" of local responders' powers; in particular, it will look at whether Trading Standards should be able to close a potentially criminal shop for longer than the initial three months.

Herriman, from the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, thinks that for too long High Street organised crime was seen as a local problem rather than a national one, in part because Trading Standards activities are devolved to councils.

"Actually what it needs is some strategic direction from [national] government… because then you can start to coordinate across the country," he says.

The newly announced cash, Herriman says "is not job done, it is just job started".

Perhaps the biggest lesson from our year-long investigation was this: people still fundamentally care about their High Streets.

In the 1990s, it was out-of-town shopping centres that were predicted to kill off High Streets; then it was online shopping, then working from home.

But travelling the country, we found that High Streets still occupy a special place in our psyche. That's why the sight of brazen criminality causes such distress.

One pensioner in Oldham urged us to keep going, because "nobody cared". Richard, in north-west London, asked us in desperation for tips to investigate gangs himself. And I'll never forget Errol, a Kurd from Turkey who had spent decades building his grocer's shop in Pill, south Wales. He said he could no longer compete with gangs, and was tempted to give up and leave. He stayed mostly for his children and grandchildren, who were born in Britain.

Now, it's the task of the government and police to fix it.

Additional reporting: Patrick Clahane and Rebecca Wearn

Lead image credit: Getty

Cosmeticorexia: How girls are falling down a skincare rabbit hole

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx212x41evwo, 7 days ago

"Get ready with me to go to my best, best friend's house," Ellie-May says enthusiastically at the camera.

The then 10-year-old smiles and explains her multi-step skincare routine on TikTok.

"I love, love, love, love, love this toner," she says, as she rubs the translucent liquid into her skin. Next, it's a serum designed to make your skin glow, "Oh my god it's so glowy," she gushes.

She makes a "smoothie" out of her fluffy yellow cream, rubbing blobs on the back of her hand and mixing it with a tinted moisturiser.

As she talks, she carefully dabs concealer under her eyes and adds some pink blush and highlighter to her cheeks. Then she curls her lashes and applies mascara and lip gloss.

She's ready, she says, well, shortly after she's blow dried and straightened her hair.

Ellie-May is now 13. She's been using skincare and advertising it since she was eight years old. What began in lockdown as a bit of fun has become a main source of income for her family. They have social media accounts across Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat. Ellie-May's own TikTok account has more than 330,000 followers.

Her mum Sophie, who has five other children, says they make over £50,000 a year from posting content on their various platforms.

"Being content creators has transformed our lives," Sophie says as they sit on a video call with me outside their house in the south east of England. "So many other young kids just wanted to know about Ellie's skincare routine and, well, it just took off."

Type in the words "children and skincare" into various social media search engines and you won't struggle to find videos of hundreds of other young girls - some as young as three or four - enthusing over skincare products and make-up, or doing "get ready with me" or "after school" skincare videos where they talk about their plans for the day while using cosmetics.

Skincare products being marketed to girls is nothing new. While the scrubs and cleansers of past decades promised a spot-free complexion, girls today are using a wider variety of sophisticated products - many of which contain anti-ageing ingredients - in the hope of achieving flawless skin.

While not necessarily endorsed by the brands, some girl skincare influencers describe themselves as "brand ambassadors", showcasing products from the likes of Bubble, Drunk Elephant, and P. Louise. There are K-Pop Demon Hunters-themed skincare packs for a "glow-boosting routine" for "skin that looks luminous".

While there are products clearly targeted at children, there are also brands that are popular with young people, which say they do not want to be associated with this part of the market. A source close to Drunk Elephant, for example, says it is not a "youth-focused" brand, and that it is trying to educate its customers about how to use its products responsibly.

Bubble and P.Louise did not respond to requests for comment.

As well as young influencers like Ellie-May, there are many more young girls who have multi-step skincare routines embedded in their day. A snapshot by Pai, a skincare brand, of 1,500 nine-to-12-year-olds suggests that nearly half are using multiple skincare products weekly, with half of those saying that they use it to fix what they perceive to be problem skin.

It has become a multi-billion-pound industry. The market is rapidly growing and it is showing no signs of slowing down. But some - including regulators - are calling for caution.

"Women in their 30s and 40s have long been targeted by skincare companies, telling us that ageing is a problem and selling us a solution," Brooke Erin Duffy, associate professor and social media researcher at Cornell University, says.

"But this is a marked shift. Now young girls are being put under that same pressure."

As this industry continues to boom - encouraged by content on social media platforms - is it a bit of harmless fun or are girls being permanently conditioned to think there is something wrong with the way they look? And what does it tell us about how girls today think of themselves?

Skin deep

A new term has been coined by dermatologists and academics: cosmeticorexia, which they define as having an unhealthy obsession with achieving "flawless" skin from a young age, leading to an obsessive use of cosmetic products. Prof Giovanni Damiani, an Italian dermatologist from the University of Milan (IT), was so perturbed by what he saw as the compulsion of some of his younger clients he began to investigate what was happening.

He interviewed 55 of his patients, aged between 8 and 14 years old. Those who displayed signs of cosmeticorexia, he explains, were mobile-phone obsessed, and would spend hours watching skincare videos on social media. They would also use up to 10 different skincare products daily, and they would not socialise - even with family members - without wearing make-up.

The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) has just launched two investigations into the beauty company, LVMH, which owns the Sephora and Benefit cosmetic brands. The AGCM is examining whether the brands failed to make it clear that their products are not intended for children and adolescents, and whether they are encouraging their purchase through "covert marketing strategies involving young micro-influencers".

A spokesperson for LVMH says it is cooperating with Italian authorities and it "reaffirms" its "strict compliance with applicable Italian regulations".

The spokesperson added that "as conversations around younger consumers and skincare continue to evolve", they are continually enhancing "the quality of advice provided by our beauty consultants to better support and guide all our consumers".

LVMH does not have any products or marketing campaigns "specifically targeting young people" and they only work with influencers over the age of 18, they said.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK says it is monitoring developments in Italy closely and it's confirmed that it is looking at whether there is evidence of similar issues occurring, although it says, "we're not taking any formal regulatory action at this stage".

These products are not cheap. One study examined 100 TikToks made by under 18s, and found that the average cost of the skincare routines they had posted was £125. Depending on use, they might need to be replenished every three or four months.

Cleanse, tone, prime, moisturise, serum, eye cream, face mist, and repeat, as children - some of them of primary-school age - seek the Korean "glass skin" look.

"The irony? They've already got it - when you're little, your skin is in perfect condition," says consultant dermatologist, Dr Jean Ayer, an NHS consultant and private dermatologist based in Stockport.

"Your skin barrier - which keeps toxins out and keeps moisture in - is beautifully preserved… That's youth, that's the beauty of skin."

Ayer, who has been practising for nearly 20 years, says more children than ever are now using cosmetics. Her consultations vary massively, on one end of the spectrum she has parents asking her for the best skincare regime for their young child, to children as young as eight coming into her consultation room with severe reactions to the beauty products they've been using. She says parents are often horrified, but they can't convince their child to stop using so many different products.

"It is quite terrifying," Dr Ayer says, "This stuff is designed for the anti-ageing market. At best, they don't need these products. At worst, they contain harmful ingredients that can damage delicate young skin."

She says she's seeing an increase in younger clients with acne and contact dermatitis - a type of eczema triggered by contact with a certain substance - due to the various ingredients in these skincare products being used by children.

Many of them contain active ingredients which can have a biological effect on skin cells, therefore changing how the skin functions. One of the most powerful is retinol, which works by speeding up skin cell turnover, which can help reduce fine lines and wrinkles. In children, this process is already happening at a high rate, so retinol offers no real benefit and can overstimulate the skin.

This can lead to "retinol burn" where their protective skin barrier gets damaged. Children can end up with soreness, eczema‑like rashes or long‑term sensitivity.

There are many other ingredients in these products which can potentially harm young skin, Ayer warns, and that once a child develops a contact allergy, they may not be able to ever use a product containing that ingredient without a reaction.

She says dermatologists are also seeing an increase in young people with frontal fibrosing alopecia, where the front hairline starts to recede. She says there is a small but growing school of thought which suggests that this could be down to the surge we are seeing in the application of various face creams at such a young age.

The UK cosmetics industry says it recognises that advice and support is needed to make sure that young children are using age appropriate products. The Cosmetics Toiletry and Perfumery Association (CTPA), which represents many skincare companies, has recently released a guide for parents after carrying out a survey where 40% of parents asked - nearly 1,000 - admitted to knowing less about skincare than their child.

Dr Emma Meredith, director-general of the CTPA, says it does not support young people using anti-ageing products or complex and unnecessary routines.

"Our aim is to ensure that products are used appropriately for each age range, helping young people understand how to develop healthy and age-appropriate skin hygiene habits and supporting parents in discussions with their children," she says.

Ellie-May's mum, Sophie, says she checks the ingredients in her daughter's products. Some people have criticised her on social media for letting her daughter unbox creams that contain strong chemicals such as retinol, but, she says, she knows it's harmful and she won't "let it anywhere near" her daughter's skin. She is also careful not to reveal details such as where her daughter goes to school or where they live, and keeps a close eye on replies that are sent to their accounts.

Ellie-May attends brand launches with big beauty companies, where she tries different products and mixes with other content creators, which she says is fun. She and Sophie are preparing to launch their own vegan skincare brand, targeted at the younger end of the market.

Ellie-May seems both older and younger than 13. She is softly spoken, thoughtful and articulate, sometimes looking to her mum for answers. She has long, manicured nails and she's wearing make-up, but it's natural-looking. "Wearing make-up now makes me feel normal," she says.

Trick mirror

While Sophie says their success on social media has enriched their lives, there is concern from some psychologists that these self-aware, social-media-savvy, beauty-obsessed young people will grow up with a distorted view of how they should look and how they should be in life.

Alberto Stefana is an Italian psychologist who co-wrote a paper on cosmeticorexia with Damiani. He says children are "developing their self-identity" and they might struggle to "accept their true image" as they grow older.

"The children who become obsessed with skincare tend to be driven by what they see on social media.

"So their self-esteem becomes based on how many likes they get or what people have said in their comments."

As so-called cosmeticorexia is such a recent phenomenon, it is difficult to know the if there are any potential long-term psychological impacts, but Stefana says his latest research indicates there are crossovers with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), a mental health condition that causes persistent and intense shame and anxiety over perceived body defects.

And even now, at such a young age, he warns, he has seen signs of anxiety and embarrassment in children as young as seven or eight years old who are displaying symptoms of cosmeticorexia.

He says it can be so acute that "they do not want to go to school, because they feel so much shame. And that shame comes from comparing themselves to others on social media and not feeling beautiful enough."

Jessica Ringrose, a professor of sociology of gender and education at University College London, agrees. "Children are seeing this content and then thinking it represents the 'good life', the ideal way of being.

"And if they can't achieve this 'perfect look' or this 'perfect life' that's being sold to them then they think they are failing in some way."

TikTok says it has special safeguards to protect teenagers online and it does not allow targeted advertising to under 18s. It also says it gives support and information to parents to help keep their children safe and that it regularly hears from teenagers about how to improve its offer through the platform's youth council. It also says that young people also use TikTok as a way of educating themselves about skin health with dermatologist-backed advice.

Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook among other platforms, did not respond to a request for comment.

Ringrose and the other experts I have spoken to say this is not just an issue with social media companies, the responsibility also lies with the skincare brands selling the products and the parents themselves.

Ringrose adds: "When you have a child acting as a brand ambassador and promoting this world to other children it legitimises it."

But at the same time, we live alongside, and often inside an ever-expanding digital world. Isn't this just an added, but inevitable complexity of growing up? Children - and in this case, young girls - are just learning a way of surviving, maybe even thriving, online?

Stefana disagrees, he says children and young people are spending so much time and money striving towards a look, an aesthetic, that only exists in the digital world, not in reality.

"Even the idea of what is attractive and what is unattractive is becoming warped," he says.

"The filters and the use of AI on social media posts mean some of the images children are seeing are not even real, so they are aspiring to something that does not even exist."

What a hair loss breakthrough could mean for women like me

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg7p8n9g2klo, 10 days ago

Listen to Victoria read this article

I vividly remember the moment my hair began to fall out.

I was kneeling over a bath, washing it in a hotel room one Saturday evening, getting ready for my friend's 40th birthday celebration. Seventeen days earlier, I'd had the first of six chemotherapy sessions to treat my breast cancer, but days had gone by with no hair loss.

I'd convinced myself I might be one of the lucky ones.

But as I held the shower over my head, suddenly the stream of water turned dark, as long strands of brown hair began coalescing around the plug hole in front of my eyes. And there was nothing I could do to stop it.

"Oh wow," I said to myself, because I honestly hadn't expected it.

During chemotherapy, I had been wearing a cold cap – the freezing helmet designed to help preserve hair during treatment. I was told it didn't work for everyone.

It may sound dramatic, but for me, losing my hair was worse even than losing a breast through a mastectomy. Why? Because without my hair, I wasn't me. I had no idea until I started losing it that my hair was part of my identity.

Now, scientists in Japan believe they may be a step closer to changing the reality of hair loss for millions of people.

In what researchers are calling a "major breakthrough", a team, led by Prof Takashi Tsuji, say they have managed to recreate the full cycle of hair growth in mice - meaning hair could grow, fall out and grow back again naturally. While transplanted hair can already grow, recreating follicles that can behave like the natural hair inside the body - repeatedly growing, shedding and regrowing over time - has proved far more difficult.

For women living with hair loss - whether through cancer treatment, alopecia or ageing - breakthroughs like this hint at something once thought impossible: that hair loss can be reversed.

It affects millions of people worldwide, with studies suggesting around one-third of women will experience hair loss at some point in their life. So why is the emotional impact of hair loss still often underestimated and what does our reaction to losing it reveal about our identity, sense of control, and the way we see ourselves?

Hair across history

Across history, hair has rarely just been hair.

In Ancient Egypt, pharaohs and noblewomen wore embellished braided wigs to show power, and in the Middle Ages, women's long hair became associated with femininity and virtue. Men in the 17th century wore the "periwig" - long, voluminous artificial curls - to denote wealth and high social status. And by the 1920s, women with bobbed hair came to represent female independence and rebellion.

"Hair shapes our identity," says psychiatrist Sylvia Karasu. "It is a biological, physiological and social marker of stages of our life."

And of course it can be the first thing we notice about other people. "It's a way you can often tell gender, race and religion. It's so much tied with identity that it ends up being quite significant in terms of how we categorise people," she says.

Hair is also linked to our dignity. The forcible removal of hair has often been used to strip away identity and humanity. In German concentration camps, Jewish people had their heads shaved and their clothes replaced with prison uniforms. After France's liberation in 1944, thousands of women accused of collaborating with German occupiers had their heads shaved publicly as a form of punishment and humiliation. One of the most famous images, Robert Capa's The Shaved Woman of Chartres, shows a young mother walking through a jeering crowd with a swastika painted on her forehead.

If hair can hold so much social and emotional meaning, it seems no surprise scientists have spent years trying to understand why losing it can feel so devastating, and whether it may one day become reversible.

'It's not a vanity thing'

I've interviewed women about their relationship with their hair for my podcast with the Future Dreams charity, And Then Came Breast Cancer. Again and again, women told me the same thing: it was nothing to do with being vain.

Nicky Elkington, a hairdresser, told me she was determined not to lose her hair when going through chemotherapy. "It's not a vanity thing… and I think people think that, but it's your identity and I didn't want to look like I had cancer," she says.

For her, the worst thing anyone could say to her was, "It's only hair, don't worry about it".

School nurse and mother of two, Natasha Anderson, said she loved messing about with her hair while growing up - "one week having a big afro, then having hair extensions," she remembers.

"It wasn't just hair, it was my culture."

Faced with the prospect of losing it through chemotherapy, she asked her brother to shave it off for her.

"I felt liberated when it was being shaved," she says. "I had taken control of the situation… it was more painful and upsetting seeing it just falling out."

One of the hardest parts of cancer is how little control you have over any of it - the diagnosis, treatment, or the side effects. For some women, choosing to shave their hair before it falls out becomes a way of taking back a semblance of control in their life.

What surprised me during my treatment was how often concern about hair loss was dismissed as superficial.

"Why are you worried about your hair? You're alive." It's a legitimate question. And yes, I was lucky to survive. But surviving illness and grieving the loss of part of your identity are not mutually exclusive things.

As Sylvia Karasu told me, losing your hair for a lot of us is a "marker of being a sick person".

The wig

Between 50% to 75% of my hair fell out during chemotherapy.

It was unbelievably dispiriting. I remember sitting in a wig salon in Richmond as the owner, Amy Holt, gently brushed though my tangled hair as it was falling out in large lumps. I just cried.

According to Diane Trusson, a medical researcher at the University of Nottingham, hair loss on top of a diagnosis is "a double whammy".

"You've been told you've got cancer and then you start the treatment and then you've got this brutal thing to happen and it changes the way people see you. It's just that extra thing to deal with on top of having surgery and quite horrible treatments."

For me, getting a wig was important. I could carry on presenting a daily TV news programme. I didn't want viewers to be distracted from the stories we were covering by me either having a bald head, or wearing a scarf. A wig was the best option.

Amy made one for me with real hair sourced from women who donated or sold it. Seeing the wig for the first time felt surreal.

It looked so much like my own hair: the colour, cut, length. In my head there was disbelief, and my emotions were volatile – one moment in tears, the next elated because it was going to allow me to go about my daily routine.

Why science still struggles

Yet still, scientists don't fully understand the biology of hair loss.

According to Claire Higgins, a professor of tissue engineering at Imperial College London, studies into hair loss have struggled for many years to get funding and attention, particularly when it comes to women.

"The women side is definitely under researched", she says.

She says much of the work has focused on male hair loss, partly because men are more likely to get hair transplant surgery, which has made scalp samples easier to access for scientists.

"Men and women are often tackled the same because people assume it is the same, but I don't think it should be," she says.

She points to large genetic studies into male pattern hair loss - typically characterised by a receding hairline and thinning at the crown - known as genome-wide association studies, which identified several genes linked to the condition. But all were done on men.

More recently, researchers in Germany have investigated the genetics of female pattern hair loss, which typically involves hair loss at the top of the head. Scientists expected to find at least some overlap in the genes involved.

"But there wasn't," Higgins says. The findings showed that male and female hair loss may be caused by different things (though scientists still aren't totally sure what those causes are).

"We know cells are lost in the follicles but we don't know if they die or just migrate away. We know very little about the mechanism of why [hair loss] occurs."

A new hope for hair loss

That's why the work of Prof Tsuji in Japan is important. He and his team think they have found a missing piece of the puzzle.

For a long time, scientists believed there were two key types of cells responsible for growing hair: epithelial stem cells, which create the hair follicle in the first place, and dermal papilla cells, which tell the hair when to grow.

Those cells cannot grow hair in a lab, only when they are transplanted into skin and connected with underlying tissue.

But Tsuji says his study identified a "novel third cell type", called a hair follicle regenerative-supporting cell.

And crucially, the new cell could bring scientists a step closer to the possibility of growing hair in a lab.

"In simple terms," Tsuji says, "our study identified a [cell] which supports the development, growth and regeneration of hair follicles."

Tsuji says the findings are "a major breakthrough", a potential game-changer in treating alopecia.

Claire Higgins, who was not involved with the study, agrees it is significant. She says previous research has only managed to create partial hair follicles in the lab.

"No-one had managed to get fully cycling hair follicles like this before," she says. "That's a really big step." In other words, the follicles were able to repeatedly grow, shed and regrow hair in the way natural hair does.

The study was only carried out on mice, mostly via cells taken from their whiskers. Translating the findings so they can be used on people remains difficult because human hair growth is far more complex.

Still, Tsuji is hopeful. "We believe we are now much closer than before."

Last year, I saw a post from someone on social media which featured a close-up photo of Catherine, Princess of Wales at an event. The words simply read, "that's a bad wig". I found it particularly cruel and upsetting.

None of us knows what cancer treatment she underwent, whether she lost her hair, or whether she wore a wig at all. If someone had said that about me during chemotherapy, I would probably have wanted to hide indoors.

Indeed, hair loss through illness is not something anyone would choose. It's imposed upon us and that's why it was so hard, for me at least, to come to terms with.

And that matters, because hair is never really just hair.

For many of us, it is our identity, our privacy, our way of feeling in control and feeling confident. So forgive me when I say that's why hair matters so much.

Top image credit: Getty Images

Additional reporting: Florence Freeman

How pupils with special educational needs are more likely to see their schools close

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0q25zzdwdpo, 12 days ago

Nine-year-old Blake is trying to climb over the locked gates of his former primary school, St Dominic's in Hackney, when we meet him. It closed last year due to falling pupil numbers. The playground is overgrown, and the modular buildings stand quiet and empty.

When the school closed, Blake found the loss of his community particularly difficult. He is autistic and has ADHD. This means he can find a change in routine and managing his emotions more challenging.

His mum Christina says he's still struggling with the closure.

"When he started his new school he started getting up four to seven times a night because of the anxiety of being in a new school with new people he doesn't know," she says. "He was just like a little nervous wreck."

Now, she says his emotions are "playing up more", and he sees his new school as "not my school". Though he has made some new friends, "he's scared to open up again in case that friend gets taken away".

More than 100 state-funded schools in England have closed over the past five years, which many analysts suggest is largely driven by declining birth rates.

A recent National Audit Office (NAO) report says pupil numbers have fallen by 3% since 2018-19, and are projected to fall a further 7% in the next five years. It's a similar picture in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, where education is devolved.

Analysis by the BBC's data journalism team suggests pupils requiring special educational needs (SEN) provision - the official term in school census reporting - have been disproportionately affected by these school closures.

In the schools that closed between 2020 and 2025, nearly 30% of children had special educational needs, compared with a rate of approximately 20% in the wider school population.

Even excluding special schools, pupil referral units, alternative provisions and studio schools (small vocational schools), there is still a higher rate of SEN pupils at the closed schools.

We raised these figures with the Department for Education (DfE). In response, the DfE says it is helping schools across England to repurpose space for school-based nurseries and children with SEND - a broader definition covering all special educational needs and disabilities. It will introduce new guidelines for local leaders to respond to the changing demand in the autumn.

The government set out major reforms to the SEND system in England in February, including plans for better inclusion in mainstream schools, earlier support, and taking away the fight for support many families go through.

But many parents are anxious about what these reforms will mean. Though everyone involved agrees the system isn't working, parents worry about the consequences of changing it.

So, why might there be higher proportions of children with SEN in the schools that are closing? And what will that mean for SEND provision going forward?

What the fall in pupil numbers means

A rapid drop in pupil numbers is having a direct impact on the financial sustainability of schools, according to Luke Sibieta of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank.

The number of primary pupils in England has fallen by 150,000 since 2019, a decline soon expected to be seen in secondary schools too. Sibieta says this has been driven by fewer children being born. In total the DfE projects there will be 400,000 fewer pupils by 2030.

"That has led to fewer pupils in primary schools, and that's making it harder for primary schools to fill the quota of the number of pupils they need to be financially sustainable," Sibieta explains.

Nationally, unfilled school places rose from 10% to 14% in the last five years, according to the NAO.

Sibieta notes that school funding is mainly per-pupil, meaning when there are fewer pupils, a school gets less money. This means that if a school's roll drops low enough, it will no longer be financially sustainable.

And when schools close, the data suggests children with SEN are disproportionately affected.

Our analysis of DfE data suggests that around 120 state-funded primary and secondary schools in England permanently closed their doors between 2020 and 2025. About 29% of those attending the schools had an education health and care plan or other SEN support, compared with the current national average of 20%.

In total, across the period between 2020 and 2025, we found more than 2,000 children with special educational needs were in schools that went on to close.

Our data doesn't show why schools with more pupils with SEND are closing. But Jon Andrews, head of analysis at the Education Policy Institute think tank, says that the most popular schools are usually the ones with the best exam and Ofsted results.

Andrews thinks it's "reasonable to assume" that schools facing closure will have high numbers of SEND pupils and those from disadvantaged backgrounds - as these pupils typically perform less well on attainment measures, the most popular schools tend to have fewer of them.

So, Andrews thinks it is plausible that when the birth rate falls, it is likely to be the less popular schools with higher SEND and disadvantaged pupil numbers who will find it hardest to fill their places, and end up closing.

The National Foundation For Educational Research (NFER) charity suggests that parents of children with SEND are often attracted to schools with strong reputations for inclusion.

A survey by the Sutton Trust published in March found 41% of primary and secondary school leaders believe some schools actively discourage applications from pupils with SEND.

Andrews has a further concern. With pupil numbers declining and budgets tightening, schools may be forced to cut staff. That may first include teaching assistants and other support staff - the kind of staff that are disproportionately helping SEND pupils.

"So the school may still be there, but they won't necessarily get the support that they once had."

This is something former headteacher Jo Riley had to deal with, before her school Randal Cremer Primary School in Hackney closed. Falling pupil numbers meant that "when people left - we didn't replace them".

The drop in funding at a school with falling pupil numbers makes it "more difficult to put the intervention and support in place that you would like to" for SEND pupils, she says.

Sibieta says falling overall pupil numbers could mean less pressure on the national education budget if there are fewer pupils to pay for, and this may open an opportunity to spend more on SEND.

"But, at an individual school level, it might work a bit differently," he says. "If schools are losing money from falling pupil numbers, they might have less money to spend on other services they provide, such as teaching assistants that can help children with special educational needs."

The impact

When another school in Hackney, Baden Powell school, closed, the pupils moved to Nightingale school around the corner.

Headteacher Abigail Hopper prides herself on Nightingale's inclusion, but providing for lots of SEND children - 42% of her pupils - means it can be "really hard" to also balance attainment performance pressures, she says, when the school's overall results take a hit.

Some may argue that transitioning to a new school could give children better opportunities.

When the children moved from Baden Powell to Nightingale, they joined their new classmates in their very modern primary school building, which has a climbing wall, cookery and art rooms, and a rooftop sensory garden.

Hopper says her team, and the Baden Powell staff worked hard to ensure the children's transition to Nightingale school was smooth.

Welcoming them meant inviting them to the summer fayre before they joined, lots of discussions, a special scrapbook - and "one of the biggest things that they were excited about was our school guinea pigs. So we got a couple of extra guinea pigs and said, well, these are your ones."

But NFER research suggests that increasing proportions of pupils with SEND are becoming concentrated in a small number of mainstream schools in England, which it says places growing pressure on those schools and raises questions about fairness.

Despite taking in the pupils of Baden Powell, Nightingale school is still just over 80% full. Per-pupil funding makes this a challenge, Hopper argues.

She says this is particularly the case when it comes to children with SEND and those who receive the Pupil Premium grant, which provides funding to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.

"I was talking to another head just this morning about her budgets and falling roll, and she was saying that the kind of things that have to go are residentials, trips, additional supporting adults, music lessons, which are the kind of things that disadvantaged kids won't get elsewhere."

As we were shown around an empty Baden Powell school, Jason Marantz, director of education and inclusion at Hackney Council, described feeling a "mixture of emotions" about closing schools.

The empty school is currently being renovated to become a second site for oversubscribed Ickburgh, a council-maintained specialist school in Hackney.

Looking at goodbye messages from the children on the wall is "really sad to see", he says.

But, he feels comforted knowing that the building will be used to cater for children with some of the most complex needs in the borough.

Headteacher Joe Sieber says he's currently turning two to three families away due to being oversubscribed, so these additional 50 places will make a difference.

Fighting for support

Overall SEND numbers in England have risen from around 1.2 million a decade ago to 1.7 million today.

Across the SEND system, families often say they have to fight for support.

Data from the Local Government Ombudsman seen exclusively by BBC News shows large rises in both the number of complaints about SEN provision and in the number of them they upheld. More than 1,000 complaints in England were upheld in 2024-25, up from about 50 in 2014-15.

A recent analysis of these complaints by academics at Manchester University found common themes - families navigating delays, uncertainty, and gaps in support. But it also found hard-pressed councils trying to do the right thing in difficult circumstances - often as a result of issues such as budget cuts and specialist skill shortages.

It's in this climate, that Monkseaton Middle School near Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, was earmarked for closure. The council proposed shutting the school late last year - a mainstream setting for nine-to-13‑year‑olds where nearly half of pupils have SEND.

Parents, governors and staff campaigned to keep the school open and came up with a fully costed plan to extend the age range from a middle school (finishing in Year 8) until the end of Year 11.

But while individual schools like Monkseaton have managed to resist closure, the broader challenge persists. So, what changes are needed across the system to ensure that children with SEND aren't the ones who bear the brunt, and could shrinking rolls also present an opportunity?

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), argues that falling pupil numbers are an opportunity for the government.

"We have a unique opportunity now to bring our class sizes down," he says. At the moment, he adds, these are some of the highest of the member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

"If we brought those class sizes down to a European average, class sizes of around 20, you could cater for more children with additional needs in a mainstream setting."

He wants education spending to return to at least 5% of GDP. It is currently 4.1%.

So looking ahead, this could leave the government with a potential choice, Luke Sibieta of the IFS says.

"Do you want to make savings from falling pupil numbers, or do you want to maintain spending the way it is, and have lower class sizes?"

For Iain Mansfield, at Policy Exchange think tank, there's also a third option.

He does not agree that smaller class sizes is a good response to falling pupil numbers - arguing that research suggests this only has an impact if numbers drop below 20 per class.

Instead, he thinks more money should be invested in early years and further education - to reduce the nearly a million young people not in education, employment or training.

On the falling roll, Mansfield says the DfE should be doing "more thinking", though you "can't hold back the tide" when a school's numbers have reduced too dramatically to keep it open.

"But given that kids with SEND are typically more vulnerable and find adjustment less easy than other children, they are particularly at risk from the challenges this poses."

In the meantime, many parents worry about the government's SEND reforms and the implications of fewer pupils qualifying for EHCPs - the route to legally enforceable help.

The DfE says it is proud of its "once-in-a-generation SEND reforms backed by £4bn", which it says will raise the number of specialists on the ground and roll out training for all teachers so that every child gets the right support, in their local school. It also says parents will never be left without a route to challenging decisions about their child's legal support.

For Blake and his mum, the closure of St Dominic's still hurts.

Blake says he misses his best friend and the teachers, and how the staff would let him draw when he needed to calm down.

Most of all, he misses his happy place, and how well everyone there understood him.

Additional reporting by Nicola Dowling

Top picture credit: Getty Images

What we know about US sea drone used in helicopter crew rescue mission

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2xvnd5eqwo, 3 days ago

A sea drone was used to save two crew members of a downed US army helicopter off the coast of Oman earlier this week, according to the US military - making it the first publicly known instance of an unmanned vessel being used to conduct a rescue mission.

President Donald Trump said the Apache helicopter was shot down by Iran near the Strait of Hormuz - the dangerous waterway which has been largely blocked off to shipping since the start of the Iran war.

The two soldiers "were safely rescued within approximately two hours and are in stable condition", US Central Command (Centcom) said.

BBC Verify has examined what we know about the drone boat and how the mission took place.

What is the US sea drone?

Centcom has confirmed a 'Corsair' sea drone was used in the rescue, which is made by a Texas-based maritime drone manufacturing company.

It's 24 feet (7.3m) long, capable of carrying 1,000lbs (450kg), and can travel at more than 35 knots (40mph), according to the company's website.

"The Corsair is about the size of a fishing boat with a flat deck, so it's designed to be loaded and it's probably able to hold three to four people," says Bryan Clark, a naval drone expert at the Hudson Institute policy think-tank.

Clark adds it has a 360-degree camera, a radar system for long range navigation, and an electronic radio sensor to pick up communications for intelligence gathering.

"This Corsair vessel has been around for a few years now - the US Navy has about 50 of them," according to Dr Stacie Pettyjohn, a US military expert at the Center for a New American Security think-tank.

"They're typically used for detecting mines or surveillance, but the Navy is still experimenting with the fleet in the strait to see what it can do."

The sea drone is operated by Task Force 59, the US Navy's first unit dedicated to unmanned systems which was created in 2021, and the US began deploying it in the Middle East in March.

It's part of the Pentagon's plan to expand its use of drones. The Navy awarded the Corsair's manufacturer a $392 million (£293m) production contract for its autonomous vessels last year.

How did the rescue mission play out?

Although the sea drone can be operated autonomously, both experts BBC Verify spoke to said it was probably manually operated for the rescue.

"In this mission it would have likely been controlled remotely by a person with a joystick to make sure they got to the exact location of the crew," Clark said.

"It would have been directed to their known position and they would have just clambered on board, just like would to get on a boat at sea."

The Corsair was used for the mission because of "proximity and capability factors", Centcom spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins said following the rescue.

"The unmanned drone would have been used instead of sending in a ship or a helicopter where people could have been shot at," Dr Pettyjohn says.

"Although rescue isn't a core mission of the vessel, it was clearly good for a dirty, dangerous missions like this."

The US service members were picked up at about 03:30am on Tuesday local time and taken to another location on the water, according to Captain Hawkins. "They were then hoisted up to a helicopter for further transport," he added.

Where are sea drones used elsewhere in the world?

Sea drones have been increasingly used in the war between Ukraine and Russia, as BBC Verify has reported previously.

Ukraine has loaded them with explosives to launch attacks on Russian military ships, but they haven't been known to conduct rescue missions using them.

"Most of vessels used by Ukraine are smaller, more like the size of a jet ski, and couldn't carry a person," says Clark.

Yemen's Houthi rebels have also operated so-called kamikaze drone boats, and Iran has used drone boats during this current conflict to target vessels attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

"The Houthis and Iranians have had sea drones in the past, but Ukrainians really took it to the next level and showed what other countries could do," says Dr Pettyjohn.

"The US sea drones very much emerged off back of the Ukraine war and seeing what they innovated."

Three ships attacked by the US in three days: What we know

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crlw3k5l3k4o, 3 days ago

Three tankers have been struck by the US military over the past three days, killing at least three people.

US forces fired a missile into the engine room of a tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday morning - the third vessel to be targeted. US Central Command (Centcom) said the ship had violated a blockade of Iranian ports and refused to comply with its directions.

Three Indian sailors were killed on Wednesday after a strike by the US.

The Indian government condemned the attack, saying the "targeting of commercial shipping and civilian infrastructure in the region must end". India's foreign ministry summoned the deputy head of the US embassy in Delhi to lodge an official protest.

A further 24 Indian crew were rescued from a ship off Oman's southern coast on Monday after sending a distress call saying the vessel was on fire and sinking following a US strike.

The US military has been blockading Iran's ports after Tehran effectively closed the busy Strait of Hormuz through which about 20% of the world's oil and gas supplies are usually transported.

Centcom says it had disabled nine vessels and redirected 135 more since since the blockade began on 13 April.

Jalveer tanker

The tanker Jalveer reported that a fire had broken out in its engine room early on Thursday morning, according to maritime risk management company Vanguard.

Centcom later said a US aircraft fired two Hellfire missiles into the ship's engine room "after the crew repeatedly failed to comply with directions".

The crew contacted the Omani navy and another nearby vessel asking to be rescued, according to distress calls heard by BBC Verify.

A crew member also blames the US for the strike in the calls, saying it "just targets merchant ships".

Satellite imagery seen by BBC Verify shows smoke billowing from Jalveer.

The ship had 20 Indian sailors on board, all of whom were safely evacuated with the assistance of the Royal Navy of Oman, according to Indian authorities.

Centcom said the vessel, which was laden with cargo, had "violated the blockade against Iran by attempting to transport Iranian oil".

Ship tracking data shows Jalveer has sailed between the Gulf and several Indian ports over the past year, but the ship has not been sanctioned by the US for links to Iran.

Settebello tanker

Three Indian sailors were killed and 21 had to be rescued after the US fired "precision munitions" into the engine room of a tanker called Settebello on Wednesday.

India's shipping minister Sarbananda Sonowal called the incident "deeply unfortunate" and said the bodies of the three men would quickly be repatriated.

The US says Settebello violated its blockade by "attempting to transport oil from Iran" and the crew had "repeatedly failed to comply with directions from American forces".

The company that manages Settebello, IOS Marine FZE, said it "categorically denies" the ship ignored directions and said it has "no affiliation with Iran or Iranian oil".

"No contact whatsoever was made with the vessel," the company said as it called on the US to release evidence of its communications with the ship.

Settebello, which is owned by an Indian company called Aqua Aurora Shipping Lines, has not been sanctioned by the US but is on the sanctions list of the campaign group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) which says it has been involved in transporting Iranian crude oil.

Ship tracking data shows Settebello has sailed from the Gulf to the Chinese port cities of Zhoushan and Lianyungang over the past six months.

Settebello's location tracker has been inactive since 31 May, data on ship-tracking website MarineTraffic shows, so it is not clear where the vessel was when it was hit.

IOS Marine FZE said the ship had been stationary for about 10 days before the strike.

Satellite imagery analysed by BBC Verify from 8 June shows the ship about 80 miles (120km) from port of Sohar in Oman.

Marivex tanker

The Indian crew of a third tanker urged authorities to "please help" after the ship was struck by the US on Monday, saying it was on fire and sinking in a distress call shared with BBC Verify.

Marivex was sanctioned by the US for links with Iran under a previous name - Arihant. The US has also sanctioned the ship's owner, Arihant Shipping Inc, and has accused the ship of transporting "hundreds of thousands of barrels of Iranian fuel oil and bitumen within the Gulf since July 2025".

A fire broke out on the tanker on Monday, according to Indian authorities who did not initially comment on the cause of the fire.

Centcom later confirmed that an F-18 Super Hornet fighter jet from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln "fired a precision munition into the ship's engineering and steering spaces".

With the ship's engine disabled, the crew began to send out distress calls saying it had "a fire onboard and vessel is sinking", according to a recording given to BBC Verify by the Forward Seaman's Union of India (FSUI).

Flight tracking data shows a Royal Air Force of Oman helicopter took off from an air base on Masirah Island and verified videos supplied by the FSUI show the crew later being lifted from the ship's deck.

Centcom did not answer BBC Verify's question about whether it had contacted the Omani or Indian authorities before the strike.

The US strikes have sparked concern in India about the safety of India seafarers who constitute one of the largest maritime workforces, with nearly 300,000 serving on vessels across the globe.

"While seafarers are not completely detached from the realities of global trade, they are often the stakeholders with the least influence over geopolitical decisions and the greatest exposure to their consequences," said Harsh V Pant of the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

"India-US relations are passing through a difficult phase and friction will increase if the attacks intensify but there won't be a fundamental rupture in the ties," he added.

Seafarers' unions have also expressed concern over safety in volatile regions and called for better protection.

"Seafarers are workers. They are not soldiers," the FSUI said on Thursday.

"The international community cannot remain a silent spectator while seafarers are forced to navigate through conditions resembling a war zone," the union said.

There are more than 18,000 Indian seafarers in the Gulf region and 13 Indian-flagged vessels are still stranded in the Strait of Hormuz, according to India's shipping ministry.

Iran attacks damage 20 US military sites since start of war, satellite images show

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2l2yl7r8r2o, 13 days ago

Iran has damaged 20 US military sites since the start of the war, satellite images and videos analysed by BBC Verify show, suggesting the attacks are more extensive than publicly acknowledged.

Iran has targeted key facilities across eight countries in the Middle East since the end of February, causing millions of dollars of damage to state-of the-art air defence systems, refuelling aircraft and radars.

Tehran has targeted both US bases and shared military facilities in retaliation to the US-Israeli strikes across Iran and Lebanon over the past three months. The Pentagon says it has hit more than 13,000 targets in Iran since the start of Operation Epic Fury.

Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, has sought to highlight his military's success in striking US facilities. In a statement on Tuesday he claimed the Middle East was no longer a "safe place" for American bases.

While the White House has repeatedly claimed that Iran's military has been almost wiped out, analysts said that the damage seen at US facilities suggests that Tehran's counter-attacks have been more precise and extensive than American officials have previously acknowledged.

A US defence official declined to comment on BBC Verify's findings, citing "operational security reasons".

The US has sought to limit satellite analysis of the conflict by requesting Planet, a major provider, to impose an "indefinite" restriction on new images of Iran and most of the Middle East. The company justified the move, saying that it wanted to ensure its images were not used "by adversarial actors to target allied and Nato-partner personnel and civilians".

BBC Verify has used satellite imagery from other international providers combined with older images from Planet to track the damage caused by Iranian attacks. The facilities are in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Bahrain and Oman. The actual figure could be higher, with some analysts placing the number of bases hit as high as 28.

Among the valuable hardware damaged were three state-of-the-art anti-ballistic missile batteries systems at the Al Ruwais and Al Sader airbases in the UAE and Muwaffaq Salti Airbase in Jordan.

The US is only known to operate eight of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) batteries, which are deployed at bases around the globe and cost around $1bn (£766m) to manufacture. Each battery needs a crew of about 100 troops to operate it while the interceptors it fires cost around $12.7m per round.

Vice-Admiral Mark Mellett, the ex-head of the Irish Defence Forces, told BBC Verify that the batteries are at the core of a "highly complex" regional defence network that cannot be "quickly or easily replaced".

Iranian strikes have also heavily hit US refuelling and surveillance aircraft at Prince Sultan Airbase in Saudi Arabia, expert analysis of satellite images show, with damaged aircraft and smoking craters clearly visible.

One aircraft was identified by a MAIAR analyst as an E-3 Sentry surveillance plane. US media reported that it could cost up to $700m to replace.

Elsewhere, Iranian attacks have also targeted Ali Al Salem Airbase and Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. Analysts at MAIAR identified destroyed fuel storage bunkers, aircraft hangars and troop accommodation in satellite images of the base, which was hit multiple times over the course of the conflict.

And at Camp Arifjan the defence intelligence company Janes identified extensive damage to satellite communications hardware.

The extent of damage caused to US facilities is difficult to quantify, but a May estimate by the Pentagon put the total cost of Operation Epic Fury at $29bn - with much of that likely to be spent on "repair or replacement costs for equipment" destroyed in the conflict. Democrats say this is likely an underestimate.

The report also found that at least 42 aircraft - including F-15 and F-35 fighter jets, 24 MQ-9 Reaper drones and an A-10 attack plane - have been destroyed or damaged since February.

By comparison to the expensive hardware used by the US military, Iran has reportedly made use of cheap, easily replaceable drones in its attacks on targets across the Middle East.

Experts who spoke to BBC Verify said that Iranian tactics had evolved over the course of the war, moving from sprawling barrages of missiles which targeted cities and bases across the Middle East, to more precise, directed attacks.

"[Iran's] opening salvos were optimised for volume—mass waves designed to overwhelm air and missile defences through sheer numbers," said Dr Kelly Grieco, an analyst with the US-based Stimson Centre think tank.

"Within days, however, Iran had shifted to smaller, more precisely targeted salvos, conserving remaining missiles and drones for specific high-value targets and concentrating fire where even near-misses cause significant damage."

An analyst at MAIAR told BBC Verify that the US military "appears to have been guilty of a degree of early-war complacency" in failing to move aircraft out of the range of Iranian drones and missiles as Tehran's tactics evolved.

They said that in the case of Prince Sultan airbase the facility had previously come under fire before the aircraft were destroyed.

Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed that "the nations and lands of the region will no longer serve as shields for American bases," adding: "America will no longer have a safe place in the region for mischief and the establishment of military bases, and day by day it will drift further from its former position."

His comments came just days before the ceasefire between the US and Iran came under strain again. On Thursday Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has said it targeted an American base in the region, after fresh US strikes on southern Iran.

Dr Grieco warned that should the fragile US-Iranian ceasefire breakdown and fighting resume, the existing damage to US bases suggests that facilities across the Gulf could be vulnerable.

"The current conflict has consumed US and partner air defence stocks at a significant rate," she said.

"There is no rapid path to replenishment, meaning any renewed Iranian assault would be met a fraction of the interceptors available when the conflict stated."

Additional reporting by Barbara Metzler and Tom Gould.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

How Trump's White House ballroom plan has doubled in size and cost over a year

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cnvpvd52j95o, 9 days ago

In the year since US President Donald Trump announced plans to build a new ballroom at the White House, the proposals have grown to include a rooftop "drone port", an underground hospital and "top secret" military facilities - and the estimated price has doubled to $400m (£300m).

Despite promises from Trump that the project wouldn't cost US taxpayers any money, Republicans have requested additional funds from Congress for security around the complex - at a time when Americans are struggling with rising living costs linked to the Iran war.

The president indicated from the outset that the new ballroom is needed to "accommodate people for grand parties, State Visits", and more recently said it is "vital for National Security".

BBC Verify has examined how the biggest change to the White House in decades has transformed over the past year.

How did we get here?

On 6 June last year, Trump announced on his social media platform Truth Social that he had inspected the site where a new ballroom would be built, promising it would "go up quickly" and would be "very much in keeping with the magnificent White House itself".

"These are the 'fun' projects I do while thinking about the World Economy, the United States, China, Russia, and lots of other Countries, places, and events," he added.

The following month his administration revealed plans for a new "White House State Ballroom" to be built where the "small, heavily changed, and reconstructed East Wing currently sits", adding that its "theme and architectural heritage will be almost identical" to the historic main building.

The statement said the ballroom promised to be a "much-needed and exquisite addition of approximately 90,000 total square feet of ornately designed and carefully crafted space". It added that the structure would be able to seat 650 people, a "significant increase" on the 200-seated capacity of the East Room in the main residence.

The East Room is the primary space in the White House for official ceremonies and events and was used to host King Charles' state banquet in April. But larger events in recent years, such as French President Emmanuel Macron's state dinner in 2022 that had more than 300 guests, have been hosted in temporary tent structures built on the White House's south lawn.

The administration said the ballroom's construction would start later that year and be completed "long before" the end of Trump's second term in January 2029.

Trump later told reporters the ballroom "won't interfere with the current building… It'll be near it but not touching it and pays total respect to the existing building".

But when Trump posted on Truth Social in October that "ground has been broken" at the White House, he said the East Wing, which had housed dozens of rooms including the First Lady's office, was "being fully modernized" as part of the building process.

After the diggers moved in, the entire East Wing - which had stood for more than 120 years - and the hallway connecting it to the main White House building were flattened within a couple of days.

How have the plans changed?

The public plans for the building have changed dramatically since then. The latest iteration, revealed by Trump on Truth Social in April, suggests the site could now feature bomb shelters, an underground state-of-the-art hospital and medical facilities, "top secret" military facilities, and a rooftop drone landing space.

A recent satellite image shows the extent of the excavations for the underground section, which the president has said will be three-storeys deep.

Trump has increasingly mentioned the security features of the ballroom - with at least 10 posts on Truth Social mentioning it so far this year, as opposed to zero last year.

His emphasis on the issue ramped up after the assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in April.

"It's much more secure... It's drone proof, it's [got] bulletproof glass. We need the ballroom. That's why Secret Service, that's why the military are demanding it," he said in a press conference at the White House immediately after the shooting.

Trump says the roof of the new ballroom will be missile-proof, and recently shared an AI-generated image of a "DronePort" that he claims will "safe-guard Washington DC long into the future".

BBC Verify asked the White House how the plans and purpose of the ballroom had changed since it was first announced - it said they hadn't.

How has the cost of the ballroom changed?

Trump has repeatedly claimed the ballroom, which was originally expected to cost $200m (£150m), will be built at "zero cost" to taxpayers because it will be funded by himself and through private donations.

But in May, Republicans requested funding for a $1bn (£745m) security package which reportedly included $220m (£165m) tied to the new ballroom specifically.

It was rejected by Congress and eventually dropped, but a separate $400m Republican-backed security bill linked to the ballroom is ongoing. Senator Lindsey Graham, the bill's co-sponsor, has said this would be paid for by charges on goods and travellers entering the US.

The White House initially said that the Secret Service "will provide the necessary security enhancements and modifications" but it did not share further details.

The direct construction cost estimates have also doubled over the last year.

BBC Verify has identified and analysed 35 Truth Social posts by Trump about the ballroom since June 2025, some of which mention costs varying from $200m, to $300, and most recently $400m.

Speaking to reporters outside the construction site in May, Trump said: "We're right on budget, we're right on plan, the only budget change would be that we doubled the size at the request of the military."

BBC Verify asked the US Department of Defense about what exactly it has requested but has not received a response.

Trump was also asked about the request for taxpayer funding linked to ballroom in May, and said that the funds are "for projects having to do with safety in a certain section of the White House grounds. That's not all for the ballroom".

When the project began in October, the Trump administration released a list of donors which included dozens of companies such as Amazon, Google and Meta, and several billionaire investors - although no further details have been provided.

BBC Verify asked the White House for an updated breakdown of how much will be paid for by the president, by donors, and by taxpayers - but it said it had no further details to add.

Questions have also been raised about whether the administration is legally allowed to complete the construction.

The US National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit to stop the construction, saying "no president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever".

The Trump administration has pushed back against the concerns by highlighting White House construction projects undertaken by previous administrations.

Some significant renovations have been carried out by previous presidents, but the ballroom proposal is the most extensive change in more than 70 years.

"Harry Truman oversaw a massive White House renovation in the late 1940s and early 1950s, but this happened because the White House was structurally unsound and falling apart, so there was little opposition to the project," says Dr Matthew Dallek, a political historian and professor at George Washington University.

A federal judge did temporarily block construction following the National Trust for Historic Preservation's challenge - but this ruling was appealed by the Trump administration and building work was allowed to resume until a hearing in June.

Graphics by Mesut Ersoz.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

What's happened to UK defence spending?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6244zqnk16o, 3 days ago

In his resignation letter former Defence Secretary John Healey said the UK's defence investment plan (DIP) "falls well short of what is required for defence and the country at this dangerous time".

The plan - which has yet to be published - will explain how new equipment and defence infrastructure will be funded over the coming decade and follows the wide-ranging Strategic Defence Review published on 2 June 2025.

But in his letter to the prime minister, Healey says Sir Keir Starmer is "unable and the Treasury has been unwilling, to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats".

The letter suggests the planned DIP intends to increase defence spending in 2030 to 2.68% of GDP.

That implies an 0.08% increase on the existing 2027 commitment of 2.6% of GDP - around £2.4bn in today's money.

Healey's letter says the government should aim to spend 3% of GDP on defence by 2030."

BBC Verify has been looking at the current size of the UK military.

What has happened to the size of the armed forces?

In 1990 - at the end of the Cold War - the army had 153,000 regular soldiers in its ranks, this is now down to 73,790.

The 2025 SDR recommended that the British Army's regular force should not drop below 73,000.

In its latest update, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed the number of people applying to enlist in the regular army had fallen by around 40% in 2025 compared to 2024.

Since 1990, the number of reservists has fallen from 76,000 to 25,770.

In 1990, the Royal Navy had 48 major combat ships (13 destroyers, 35 frigates).

That has dropped to seven frigates and six destroyers.

There has been criticism of the Navy's readiness after it took weeks to deploy a single ship - HMS Dragon - to the Gulf to help protect an Royal Air Force (RAF) base in Cyprus.

In 1990, the RAF had over 300 combat jets.

Now, with 107 of the newer model Eurofighter Typhoons and at least 37 Joint Strike Fighter F-35 Lightning II in service, it has far fewer, though they are technically superior.

Uncrewed aircraft systems, also known as drones, now form an element of the UK's military air capabilities. These did not exist in 1990.

The threat from drones has been highlighted in the Ukraine conflict where they now kill more people than traditional artillery.

Analysts say the UK needs to invest considerably more in this military technology.

The government has said it is planning "the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War".

But that is a low bar because defence spending has been on an almost constant downward path since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The government is currently planning to commit 2.5% of GDP to Nato-qualifying defence spending by April 2027 (2.6% including spending on the security and intelligence services) with an "ambition" to spend 3% of GDP in the next Parliament.

In April, Lord Robertson, who led the government's recent Strategic Defence Review, said: "We cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget."

Spending on working-age benefits was lower than on defence in the mid 1980s - but now it's more - and is projected to rise to around 4.3% of GDP by the end of the decade, pushed up, in part, by rising claims for things like Personal Independence Payments (PIP).

While there is some evidence that a rising number of people suffering from mental health conditions have contributed to the increase in PIP claims, independent researchers remain uncertain about the exact causes behind the upward trend.

How does UK defence spending rank in Nato?

In addition to the "ambition" to spend 3% of GDP on defence during the next Parliament, the UK has committed to a Nato target to spend 5% of GDP on "national security" by 2035.

The government has said this would be made up of 3.5% of GDP on "core defence" and another 1.5% of GDP going on things like protecting critical infrastructure and ensuring civil preparedness.

Only three countries: Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, spent more than 3.5% of their GDP on defence in 2025, although Estonia and Norway were close.

The UK's spending of 2.3% of GDP in 2025 put it just above the mid-point of spending by Nato members, according to figures from the military alliance.

What is the UK military's record on big spending projects?

The MoD has some of the largest procurement projects in government, accounting for 47 of the 213 Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP) in 2024-25.

In December, the National Audit Office (NAO) published an overview of its performance and said progress on 12 of those projects was rated 'Red', meaning that their successful delivery "appears to be unachievable".

And the NAO added: "Over many years, the MoD has regularly experienced difficulties delivering many of its projects to required performance, cost and time".

In addition, the NAO report was critical of the MoD's administration, noting that for projects valued above £20 million it currently takes the MoD an average of six and a half years to award a contract.

The 2025 SDR recommended a new "segmented approach" to MoD defence procurement to deliver contracts within two years.

Challenges to come

Military analysts cite the rising threat from Russia since 2022, the current war in the Middle East and questions over the future of the US in Nato as powerful reasons for the UK to spend more on national defence.

General Sir Richard Barrons - one of the authors of the SDR in 2025 - told the BBC: "We've now entered a very new era in global affairs, with much greater risk but we're entering it with the armed forces we were left with for a much more comfortable, peaceful time."

A government spokesperson said: "We are delivering on the Strategic Defence Review to meet the threats we face."

"It is backed by the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War, with a total of over £270bn being invested across this Parliament."

Additional reporting by Gerry Georgieva

Correction: 15 April 2026: The original article used MoD annual figures from October 2025 to show there were 11 frigates. A subsequent Parliamentary answer reduced that figure to seven. We also sourced a figure of 137 Eurofighter Typhoons to a House of Commons Library briefing from November 2025. After consulting the MoD we have changed that number to 107.

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Asylum appeal backlog at record high, new figures show

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyld5rnw9vo, 3 days ago

The backlog of asylum appeal cases has reached a new record high, according to Ministry of Justice figures.

Nearly 87,500 appeals to overturn failed asylum applications had been lodged at the end of March 2026 - a 70% year-on-year increase.

While the government has sharply reduced the backlog of cases awaiting an initial decision, the number of appeals to be resolved has risen, meaning the overall asylum caseload remains higher than when Labour took office.

Cabinet minister Hilary Benn told the BBC on Thursday the government had "dealt with the backlogs, we're now processing asylum claims much much quicker".

The government has cut the number of outstanding asylum cases awaiting a first decision. At the end of March there were 35,744, down from 85,839 just before Labour took office in June 2024.

However, that reduction has been more than offset by a rise in appeals, pushing the total backlog to 123,194 cases. That is around 4,000 more than the 119,066 total cases outstanding in June 2024.

While the total backlog remains higher than June 2024, it has fallen over recent quarters and down from the peak of 141,647 in June 2023 under the previous Conservative government.

The Home Office said: "These figures reflect the progress this government has made in tackling the asylum backlog, with the number of people waiting for an initial decision falling by 72% since June 2023."

It went on to say the government is carrying out reforms to speed up the appeals process and "ensure those with no right to be here cannot delay their removal".

Peter Walsh from the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford told BBC Verify one backlog was being shifted to another.

"The government has been processing initial claims faster and the initial decision grant rate is lower than it's been for some time," he said.

"Many more refusals attract a right of appeal and that's why you see the number shifting from one backlog to another."

Walsh added that tackling these backlogs is important because they cost the government money as asylum seekers are not allowed to work and must rely on state support.

"Labour is introducing a new appeals system where appeals will be heard not by a judge, but by an independent adjudicator. So they're hoping that will increase the throughput of the appeals system."

In the same interview, Benn incorrectly said the government had "deported nearly 70,000 people that have no right to be here".

That is not correct because the figure refers to all "returns", as defined by the Home Office, not deportations alone.

Home Office statistics show there were 67,188 returns between July 2024 and March 2026. These include people who left the UK voluntarily as well as those who were removed by the authorities.

A "deportation" is a specific type of "enforced return" used for criminals or people whose removal would be in the public interest.

Of the total, 16,476 were classified as "enforced" while the majority - 50,712 - were "voluntary" returns.

While some voluntary returns involve government help, including financial assistance, past data shows many people leave the UK without officials knowing.

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