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An "alliance of authoritarian powers" is working more closely together against Western democracies, the head of Nato has warned. Jens Stoltenberg told the BBC that Russia, Iran, China and North Korea are increasingly aligned. He also said he was confident allies of the Nato military alliance would agree a long-term funding deal for Ukraine by July. But he suggested Ukraine might have to decide on some "kind of compromises". Mr Stoltenberg was speaking to Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday morning. On the Middle East conflict, he said it was "very important" that the US and other Nato countries conveyed "a very clear message to Israel" that they have to do "significantly more" to protect civilians and aid workers after the World Central Kitchen convoy attack. Mr Stoltenberg took over as the leader of Nato, the Western defence alliance, 10 years ago. Speaking to mark the 75th anniversary of the organisation, he told me the world was now "much more dangerous, much more unpredictable" and "much more violent". He said there is an "authoritarian" alliance giving each other practical support that is "more and more aligned". The Nato chief explained: "China is propping up the Russian war economy, delivering key parts to the defence industry, and in return, Moscow is mortgaging its future to Beijing." This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jens Stoltenberg says the West must stand up to "authoritarian alliance" Russia was providing technology to Iran and North Korea in return for ammunition and military equipment, he added. Mr Stoltenberg told me that Nato had to work with other countries beyond its geography - such as Japan and South Korea - to "stand up against this stronger alliance of authoritarian powers". The Nato chief has been trying to persuade other countries to commit more money to the war effort in Ukraine in recent days in the hope of a five-year, 100bn euro (£86bn) fund. He said he was confident he would get an agreement by July, despite some countries expressing hesitation this week. Long-term support was vital now, and to rebuild the country after the conflict, he said. "Even if we believe and hope that the war will end in the near future, we need to support Ukraine for many years, to build their defences to deter future aggression," he said. Sign up for the Off Air with Laura K newsletter to get Laura Kuenssberg's expert insight and insider stories every week, emailed directly to you. However, while Mr Stoltenberg said that military support was vital to repel Russian forces from Ukraine and force Putin to give up his goals of occupation, he also suggested that Ukraine might ultimately have to make concessions too. "At the end of the day, it has to be Ukraine that decides what kind of compromises they're willing to do, we need to enable them to be in a position where they actually achieve an acceptable result around the negotiating table," he said. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nato chief says that Ukraine may have to decide what compromises it wants to make He said he was not calling for Ukraine to offer concessions now, and added that "real peace" would be achievable when "Ukraine prevails". But his language is notable because President Volodymyr Zelensky has always been adamant that he would never negotiate with Putin despite some calls on him to do so, including from the Pope. Mr Stoltenberg refused to be drawn on whether he was concerned about the possible return of Donald Trump to the White House, saying only that he was sure the US would continue to be an important ally, whoever was in charge. But his remarks about the way regimes around the world are working together are a reminder for Western leaders of the complicated and dangerous diplomatic jigsaw they have to piece together. More than two years into the conflict in Ukraine, our politicians must grapple with the reality that what is happening there is affected by decisions not just in Moscow and Kyiv but also in Washington DC, Brussels and London, as well as Beijing, Tehran and even Pyongyang. Meanwhile, six months into the Middle East conflict in Gaza, as Jeremy Bowen writes, solutions are affected by decisions not just by Israelis and Palestinians, but also Iranians, politicians in the US, the Gulf States and the UK. Most recently, this has centred on a row over arms sales, prompting criticism of the government from all sides. The latest intervention came on Saturday morning from one former Conservative prime minister, Boris Johnson, to another, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron. Foreign policy is rarely the overwhelming driver of votes and public opinion in the UK. This is partly because opposition parties traditionally try to avoid fights at home about battles abroad. It's also partly because voters' top priorities normally centre on their own lives and the prospects for their families. But that does not mean that the public doesn't care, or is immune from the horror they see unfolding on their screens every day, or hasn't been affected by world events - take, for instance, the huge energy price rises caused by the Ukraine conflict. And conflicts around the world in all their complexities are increasingly occupying our politicians' time, energy and effort.

O'Connor was best known for her single Nothing Compares 2 U, written by Prince Irish singer and activist Sinéad O'Connor has died at the age of 56. Her family announced the news "with great sadness", saying "her family and friends are devastated". The cause of death has not been made public. She was best known for her single Nothing Compares 2 U, released in 1990, which reached number one and brought her worldwide fame. Taoiseach (Irish PM) Leo Varadkar said her music "was loved around the world and her talent was unmatched". Irish President Michael D Higgins praised O'Connor's "authenticity" as well as her "beautiful, unique voice". "What Ireland has lost at such a relatively young age is one of our greatest and most gifted composers, songwriters and performers of recent decades, one who had a unique talent and extraordinary connection with her audience, all of whom held such love and warmth for her," he said. Born Sinead Marie Bernadette O'Connor in Glenageary, County Dublin, in December 1966, the singer had a difficult childhood. As a teenager, she was placed in Dublin's An Grianan Training Centre, once one of the notorious Magdalene laundries, originally set up to incarcerate young girls deemed to be promiscuous. One nun bought her a guitar and set her up with a music teacher - which led to the launch of O'Connor's musical career. She released her first critically acclaimed album The Lion And The Cobra in 1987, which entered the top 40 in the UK and US. Her follow-up was I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, which included Nothing Compares 2 U. Written by Prince, the song reached number one around the world, including in the US and the UK. Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor has died at the age of 56 O'Connor, who was outspoken in her social and political views, released 10 studio albums between 1987 and 2014. In 1991, she was was named artist of the year by Rolling Stone magazine and took home the Brit Award for international female solo artist. The following year, one of the most notable events of her career took place when she ripped up a picture of Pope John Paul II on US TV show Saturday Night Live, where she was the invited performer. Following an a cappella performance of Bob Marley's War, she looked at the camera and said "fight the real enemy", a protest against child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Her actions resulted in her being banned for life by broadcaster NBC and protests against her in the US, which saw copies of her records destroyed in New York's Times Square. "I'm not sorry I did it. It was brilliant," she said in an interview with the New York Times in 2021. O'Connor's last studio album, I'm Not Bossy, I'm The Boss, was released in 2014. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sinéad O'Connor: In her own words Converting to Islam in 2018, the Dublin singer changed her name to Shuhada' Sadaqat, but continued to perform under her birth name. She released a memoir, Rememberings, in 2021. In January 2022, her 17-year-old son Shane was found dead after being reported missing two days previously. Writing on social media following his death, she said he had "decided to end his earthly struggle" and requested "no-one follows his example". The singer later cancelled all live performances for the rest of 2022 due to her "continuing grief" following the death of her son. O'Connor paid tribute to Shane in one of her final tweets, calling him "the love of my life, the lamp of my soul, we were one soul in two halves". Converting to Islam in 2018, the Dublin singer changed her name to Shuhada' Sadaqat Belfast filmmaker Kathryn Ferguson, one of the last few people to speak to O'Connor before her death, said she was "devastated" by the news. Ferguson had been working on a documentary film about O'Connor, titled Nothing Compares, which is set to be released this Saturday. "Our film really, for me, it was a love letter to Sinéad. It was made over many, many years," she told BBC Radio 4's Front Row. "And made because of the impact she'd had on me as a young girl growing up in Ireland. "She is one of the most radical, incredible musicians that we've had. And we were very, very lucky to have had her." Social media was also flooded with tributes to the singer after her death was announced on Wednesday evening. Singer Alison Moyet said O'Connor had an "astounding presence" and a voice that "cracked stone with force by increment". "As beautiful as any girl around & never traded on that card. I loved that about her. Iconoclast." Irish comedian Dara O'Briain said of her death: "That's just very sad news. Poor thing. I hope she realised how much love there was for her." Musician Tim Burgess of the Charlatans said: "Sinead was the true embodiment of a punk spirit. She did not compromise and that made her life more of a struggle. Hoping that she has found peace." "How she suffered. Poor, poor Sinéad. Rest in peace, you amazing, brave, beautiful, unique wonder." Journalist Caitlin Moran posted: "She was decades before her time, and fearless. Rest in power, queen." Irish film director Mark Cousins added: "Sinéad O'Connor was our Irish wild side. Such a big part of our imagined lives." Singer Bryan Adams, who had collaborated with O'Connor, wrote: "RIP Sinéad O'Connor, I loved working with you making photos, doing gigs in Ireland together and chats, all my love to your family." In a Twitter post, Irish mixed martial arts star Conor McGregor, who O'Connor once sang into the ring for a UFC fight in Las Vegas, wrote: "Ireland has lost an iconic voice and one of our absolute finest, by a long shot. And I have lost a friend." No-one sang like Sinéad O'Connor. No-one. Her every note screamed with naked passion. She turned Prince's saccharine Nothing Compares 2 U into an almighty howl of pain and loss. Those emotions were her bedfellows. She had a traumatic childhood. Her parents divorced when she was eight, and her mother - who she later claimed had abused her - died in a car accident in 1985. As a teenager she was arrested for shoplifting and sent to a Magdalene Asylum, which she described as a "prison" where the "girls cried every day". All those harrowing experiences, and ones yet to come, poured into her music. I Am Stretched On Your Grave is a hauntingly beautiful song about love and loss while Three Babies, from her second album, laid bare her sorrow after she had suffered several miscarriages. She also took on other people's pain. Her breakthrough single, Mandinka, contained oblique references to female genital mutilation. 1990's Black Boys On Mopeds addressed police brutality against black men, two years before the LA riots thrust the issue into the spotlight. Although she was a controversial figure, there was always a tenderness to her protests. When she ripped up a picture of the Pope on US television, she was thinking about victims of abuse, not about her image. Her later albums featured guest spots by her own children, and hymns to peace and community. Earlier this year, she won a classic album award in Ireland, and dedicated it to the country's refugee community. Nothing Compares 2 U was the outlier: a song that made her famous against her wishes. At heart, she was a protest singer with a voice that demanded to be heard. That is how we should remember her. Sign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.

MDP Wethersfield in Essex is located about 10 miles from the nearest big town of Braintree A council has lost its High Court bid to block government plans to house asylum seekers at a former RAF base. The Home Office wants to house 1,700 adult male migrants at MDP Wethersfield in rural Essex, making it the UK's largest asylum accommodation centre. Braintree District Council wanted an injunction, arguing the proposals were a "flagrant breach" of planning laws. Mr Justice Waksman said he did not have the legal power to grant the council's application. "Braintree District Council says this is all about cost - but I do not accept that," he said, giving a ruling in London earlier. "It is also a question of the general sustainability of the hotel options going forward. "Provision of the accommodation for the asylum seekers is not just an option for the home secretary - but a statutory obligation." MDP Wethersfield is located about 10 miles north of Braintree, which is the nearest large town The judge said while he ruled in favour of Home Secretary Suella Braverman, he granted the council permission to take the case to the Court of Appeal because it had major implications. "It is important for both local authorities and central government to know where they stand as soon as possible," he added. The government has also earmarked two other Ministry of Defence (MOD) sites for asylum seeker accommodation - at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire and in a former RAF station-turned-prison at Bexhill in East Sussex. About 250 people turned out for a protest in Wethersfield in March The Home Office and MOD argued at a one-day hearing on Wednesday that changing the use of government-owned land was justified under planning law because it would prevent an emergency which "threatens serious damage to human welfare". However, the council's barrister Wayne Beglan said: "They are not emergencies sufficient to justify circumventing the normal planning controls." The government has said it wants to stop putting up asylum seekers in hotels, which it has estimated costs £6.2m per day. It said 48,000 out of 109,000 asylum seekers in the UK, as of March this year, were in hotels. The airfield site covers about 335 hectares and is located 10 miles from the nearest railway station in Braintree. There is no longer an RAF presence at Wethersfield, between the towns of Braintree and Haverhill, but it is used for MOD Police training. Reacting to the High Court ruling, a Braintree council spokesperson said the local authority would continue to "press" the Home Office for more detail about its plans. They added: "We remain of the view that Wethersfield airfield is an unsuitable site, given the lack of capacity in local services, its isolated location, the size of the site, and the fact that the scale of the development proposed could have a significant impact upon the local community." The Home Office has welcomed the judgement. "Delivering accommodation on surplus military sites will provide cheaper and more suitable accommodation for those arriving in small boats, whilst helping to reduce the use of costly hotels," a spokesperson said. "Not only are accommodation sites more affordable for taxpayers, but they are also more manageable and orderly for communities, thanks to healthcare and catering facilities on site, 24/7 security and the purpose built basic, safe and secure accommodation they provide." Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk

Scotland's new First Minister Humza Yousaf has announced that Shona Robison will serve as his deputy. Ms Robison has been an MSP since 1999, and has served as health secretary and social justice secretary. Mr Yousaf made the announcement moments after MSPs voted to make him Scotland's sixth first minister. He will be sworn in at the Court of Session on Wednesday morning, and is expected to start appointing his cabinet in the afternoon. Ms Robison, who is MSP for Dundee City East, is a close friend of Mr Yousaf's predecessor Nicola Sturgeon - who posted congratulations on Twitter. The former health secretary nominated Mr Yousaf for the post of first minister in advance of the formal vote which made him parliament's nominee for the post. And after it concluded, he told reporters she would be his deputy first minister. Mr Yousaf was also nominated by MSP Neil Gray, who played a key role in his campaign and is also expected to land a key role in government. Further appointments are expected to be announced on Wednesday, before being confirmed in more votes at Holyrood on Thursday. Ms Robison has held a series of roles in government, dating back to before Mr Yousaf was elected to Holyrood. She was the minister who oversaw the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, was health secretary under Ms Sturgeon and was later in charge of social justice, housing and local government.

An "alliance of authoritarian powers" is working more closely together against Western democracies, the head of Nato has warned. Jens Stoltenberg has told the BBC that Russia, Iran, China and North Korea are increasingly aligned. The Nato chief explains that: "China is propping up the Russian war economy, delivering key parts to the defence industry, and in return, Moscow is mortgaging its future to Beijing." He also has said he's confident that allies of the Nato military alliance would agree a long-term funding deal for Ukraine by July. But he also suggests Ukraine might have to decide on some "kind of compromises". On the Middle East conflict, he has said it is "very important" that the US and other Nato countries convey "a very clear message to Israel" that they have to do "significantly more" to protect civilians and aid workers after the World Central Kitchen convoy attack. Stoltenberg took over as the leader of Nato, the Western defence alliance, 10 years ago. Speaking to mark the 75th anniversary of the organisation, he has told me the world is now "much more dangerous, much more unpredictable" and "much more violent". He has said there is an "authoritarian" alliance giving each other practical support that is "more and more aligned". • Read more here about Laura Kuenssberg's interview with Jens Stoltenberg

Alun Titford and Sarah Lloyd-Jones have been jailed The parents of a 16-year-old girl who died following "shocking" neglect have been jailed. Kaylea Titford's father Alun Titford, from Newtown, Powys, was found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence and has been jailed for seven years and six months. Kaylea's mother Sarah Lloyd-Jones admitted the same charge and was sentenced to six years. The teenager's body was found on soiled sheets at their home in October 2020. Sentencing the pair at Swansea Crown Court on Wednesday, Mr Justice Martin Griffiths said Kaylea's parents were "both equally responsible and were both equally culpable." The judge added: "This was a horrifying case. A case of sustained neglect, leading to the death of a vulnerable, bedridden child at the hands of her own parents." This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The hearing was the first time broadcasters were allowed to film a crown court hearing in Wales, following a major change in the law last year which permitted TV cameras in some courtrooms. Kaylea had spina bifida, which left her with little feeling from the waist down and limited her mobility, and had used a wheelchair from a young age. The trial heard that when she was found dead at her home on 10 October 2020 she was morbidly obese, weighing nearly 23 stone (146 kg). Her hair was dirty and matted and she was unwashed with ulcerated skin. Prosecutor Caroline Rees KC said her parents' "serious failures were hidden from the world" because of the coronavirus lockdown, which kept Kaylea at home from March 2020 onwards. This left her "trapped" in an "inhumane" environment where she lay on "filthy puppy pads", with maggots and flies on and around her body. Kaylea had been restricted to her bed for more than six months since the start of the UK's Covid lockdown when she died "Kaylea lived and died in squalor and degradation", she added. Before the lockdown, Kaylea was described as being "fiercely independent and a lovely, chatty girl", but she became less able to move using a wheelchair. Kaylea had not been seen by any medical professional in the nine months prior to her death, the court was told, and the evidence of a doctor was that the "consequences of neglect" were the worst he had seen in 30 years of practice. In the three months before her death, the household had spent a total of £1,035.76 on takeaway food. "As her condition deteriorated, the expenditure on takeaways and fast food increased," Ms Rees said. The court heard that Kaylea was "eating, sleeping and defecating" from her bed. "The last months of Kaylea Titford's life must have been horrendous," Ms Rees said. The court also heard a series of text messages between Kaylea and her mother in August and September 2020, in which she asked for help with "incontinence needs". "It shows that Sarah Lloyd-Jones was fully aware, and did not do anything about it," Ms Rees said. Ms Rees said it was not a "lapse" in care, but "repeated negligent conduct in the face of obvious suffering". She added: "Both parents had a duty of care, both were equally responsible. The fact that Alun Titford chose to absent himself from the care of Kaylea, does not give him an excuse." Kaylea was subjected to "shocking and prolonged" neglect at the hands of her parents In mitigation for Lloyd-Jones, Lewis Power KC said his client had an "epiphany of insight into her actions", leading to her guilty plea. "She accepts that she owed her daughter a duty of care, and that she did breach that duty by failing to take reasonable care for her daughter's health and welfare needs." Mr Power said that, prior to the pandemic, Lloyd-Jones was "a lady who tried her best", and added that she suffered from depression and became "gradually overwhelmed", particularly due to the "pressures of lockdown". David Elias KC, representing Titford, said his client showed "genuine remorse" and that the pair had been "good parents" up until the lockdown period. He said that Titford suffered from depression and a historic drug addiction, "lacked confidence" and was "overly reliant" on others. However, the judge said he "did not accept" that outside agencies should have been more proactive. "They never asked for help they didn't get. They never asked for help at all," he said. In a statement after the sentencing, Dean Quick of the Crown Prosecution Service said: "No child should have to endure these types of living conditions or the extensive level of suffering faced by Kaylea. "The level of neglect in this case was some of the most extreme that CPS Cymru-Wales has had to deal with." Det Ch Insp Jon Rees, of Dyfed-Powys Police, said the conditions Kaylea lived in were "incomprehensible". "While we did all we could to ensure we got justice for Kaylea, nothing will take away from the loss of a teenage girl who was so badly let down by the very people who should have been caring for her," he added. NSPCC Cymru said the case was "incredibly distressing", adding that the forthcoming safeguarding review "must leave no stone unturned" in establishing whether more could have been done to protect Kaylea. Powys council said a review would be carried out by the mid and west Wales regional safeguarding children board. A spokesman added: "The council does not feel able to comment until this process has been completed." If you have been affected by any of the issues in this story, the BBC Action Line has links to organisations which can offer support and advice

Children are at most risk of exceeding the safe limits on aspartame, found in diet drinks Advice on how much aspartame we can eat or drink is unchanged, despite the sweetener being classified as "possibly" causing cancer. Two groups of experts at the World Health Organization have been reviewing thousands of scientific studies. The "possibly carcinogenic" label often causes fear and confusion, but just means the evidence is unconvincing. Most people consume less than the safe upper limits of aspartame, but the WHO recommends heavy consumers cut down. Aspartame is found in diet and sugar-free versions of foods, as the chemical gives a taste 200 times sweeter than sugar for little calories. Famous brands containing the sweetener include Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Pepsi Max and 7 Up Free, but aspartame is in around 6,000 products ranging from toothpaste and chewing gums to yoghurts and cough sweets. Despite being so widespread, the chemical's safety has been a source of controversy since it was introduced in the 1980s. I asked Dr Francesco Branca, the director of the department of nutrition and food safety at the World Health Organisation (WHO), what was the healthier choice: sugar or sweetener? He told me: "Faced with a decision of whether to take cola with sweeteners or one with sugar, I think there should be a third option, which is to drink water instead and to limit the consumption of sweetened products altogether." He said the reviews had "raised the flag" that aspartame may not be great for your health, but said you "shouldn't have a concern" about an occasional diet drink or other product containing the sweetener, adding "the problem is for high consumers". The first body to assess the evidence was the WHO's cancer experts - the International Agency for Research on Cancer. IARC uses four possible classifications: It has moved aspartame into the "possibly carcinogenic" category alongside other substances such as aloe vera and lead. This decision largely centres on three studies suggesting a connection to a type of liver cancer. However, the "possibly" refers only to the strength of scientific evidence. If the evidence was strong, then aspartame would be in a higher category. Dr Mary Schubauer-Berigan, of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, said the "evidence was not of sufficiently high quality or convincing enough" and "this is really more a call to the research community" to study the sweetener more. The cancer classifications frequently lead to misleading headlines. Alcohol and plutonium are in the same category (both are proven to cause cancer), but one is seriously more dangerous than the other. So a separate body - the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives - has the job of working out safe doses. It analysed the cancer risk as well as other issues such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes, but found "no sufficient reason" to alter the advice it has had since 1981. So the safe limits remain at 40 milligrams per kilogram of your body weight, per day. These aren't targets, they're the upper safety limits. But as the advice is based on body weight, it is easier for children to get close to the limit. Dr Branca said it was "not a good practice" to have a bottle of sweet fizzy drink on the table at family dinner time, as children risked being set up with a sweet tooth for life. He also stressed that large reviews of the evidence show sweeteners do not help people lose weight. So his advice is for everyone to shift to a less sweet diet - cutting both sugar and sweeteners - and for companies to produce foods that are less sweet, but still tasty. One of the big outstanding research questions is how might aspartame result in cancer (if indeed it does). The WHO reports show that aspartame itself is rapidly broken down in the gut into three other substances - phenylalanine, aspartic acid and methanol. But these are also the product of digesting a wide variety of other foods that are not linked with cancer. And the researchers concluded that aspartame is not directly making cancerous mutations in people's DNA. Raising levels of inflammation in the body is one possibility. Frances Hunt-Wood, secretary general of the International Sweeteners Association, said the work had "once again reaffirmed aspartame's safety". She added: "Aspartame, like all low/no calorie sweeteners, when used as part of a balanced diet, provides consumers with choice to reduce sugar intake, a critical public health objective." There are some people who cannot safely consume aspartame. These are people with an inherited disease called phenylketonuria or PKU, who are born unable to metabolise the phenylalanine that is released as aspartame is broken down. • None Aspartame - is it a possible cause of cancer?

A pair of Air Jordan XIIIs worn by Michael Jordan during the 1998 NBA Finals has sold for $2.2m A pair of trainers once worn by basketball legend Michael Jordan has sold for $2.2m (£1.7m) at auction, becoming the priciest shoes ever sold. The signed sneakers - which Sotheby's had estimated would fetch $2m to $4m - are among the most expensive Jordan items auctioned. A jersey he wore at the 1998 NBA Finals sold in 2022 for $10.1m. The latest sale seals Jordan's position as the most valuable athlete at auctions for sportswear memorabilia. "Today's record-breaking result further proves that the demand for Michael Jordan sports memorabilia continues to outperform and transcend all expectations," said Brahm Wachter, Sotheby's Head of Streetwear and Modern Collectables. The previous record for Jordan shoes was $1.47m for a pair of his Nike Air Ships auctioned in 2021. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Air Jordan XIIIs sold on Tuesday were worn by the basketball star during his last championship season with the Chicago Bulls in 1997-98. Jordan had the size-13 shoes on when he scored 37 points in Game 2 of the 1998 NBA Finals series, carrying the Bulls to a 93-88 victory over the Utah Jazz. The Bulls went on to win the championship, a story told in the 2020 documentary series "Last Dance" about the megastar's last season with the team. It was Jordan's sixth NBA championship and the fifth time he'd be named the NBA's Most Valuable Player. Right after the Game 2 victory, Jordan gave the shoes to a ball boy in the locker room as thanks for finding a lost jacket, Sotheby's auction house says. The "Bred" Air Jordans - short for "black and red" - are the only complete pair of sneakers worn by Jordan in an NBA Finals game to be authenticated, Sotheby's said. Jordan wore the first Air Jordan shoe in 1984 during his rookie season with the Chicago Bulls. The Air Jordan I became available to the general public the following year. To date, more than 30 different models of the Air Jordan have been made. Jordan won a total of six NBA Finals championships, two Olympic Gold Medals and numerous other accolades. He is widely considered one of the greatest athletes of all time. The Chicago Bulls' Michael Jordan takes a shot during Game 4 of the 1998 NBA Finals in Salt Lake City, Utah

Laura Mackenzie is taking action against Police Scotland because she believes she was discriminated against for taking antidepressant medication An Inverness woman has launched legal action against Police Scotland after having a job offer withdrawn because she was taking antidepressants. Laura Mackenzie had sailed through the recruitment process for her "dream job" to become a police officer. But after reaching the stage of being sent for a medical and fitted for a uniform it was taken away. Police Scotland's occupational health provider said a policy of two years free of the medication was in place. The force said it could not comment on the case. Ms Mackenzie was described by her recruiting officer as an "impressive" candidate when she applied to join Police Scotland in June 2019. He also said her application to become a probationary officer in the Highlands and Islands division "stood out". Ms Mackenzie was invited to attend an IQ test in Aberdeen and she spent evenings researching the job and studying practice books to improve her numeracy skills. Recruitment Inspector Gavin Davidson issued her with a provisional offer of employment in November 2019 - with several conditions. One was to be "certified by a registered medical practitioner approved by the police authority to be fit both physically and mentally to perform the duties of a police officer". The letter noted that a failure to meet all or any of the conditions may result in her start date being deferred or the provisional offer being withdrawn. In court papers lodged to request an employment tribunal, it was stated that Insp Davidson had called Ms Mackenzie to congratulate her. About a month later, Ms MacKenzie attended a medical ahead of an expected uniform fitting. There the occupational health nurse asked her about antidepressants. Ms Mackenzie said that she had believed that by this time Police Scotland, or its occupational health advisors, Optima Health, would have had access to her medical records. She said that she was taking an antidepressant drug for anxiety and depression. The nurse consulted a colleague and then advised her of a "two year rule" stipulating that probationary police officers had to be free of antidepressant drugs for a period of two years before they could be considered for employment. Ms Mackenzie said she was "heartbroken" by this after being transparent with Police Scotland about her health. Insp Davidson called her and was said to be "shocked and apologetic" that she could not be passed fit for duty and that her application would be taken no further. To make the situation worse Ms Mackenzie said the Highlands and Islands division announced, just weeks later, that it had secured funding for a three-year mental health and wellbeing project for officers and staff. Police Scotland also confirmed a formal partnership with See Me, Scotland's programme to tackle mental health stigma and discrimination. Ms Mackenzie went on to work as a nursing assistant in a psychiatric hospital. But information she learned during her training and while seeking advice, together with a similar case reported by the Scottish Sun newspaper, prompted her to launch legal action. Despite being outside the usual time limit for making a complaint, a judge ruled that an employment tribunal could hear Ms Mackenzie's case. Employment cases normally must be brought within three months, but submissions made by Ms Mackenzie's legal team led Judge Russell Bradley to allow the case to proceed. A preliminary hearing will now take place at a later date. Ms Mackenzie's solicitor, Jay Lawson told BBC Scotland that this was one of a number of similar cases against Police Scotland, which he said was "worrying in itself". Mr Lawson, from Dundee firm MML Law, added: "This is a hugely important case for our client given everything she has been through but also for employees and candidates with disabilities who are discriminated against during the recruitment process. "There is always a bigger picture in a case such as this, in relation to raising awareness. "Ms Mackenzie instructed us following seeing one of our other cases against Police Scotland and perhaps would not have pursued the case without seeing this." Wendy Halliday, director of mental health charity See Me, told BBC Scotland: "While there's been real progress in recent years, we know that there is still work to do to address stigma and discrimination for Scotland's workers. "We firmly believe that no one should be denied a role just because of their mental health, with no other consideration as to how they are, what they could bring to a role, or exploring reasonable adjustments, as required under the 2010 Equality Act, that would support them to carry out the role." Lee Knifton, director of Mental Health Foundation in Scotland, said: "We can't comment on individual cases but we know that people living with mental health conditions are still facing discrimination. "We need employers to show leadership and ensure that their recruitment and workplace practices do not negatively affect people living with mental health conditions. "Around one in six adults live with a common mental health disorder and we are continually learning more about mental health, so any policies in this area should be reviewed regularly to ensure that outdated practices are curbed." A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "It would be inappropriate for us to comment at this stage." Have you been affected by issues covered in this story? You can share your experiences by emailing newsonline-scotland@bbc.co.uk. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.

Mexican authorities have found 45 bags containing human remains in a ravine outside the western city of Guadalajara. Officials were searching for seven young call centre workers, who had been reported missing last week, when they found the bodies. The remains include men and women, and the number of bodies is not yet known. The search is expected to continue for several days because of difficult terrain and poor lighting. The state prosecutor's office for the western state of Jalisco said in a statement that, following a tip-off in the search for the seven people, they had begun searching at the Mirador del Bosque ravine where they found the bags that included body parts. Firefighters and civil defence were working with police and a helicopter crew to recover the remains. The first bag was found on Tuesday, but because of the difficult terrain and lack of sunlight, the investigation resumed on Wednesday and will continue until all remains are located, the prosecutor's office said. Officials said they would continue working to determine the number of dead bodies, who they were, and their causes of death. It added that it would continue trying to establish the whereabouts of the seven people reported as missing. Although it has not yet been established how the bodies ended up in the ravine, crimes of disappearance are relatively common in Mexico. More than 100,000 people are missing, government figures suggest, with many being victims of organised crime. Perpetrators are rarely punished. Government data shows that many disappearances have occurred since 2007, when then-President Felipe Calderón launched his "war on drugs". Three quarters of those reported missing were men and one fifth were under the age of 18 at the time of their disappearance. Relatives of the disappeared say that the government is not doing enough to find them, and that officials are indifferent when they report their loved ones as missing. The United Nations has called it "a human tragedy of enormous proportions". Jalisco is the heartland of a violent drug war, and some of the most powerful groups operating there include the Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG), and their rival, Nueva Plaza, which split from the CJNG in 2017, sparking violence across Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco state.

Protesters stand on the train tracks at the Lexington Ave/63rd Street subway station during a "Justice for Jordan Neely" protest Image caption: Protesters stand on the train tracks at the Lexington Ave/63rd Street subway station during a "Justice for Jordan Neely" protest Multiple protests erupted in the days after Jordan Neely's death on a New York subway. One of the demonstrators, Kyle Ishmael, a 38-year-old who lives in Harlem, said the video of Neely's death "disgusted" him. "I couldn't believe this was happening on my subway in my city that I grew up in," he told BBC's US partner, CBS News. At one protest last week, dozens of people were taken into custody after a group of people jumped down onto the subway tracks. Some of the rallies have turned violent, with images of a bloodied man being taken to a police van circulating widely on media.

Wathig Ali reached the airfield with his wife, Haifa, and son, Oday The UK has started evacuating British nationals from Sudan, where intense fighting between rival military forces has been raging for over a week. People have been told to make their own way to an airfield near the capital Khartoum. It is a potentially perilous journey in the middle of a precarious ceasefire, leaving many Britons thinking hard about what to do. Wathig Ali, a British citizen in Khartoum, has just reached the airstrip with his pregnant wife Haifa and his six-year-old son Oday. He took the risky decision to drive from his house to the airstrip on Wednesday morning. "We left at around 5am. We have managed, miraculously, to reach Wadi Saeedna airbase. We are awaiting evacuation now," Mr Ali said. But Mr Ali's mother, who is in her late 70s and "very sickly", will not be coming to the UK with them. "British soldiers checked all our papers. I brought my mum with me but she does not have a British passport. I tried to persuade the British soldiers to let her on the plane too but they would not let her. "It was heart-breaking that I had to say goodbye to my mum." His wife does not have a British passport either, but their marriage certificate was accepted. The drive to the airfield was better than expected, Mr Ali said. Soldiers from the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) waved them through checkpoints, he said. "While we drove through the streets, we saw lots of RSF soldiers but they were relaxing by the side of the road, probably because it was so early in the morning. "It looked like they were on holiday." There are 80 people at the airbase awaiting evacuation, plus 30 British soldiers, Mr Ali said. He added that although there were two planes already there, the soldiers would not say when they will be departing. "It's clear we might be here until nightfall. We are thirsty and hungry," he said. "I feel for my pregnant wife - she is acting brave. Escaping this nightmare hasn't been done yet. I hope the nightmare will end soon." Back in the UK, families are wracked with worry about relatives in Sudan who they have not been able to contact for days due to broken lines of communication. Some want to know how vulnerable relatives will make it to the airbase without an escort. British charity worker Yasmin Sholgami's grandparents are stranded in Khartoum without food and water. Health issues and reports of gunfire and shelling - despite the apparent ceasefire - mean the elderly couple are unable to travel to the airbase on their own. No-one can get to their house to take them, Ms Sholgami told the BBC on Tuesday. Each time relatives have tried, "they've been shot at by snipers". Her grandfather is 89 and has a British passport. Her 75-year-old grandmother, who holds a British visa, has diabetes: "She can't get up and needs help from numerous people to make it to the airfield." "Little does the government know that there are many areas in the centre of Khartoum that are too dangerous to leave your house without help from some sort of official," Ms Sholgami added. An estimated 4,000 UK nationals are stuck in Sudan - among the highest number of foreign citizens there. Many have spent days trapped indoors with dwindling food and water supplies and no electricity or internet connection. British nationals told the BBC on Monday - before the UK announced that it had started its evacuation effort - that they felt abandoned as other foreign nationals and British embassy workers were flown out. They also complained of poor communication from the Foreign Office's crisis centre. Javid Abdelmoneim, whose elderly father was stuck alone in Khartoum, received a call from officials on Monday asking that his dad make his way to the airbase, about 13km (8 miles) outside of the capital. But there was no way to know if the Foreign Office had been able to get in contact with his dad, as he himself had not been able to reach him. "He's elderly and alone which means he's high priority, but also means he can't get to the airfield," he told the BBC. Mr Abdelmoneim said his father ended up travelling with family members in an overland convoy on Monday to the Egyptian border. Another UK national who chose this way out of Sudan described it as a 15-hour journey through "utter devastation" where he was stopped and robbed at gunpoint before being let go. On Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak defended the UK government's approach to getting British citizens out of Sudan, following criticism that the Foreign Office was failing those stuck in Khartoum. "The security situation on the ground in Sudan is complicated, it is volatile and we wanted to make sure we could put in place processes that are going to work for people, that are going to be safe and effective," Mr Sunak said. He said more than 1,000 UK citizens in Sudan had been contacted about evacuation plans, and "many more" flights would leave on Wednesday. Are you a British national who has been evacuated from Sudan? Are you still inside the country? If it is safe to do so, share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways: If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Police car flipped over as Georgians stay defiant on streets Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Georgia's capital for the second day after parliament backed a draft law which critics say limits press freedom and civil liberties. On Tuesday, demonstrators clashed with police who used water cannon and pepper spray to disperse them. The government said 50 police officers were hurt and equipment was damaged. Some 66 people were arrested, including an opposition leader who was reportedly beaten. Some protesters in Tbilisi were seen falling on the ground and coughing, while others waved EU and Georgian flags. There has been widespread international condemnation of the bill. It would require non-governmental and media organisations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to declare themselves as "foreign agents", or face hefty fines and possible imprisonment. The opposition says the Russian-style law marks a shift towards authoritarianism and would damage Georgia's chances of joining the EU. On Tuesday, police warned protesters to disperse with a repeated message blaring through loudspeakers. Eventually, officers in riot gear cleared the Rustaveli Avenue, the main thoroughfare outside parliament. US state department spokesman Ned Price said the draft legislation would be a tremendous setback and "would strike at some of the very rights that are central to the aspirations of the people of Georgia". The EU is currently considering Georgia's application for candidate status and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned that the bill was "incompatible with EU values and standards". Many of those protesting waved EU flags. Russia passed its own version of a "foreign agents" law in 2012, expanding it over the years to target and suppress Western-funded NGOs and media. "The law is Russian as we all know... We don't want to be a part of the ex-Soviet Union, we want to be a part of the European Union, we want to be pro-West," one protester told Reuters news agency. Speaking via video during a visit to New York on Tuesday, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili voiced her support for the protesters: "I am by your side. Today you represent free Georgia. Georgia, which sees its future in Europe, will not allow anyone to take away this future." But inside the parliament building, 76 lawmakers from the governing Georgian Dream party gave their initial support to the new "transparency of foreign influence" draft law. On Monday, scuffles broke out at a committee hearing into the proposed legislation, with one pro-government MP slapping the leader of the largest opposition party. Passing the law would see Georgia join a list of undemocratic and authoritarian post-Soviet states such as Belarus, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan which have copied the Russian law on restricting the activities of NGOs. Historically, the term "agent" in Russia and Georgia has the meaning of "spy" and "traitor", giving a negative connotation to the work done by civil society. It suggests they are acting in the interest of foreign forces rather than doing good for the country and society. The US embassy issued a statement describing Tuesday's vote as a "dark day for Georgia's democracy". It added that parliament's advancing "of these Kremlin-inspired laws was incompatible with the people of Georgia's clear desire for European integration and its democratic development". The two bills, on the "transparency of foreign agents" and the "registration of foreign agents", were submitted to parliament by the openly anti-Western People's Power movement, a close ally of the governing Georgian Dream party. The group has argued that the second bill was an exact analogue of the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Georgian Dream supported the drafts, saying that such laws were needed to improve transparency. At a briefing on Tuesday evening, the chairman of the governing party, Irakli Kobakhidze, hit back at the US embassy's statement, saying it was "a dark day for the radical opposition and its supporters". What most protesters and the country's opposition fear is that the adoption of the law would mark an end to Georgia's long-standing ambition to join the EU. More than 80% of Georgia's population supports Georgia's European perspective, which is also enshrined in the country's constitution.

A pedestrian in Argentina was caught between two cars that collided before careening away in opposite directions. The crash happened as the woman crossed the street at an intersection in La Plata a city in Buenos Aires Province. Local authorities reported that the woman and drivers were not seriously injured.

The family's holding company has not been divided equally among Silvio Berlusconi's five children It's been the object of much speculation for weeks: who would lead Silvio Berlusconi's empire after his death? Now his will has been made public, it is clear he has handed a majority stake in the family's holding company Fininvest to his two eldest children, Marina and Pier Silvio. They will jointly own 53% of the family firm. The four-time prime minister died on 12 June from leukaemia. One of Italy's richest men, he had amassed a fortune that spanned real estate, television, cinema and sport. But he never publicly indicated who should lead his business empire. It turns out he did not distribute his shares in an equal way among his five children, who automatically all receive 15.8%. Berlusconi's decision to give Marina and Pier Silvio majority was written into the will in 2006 Marina and Pier Silvio are his children from his first marriage and they will receive bigger shares than the three other children from his second wife - Barbara, Eleonora and Luigi. The two eldest children have held management roles in the family business since the early 1990s. They earlier said in a statement that "no shareholder will exercise overall individual indirect control of Fininvest". Berlusconi also left €100m (£85m) to Marta Fascina, his partner at the time of his death and 53 years his junior. They were not married, but on his deathbed, he referred to her as his wife. In a letter that was enclosed in his will, he wrote: "Whatever the amount, be prepared. They will say it's too much or not enough. Never that it's right." Berlusconi's brother Paolo also receives €100m, while the late prime minister's close aide Marcello Dell'Utri will have €30m (£26m). It is not yet clear how Berlusconi's many other valuable assets will be passed on; his numerous luxurious villas could be tricky to give to his offspring in an equal way. In 2020, Berlusconi added a provision of €100m for his brother Paolo His Villa San Martino in Arcore, north-east of Milan, covers 3,500 sq m and dates back to the 18th Century. He also has homes at Lake Maggiore, in Rome, Cannes, the Caribbean and elsewhere. The jewel in Berlusconi's crown of properties is Villa Certosa, a mansion in Sardinia that he bought in the 1970s. He hosted world leaders there, from Vladimir Putin to George W Bush. It has 126 rooms and looks like a theme park, including a fake volcano that erupts lava. Its value is estimated at €259m. Berlusconi wrote his will at his Villa Arcore residence near Milan Silvio Berlusconi was arguably one of the most influential men in Italy's history. For the past 50 years, his shadow has loomed large over parliament, the media, football and the man on the street. His will included a handwritten letter to his children, which ends with the words: "Thanks, so much love to all of you, your Dad." People close to the family have described Berlusconi as "the glue" who kept his children united. The big question is whether that family unity can be maintained now that Berlusconi has gone, and what impact that might have on the future of his business empire.

The fire was contained in two rooms of Jenners Images from inside Edinburgh's Jenners building have revealed only two rooms were damaged in a fatal fire at the department store. The structure of the Princes Street building was not damaged and the well-known grand hall was untouched by the blaze. Firefighter Barry Martin, 38, died at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh following the incident. The owner said January's fire was "very small" despite initial reports. A room and a changing room area in what was the menswear department of the store were damaged. The area had been stripped out during construction works which were part of a four-year renovation project at the building - one of the oldest department stores in the world. Police Scotland returned the building to businessman Anders Holch Povlsen 10 days ago following an investigation into the cause of the fire. Police handed the building back to its owners 10 days ago Edward Rennie, director of management construction firm Redside Property Consultants, said the fire started on the Rose Street side of the building. "We are extremely relieved at the limited extent of the fire damage," he said. "There is no structural damage anywhere from the fire. "The atrium [grand hall] is the most sensitive part of the building from a heritage aspect and it is completely intact. "During the refit the historic atrium balustrade will be removed and restored off site and reinforced with metal to meet current standards." He said it would take 25 days to clear all the debris from the rooms damaged by the fire. The fire did not reach Jenner's grand hall, where the store's Christmas tree would attract customers each year All the asbestos in the building had just been removed when the fire happened on 23 January. Thousands of tonnes of material including 300 tonnes of metal had also been removed over 12 months of the refit just before the fire. All the material was removed by hand and dropped down a lift shaft before being pushed through a large window onto Rose Street. Mr Rennie added: "The fire damage to the building could have been horrific if it hadn't been stripped down due to the current refit." A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: "The police investigation remains ongoing so we are unable to provide any further detail at this stage." A burnt lift shaft in one of two rooms where the fire happened in Jenners Anders Krogh, from AAA United, the company that manages the building for Anders Holch Povlsen, said Barry Martin remained in their thoughts. He told BBC Scotland a permanent memorial to Mr Martin would be erected in the building during the refit. At its height, more than 100 firefighters and 22 fire appliances were at the scene of the "serious and complex fire" at the Jenners building. Two other firefighters taken to hospital were treated for smoke inhalation, and two were treated for burns. A police officer also received treatment. Founded in 1838, the Jenners building is the oldest department store in Scotland. Barry Martin was a married father of twin boys, Oliver and Daniel It was founded as "Kennington & Jenner" in 1838 by Charles Jenner, a linen draper, and Charles Kennington. The store has never left its site on Princes Street, but its original building was destroyed by fire in 1892. In 1893 the Scottish architect William Hamilton Beattie was appointed to design a replacement, which subsequently opened in 1895. The building was sold to private investors in 2005 after House of Fraser bought the Jenners brand and property. It was then bought by Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen in 2017 for a reported £53m. During the department store refit disused rooms at the top and rear of the building will be turned into a luxury hotel.

National Rail said the train passed a red signal, and three wheels came off the tracks Passengers have been warned of delays after a freight train derailed in west London. National Rail said it happened at West Ealing at about 06:10 BST. A spokesperson said a freight train travelling on to the West Ealing goods loop "passed a red signal, and three wheels of the locomotive came off the tracks". Great Western Railway (GWR), Elizabeth line and Heathrow Express passengers' journeys have been affected. "There were no injuries, and we closed the adjacent lines to assess that it was safe for trains to pass," the spokesperson added. Lines have since reopened. Its website says disruption is affecting the line between Paddington, Heathrow Airport and Reading, and could last until 17:00 on Friday. In a statement, it said trains could be cancelled, delayed or diverted including on the Elizabeth line between Abbey Wood and Heathrow Terminal 4, Maidenhead and Reading; between London Paddington and Reading; and between Shenfield and Heathrow Terminal 5. National Rail said the disruption could last until Friday afternoon Heathrow Express trains between London Paddington and Heathrow Terminal 5 may also be affected, it said. A spokesperson for operator GB Railfreight said: "We are currently working with the relevant authorities to determine the cause of a slow-speed minor derailment of one of our trains in West Ealing. "The site of the incident is safe and we're working to get the train re-railed as quickly as possible." It comes after Network Rail announced last month it would develop a recovery plan for the Reading-London Paddington route, after months of poor performance. The route is now set to be overhauled in three phases over 18 months. In December, broken wires left 4,000 passengers stranded on trains for four hours at night near Ladbroke Grove in west London. Follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

David Hunter, pictured at an earlier hearing, has been in custody since his wife's death A British pensioner accused of murdering his ill wife has told a court in Cyprus she begged him to help end her life. Janice Hunter, who was 74 and had cancer, died in December 2021 at home near Paphos. Lawyers for her 75-year-old husband David, a retired Northumberland miner, say her death was assisted suicide. Mr Hunter has admitted killing his wife but a plea deal on a lesser charge of manslaughter collapsed in December. The trial has previously heard Mrs Hunter had a rare blood cancer but might not have had terminal leukaemia. Giving evidence - at times tearfully - her husband said she asked repeatedly for help to end her suffering but that he "just couldn't do it". He said he "regretted" what "I had to do". Janice and David Hunter had been together for more than 50 years After his wife told him she was "sick of being alive" he reluctantly acted, he told the court. "In the last four or five weeks, she asked me to help and I said 'no' every day," he told his trial. "She asked me all the time and I always said 'no' - I didn't want to do it. "After 57 years together, I just couldn't do it. In the last week she just cried and just cried and begged me to help her. I didn't answer." Mr Hunter said his wife told him she felt she had "no life" due to her repeated trips between hospital and home. He told the court at one point she became "hysterical" and to calm her down he said he would help end her suffering even though he said he had no intention of doing so. However, on the day of her death, he said he had got up to make coffee and his wife was crying. Asked by the defence barrister what he remembered, he said his "mind switched off - I never wanted to kill her". He added he then suffocated his wife with his hand. "I don't even know how I thought about it," he said. "I don't know how long I kept my hands there for. She did not attempt to stop me. "In my statement I said that she was resisting but she wasn't. She was moving her head. I don't even think she opened her eyes." Asked about his feelings for her, Mr Hunter said he loved his wife and added: "I regret what I had to do. "I would never help her take her life if she hadn't begged me." David Hunter told the court he loved his wife Janice As he recounted his wife's final few weeks, he said: "She cried. She couldn't do nothing. She couldn't move. "She was sleeping in the leather chair downstairs and for the last week we slept down on those chairs together." Responding to a question from defence lawyer Ritsa Pekri, Mr Hunter said his wife had been unable to look after herself. "The last two or three days, she said she couldn't move her arms and had trouble with her legs. She couldn't balance. "She was only eating soup. She couldn't hold anything down. She lost a lot of weight." Under cross-examination from state prosecutor Andreas Hadjikyrou, Mr Hunter said he had been hoping for a "small miracle" to help his wife's health improve and that she would change her mind about wanting to die. He said: "My mind was full 24 hours a day thinking of my wife. She was lying in pain, suffering, I couldn't do anything to help her. "I wanted her to change her mind. I kept saying it's not easy [to help someone die], you can't just do something like that. "I had no intention of killing her. "It was her decision, she didn't want any more treatment. I can't tell her, she's got her own mind and she asked me. She wasn't just my wife, she was my best friend. "You haven't seen the strain of the last six years, what she's gone through - the situation, the pressure. I wouldn't like anyone to go through the last six months we both went through." The retired couple lived in Tremithousa, near Paphos Asked by the prosecution why he had told a doctor he had decided to end his wife's life but not tell her in case she changed her mind, Mr Hunter said he was "under so much pressure" and there were some things he could not remember as a result of a stroke. He said he had told his wife that if she did die, he would have to take his own life, saying to her: "I don't want to be without you for the rest of my life." David Hunter had waited 17 months for this. Finally, he could give his own version of events to the three judges who will decide his fate. Wearing a black shirt and black jeans, the grandfather walked into the courtroom looking composed. He spoke for more than four hours through a translator. It was a painful testimony. There were tears when he talked about the final moments of his wife's life and smiles when he spoke about their marriage. In a trial for the murder he denies, today was an important day for him to explain why he says it was not premeditated, but a last-minute decision - and therefore, assisted suicide. This is being seen as a test case in Cyprus where euthanasia is strongly opposed by the Orthodox Church. Earlier in the trial, the court heard Mr Hunter contacted his brother on Facebook to say he had killed his wife and then tried to take his own life at their home in Tremithousa. Cypriot police were alerted by Interpol in the UK shortly before 20:00 GMT on 18 December 2021. Officers arrived at the couple's retirement property and Mr Hunter was taken to hospital and later arrested. The couple had moved from Ashington to Paphos 20 years ago. After the day's proceedings drew to a close, Mr Hunter spoke to reporters about giving evidence and said: "I got my say, this is what I wanted. To tell them things that they never even thought about." At home in the UK, the couple's daughter Lesley Cawthorne said it had been "a very emotional experience to see my dad have to relive the worst day of his life". Follow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.

The Prince's much-publicised memoir sold 467,183 copies in its first week The ghostwriter of Prince Harry's memoir, Spare, has described finding himself at the centre of a media frenzy when the book came out in January. Writing in the New Yorker magazine, JR Moehringer said he and his family were stalked and harassed by press. But he also says the experience made him understand the Prince better. In its first week, Spare became the fastest-selling non-fiction book in the UK since records began in 1998. In the article, Moehringer describes how a paparazzi photographer tailed him as he drove his son to preschool shortly after the book's publication, leaving him and his wife feeling "fragile". Later the same day, he says a newspaper journalist appeared at his window while he was working. Moehringer says he and Harry worked on the memoir together for over two years. The writer describes long Zoom chats, messaging constantly and visiting Harry and his wife Meghan at their house in Montecito, California, as well as bonding with Harry over the loss of their mothers. Moehringer is an experienced celebrity ghostwriter who has written memoirs for retired tennis star Andre Agassi and Nike co-founder Phil Knight. The author says he always insists on a clause in his contract giving him the right to remain anonymous but, ahead of Spare's publication, his name was leaked to the press. He then found himself "squinting into a gigantic searchlight" of media attention, he says. "Every hour, another piece would drop, each one wrong. My fee was wrong, my bio was wrong, even my name," he writes. Moehringer said the experience made him realise he had "understood nothing" about how a life in the spotlight had affected Prince Harry - but said the Duke of Sussex was "all heart" and supported him throughout. Some copies of Spare went on sale in Spain several days before the official publication date. Journalists hurried to translate some of the most striking passages from Spanish back into English, leading to what Moehringer says were "bad translations" that "read like bad Borat". The author says a "frenzied mob" then ensued in the media when the book was published in English. He says the bad translations didn't stop as "innocent passages" were "hyped into outrages". Prince Harry gave several TV interviews about his memoir, which included details of conflict with his father, King Charles III, and his brother, Prince William. Neither Kensington Palace not Buckingham Palace has ever commented on the contents of the book. Last week, Prince Harry flew to the UK to attend King Charles' Coronation - the first time he was seen publicly with his family since his controversial memoir came out. He flew back to Los Angeles immediately after the Coronation service ended. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Drone footage shows how historic bridge was taken apart and rebuilt A historic bridge linking Scotland and England over the River Tweed has reopened after a £10.5m overhaul. The complex project saw most of the 200-year-old Union Chain Bridge removed and restored, then put back in place. The work fell behind schedule due to a "range of challenges" but has now been completed. The bridge - which first opened in 1820 - crosses the river from Fishwick in the Scottish Borders to Horncliffe in Northumberland. The reopening completes a long journey for the historic structure and brings to an end a 10-mile detour for local traffic. A piper led the first crossing of the newly reopened bridge A campaign was launched in 2012 to restore the bridge due to concerns over its condition. It had been shut for almost a year in 2007 due to structural problems. By 2017, it was hoped that it would cost £5.6m to upgrade the bridge in time to reopen in 2020. However, the price steadily increased to more than £10m and it slipped behind the original timetable. Martha Andrews said the bridge brought communities on both sides of the border together Martha Andrews, a trustee of the Friends of the Union Chain Bridge, was among those delighted be able to cross the bridge once more. "It is absolutely amazing to see the bridge open today, we have waited so long for this, we have campaigned so hard," she said. "You don't realise how much you use it until it's not there so for the past two years we have being going round by Norham or round by Berwick instead of straight across the border, straight across the Tweed. "It really brings the two communities together. "We're going to be using it again and we are going to be using it every day and you'd be surprised if you stood here just how many cars go across it." The bridge was the longest iron suspension bridge in the world when first opened The Union Chain Bridge was built by retired naval captain Samuel Brown and completed in 1820. It cost about £7,700 to construct and replaced a "perilous ford" slightly downstream. Although work on Thomas Telford's Menai Bridge had started earlier, the Union Bridge was completed first - making it the longest iron suspension bridge in the world when it opened. Hundreds of spectators, including civil engineers Robert Stevenson and John Rennie, turned out to see it open on 26 July. Until the 1970s it existed with little maintenance, but the entire deck was replaced in 1974. The bridge did not receive any major attention until structural issues started to emerge in recent years, leading to the £10.5m overhaul. The overhaul has taken two-and-a-half years to complete The restoration work began once a full funding package was in place in October 2020 in the hope that it would take about 15 months to complete. Covid and the complexity of the project meant that it has taken about a year longer than was first intended. Its completion means that pedestrians, cyclists and cars can once again cross from one country into another. As well as securing the long-term future of the bridge, it is hoped that the structure can become an important visitor attraction. Councils on both sides of the border and the National Lottery Heritage Fund helped fund the restoration. Joe DiMauro of the Spencer Group said it had been a special project to work on Joe DiMauro - engineering director of the Spencer Group, which worked on the scheme - said it had been a special project. "It is a real honour to have been able to work on a 200-year-old suspension bridge like this," he said. "It is not every day you get the chance to use your engineering judgement to come up with methodologies and sequences to be able to take down, refurbish and rebuild something like this. "There are not many of these structures around in the world so having the opportunity to work on this is a privilege." Northumberland County Council leader Glen Sanderson described it as a "fabulous moment" for everyone involved in a "hugely technical project". "This bridge stands as a testament to partnership working and shows what can be achieved when everyone is pulling in the same direction," he said. "It's a glorious structure and I'm sure will be a huge draw to tourists as well as providing a much-needed day-to-day connection for local communities on both sides of the border." John Greenwell, of Scottish Borders Council, said "years of hard work" had gone into making the restoration possible. "It's a symbolic link between England and Scotland which has now been protected for many generations to come and I am sure all those involved will feel an incredible sense of pride that this day has come," he added. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

A Sinn Féin MP has told an IRA commemoration that everyone has "the right to remember, and the right to commemorate". John Finucane was the main speaker at what has been billed a "South Armagh Volunteers commemoration". He said there was "nothing to celebrate in conflict", but commemoration was "a right which everyone is entitled to". His involvement in the event was condemned by IRA victims, unionists and the Irish government. Earlier on Sunday, Belfast East MP Gavin Robinson of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) said Mr Finucane was "a hypocrite" for taking part. Mr Finucane told the event that truth and justice were "something which every person who has been impacted by our conflict deserves." "For just as truth and justice applies equally to everyone, so too does the right to remember, and the right to commemorate," he said. Mr Finucane's father, solicitor Pat Finucane, was shot dead by loyalist gunmen at his home in Belfast in 1989. The Sinn Féin MP said he would defend commemorations by other groups - including loyalists - "without hesitation". "There is nothing to celebrate in conflict, or in our difficult and painful past, but to commemorate those we have loved and lost is a right which everyone, including every single one of us gathered here today, is entitled to, and we do so with dignity and with pride," he said. The event was held earlier in south Armagh Speaking ahead of the event, Belfast East MP Mr Robinson said Mr Finucane had a few hours to decide if he wanted to "proceed with being a hypocrite on these issues or withdraw". "You cannot burnish your credentials as a victim one day and then tarnish the memory of victims and their loved ones the next," he told the BBC's Sunday Politics programme. But Mr Robinson, the newly-elected deputy leader of the DUP said victims were "hurt" by the prospect of Mr Finucane's attendance at the event in Mullaghbawn. "This should not be happening," he said. "When we consider the need to reconcile our communities that anybody, let alone a member of Parliament and a victim, would go to a family fun day to show respect for terrorists, shows just how shallow some of the commitments about an Ireland for all are, that have been shared with us over the previous number of weeks." Gavin Robinson said victims of terrorism were "hurt" at the move On Friday, a relative of one of the victims of an IRA bomb atrocity in Coleraine nearly 50 years ago criticised Mr Finucane's planned appearance. Lesley Magee's grandmother, Nan Davis, was among six Protestants killed in the Coleraine attack on 12 June 1973. "I don't think we should be commemorating terrorism on any level, whether it be Protestant, whether it be Catholic," she told BBC News NI. "I have equal animosity towards both. I have no issue with anyone's religion, whether it be Protestant, Catholic, Judaism - whatever; I don't care. "I don't think any MP should be at some kind of commemoration to celebrate a terrorist," she added. Alliance Party assembly member Sorcha Eastwood said she was disappointed Mr Finucane took part in the event. "There is a difference between remembering and paying tribute to individuals, and commemorating terrorist organisations, including the IRA and its South Armagh 'brigade', particularly without reference to its many victims," she said. Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie said he thought the commemoration was "scandalous". Tánaiste (Irish Deputy Prime Minister) Micheál Martin had urged Mr Finucane not to address the commemoration, saying any attempt to "celebrate or glorify horrible deeds from the past" was not the correct way forward. But earlier in the week, Sinn Féin assembly member Conor Murphy dismissed the row as a diversionary tactic by the DUP. "I think what we are in here is distraction politics," Mr Murphy said. "The real issue is here is the fact that public services are crashing round our ears."

Former longtime BBC Radio 2 presenter Ken Bruce now appears on Greatest Hits Radio Ken Bruce's Greatest Hits Radio show is being investigated by Ofcom over the station's campaign calling for offenders to be prevented from refusing to attend sentencing hearings. The broadcasting watchdog said on Monday it would look at whether the station had complied with rules around impartiality and accuracy. This year's Face the Family petition has been made directly to Parliament. It was mentioned by a newsreader on Bruce's show on 13 April. The broadcast also included clips in support of the campaign which directed listeners to a website. The petition, signed by more than 13,000 people, was broadcast more than 30 times on the station, calling for new laws to "require offenders to be in court for sentencing, to give victims and their families every chance to witness justice be delivered". It was explained that this could involve court and prison staff being "given powers to use reasonable force to get offenders into the dock - as they do to transfer them from a court to prison." Ofcom's spokesperson said the watchdog "does not seek to question the merits" of the campaign, which was broadcast more than 30 times on the radio station. But they also noted how broadcasters are excluded from expressing views on "political and industrial controversy or current public policy". A Bauer spokesperson said: "We are working with Ofcom to better understand the investigation into the Face the Family campaign, which ran in news bulletins in two local areas of the UK. "The series is the latest in our tradition of local campaign journalism, which helps people who feel unheard have a voice. We are confident in our journalism and are committed to helping Ofcom with its investigation." Justice Secretary Alex Chalk this month said he was committed to proposals to introduce legislation so that convicted criminals would have to appear in court for their sentencing. Speaking to ITV News, he said he was "looking at what levers are open to us - whether you're talking about physically forcing people to court, or giving people an additional sentence as a result. We are looking very hard at this." It comes after the killer of Zara Aleena in east London, Jordan McSweeney, refused to attend his sentencing, something her family described as "a slap in the face". Thomas Cashman would not face the family of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel either, as he was jailed for life for her murder in Liverpool.

The historic criminal indictment against former US President Donald Trump has sparked another partisan flashpoint in an already deeply polarised nation. Ahead of his court appearance next Tuesday, voters have been sharing with the BBC their strongly felt reactions to the first prosecution of a former president. Whatever their political affiliation, most of our voter panel agreed that the unprecedented case leaves the US in uncharted waters. This is an excellent example of the politicisation of the judiciary. It's a huge mistake. Banana republic style vindictiveness. It's, in my opinion, totally undermining our rule of law and sets the US up for real trouble ahead. It's a huge mess and completely destructive. This action taken by the New York district attorney destroys any respect for the rule of law that many in the public had. It does not inspire trust or confidence in our system. It is very worrisome. Again, can't stress it enough - it's a huge mistake and the ramifications are going to be deep and far reaching. I worry for the times ahead in our country. We're heading into turbulent times and our institutions and customs will be tested like we've never seen before. I hope our republic can survive - all because of a vindictive and petty, hypocritical step by a 'smallish' prosecutor in New York. This is one of many things that he should be charged with, and more presidents should be charged with more wrongdoing than just Trump. I think that denying prosecution of a public or political figure is itself an inherently political move. Presidents should absolutely be held to the same - or higher standards - of public scrutiny and lawful consequences. He should absolutely face prosecution. I genuinely think that the battle lines in the country have already been drawn. I think that people have made up their minds about Trump. They love him or hate him and I don't see that changing. I feel they want to put a 'stain' on Donald Trump's character - as no other president has been criminally charged in our US history. I am surprised that they actually indicted him. This looks very bad for our country and for Trump to run in 2024. The news will focus on this more than anything that Trump has accomplished, and it will have a negative impact on Trump's run for 2024. I'm saddened to see this happen and do not agree with the Manhattan jury. I hope Trump can pick a good running mate - he is going to need it. These are indeed uncharted times we are embarking on. Living in the New York area, we are a bit on guard but overall I believe these growing pains are necessary for us as a country to affirm who we are - a country where no-one is above the law. It's hard to find a person who believes the former president didn't break laws, they simply debate whether he should be charged, which in itself says a lot about the vulnerability of our democracy right now. For me, it's a naked and blatantly gross breach of responsibility by the Manhattan district attorney that goes beyond anything I've ever witnessed in my life. It is an embarrassment that in this country, things have gotten to the point where an extreme stretch in interpretation of the law could be used in an attempt to take out a political opponent. This is the stuff of banana republics and countries that have been or are under the control of dictatorial power. Moreover, I think the Manhattan district attorney, with all that is on his plate with regards to crime in his jurisdiction, is so out of touch to want to go after a former president instead of focusing on the immediate needs of his electorate. I predict this will come back to haunt Biden in the 2024 election cycle that is just now getting underway - look for Republicans to pull all the stops going after the president and his son in their investigations. I'm glad that the law applies to everyone. I look forward to him having to answer for himself and let a jury decide. I'm comfortable letting the system do it's job. I'm also really sad that this day has come to the US. The fact that this took a long time to happen is good - this wasn't some rush to achieve a pre-defined objective. I'm also hoping Trump is healthy at least long enough to see this to its conclusion. I also think that if Trump could watch Michael Cohen get convicted for campaign finance crimes he committed for him, it will likely make it easier to prove that there was in fact a federal crime connected to the money. I'm sure Cohen will feel vindicated.

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A man has been arrested after one person was left in a life-threatening condition and another was injured in a stabbing attack at a London hospital. Police said the man arrested at Central Middlesex Hospital in Park Royal also sustained "self-inflicted" injuries. The hospital was temporarily locked down but has since reopened with a heightened police presence. One witness described how patients and visitors were locked in a nurses' room while police dealt with the incident. Staff were evacuated from the hospital building, where officers will remain as searches are carried out. The Met Police said it was satisfied no-one else was being sought and that the stabbings were not being treated as terror-related. The attack was reported at about 13:20 BST. Paramedics said they treated three people at the scene. Jamie Hogg, a contractor who saw the incident unfold, said he and his colleagues were visiting the hospital to carry out work and he saw police "just swarming in". Staff waited outside the hospital after being evacuated from the building "It was armed police, one after another, one after another, and they just sprinted straight into the hospital," he said. "I've never seen anything like this before in my life, I thought it was crazy. It's quite hard to believe." He described the incident as "scary", continuing: "It could have been any of us. I don't know what were the reasons that drove him to that." Amie Ferris-Rotman, who was visiting the hospital dialysis unit with her father, told Sky News police checked the area where they were, before locking them in a nurses' room for about 45 minutes. She said: "All the dialysis patients were quite freaked out." "And at one point those who were about to go on to dialysis were put in wheelchairs and brought into a room, which is where we were as well, and they were locked in." Detectives have been carrying bags of evidence out of the hospital, including a clear bag containing what appeared to be clothing. Three unmarked police cars, identifiable by the logbooks on their dashboards, remain in the car park of the hospital. Armed police are responding an incident at Central Middlesex Hospital in London The London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, said the building was locked down as a "precautionary measure". In a tweet, the trust said: "While our clinics are reopening, we may need to reschedule your appointment if we can't see you today." The Labour MP for Brent Central, Dawn Butler, told BBC Radio London: "The police have the situation very much under control. "They have arrested somebody and I think the situation should be a lot calmer now. "It's quite reassuring that the police are not at this stage looking for anybody else, and they have the whole situation in hand." She added: "That additional stress when you're in hospital isn't very good, so I'm grateful the police acted really quickly and got this under control as quickly as they did." London Ambulance Service said it had sent an incident response officer, an advanced paramedic, an ambulance crew and a medic in a fast-response car, as well as a hazardous area response team and the air ambulance. Sign up for our UK morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Edi Villalobos escaped from an Oregon courtroom during jury selection for his upcoming trial. In accordance with Oregon law, all of the suspect’s restraints, such as handcuffs and leg shackles, were removed while in the courtroom for the trial.

Former FAW President Phil Pritchard is one of the members currently serving a suspension Three male members of the Football Association of Wales (FAW) have been suspended in the past 10 months after allegations of inappropriate behaviour. They were suspended from the FAW council, which is made up of 36 members representing local clubs, leagues and area associations across Wales. The allegations include misogyny and sexism, breaching confidence and mocking political correctness publicly. The FAW said it took a "robust approach" to sanctions. The findings by the Newyddion S4C programme come at a time when sport in Wales is under scrutiny after allegations of sexism and misogyny within the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) were revealed by the BBC Wales investigates programme. The FAW referred two of the disciplinary cases to independent arbitrators Sport Resolutions, with the other matter dealt with internally by the FAW as it was considered less serious in nature. Former FAW President Phil Pritchard is one of the men currently serving a suspension for comments made at a pre-match dinner deemed misogynistic and sexist. Mr Pritchard says he admitted fault due to the cost of legal fees When asked for a response to the allegation, he lashed out at his suspension. He denied making any sexist remarks, but claimed he pleaded guilty because paying for representation at the independent tribunal "would have cost £12,000 in legal costs". Mr Pritchard added: "There is always a happy atmosphere at pre-match events, with plenty of banter." He explained "the last thing he wanted to do" was upset anybody, adding he was "having a laugh and a joke when this young lady walked in and must have mistaken something". "There were witnesses within 1ft [of me] on my table who said it didn't happen," he said. "The only reason I said I did it was because it would have cost me a lot otherwise." Life councillor Ron Bridges is also currently serving a long suspension for a breach of confidence. His case was also referred to Sport Resolutions. When contacted, Mr Bridges admitted his transgression and said he had passed on embargoed team information to his son, who posted it on a popular Facebook group. "I can't complain about the suspension or the way it was handled," said Mr Bridges. "I broke the rules and pleaded guilty and so I'm suspended as an FAW council member, but still active in the game." South Wales representative Huw Jones has served his suspension and now resumed his role. Newyddion S4C has learned that his suspension, which was deemed less serious and therefore dealt with internally by the association, related to a social media post referencing a chant about former Wales international Nathan Blake. Mr Jones was found to have used pronouns inappropriately in an attempted joke about political correctness, which was deemed unacceptable. Mr Jones has also been asked to respond. An FAW statement added: "Whilst we cannot comment on individual cases, the Football Association of Wales takes all disciplinary matters extremely seriously in relation to council members. "We have processes and procedures set out within our rules and regulations, which govern how such matters must be dealt with. "Depending on the nature of the alleged offence, it is either dealt with by an internal disciplinary procedure, or for more serious matters by an independent arbitration panel." Last year, FAW chief executive Noel Mooney had said: "Ensuring that football in Wales is equal, diverse and inclusive for everyone is a priority for us at the Football Association of Wales." Elections to the FAW council are due to take place this summer.

US President Joe Biden has praised Northern Ireland's young people, saying they are at the "cutting edge" of its future during his visit to Belfast. Earlier he met Prime Minister Rishi Sunak before briefly speaking to some of Stormont's political party leaders. He is on a four-day visit to Ireland to mark 25 years since the Good Friday peace agreement, which ended decades of violent conflict in Northern Ireland. He hailed the "tremendous progress" since the deal was signed in 1998. "This place is transformed by peace; made technicolour by peace; made whole by peace," he said. He hailed Northern Ireland as a "churn of creativity", having produced some of the world's most popular films and TV series over the past decade, and said that major economic opportunities for the region were "just beginning". This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: James Martin, star of Oscar-winning Northern Ireland film An Irish Goodbye, is mentioned in Joe Biden's speech President Biden was speaking as he opened the new Ulster University campus in Belfast, his only official engagement in Northern Ireland. His visit comes at a time when Northern Ireland's power-sharing government at Stormont is not functioning. It collapsed last year when the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) - one of the biggest parties - pulled out as part of a protest against post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland. Mr Biden urged politicians to make a return to governing but praised them for their unity after the attempted murder of one of Northern Ireland's top detectives in February. John Caldwell was shot several times by two gunmen in Omagh, County Tyrone. During his speech, the president said: "Northern Ireland will not go back [to violence]." Mr Sunak visited Mr Caldwell and his family at a hospital on Wednesday afternoon. Before briefly meeting the political leaders, Mr Biden was asked what he would say to them - he answered: "I'm going to listen." After leaving Belfast early on Wednesday afternoon, he flew on Air Force One the Republic of Ireland where he is continuing his tour of the island. He is to due to meet the Irish President Michael D Higgins and speak to politicians at the Oireachtas (Irish parliament) on Thursday and will meet some of his Irish relatives in County Mayo on Friday. His sister Valerie and his son Hunter have joined him for the Ireland trip. President Biden managed to deliver a speech that hit all the right notes with the invited audience. As he left the stage he was swamped by people armed with their phones for a selfie. His speech was pitched at reminding people what is at stake - peace, said Mr Biden, cannot be taken for granted. He reminded those in the room about the risks taken 25 years ago by the architects of the Good Friday Agreement. Democracy in Northern Ireland needs champions now to do the same, he added. While he didn't namecheck the DUP it was clear to whom he was directing those comments about getting Stormont back up and running. Before Mr Biden's address in Belfast, US Special Envoy Joe Kennedy spoke about the significance of American investment in Northern Ireland. "Some of the biggest companies in the world have set up shop here and now entrepreneurs with dreams to outcompete them are following," he said. "I look forward to drawing on your energy and your ideas and to making sure that we bring prosperity to all corners of Northern Ireland." After listening to Mr Biden's speech at the university, Michelle O'Neill, the vice-president of Sinn Féin, the largest party at Stormont, said the message was "one of hope and opportunity". This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said he did not get a sense that the president was urging his party to do more to restore power-sharing during their brief private discussion. "Like all of us, he wants to see the political institutions up and running again but we are very clear that can only happen when we have got the solid foundations that we need," he added. Alliance Party leader Naomi Long described President Biden's speech as "positive, balanced, optimistic and hopeful for the future". Doug Beattie, the Ulster Unionist Party leader, said the meeting with Mr Biden was a fleeting "grip and grin" engagement. SDLP leader Colum Eastwood described his conversation with the president as "positive". Mr Biden arrived in Belfast city centre on Tuesday night, having been greeted by Mr Sunak as he stepped off Air Force One at Belfast International Airport. Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden met on the 23rd floor of the Grand Central Hotel on Wednesday morning The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said the huge security plan put in place for the presidential visit was its biggest for years. Some 2,900 officers were deployed as part of the £7m operation. But the PSNI is investigating a security breach after a document that appears to give details of the operation was found on a street in the city by a member of the public. BBC Radio Ulster's The Nolan Show was shown the document, which is marked: "PSNI and sensitive." It names police officers who were in charge of the area around the hotel in which Mr Biden had stayed. "We take the safety of visiting dignitaries, members of the public and our officers and staff extremely seriously," said the PSNI. Joe Biden is visiting the locations marked on this map during his four days in Ireland Declan Harvey and Tara Mills explore the text of the Good Friday Agreement - the deal which heralded the end of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. They look at what the agreement actually said and hear from some of the people who helped get the deal across the line. Listen to all episodes of Year '98: The Making of the Good Friday Agreement on BBC Sounds.

Fans, and their dogs, have lined the streets of Aldington in Kent for the funeral of TV personality Paul O'Grady. One of his dogs was at the head of the procession, being held by O'Grady's husband Andre Portasio, as they travelled to the service on a horse-drawn carriage. The funeral was attended by Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, actress Dame Sheila Hancock and comics Alan Carr and Jo Brand.

A BBC presenter has been accused of paying a teenager for sexually explicit photographs, beginning when they were 17, according to The Sun. The newspaper reported that the unnamed male presenter had paid the alleged victim tens of thousands of pounds. It is understood that the BBC is looking into the allegations, and that the star is currently not scheduled to be on air in the coming days. The Sun said the young person's family complained to the BBC on 19 May. The family is reported to have become frustrated that the star remained on air and approached the newspaper, but said they wanted no payment for the story. The mother told the paper that the anonymous individual, now aged 20, had used the money from the presenter to fund a crack cocaine habit. She described to the paper how her child had gone from a "happy-go-lucky youngster to a ghost-like crack addict" in three years. Following the reports, several high-profile BBC presenters have taken to social media to deny they are the presenter in question. Broadcaster Rylan Clark tweeted on Saturday that he was not the presenter, saying "that ain't me babe" and adding that he is filming in Italy for a BBC programme. Separately BBC Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine has also distanced himself from the Sun story, saying the allegations are not about him. He tweeted: "Just to say I'm very much looking forward to hosting my radio show on Monday — whoever the 'BBC Presenter' in the news is, I have the same message for you as Rylan did earlier: it certainly ain't me." Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker did not mention the allegations specifically, but writing on Twitter later on Saturday evening he said: "Hate to disappoint the haters but it's not me." Nicky Campbell tweeted that he has reported an anonymous Twitter account to the police over a post claiming he was the presenter. "I think it's important to take a stand. There's just too many of these people on social media. Thanks for your support friends," he said. The corporation said the information would be "acted upon appropriately". A BBC spokesperson said: "We treat any allegations very seriously and we have processes in place to proactively deal with them. "As part of that, if we receive information that requires further investigation or examination we will take steps to do this. That includes actively attempting to speak to those who have contacted us in order to seek further detail and understanding of the situation. "If we get no reply to our attempts or receive no further contact that can limit our ability to progress things but it does not mean our enquiries stop. "If, at any point, new information comes to light or is provided - including via newspapers - this will be acted upon appropriately, in line with internal processes." BBC's culture editor Katie Razzall said many questions remain unanswered, including how the corporation has investigated the family's complaint and if it was appropriate for the presenter, who has not been named, to stay on air after a serious allegation was made. The BBC's statement appears to suggest its initial investigation may have been hampered by a lack of response from the family, she said. This allegation, if proven, would mean the career of a high-profile BBC presenter is likely to be over.

CCTV shows the moment a ceiling panel came crashing down, nearly hitting a commuter at a subway station in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MBTA) said the panel was installed in the 1980s, and weighed about 11kg (25 lbs) because of moisture build-up. No injuries were reported, and the MBTA said it had now removed any other panels from the station that posed an immediate safety concern. It also announced it would carry out inspections on panels in all of its stations.

Belarus's authoritarian leader says it is "absolutely possible" his forces helped migrants cross into Poland but denies they were invited. Alexander Lukashenko has been accused by the EU of orchestrating the border crisis with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia in recent months in retaliation for sanctions imposed on Belarus for its brutal crackdown on opponents who took part in mass protests after the August 2020 election. Watch highlights of the exclusive interview with the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg.

Many Ukrainians - like these people in Kyiv's underground - celebrated last Christmas in shelters amid continuing Russian attacks Ukraine has moved its official Christmas Day state holiday from 7 January to 25 December, the latest move aimed at distancing itself from Russia. President Volodymyr Zelensky signed into law a parliamentary bill that aimed to "abandon the Russian heritage of imposing Christmas celebrations". In recent years, Kyiv has been cutting religious, cultural and other ties with Russia, aligning itself with the West. This process escalated following Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. Mr Zelensky signed the bill on Friday - two weeks after it had been passed by Ukrainian lawmakers. The legislation also moves another two state holidays, Day of Ukrainian Statehood, from 28 July to 15 July, and the Defenders' Day, which commemorates armed forces veterans, from 14 October to 1 October. Moscow has so far made no public comments on the issue. For centuries, first imperial Russia and then the Moscow-dominated Soviet Union had tried - but always failed - to totally control Ukraine. This included the imposed authority of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) over Ukraine's churches. But in 2019, the recently formed Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) was granted independence by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians worldwide. The move provoked a furious response in the ROC, which is openly defending President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Until this year, the OCU - like several other Orthodox churches, including the ROC - celebrated Christmas Day on 7 January, in line with the Julian calendar. But the OCU has now officially switched to the more-precise Gregorian calendar used in most parts of the world. In recent years many Ukrainian worshippers have been joining the OCU, and the majority of them are now likely to be celebrating Christmas on 25 December. There will also be those marking Christmas twice. At the same time, millions still follow the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), the other established branch with parishes all over the country. The UOC has not commented on the latest developments. It officially declared a split from Moscow in 2022 - but a number of its clerics have recently been prosecuted for pro-Russian activities. The UOC says there is no evidence to support the charges of collaboration. The Motherland Monument in Kyiv - one of the world's tallest statues - will be stripped of its Soviet emblem, and Ukraine's coat of arms, the Trident, will replace it Ukraine's decision to move Christmas is the latest step by the country to distance itself from its north-eastern neighbour. Cities and villages all over Ukraine have recently seen renaming of their streets linked to Russian and Soviet historical figures. Similarly, a number of monuments have been taken down, and Russian films made after 2014 banned in Ukraine. Those measures followed Russia's illegal annexation of Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula in March 2014.

An Indiana state trooper unknowingly pulled over the Idaho murders suspect in a traffic stop, only to let him off with a verbal warning. Bryan Kohberger, 28, was pulled over twice on 15 December for following other vehicles too closely in his white Hyundai Elantra. He was arrested last Friday on suspicion of killing four students while they slept.

Marelle Sturrock's partner David Yates was being hunted by police in connection with her murder Police investigating the murder of a pregnant teacher say a body found in a reservoir has been formally identified as her fiancé, David Yates. Ms Sturrock, 35, was found dead at her home in Glasgow on Tuesday. Police were hunting for Mr Yates, 36, at Mugdock Country Park near Glasgow. The police watchdog Pirc said it would launch an investigation into her death. Police Scotland said no-one else is believed to be involved. Mr Yates' death is not considered suspicious. Officers said they would continue to provide specialist support to both families. Ms Sturrock, who was 29 weeks pregnant, taught at Sandwood Primary School in the city. Officers attended her home on Jura Street at about 08:40 on Tuesday, where she was pronounced dead at the scene. Her unborn child did not survive. The body of Mr Yates was found in Mugdock Reservoir near Glasgow The Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Pirc) said the Crown Office had instructed them to launch an investigation into the death. Pirc has not clarified what it is investigating. The watchdog can investigate serious incidents involving the police, including the death or injury of a person following contact with officers. A spokesperson said: "Once our inquiries are complete a report will be submitted to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service." Police Scotland has not confirmed how Ms Sturrock died. Ms Sturrock had been due to give birth in the summer On Tuesday, a search was launched to find her missing partner Mr Yates, with officers later confirming they were investigating a murder. His car was found in a car park at Mugdock Country Park, prompting an extensive police search in the area. His body was found in Mugdock reservoir on Thursday. Originally from Wick in the Highlands, Ms Sturrock moved to Glasgow aged 17 to study musical theatre and later became a teacher. Sandwood Primary School said she was a "beloved" member of staff. It said pupils, staff and families had been offered support from educational psychologists. Police Scotland said reports would be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal in due course.

Kylie Minogue is going to Las Vegas. The hugely popular singer has announced her first exclusive residency in Sin City, following in the footsteps of Adele and Celine Dion. The 55-year-old has not toured in North America since 2011, so her shows at the Voltaire nightclub at The Venetian in Las Vegas will be a major US return. Minogue has promised extravagant costumes and dances, saying that at this point in her career she has "earned the right to" play Las Vegas. "I've performed a couple of times at Vegas, but as part of a tour, and particularly when I did the Showgirl tour in 2004 - at that time we said, 'oh, this feels like a Vegas show', the Australian pop star said at a Los Angeles news conference. Her later Aphrodite tour had featured "so many waterworks in like precision fountains," she continued. "My team at the time kept saying, 'Why isn't this in Vegas? We've got to do it at some point.'" The show promises to be one of its kind for Vegas: based in a smaller venue that allows Minogue to give guests and fans a more personal show. "I want it to be the kind of essence of what a Kylie show has become, enough glamour and abandon. I've got some versions of songs that have not been heard, like reinterpretations of songs, which is exciting. Live bed dances, amazing costumes. "That's the base and then we'll see what surprises we can come up with," she revealed. And it's finally something she can check off her career bucket list. "I was thinking years ago I want to do it when I'm younger like, I don't want to do it when I'm at the sunset of my career. So, I think I've got it right somewhere in the middle where I feel like I've earned the right to and have the experience to really enjoy being there." She will perform tracks from her forthcoming album Tension, alongside many of her greatest hits including Can't Get You Out Of My Head and All The Lovers. Dubbed the Princess of Pop, Minogue has sold over 80 million records worldwide, won a Grammy and three Brit Awards. She recently scored her biggest solo hit in more than a decade with the song Padam Padam. It's the star's first song to break into the UK top 10 since All The Lovers peaked at number three in 2010. That means Kylie is one of only four women to reach the UK's top 10 in five separate decades, alongside Cher, Lulu and Diana Ross. For the past 20 years, Minogue has sold out stadiums across Europe, Asia, and Australia, but has a more modest following in the US. But this residency could bring unprecedented success for the pop singer in America. In a previous interview with top reality host Andy Cohen, she said she was thrilled that her recent single was doing so well in the States. "It feels good, 'cuz as we know it's not my main market," Minogue said. "But I would love it if it was to become one of them. I think 'Padam' has really given me a chance to reach everyone." Minogue's Vegas residency will begin on 3 November 2023 and is expected to include about a dozen shows. Tickets go on sale on 9 August. While Minogue hopes that the show will bring international visitors, UK fans unable to make the trip across the pond will be able to see her in 2024 when she embarks on her arena Tension tour. The pop star also headlines Radio 2 in the Park in Leicester this September. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. From 2020 - Pop royalty Kylie Minogue says lockdown was a "weird time" and a "rollercoaster"

Dr Stephen Brearey says he escalated concerns to senior management about nurse Lucy Letby A doctor asked for nurse Lucy Letby to be taken off shift after raising repeated concerns about her presence and the deaths of babies - but was told "no", a court has heard. The nurse denies murdering seven babies and the attempted murder of 10 others at Countess of Chester Hospital. Dr Stephen Brearey told Manchester Crown Court he "didn't want nurse Letby to come back to work" until concerns had been "investigated properly". Dr Brearey, who was head of the hospital's neonatal unit, asked for Ms Letby to be stood down after the deaths of two baby boys, who were part of a set of triplets, in June 2016. The court has previously heard that the first boy, referred to as Child O, was in good condition and stable up until the afternoon of 23 June when he suffered a "remarkable deterioration" and died. His brother, Child P, died just over 24 hours later after also being attacked by Ms Letby, it is alleged. The prosecution claims Ms Letby murdered the boys by injecting air into their bloodstreams. Dr Brearey told the court that the death of the brothers was "distressing for those involved and deeply so with me". He said: "All three triplets were born in such good condition, they were following a healthy path to growing and developing and hopefully going home." Dr Brearey told jurors that Child O's collapse had come "out of the blue" and observed that in the hours before his death there had been an "unusual" rash on his chest. He said this was something he had not "seen before or since". Lucy Letby is accused of carrying out the attacks at Countess of Chester Hospital Following Child P's death on 24 June, there was a debrief for the medical team on the neonatal unit. "Ms Letby was present in that debrief. I asked her how she was feeling and I can remember suggesting to her she needed the weekend off to recover," the doctor said. "She didn't seem overly upset to me in the debrief and told me at the time she was on shift next day, which was a Saturday." The doctor said he had been "concerned" about Ms Letby going back on shift because he had "already expressed concerns to senior management over the association between nurse Letby and the deaths we'd seen on the unit". Dr Brearey said he had called Karen Rees, the duty executive senior nurse, to report his concerns, explaining that he "didn't want nurse Letby to come back to work the following day or until all this was investigated properly". Dr Brearey said Ms Rees had "said no", telling him "there was no evidence" for his claims. He told the court he had asked Ms Rees if she was "happy to take responsibility for the decision, in view of the fact myself and consultant colleagues wouldn't be happy with nurse Letby going to work the following day". Ms Rees responded "yes", the medic said. Dr Brearey told the court that "further conversations" had taken place the following week and the decision had been taken to remove Ms Letby from frontline nursing duties - placing her in a clerical role instead. Ben Myers KC, defending, noted that Dr Brearey had first "identified" Ms Letby as someone of interest as early as June 2015 after the death of the first three babies in the case. Dr Brearey had noted, with colleagues, that Ms Letby was present when those three children died in 2015. Mr Myers put it to the doctor that he was guilty of "confirmation bias" towards Ms Letby and had failed to look at "suboptimal care" given to the children in this case. Mr Myers put it to Dr Brearey that if there had been a basis for his suspicions he would have gone to the police. Dr Brearey said he and his colleagues had been trying to "escalate appropriately" and had needed "executive support" to decide the "correct plan of action going forward". The doctor added: "It's not something anyone wanted to consider, that a member of staff is harming babies. "The senior nursing staff on the unit didn't believe this could be true." He said with every "unusual" episode of baby collapse between June 2015 and June 2016 there had been "increasing suspicion" about Ms Letby, which led him to eventually escalate his concerns and request she be taken off shift. Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Mr Beattie was reappointed as the SNP's treasurer in 2021 after previously having held the role for 16 years The Scottish Conservatives say the SNP is in "total meltdown" after treasurer Colin Beattie was arrested by police investigating the party's finances. The 71-year-old has been taken into custody and is being questioned by Police Scotland detectives. First Minister Humza Yousaf said Mr Beattie's arrest was "clearly a very serious matter indeed". But he added that the MSP had not been suspended from the party as "people are innocent until proven guilty". Mr Beattie's arrest was announced just hours before Mr Yousaf set out his government's priorities for the next three years. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Speaking in the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Conservatives' deputy leader Meghan Gallacher said the SNP was "in total meltdown". She urged the first minister to suspend his predecessor, Nicola Sturgeon, and her husband, former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, from the party. Her calls were rejected by Mr Yousaf. Mr Murrell was arrested two weeks ago, before being released without charge pending further investigation. Police Scotland launched its Operation Branchform investigation into the SNP's finances in July 2021 after receiving complaints about how donations were used. The SNP raised £666,953 through referendum-related appeals between 2017 and 2020 with a pledge to spend these funds on the independence campaign. Questions were raised after its accounts showed it had just under £97,000 in the bank at the end of 2019, and total net assets of about £272,000. Officers involved in the investigation spent two days searching the Glasgow home of Mr Murrell and Ms Sturgeon, and the party's headquarters in Edinburgh earlier this month. A luxury motorhome was seized by officers from outside a property in Dunfermline on the same morning that Mr Murrell was arrested. The Mail on Sunday reported that the vehicle had been parked outside the home of Mr Murrell's 92-year-old mother since January 2021. Police spent two days searching the home of Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell earlier this month Mr Beattie is the MSP for the Midlothian North and Musselburgh constituency and is a former international banker. He was arrested at his home in Dalkeith, near Edinburgh, at about 08:00 on Tuesday morning. The Sunday Times reported at the weekend that he had told the party's ruling national executive committee (NEC) that the SNP was struggling to balance its books due to a drop in member numbers and donors. Mr Beattie served as the SNP's treasurer for 16 years before being defeated in an internal election by Douglas Chapman in 2020, but returned to the role when Mr Chapman resigned a year later. Mr Chapman quit after saying he had "not received the support or financial information" that was needed to carry out his duties as treasurer. Mr Yousaf has rejected calls for Mr Murrell and Ms Sturgeon to be suspended from the party, amid speculation that she may be preparing to quit as an MSP. The former first minister has already confirmed she will not be attending the Scottish Parliament in person this week. Mr Yousaf was seen as the "continuity candidate" during the leadership contest, and was the preferred candidate of the party hierarchy - including Ms Sturgeon. He had hoped his speech on Tuesday would allow him to set out a "fresh vision" for his government after a tumultuous three weeks in his new job. Speaking to journalists ahead of his statement, Mr Yousaf said Mr Beattie's arrest was "clearly a very serious matter indeed" but he had not been suspended from the party as "people are innocent until proven guilty". The first minister said he believed Mr Beattie was still being questioned at a police station, but said he would speak to him afterwards about his membership of the parliament's public audit committee and his role as party treasurer. Mr Yousaf admitted that the timing of the arrest was "not ideal" in terms of his Holyrood speech but said he did not believe the party was operating in a criminal way. He added: "We instructed a review into transparency and good governance and of course with the issue around financial oversight, and I want some external input into that. "So there is change that is needed within how the party is operated and I have made that absolutely clear." Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the SNP is in a "real mess", adding: "After 16 years in power, it has descended to this and those being let down are Scottish voters who are entitled to better than this". Last year it emerged Mr Murrell gave a loan of more than £100,000 to the SNP to help it out with a "cash flow" issue after the last election. The SNP had repaid about half of the money by October of that year. Humza Yousaf had hoped to use today as a "reset". The new first minister wants to talk about policies rather than the police, and is due to make a speech at Holyrood setting out his plans for government. But there looks set to be an empty space on the back benches, as one of his MSPs - Colin Beattie - is questioned by detectives about his party's finances. Mr Yousaf will inevitably be confronted by reporters with further questions about what is going on. There is unlikely to be much he or indeed anyone else could actually say at this point, given there is a live investigation in progress. But the very fact of it rumbling on in the background will inevitably cast a shadow over his big set-piece speech. On Sunday, leaked video footage emerged that showed Ms Sturgeon playing down fears about the party's finances. The footage, published by the Sunday Mail, is said to be from a virtual meeting of the party's ruling body in March 2021. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon told the SNP's ruling body in 2021 that the party's finances had "never been stronger" Ms Sturgeon told NEC members the party's finances had never been stronger and warned of the impact of going public with concerns. The SNP's former Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, insisted that there was "nothing untoward" in the clip and claimed that the party's finances are in "robust health". The party's auditors, Johnston Carmichael, quit in September - although Mr Yousaf has said he only found out about it after he won the leadership contest six months later. The SNP has so far failed to find another auditor, and is facing a race against time to file its accounts by the Electoral Commission deadline in July. An SNP spokesman said "We have no comment on a live police investigation."

An investigation into sexual misconduct at one of Britain's biggest business lobby groups has been widened after new allegations have emerged. The Confederation of British Industry is at the centre of claims published by the Guardian, detailing alleged misconduct by individuals. "The CBI has treated and continues to treat all matters of workplace conduct with the utmost seriousness," it said. "Which is why last month, we commissioned a thorough investigation by an independent law firm into all recent allegations that have been put to us." The most serious allegation relates to a woman who claims she was raped by a senior colleague at a CBI summer boat party in 2019. The woman told the Guardian she felt let down by a CBI manager who, she claims, advised her to seek out counselling rather than pursue the matter further. Regarding this allegation, a CBI spokesperson said: "We have found no evidence or record of this matter. Given the seriousness of the issue, it is part of the independent investigation being conducted by Fox Williams." In relation to other allegations of sexual misconduct made by women against figures at the CBI, a spokesman for the lobby group added: "It would undermine this important process and be damaging and prejudicial to all the individuals involved to comment on these allegations at this point. "We will not hesitate to take any necessary action when the investigation concludes." Since the beginning of March, Fox Williams has been investigating separate allegations made against Tony Danker, the CBI's director general who has since stepped aside and "apologised profusely". It is understood that the new claims published in the Guardian do not relate to Mr Danker who became director-general in late 2020. Since the allegations have emerged, Fox Williams' investigation has now been widened. The CBI lobbies on behalf of around 190,000 businesses that employ millions of people. If you have been affected by any issues raised in this article, help and support can be found at BBC Action Line. Have you been affected by the issues discussed in this story? Please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways: If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Royalist and republican protesters gathered on the Royal Mile Protesters chanting "not my king" gathered in Edinburgh ahead of King Charles' thanksgiving service. Republican as well as royalist activists lined the Royal Mile where the King's cavalcade passed on the way to St Giles' Cathedral. Another anti-monarchy group hosted a rally outside Holyrood, which was attended by Greens co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater. Police Scotland later confirmed four people had been arrested. They included two women, aged 20 and 21, who were arrested for breach of the peace after allegedly attempting to climb over a crowd safety barrier on the Royal Mile. The force said one man was also arrested for theft, while another was arrested in connection with an outstanding warrant. Three men and one woman were initially arrested for alleged threatening behaviour and failing to desist, but this was later changed to a recorded police warning. Blacked-out barriers which are about 6ft (72in) in height were erected outside St Giles' where the service took place. During the thanksgiving ceremony the King was presented with the Scottish crown jewels to mark his Coronation. Black screens have been installed around St Giles' Cathedral Grant McKenzie, from the Republic anti-monarchy pressure group, told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme his group would be vocal at the event, which he described as "undemocratic." He said: "It's being forced upon us, we've got an unprecedented cost of living crisis. "I don't think the public in the UK are particularly interested in their tax payer money being put towards a parade up and down the Royal Mile in Edinburgh - it's tone deaf. "Of course people are going to be able to enjoy it if that's what they want to do. Protests by their very nature are disruptive, we will be making ourselves visible and heard." Mr Harvie, who is the Scottish government's minister for zero carbon buildings, active travel and tenants' rights, addressed the Our Republic rally outside the Scottish Parliament. He told the crowd: "It's really important for those who want an elected head of state to be heard." The MSP said it was extraordinary to be "lavishing taxpayers money on some of the wealthiest people in the world so they can play some kind of Game of Thrones". He added: "Passing unearned wealth from generation to generation is fundamentally at odds with the democratic society we are trying to build." Assistant Chief Constable Tim Mairs, police lead for the event, said: "This significant constitutional event took place safely without any disruption to the ceremony or people's procession. "Safety was our priority and a number of actions were taken to ensure this, which included an open approach to engaging with potential protest groups." In the build-up to the event the force said it sought to strike a balance between the right to protest and public safety. Assistant Chief Constable Mairs added: "I would like to thank the overwhelming majority of protestors who engaged with us and also our officers whose professionalism helped ensure the safe delivery of this event for everyone who attended." Patrick Harvie spoke to journalists at the rally outside Holyrood As well as those protesting the ceremony, crowds hoping to catch a glimpse of the monarch and people's procession also lined the streets. One of those in attendance was royal fan Sheila Clark, from Newton Mearns. Speaking on the BBC's Good Morning Scotland, she said: "I'm as close to St Giles' as I possibly could be. "It's a very special moment for me personally, I've followed the new King all my life really. "I think it's an important part of our heritage throughout Britain and particularly in Scotland, because the King's roots are Scottish. His mother was Scottish, his grandmother was Scottish and I think Scotland is an important part of the United Kingdom."

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. In a personal statement, Matt Hancock apologies to MPs for his "minor breach" of Commons rules. The former health secretary, Matt Hancock, has been found to have breached Parliament's rules for attempting to influence an inquiry into a Conservative MP. A standards watchdog ordered Mr Hancock to apologise for the "minor breach". Mr Hancock wrote a letter defending Tory MP Steve Brine, who was investigated over lobbying allegations. Mr Hancock denied trying to influence the investigation by Parliament's standards commissioner. On Monday, Mr Hancock apologised to the House of Commons, in line with the findings of the report by the Commons Committee on Standards. He told MPs that the committee had "found that I did not seek to break the rules, had no prospect of personal gain and acted without malice". Mr Hancock said: "However they recommended I apologise to the House and the Commissioner for this minor breach and underline that respect for the Code and processes of investigating potential breaches of the Code is an important and necessary part of the Code. I am happy to do so." The the Commons Committee on Standards found Mr Hancock had made "a clear attempt to influence the commissioner's investigation". The committee said Mr Hancock had breached a rule that prevents MPs from lobbying the commissioner in a way that is "calculated or intended to influence his consideration". "Mr Hancock is a former cabinet minister and has been an MP for over 10 years," the committee's report said. "It is concerning that a member with this experience has not taken account of these provisions of the code." The committee recommended that Mr Hancock should make a personal statement to apologise to the House of Commons and the standards commissioner, Daniel Greenberg. He should also attend a "briefing on his obligations under the code with the commissioner", the committee's report said. MPs are expected to behave within rules set out in a code of conduct approved by the Commons, and any alleged breaches can be investigated by the standards commissioner. The report said Mr Hancock had sent the commissioner an unsolicited letter while he was investigating Mr Brine - the chair of the Commons health committee - over claims he lobbied the NHS on behalf of a recruitment firm. Leaked messages from 2021 showed Mr Brine had been trying contact health bosses while acting as a paid consultant for Remedium Partners, a recruitment firm offering doctors for free to the NHS. Mr Brine, a former health minister, said he was responding to a call from ministers to help the NHS during the Covid-19 pandemic. The texts were some of the more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages involving Mr Hancock that were leaked to the Telegraph newspaper by journalist Isabel Oakeshott. Last month, Mr Brine was found to have breached the rules twice by failing to declare in his approaches to cabinet ministers in 2021. But the commissioner, Mr Greenberg, cleared Mr Brine of paid advocacy. During the investigation, Mr Hancock wrote a letter to the commissioner, arguing "that what Mr Brine did was acting overwhelmingly in the national interest". The rulebook for MPs says they should not try to influence the decision of the commissioner during an investigation into an alleged breach. Mr Hancock, who became one of the best-known politicians in the country during the Covid-19 pandemic, remains suspended as a Tory MP for for taking time off from his parliamentary duties to appear on I'm A Celebrity last year.

Last updated on .From the section Formula 1 Red Bull's Max Verstappen took pole position for the Australian Grand Prix ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen beat Russell by 0.236 seconds as Mercedes had their best qualifying of the season. Hamilton was 0.136secs further adrift in third. Fernando Alonso was fourth in the Aston Martin ahead of Carlos Sainz's Ferrari. Sergio Perez crashed the second Red Bull on his first lap of qualifying and will start the race at the back. It is a major blow to the Mexican, who is just one point behind Verstappen in the championship after his victory in the last race in Saudi Arabia and who started the weekend saying he had confidence he had Red Bull's backing to challenge his team-mate. Perez insisted there was a problem with the car after a day characterised by similar errors caused by locking his wheels during braking but said he "trusts totally with my team we will be able to fix the issue". • None Realistic Mercedes to still 'go for it' in Australia • None One lap, six questions - take our Australian GP quiz • None How to follow the Australian Grand Prix on the BBC Lance Stroll was fifth for Aston, ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc - complaining he had been held up by Sainz on his final lap and did not know why - and the impressive Williams of Alex Albon. Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10. McLaren's difficult start to the season continued with Lando Norris in 13th place. Albon and Hulkenberg produced eye-catching performances to be in the top 10 in their normally uncompetitive cars but it was the Mercedes that produced the surprise of qualifying. Verstappen pulled out a blinder of a lap on his final run and when Alonso went second in the Aston Martin with a lap 0.407secs off the world champion, the front of the grid seemed set given Ferrari's lack of pace this weekend. But first Russell popped up between Verstappen and Alonso, then Hamilton sneaked in as well. "We weren't expecting that, for sure," said Russell, who has out-qualified Hamilton three times in a row so far this season. "Wow. What session for us. The car felt alive. The lap was right on the limit. "I have to be honest - I was a little disappointed we didn't get pole. It's funny how your expectations change in this business. Yesterday I would have been happy with fifth, but the car came alive. "Excited for tomorrow. It's going to be tough against Max but we will give it the best go." Hamilton added: "I am so happy with this. This is totally unexpected. To be up on the two front rows is honestly a dream for us. "We are all working as hard as we can and to be this close to the Red Bull is incredible. I hope tomorrow we can give them a bit of a run for their money." Verstappen admitted Red Bull had struggled to get the optimum out of their car this weekend, which had been a scrappy one up to qualifying. "The last lap was pretty good," Verstappen said. "Until then the whole weekend it has been difficult to get the tyres in the right window and it was pretty tricky to find the grip and nail it on one lap. "But it all came right in qualifying. I'm pretty happy with that." In his post-race interviews, Hamilton seemed to take the opportunity to have a subtle dig at his old rival Alonso, who he pipped with his final lap after the Aston Martin had impressed all weekend. Alonso said in an interview with French newspaper this weekend that it was clear now Hamilton no longer had the best car that he "had weaknesses". And as he waved to the crowd, Hamilton said he hoped to have a first corner similar to the one he had in 2007 on his debut. "Does anyone remember that," he asked? It was an apparent reference to him famously passing his then-McLaren team-mate Alonso around the outside of Turn One in his very first grand prix, the first dramatic moment in a season that developed into one of the most tumultuous in F1 history. • None Enter the world of the social media personality's multi-level marketing scheme and webcam business • None Stealing it was only the beginning...:

Bruce assisting fellow Radio 2 presenter Rylan Clark with his 24-hour Karaoke Challenge in 2019 Image caption: Bruce assisting fellow Radio 2 presenter Rylan Clark with his 24-hour Karaoke Challenge in 2019 Some Radio 2 listeners are unhappy with the station's current playlist, which is increasingly favouring more recent music from the 1990s and 2000s over the 1970s and 1980s. But that's due to the station's efforts to attract the next generation of Radio 2 listeners, primarily people in their 30s and 40s who have moved on from Radio 1. Speaking to BBC News, Bruce said: "Any radio station has its policy, and that's only right and proper, and you follow the station policy." But on his new show on Greatest Hits Radio (GHR), Bruce said: "I'll be playing the stuff I like. And I'll be trying to introduce the odd track that I like into the playlist for GHR." Stations such as GHR and Boom Radio have positioned themselves as alternatives to Radio 2 for older listeners - the baby boomer generation - who feel the station no longer caters to them.

The damage caused to the Kakhovka dam earlier this month wiped out homes and left families without water In a shrinking, brackish pool of water, within earshot of Ukraine's front lines, two small fish gasped and flopped in the midday heat. Around them, vast expanses of mud and rock - covered, for the past three quarters of a century, by metres of water - were exposed to the sun. A huge grain barge lay sprawled across a nearby sandbank. Water snakes and frogs slithered through the dwindling shallows as if in search of shade. Two weeks after a suspected Russian sabotage operation destroyed the dam that holds back the Dnipro River to form the giant Kakhovka reservoir, some 18 cubic kilometres of water - enough to fill a shallow paddling pool the size of England - have surged south to vanish into the Black Sea. "It's a catastrophe. Everything was washed away. Deer, wild pigs, fish and so many endangered species. And about half a million people are now left without water," said Anatolii Derkach, 37, secretary of the town council in Marhanets, on the western shore of the former reservoir. From his fourth-floor office, Derkach peered out across the grey, cracked mud towards the silhouette of Europe's largest nuclear power plant on the eastern shore. The Zaporizhzhia plant, with its six reactors, is currently under Russian occupation. With the water gone, the plant - some 10km (six miles) away - suddenly looks much closer. "They say it will have enough water in its reservoirs for about six months. But we cannot be sure," he said with a sigh, followed by the inevitable warning-word "Chernobyl" - a reference to the nuclear power plant whose reactor exploded in 1986 in Soviet Ukraine, causing the worst nuclear accident ever. People queue to access drinking water in Marhanets, a Ukrainian town often targeted by Russian strikes Meanwhile Marhanets, a small town perched on a hill overlooking the reservoir, is often targeted by Russian artillery. "They watch us with drones. If they see more than five people in one place they begin shelling," said Derkach. But with the reservoir emptying, and water supplies now cut off, the council has been obliged to set up temporary distribution points around town. "How do you think I feel? I'm walking around like a donkey, forced to carry water," said Iuliia, a pensioner standing in a queue of more than 20 people beside a set of taps and a large plastic tank in the town centre. "It's not even drinking water. I'm scared for the future. I don't see any way through this," said her neighbour, Nina, 70. Marhanets, and other nearby towns, are drawing up plans to dig new canals to connect them to other reservoirs. But many residents have left, and local mines and other industries have been forced to close. Local farmers are now trying to access old wells and small streams to find alternative sources of water. "I don't know what [the Russians] were thinking - doing that. The environment will suffer, and it will be hard for all of us," said Ivan Zaruski, 56, taking a brief break from loading bales of straw onto a trailer with a group of relatives and neighbours in field outside town. "The main thing is that the nuclear power plant doesn't explode. But we'll survive all this. We have nowhere else to go so we don't have a choice," he added with a grin. Moscow says it had nothing to do with the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in Russian-occupied territory, and has accused Ukraine of firing missiles at it. Irina (R), with her husband Evhenii, said the water reached the roof of their small cottage close to the Dnipro River Meanwhile, further south, below the destroyed dam, the heaving flood waters that swept, without warning, through the port city of Kherson and smaller towns killing dozens of people and forcing thousands to flee, have largely abated. "We're like rats - we can survive anything," said Irina, a 73-year-old retired teacher, as she and her husband, Evhenii, slowly dragged the drenched contents of their small cottage outside. At one point the flood waters reached the roof of their home, on Tchaikovsky Street, close to the Dnipro River in the centre of Kherson. But now only a few big puddles remained outside, beside several small boats which had been used during the flooding. "At least this happened at the start of summer. We still have time to dry things out," said Evhenii, stacking some stinking, rotting furniture in the yard. Earlier that morning, several Russian artillery shells had crashed into the centre of Kherson, and many more would land in this neighbourhood in the coming hours and days, fired from Russian positions on the far bank. Ukrainian troops were blocking cars from getting too close to the river, and much of the city seemed deserted. Most of the people who've stayed are elderly. They're not going anywhere "Today was wonderful," said Oksana, who'd come to help her elderly parents on Tchaikovsky Street clean up after the flood. She was referring to news about Ukraine's counter-offensive. "Our guys are doing a great job. We can tell who is shooting where. Our guys have had some big successes against Russian positions - and they've hit some large ammunition depots. I just wish it was all happening a bit quicker," she said. Nearby, her 78-year-old father, Vladimir, slumped into a chair. He'd been kneeling, with an axe, to strip water-logged sections off an old cabinet, but had stood up too fast. "He was born here. He's spent his whole life here. Most of the people who've stayed in this neighbourhood are elderly. They're not going anywhere," said Oksana.

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Duke of Sussex has attended his father's Coronation, sitting two rows from his brother at Westminster Abbey. The prince had arrived without his wife Meghan, who stayed in the US, and he left immediately afterwards for a return flight from Heathrow. The BBC understands he was not invited to appear on the balcony at Buckingham Palace following the ceremony. It is the first time he has been seen publicly with his family since his controversial memoir Spare came out. Prince Harry, who arrived in the UK on Friday, was back in Los Angeles at 19:30 local time on Saturday after taking a British Airways flight, the PA news agency reported. He got into a car alone outside the abbey shortly after the Coronation service had finished. Ninety minutes later, on the Buckingham Palace balcony, the King and Queen were joined by other working members of the Royal Family, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, and their children. Prince Harry's wife, the Duchess of Sussex, remained in Los Angeles with their children, where their son Prince Archie is celebrating his fourth birthday. A source earlier told the US outlet Page Six that Prince Harry intended to make "every effort to get back in time for Archie's birthday". Prince Harry wore a morning suit and medals at the ceremony and he sat with his cousin Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank in the third row, along with his uncle the Duke of York, Prince Andrew. Two rows ahead in the front were the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, as well as the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh. For the late Queen Elizabeth's funeral last year, Prince Harry was in the second row - directly behind the King - at the abbey. It was already known that Prince Harry would attend the ceremony alone and have no formal role as he is not a working member of the Royal Family. This was also the case for Prince Andrew. Prince Harry arrived at Westminster Abbey in a morning suit with medals He walked in alongside the Princess Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi Relations between Prince Harry and other members of the family have been strained since his memoir was published. The book vividly revealed fall-outs and disagreements with relatives, and he has since spoken of feeling "different" from the rest of his family. The decision for Meghan to reject the invitation was widely seen as part of these continuing, unresolved family tensions. And last month it was revealed that the King tried to stop Prince Harry taking legal action against newspapers over alleged phone-hacking. In a witness statement revealed by court papers, Prince Harry said he was "summoned to Buckingham Palace" and told to drop the cases because of the effect on the family.

Virginia Woolf's personal copy of her debut novel, The Voyage Out, has been fully digitised for the first time. The book was rediscovered in 2021, having mistakenly been housed in the science section of the University of Sydney library for 25 years. It is the only publicly available copy of its kind and contains rare inscriptions and edits. Another UK first edition used personally by Woolf is owned by a private collector based in London. Scholars say the find is "remarkable" and could provide insight into the English author's mental health and writing process. Woolf is considered to be one of the most important modernist 20th Century authors, publishing more than 45 works including To The Lighthouse and Mrs Dalloway. She pioneered the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device and is a lasting literary influence to this day. The University of Sydney hopes by publicly sharing their copy, the multiple notes showing the adopted and abandoned revisions will give a new generation of readers, literary students and scholars some insight into Woolf's thoughts. Virginia Woolf suffered from anxiety, insomnia and repeated mental breakdowns during the writing of The Voyage Out Woolf suffered from severe mental health breakdowns during the estimated seven year period it took to complete The Voyage Out. She fell back into depression and was put in a nursing home the day before it was published in 1915, staying there for six months. Her husband Leonard Woolf said she was "writing every day with a kind of tortured intensity" to finish the novel. She was institutionalised and attempted suicide several times throughout her life. She died in March 1941, aged 59, after taking her own life. The University of Sydney said it appeared the rediscovered copy of The Voyage Out had been lost "through the bustle of everyday campus and library life". Simon Cooper, Metadata Services Officer from the Fisher Library, found the book incorrectly shelved in 2021. He said: "I knew the book didn't belong there, so I took it out and then saw the author's name handwritten on the first page. "So, I looked up her handwriting to compare it, and it matched. It's her copy". The Voyage Out was incorrectly shelved and eventually found in the science section of Rare Books and Special Collections The University acquired the book in the late 1970s through Bow Windows Bookshop in Lewes, East Sussex. Woolf and her husband Leonard Woolf had lived in the area - and members of the public can still visit their 16th-Century country retreat, Monk's House, which is owned by the National Trust. Original copies of her manuscripts, novels, essays and short stories now sell for huge sums. One of the world's oldest antiquarian booksellers, Maggs Bros in London, told the BBC the rediscovered Woolf copy could be worth about £250,000 ($321,500) given the other first edition copy sold for just over £91,000 in 2001. "Prices have increased for this material since then, in some places quite substantially," said Bonny Beaumont, Modern Firsts specialist at Maggs Bros. Sydney University Fisher Library staff member Simon Cooper found the book incorrectly shelved in the science section In the rediscovered edition of The Voyage Out, handwritten edits made by Woolf can be seen in blue and brown pencil, with typed excerpts pasted onto the pages. Some of the changes could have been made by an editor or someone else. An example of Virginia Woolf's edits Academics say the rare text reflects Woolf's understanding of her own process of writing and how she developed the craft. "It carries iconic value," said to Mark Byron - a professor of Modern Literature at the University of Sydney, who has studied the book in person. "The revisions are fascinating in terms of what Woolf was thinking at the time," he added. "Its role in Woolf's editorial decisions towards the first American edition of the novel in 1920 is an important element of its textual history." "The inclusion of Woolf's annotations and corrections in her own hand, in pasted typed sheets, and in marginal editorial instructions, make this a unique object, shining a light on the composition processes of a pivotal novel in Woolf's career, and thus in the history of the novel in the 20th Century." He added that the difficult composition of the novel led to the first significant adult breakdown for Woolf, suggesting the subject matter and narrative technique deployed in the novel may shed some light on matters of psychology and mental distress and its connection to Woolf's emergent career as a writer. Some have speculated that Woolf was "potentially uncomfortable with how closely the reflections mirrored her own mental health when she was writing the book" which is what led to the changes, Mr Byron said. The Voyage Out has been fully digitised and is currently the only one of two copies made publicly available Most of Woolf's works are housed at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts and the Berg collection at the New York Public Library. Many have long believed that the other first edition of The Voyage Out owned by Woolf was held in an undisclosed private collection in the US. It is known as the "Adams" copy as it used to be part of a library belonging to a Mr FB Adams. However, the BBC has learned that the Adams copy is in London and owned by a private British collector. He acquired it through the rare book dealer Peter Harrington at an auction held by Sotheby's in 2001. Peter Harrington's son, Pom, who now runs the business, said he was excited by the rediscovery and digitalisation of The Voyage Out, and keen to examine the difference between the two copies.

Harvey Price has Prader-Willi syndrome, which can cause learning difficulties Grimsby Town has apologised for posting an "inappropriate" short video of Harvey Price following its FA Cup win at Southampton. According to reports, the League Two club tweeted a clip showing Mr Price, the disabled son of TV star Katie Price. It was said to have been accompanied with the caption: "Signing off for the night! Enjoy your night, Town fans." In a statement, the club said it wished to "wholeheartedly apologise". Grimsby Town celebrate their win at Southampton on Wednesday The club's full statement reads: "It has come to our attention that an inappropriate gif was posted on the club's official Twitter account late last night following our game against Southampton in the Emirates FA Cup. "The post was removed this morning as soon as we were made aware. We would like to wholeheartedly apologise for any offence it has caused. UTM." Mr Price, 20, has septo-optic dysplasia, a rare genetic disorder affecting his eyesight, as well as autism and Prader-Willi syndrome, which can cause learning difficulties and behavioural problems. The incident comes two weeks after Ms Price published a letter from the Met Police telling her officers are facing misconduct proceedings over alleged involvement in a WhatsApp group that targeted her son. Grimsby Town beat their Premier League opponents 2-1, courtesy of a brace from Gavan Holohan at St Mary's. The win secures The Mariners a quarter-final fixture with European hopefuls Brighton - the first time the club has reached the last eight in the FA Cup since 1938/39, a year they went on to reach the semi-finals. Follow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.

Alexander Lukashenko (centre) looked visibly tired during last week's Victory Day parade in Moscow, and his right hand was bandaged The autocratic politician, 68, usually speaks publicly at the annual National Flag, Emblem and Anthem Day event but his prime minister read a message on his behalf on Sunday. Last week, Mr Lukashenko left Moscow soon after Victory Day parade, skipping lunch with President Vladimir Putin. Mr Lukashenko looked visibly tired, and his right hand was bandaged. He was last seen in public laying flowers in the capital Minsk during Belarus' own Victory Day celebrations on 9 May - a few hours after returning from the Russian capital. An opposition Telegram channel reported that Mr Lukashenko visited a presidential medical centre just outside Minsk on Saturday night - but this information has not been independently verified. Mr Lukashenko's office has so far made no comments on the issue. Often described in the West as Europe's last dictator, Mr Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994, suppressing any dissent. In 2020, he was proclaimed as the winner of presidential elections, which were denounced by the opposition as a sham. Thousand of people were later arrested and brutally beaten by riot police and KGB security service agents during mass anti-government protests that rocked the country. However, Mr Lukashenko managed to stay in power, backed by Russia. Last year, he supported President Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, offering Belarus as a launchpad for Russian troops to cross into Ukraine and allowing Russian war planes to carry out strikes from Belarusian soil.

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A boa constrictor spotted by police in the middle of a busy road in Birmingham gave officers an "off-the-scale" shock, the West Midlands force has said. The officers were driving down Park Lane on Saturday afternoon when they saw the "slippery customer" moving across the road, according to police. They managed to manoeuvre the snake into a pillow case and took it to Birmingham Reptile Centre for checks. Staff said the boa, which is non-venomous, was believed to be a pet. Mohammed Shikdar, who filmed the capture, said he went closer after he saw police officers and on-lookers "crowding around something". "That's when I saw the snake and the police were trying to pick the snake up using the broom and a walking stick," he said. "The snake felt threatened and tried to attack the broom." Chloe Clarke, team supervisor at the Reptile Centre in Erdington, said as boa constrictors were not native to the UK, the reptile must have been in captivity. The snake was spotted by officers from the force's operational support unit, West Midlands Police said She said she believed it had escaped, rather than having been left somewhere. The snake was well-fed, but had a couple of marks and some scale damage from the dry climate, Ms Clarke added. "It's just a shame that a lot of people think snakes are dangerous, but they are just an animal," she said. "They [boa constrictors] are not venomous and are not capable of harming a human." She said the snake might give a small bite "like a pin-prick" if it was scared. Staff at the centre would look after the creature for a month in the hope the owner would get in touch, but after that it would be re-homed, she said. Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Tony Johnson with his partner who said she is "devastated" to have lost her "soul mate" A man has died after a fight between football fans outside a pub. Tony Johnson, 55, was found with a serious head injury near The Manchester bar on the Promenade in Blackpool at 19:00 GMT on Saturday. Blackpool Football Club said they were "deeply shocked and saddened" by the grandfather's death. Mr Johnson's partner said his family were "heartbroken" and "devastated". Supporters had clashed after the match between Blackpool and Burnley. In a tribute, his partner said: "I am devastated to have lost my best friend, life partner and soul mate in a cruel act. "We all, as a family, are so heartbroken and our lives are never going to be the same." Officers from Lancashire Constabulary administered CPR before Mr Johnson was taken to hospital. Det Ch Insp Tracey McMurdo said: "Sadly Mr Johnson died in hospital overnight and his family are understandably devastated." She appealed for any footage that might assist the police investigation and asked anyone who did have video not to post it online because "at the heart of this is a grieving family, who are incredibly distressed". Lancashire Police said there was no suggestion Mr Johnson was specifically targeted. Flowers have been left at the Stan Mortensen Statue The force earlier said it was working with both Blackpool and Burnley football clubs to establish what had happened. Blackpool have opened a book of condolence in the Moretti Lounge for supporters to pay their respects. Head coach Mick McCarthy, players and supporters have left floral tributes at the Stan Mortensen Statue behind Bloomfield Road's north stand in honour Mr Johnson. The club said: "All of the thoughts of everyone at the football club go out to Tony's family and friends. Rest in peace, Tony." Blackpool Tower will be lit up tangerine later to "show support to the BFC community and everyone affected by the devastating news", the council said in a tweet. The Armfield Club, a Blackpool supporters' club, tweeted it was "deeply saddened" by Mr Johnson's death, adding he was "Blackpool through and through". A fight broke out outside the Manchester pub shortly after the match Burnley said they were "shocked and saddened", adding: "We share our thoughts and condolences with his family, friends and everyone at Blackpool Football Club." A fundraising page set up to help pay for the "loyal and true" Seasider's funeral has raised more than £10,000. A 33-year-old man who was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of wounding has been bailed pending further inquiries. Blackpool drew 0-0 with Burnley in the Championship clash at Bloomfield Road. Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: From police interrogations to trial testimony, who is Alex Murdaugh? A powerful South Carolina lawyer has been found guilty of murdering his wife and son to distract from his multi-million dollar financial crimes. The jury deliberated for less than three hours before convicting Alex Murdaugh, 54, of two counts of murder at the end of a six-week trial. He faces a long prison term when he is sentenced on Friday. Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were shot at close range near the dog kennels on their family estate on 7 June 2021. Alex Murdaugh stood impassively as he learned his fate during Thursday evening's hearing in Walterboro. "Today's verdict proves that no-one, no matter who you are in society, is above the law," said South Carolina's top prosecutor, Attorney General Alan Wilson. The case - chronicling the downfall of a family born to power and privilege - has captivated the country, inspiring documentaries on Netflix and HBO. Murdaugh was once an influential personal injury attorney in the state, and for decades until 2006 his family members had served as the leading prosecutors in the area. Such was their influence that the jurisdiction became known as "Murdaugh Country". But the trial heard that for years he had been stealing from his law partners and clients to feed an addiction to painkillers and an extravagant lifestyle. Murdaugh had pleaded not guilty to killing his wife and youngest son in an attempt to conceal years of financial corruption - fraud that he himself had acknowledged in court. After the 12-person jury's verdict, dozens of spectators gathered outside the back of the court where officers ushered a handcuffed Murdaugh quickly into a black van. Reporters shouted questions, though he remained silent. As police tucked him inside the vehicle, one man behind the media line shouted that he was praying for him. Maggie Murdaugh, pictured here with Alex, was said to be a devoted mother It took more than a year for investigators to arrest Murdaugh as they untangled the complex case. In a risky move for any murder defendant, Murdaugh took to the witness stand, trying to convince the jury that someone angry over a deadly 2019 boating accident involving Paul could have killed his son to seek revenge. "I would never hurt Maggie, and I would never hurt Paul - ever - under any circumstances," Murdaugh testified. The case against him was based entirely on circumstantial evidence. No direct evidence - things like a murder weapon, blood on his clothing or an eyewitness - was presented at trial. Instead the prosecution focused on an incriminating Snapchat video taken by Murdaugh's son just before the murders. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Paul and his mother were killed at the kennels on the family's sprawling hunting estate, known as Moselle. For 20 months after their murders, Alex Murdaugh told law enforcement repeatedly he had not been at the dog kennels at all that evening, and was at home napping. But in the Snapchat video filmed by Paul just minutes before the shootings, the defendant's voice could be heard in the background. On the stand at trial, Murdaugh admitted he had lied, saying his years-long addiction to painkillers had put him in a paranoid state. The court also heard of Murdaugh's bizarre attempt to stage his own death in an insurance fraud scheme just three months after he murdered his 52-year-old wife and 22-year-old son. The hitman he hired botched the shooting and the bullet only grazed his head. Alex Murdaugh (right) murdered his wife, Maggie, and his youngest son Paul Local resident Jessica Williams, 38, stood outside the court watching the proceedings on the phone with her six-year-old daughter. "I am so happy," she told BBC News after the verdict was announced, adding: "I remember where I was when the verdict for OJ Simpson came down [in 1995]. This was the same thing." Early on in the proceedings, Judge Clifton Newman ruled that prosecutors could bring in evidence of Murdaugh's alleged financial crimes. Investigators say he stole nearly $9m from clients and colleagues to fund his addiction and his lavish lifestyle. And at trial, Murdaugh admitted to wide-scale theft. Prosecutors argued it was these crimes that drove him to murder - that he thought the deaths of Maggie and Paul would gain him sympathy and stave off a reckoning over his other misdeeds. Murdaugh and his defence team had argued in court that this theory was ludicrous and financial problems would never have led him to murder. Several witnesses testified that on the night of the murders Alex Murdaugh had asked Maggie, who had been at the family's other property in nearby Edisto Beach, to return to Moselle. Maggie much preferred Edisto to Moselle and hadn't planned on leaving, her sister Marion Proctor told the court. But Murdaugh's elderly father was dying, and so Mrs Proctor encouraged her to support him. Alex Murdaugh and his two sons were fond of hunting, and Moselle was home to a collection of guns. Prosecutors alleged that Murdaugh had used one of these - a .300 Blackout assault-style rifle - to kill Maggie, and another weapon to kill Paul. But they were unable to find either firearm and produce them at trial. Maggie was shot four or five times with a rifle and their son was shot twice with a shotgun, the trial heard.

Reaper drones are full-size aircraft designed for reconnaissance and surveillance The US has accused Russia of reckless behaviour after an American drone crashed into the Black Sea following an encounter with Russian fighter jets. Before the collision, Russian jets are said to have dumped fuel into the path of the drone, which the US says was in international airspace. The damaged MQ-9 Reaper drone was brought down by the US after it became "unflyable", the Pentagon said. Russia has denied its two Su-27 fighter jets made any contact. The key question is whether the encounter was merely an attempt by Russia to disrupt the US drone and its work - or whether it was a deliberate attempt to bring it down. US military officials said the incident happened at about 07:03 Central European Time (06:03 GMT) on Tuesday and the confrontation lasted around 30-40 minutes. Several times before the collision, the fighter jets dumped fuel on the drone in a "reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner", it said in a statement. Pentagon spokesman Brig Gen Pat Ryder told reporters the drone was "unflyable and uncontrollable so we brought it down", adding that the collision also likely damaged the Russian aircraft. He said the jets were able to land following the incident. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Brig Gen Ryder said to his knowledge the Russians had not recovered the drone. The United States' National Security Council's John Kirby told CNN: "Without getting into too much detail, what I can say is that we've taken steps to protect our equities with respect to that particular drone." Russia's defence ministry said the drone crashed after a "sharp manoeuvre" and that it was flying with its transponders turned off. Transponders are communications devices that allow the aircraft to be tracked. Prof Michael Clarke, visiting professor in war studies at King's College, told the BBC the collision was "almost certainly an accident". The ex-director general of the defence and security think tank Royal United Services Institute said: "I don't believe any pilot could deliberately do that [only colliding with another aircraft's propeller] without seriously endangering their aircraft and own life." The incident highlights the increasing risk of direct confrontation between Russia and the US over the Ukraine war. To protest against the move, the US summoned Russian ambassador Anatoly Antonov in Washington. Following the meeting, Russian state media quoted Mr Antonov as saying that Moscow saw the drone incident as "a provocation" and that "the unacceptable activity of the US military in the close proximity to our borders is a cause for concern". On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters there had been no high-level contact between Moscow and Washington over the incident. But he said Russia would never refuse to engage in constructive dialogue. Tensions have risen over the Black Sea ever since Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year the US and the UK stepped up reconnaissance and surveillance flights, though always operating in international airspace. According to the US, there has been a "pattern of dangerous actions by Russian pilots" interacting with allied aircraft in the region. This means the downing of the drone could conceivably have been the result of a mistake by a Russian pilot who got too close as they "buzzed" the unmanned aircraft. But if this was a deliberate attack on a US aircraft by a Russian warplane, then analysts say that would amount to a huge provocation and a substantial escalation. In that case, the attack would be seen as an attempt by the Kremlin to test the response of the United States. Western allies have worked hard to stop the war in Ukraine escalating into a direct confrontation with Russia. But this incident over the Black Sea is just that. The US will now have to evaluate its response. As US military commanders warned in their statement, this was a dangerous act that "could lead to miscalculation and unintended escalation".

Mike Ferguson said his monthly gas bill is set to rise from £2,000 to £14,500 Many of Scotland's ice rinks face closure due to crippling energy bills, a leading industry figure has warned. Ayr Ice Rink confirmed it would shut its doors permanently in September solely due to unprecedented hikes in the cost of gas and electricity. Scottish Ice Rink Association president Mike Ferguson said his Forfar business's monthly gas bill is set to rise from £2,000 to £14,500. He said several Scottish ice rinks were now at "the critical stage." Mr Ferguson, who owns curling, bowling and ice skating facility Forfar Indoor Sports, said: "Last year was incredibly successful for our elite athletes. "It's terrific to see medals, but they'll mean absolutely nothing if we can't keep our club curlers curling. "If we don't have ice rinks we won't have club curlers and we won't have a sport." Ayr Ice Rink's Andrew Kerr said the business "cannot cope" with the rising energy costs Ayr Ice Rink has operated for almost 50 years, but under its new energy deal faces a rise in its daily bill from £419 to £880. It would have needed to find an extra £150,000 next year to continue operating. "That just can't be done," its managing director Andrew Kerr told BBC Scotland. "In a normal year we just break even, but this year coming up, with a hike in energy prices, we just cannot cope with it. "Prices will come back down, I'm sure, for energy. But they're not going to come down to the level they were." Mr Kerr said there had been a "huge reaction" on social media to news of the closure." Ayr Ice Rink will close a month before its 50th birthday He said: "People are out there crying their eyes out. "We have curlers here from aged eight to 80, and they're devastated, as are the skaters and hockey players. "They're offering donations, but when you have to say to them it's £150,000, it's not £5,000 or £10,000, it hits home what the size of the problem is." Ice rinks are heavily energy-intensive due to their size and use of refrigeration, lighting, and dehumidifying. Some, like Lockerbie Ice Rink, have managed to make savings through a combination of reduced energy usage and wage bills, and successful grant applications. Mr Ferguson said rink operators were doing what they could to cut costs such as switching off lights and having efficient insulation. He said: "But they only scratch the surface when you're getting £150,000 to £250,000 increases in a six-month season. "Yes, we can pass on the cost to our customers by increasing their fees, but everyone is feeling the pinch and it's literally unsustainable over the long term." Scottish Curling's Vincent Bryson said even the thought of losing one rink was "catastrophic" Scottish Curling said the country had "a fighting chance" of keeping all 22 of the its rinks open in 12 months' time, but at least three are currently under serious threat of closure. Chief executive Vincent Bryson said: "Even the thought of losing one is catastrophic. "We're going to have to find a home for the 500 curlers and 30-odd clubs in Ayr but it's not the only place the situation is dire." He said that three rinks closing in the next year could potentially wipe out 25% of its membership. He said: "There's no sport that could recover from that. "Sport has got a great emotional pull for Scotland. So we don't struggle to get people to listen, but turning that into action is the great unknown. "The conversations we've had with governments at all levels has been positive, but we understand that the government are strapped as well." Winter Olympics silver medallist Scott Andrews started training at Ayr Ice Rink when he was eight Winter Olympics silver medallist curler Scott Andrews said he was devastated at the pending closure of Ayr Ice Rink. He said: "It's a massive part of the community and it's very much a social sport, so it will be a massive loss. "I started curling here when I was eight years old and my family all curled here. "This is where I learned how to curl and if it wasn't for Ayr Ice Rink I would never have got to the Olympics and won that Olympic medal."

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Explosions and gunfire as BBC reports from Jenin There have been intense exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and armed Palestinian militants in Jenin refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli military began what appears to be one of its most extensive operations in the territory in years with drone strikes early on Monday. Nine Palestinians have been killed and 100 injured, health officials say. Israel said it was putting a stop to Jenin being "a refuge for terrorism". Palestinians accused it of a war crime. The Palestinian Red Crescent says its crews have evacuated 3,000 people - including patients and the elderly - from the camp to hospitals. It says dozens of people had been detained by Israeli forces in their homes since early Monday, without being provided or allowed any food or drink. The Israeli military said there was no specific timeline for ending the operation, but that it could be "a matter of hours or a few days". Jenin has become a stronghold of a new generation of Palestinian militants who have become deeply frustrated by the Palestinian Authority's aging leadership and the restrictions of the Israeli occupation. The city has seen repeated Israeli military raids in the past year as local Palestinians have carried out deadly attacks on Israelis. Other Palestinian attackers have hidden there. In 2002, during the second Palestinian intifada, Israeli forces launched a full-scale incursion in Jenin. At least 52 Palestinian militants and civilians and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed during 10 days of intense fighting. Hundreds of Israeli soldiers were still operating inside Jenin on Monday night, more than 20 hours after the operation began. As well as the hum of drones overhead, regular bursts of gunfire and the loud thuds of explosions came throughout the day from the densely populated refugee camp, which is home to some 18,000 people and is now declared a closed Israeli military zone. Acrid smoke from burning tyres lit during protests also hung in the air above the city centre. A few young Palestinians were out on the streets, standing close to shuttered shops and staring nervously in the direction of the camp. The Israeli military has cut off telephone communications and the electricity supply to the camp, making it difficult to get an accurate picture of what is happening. Palestinian medics have also been struggling to reach the dozens of injured there. At the Palestinian hospital by the main entrance to the camp the mood was grim. One man told the BBC: "I met my brother's friend. I went up to him and had barely said a few words when he dropped on the ground. I went to run away, then I got hit by two bullets." Another man said there was a "massacre" in the camp. "There are children and civilians and they're not letting them out," he added. "Our electricity is cut, they have dug up all our roads. The camp will be destroyed." Jovana Arsenijevic of the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières told the BBC she was at a hospital that had seen more than 90 patients wounded by gunfire or shrapnel from explosive devices. The Israeli military said it was acting on precise intelligence and did not to seek to harm civilians, but many have been caught in the crossfire. The military allowed about 500 Palestinian families to leave the camp on Monday night. Some raised their hands or waved makeshift white flags in a gesture of surrender. People told the BBC that some men and teenaged boys had been stopped by soldiers, and kept behind. Hundreds of Israeli forces are on the ground in Jenin, said to be seizing weapons and explosives The first drone strike overnight targeted an apartment that the military said was being used as a hideout for Palestinians who had attacked Israelis and as a "joint operational command centre" for the Jenin Brigades - a unit made up of different Palestinian militant groups including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Drones were used for further air strikes and a brigade-size force of troops was deployed in what a military spokesman described as a "counter-terrorism operation" focused on seizing weapons and breaking "the safe haven mindset of the camp, which has become a hornet's nest". In the past year and a half, Palestinians behind some 50 attacks targeting Israelis have come from Jenin, according to the military. As armed Palestinians began fighting back from inside the camp, the Jenin Brigades said: "We will fight the occupation [Israeli] forces until the last breath and bullet, and we work together and unified from all factions and military formations." The Palestinian health ministry said nine Palestinians had been killed by Israeli forces, including three in the overnight drone strike. They all appeared to be young men or in their late teens - some confirmed as belonging to armed groups. The ministry warned that the death toll might rise because 20 of the injured were in a critical condition. Another Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire during a related protest near the West Bank city of Ramallah, it added. The Israeli military said the Palestinians killed in Jenin were affiliated to militant groups. Troops had also apprehended some 50 militants during the operation, and seized weapons and ammunition, it added. On Monday evening, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised its forces for entering what he called the "nest of terrorists" and asserted that they were doing so "with minimal injury to civilians". "We will continue this action as long as necessary in order to restore quiet and security," he added. There was a furious response to the operation from the Palestinian Authority Prime Minister, Mohammed Shtayyeh. "What's going on is an attempt to erase the refugee camp completely and displace the residents," he said. Neighbouring Jordan said the operation was "a clear violation of international humanitarian law", but the US expressed its support for what it called "Israel's security and right to defend its people against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups". Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said the plan was not to expand the military operation outside Jenin, but already Palestinian protests have reached the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip. And the longer this action goes on in Jenin, the greater the risk of another dangerous, wider escalation. The Jenin Brigade group has said its militants will fight back with their "last breath and bullet" There has been a surge of violence in the West Bank in recent months. On 20 June, seven Palestinians were killed during an Israeli raid in Jenin which saw the military's first use of an attack helicopter in the West Bank in years. The next day, two Hamas gunmen shot dead four Israelis near the settlement of Eli, 40km (25 miles) to the south. A Palestinian man was later shot dead during a rampage by hundreds of settlers in the nearby town of Turmusaya. That week also saw three Palestinian militants from Jenin killed in a rare Israeli drone strike. Since the start of the year, more than 140 Palestinians - both militants and civilians - have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, while another 36 have been killed in the Gaza Strip. Twenty-four Israelis, two foreigners and a Palestinian worker have been killed in attacks or apparent attacks by Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank. All were civilians except one off-duty serving soldier and a member of the Israeli security forces. Additional reporting by Rushdi Abu Alouf in Gaza City and Robert Greenall in London

Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar were walking together when they were attacked The families of two students killed in Nottingham last month are to create foundations in their name to ensure they "leave a legacy". Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber, both 19, were stabbed to death early on 13 June. Both sets of relatives have now set up online appeals to support causes the students particularly cared about. An earlier fundraiser in memory of the third victim, Ian Coates, 65, raised more than £28,000. The families of Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber attended vigils in Nottingham On Wednesday, a GoFundMe appeal was launched by Ms O'Malley-Kumar's younger brother, James, six days after Mr Webber's mother, Emma, set up a similar fundraiser online. Mr Kumar said: "She leaves behind devastated and heartbroken extended family and friends but we all feel compelled that something good must come from the loss of Grace's life. "In time an official 'Grace O'Malley-Kumar Foundation' will be created and donations will be used to further all that Grace supported and felt she would like to help with. "To ensure that Grace's name leaves a legacy and to keep her memory alive we have created this fund. Mr Kumar said all the money would go to the foundation "once the finer details have been arranged". Since being created the fundraiser has already raised more than £7,500 of its £10,000 target. The attacks led to large parts of Nottingham being cordoned off Meanwhile, the appeal for Mr Webber has already surpassed its £5,300 goal, with almost £10,000 being donated. His mother said: "He leaves behind a family broken by grief and loss but determined not to let him be taken in vain. "He lived his life with a simple 'if he liked you he liked you' mantra. With no time or judgement for creed, colour, sexuality, religion or background. "His inclusivity, quiet patience with others, and sheer generosity of his time prove what an extraordinary 'ordinary' person he was. "In time an official 'Barnaby Webber Foundation' will be created and funds will be used to further all of the qualities listed above and to keep his memory alive whilst reaching out to others." Ms O'Malley-Kumar was from Woodford in London and Mr Webber was from Taunton in Somerset. An inquest into their deaths, opened on Friday, heard all three victims had died as a result of stab wounds. Valdo Calocane, 31, is charged with their murder as well as the attempted murder of three pedestrians by driving a van into them in the city centre. Calocane, who has identified himself as Adam Mendes in previous court appearances, will face trial in January next year, pending a plea hearing on 25 September. Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.

Lisa-Marie Morris: "I often don't have £100 spare to go and do a food shop for half-term" A financial scheme which helps feed families in the school holidays gives parents hope, one mother has said. Lisa-Marie Morris from Port Talbot is among thousands in Wales using an interest-free micro-loan providing up to £100 in credit for food. Lender Fair For You said it has seen demand rise since the Iceland Food Club was set up with the supermarket chain. With money tight, Ms Morris visits a number of supermarkets and works out where she can buy food the cheapest. "It's quite difficult when you find that you can't work... and having bare minimum money," she said. The mother-of-three, who worked as a tennis coach but had to quit because of health problems, said it means she struggles to fund extra meals needed for her children during the school holidays. In order to keep costs low, she can visit three or four supermarkets looking to spend "the lowest amount of money possible while getting the most amount of food". She has even done practice runs, putting everything needed in a shopping basket to work out the cost before shopping at "the cheapest one". This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. "I pay £10 a week, so it's very manageable for me" "If I'm doing a bulk shop, or I'm trying to save money, I will spend quite a few days and I'll go on Morrisons, Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda, Aldi - all the supermarkets," she added. "I'll put everything I want in the basket and then I'll go through each one and find out where the cheapest one is." Chris Bennett, from Fair For You, said it was approached by the supermarket giant because it noticed it was "losing a lot of customers during school holidays" Ms Morris said it has helped since using the food club set up by Fair For You, an ethical finance company, alongside Iceland, the Deeside-based supermarket chain. "I often don't have £100 spare to go and do a food shop for half-term but with this I pay £10 a week so it's very manageable for me," she said. Chris Bennett, from Fair For You, said it was approached by the supermarket giant because it noticed it was "losing a lot of customers during school holidays", largely because people were unable to "access funds to purchase food". Fair For You researched possible solutions and the Iceland Food Club was launched last year. "We're seeing a significant reduction, 92% either stopped or reduced their usage of food banks and a significant drop in the usage of loan sharks by about 80%," said Mr Bennett. Meanwhile, demand for help is rising. "We're seeing more people wanting to access our services than ever before," he added. "These are people who haven't needed to access our services previously so we're definitely seeing a shift in the type of customers that are needing our sort of support - and we do see that trend continuing."

The man driving a bus in Australia that crashed, killing 10 and injuring at least 20, was allegedly going too fast in foggy conditions, police say. The bus was carrying passengers returning from a wedding on Sunday when it overturned at a roundabout near the town of Greta in New South Wales (NSW). Many of the victims are connected to tight-knit rural sporting clubs, local media have reported. The crash is one of Australia's deadliest road incidents. Brett Andrew Button, 58, has been charged with multiple counts of dangerous driving and negligence, after being arrested on Monday. He was allegedly driving "in a manner that was inconsistent with the conditions", the NSW Police Traffic and Highway Patrol Commander told reporters on Tuesday. "He lost control of that vehicle... obviously the speed was too quick for him to negotiate that roundabout," Acting Assistant Commissioner David Waddell added. Fourteen people injured in the crash in the Hunter Valley wine region remain in hospital, with two in a critical condition, police say. They have not formally identified any of the victims, but the mayor of Singleton said many lived in the small town. "I know we'll never get over it," Sue Moore told the BBC. Some local families have been at the side of injured people in hospital in Newcastle and Sydney, Ms Moore said, and others are planning funerals while reeling from "the worst possible thing that could ever happen in their lives". "As far as I know, one lot of parents are leaving two kids orphaned," she said. A junior doctor, Rebecca Mullen, was among those killed, said NSW Health Minister Ryan Park."This has made a very dark day even darker for NSW Health," he said. The bus overturned while making a turn at a roundabout late on Sunday night Tasmanian man Kane Symons also died in the crash, his former surf club confirmed on social media. Posting on behalf of his family, the Carlton Park Surf Lifesaving Club described Mr Symons as "an amazing athlete... a great bloke and a mate to many". "We adored him and he will be truly missed," they said. Pop-up mental health clinics have been set up in Singleton and the nearby town of Cessnock to support the local community, and Ms Moore said discussions are under way to fundraise for the victims' families. Mr Button is also a Hunter Valley local, and is clearly hurting along with the victims' relatives, a magistrate said when he faced court on Tuesday morning. "I see before me a man suffering," Magistrate Robyn Richardson said, granting him bail. The Cessnock Local Court heard Mr Button had committed seven driving offences over the past 30 years, but did not have a criminal record. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday said the "horrific tragedy" had rocked the country, particularly because people "associate weddings with love and... celebrations". "Of course, the scars will last for such a long, long period of time," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The crash site was "still an active crime scene", police said on Monday, with forensics officers working through the wreckage. The Hunter Valley in NSW is known for its vineyards and native bushland, making it a popular spot for wine lovers and group outings or celebrations.

The daffodils were in a display marked "seasonal favourites" alongside spring onions Marks & Spencer has apologised after displaying daffodils alongside spring onions in one of its stores. The flowers, which can be poisonous if eaten, were displayed in the fruit and veg aisle under a "seasonal favourites" banner. Botanist and presenter James Wong drew attention to the display on Twitter, warning that eating daffodils "is like swallowing a box of tiny needles". An M&S spokesperson said it was a "genuine error in one of our stores". Daffodil stems, which are widely sold in supermarkets at this time of year, can bear a resemblance to some vegetables at first glance. Public Health England wrote to retailers in 2015 warning about the potentially nasty consequences if there was a mix-up with how they are labelled. It said they contain toxic alkaloids which can cause severe vomiting, noting 27 poisoning cases in the previous year. Health officials believe daffodil poisoning led to 10 hospitalisations in Bristol in 2012 because of their similarity to a chive used in Chinese cooking. Mr Wong said the error was originally spotted by his mum, who took a picture of the display. He said the poisoning caused by accidentally eating them can be "excruciating" and urged M&S to improve training for staff. Responding to him on Twitter, an M&S spokesperson said: "We have contacted the store and the signage has been updated and onions moved. "As a precaution we're reminding all stores to make sure the flowers are displayed properly", they added. "Customer safety is our priority and all daffodils have an on-pack warning that they are not safe to consume."

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Heavy Conservative local election losses represent a "clear rejection" of Rishi Sunak in his first electoral test as prime minister, Labour has said. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer claimed his party was on course to win the next general election, expected next year. The Tories lost 48 councils and more than 1,000 councillors across England in Thursday's polls, exceeding their worst predictions. Many Tories were angry at the scale of the losses, with some blaming Mr Sunak. Labour says it is now the largest party in local government, surpassing the Tories for the first time since 2002. "The British public has sent a clear rejection of a prime minister who never had a mandate to begin with," a Labour spokesperson said. The Liberal Democrats had what their leader Sir Ed Davey said was their "best result in decades", taking control of 12 councils, mostly in Tory heartlands. The party gained 405 new councillors, compared with Labour's 536 gains. The Green Party gained 241 seats - their best-ever result in local elections - and gained its first majority on an English council, in Mid-Suffolk, although they were overtaken as the biggest party by Labour in Brighton and Hove. Mr Sunak admitted the results were "disappointing", but said he did not detect "a massive groundswell of movement towards the Labour Party or excitement for its agenda". Sir Keir claimed the "fantastic" results showed his party was well placed to oust the Tories from government in a general election, expected next year. "Make no mistake, we are on course for a Labour majority at the next general election," he told cheering activists in Medway in Kent, one of the councils his party has wrested from the Tories. Labour won control of councils in areas that will be crucial battlegrounds in the general election, including Medway, Swindon, Plymouth, Stoke-on-Trent, and East Staffordshire. The BBC's projected national vote share put Labour on 35%, the Tories on 26% and the Lib Dems on 20%. Labour's projected nine-point lead represents its largest over the Conservatives on this measure since the party lost power in 2010. Sir John Curtice, the polling expert, said this year's results were "only a little short of calamitous for the Conservatives". But the BBC's political editor, Chris Mason, said the results suggested it would be hard for either the Conservatives or Labour to be confident of winning a majority at the next general election. Labour shadow cabinet member Peter Kyle denied the results, which saw the Lib Dems gain nearly as many new councillors as Labour, was an anti-government, rather than a pro-Labour, vote. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the results showed Labour had won back support in "key places" and would win an outright majority at the general election, without needing to do deals with other parties. "In all of the areas that the Labour Party targeted, that we focused resources, that we really wanted to reconnect to voters, we did so." He added that Sir Keir Starmer had "led from the front" and Labour had run a "disciplined" campaign, which showed it was "moving towards government." In Swindon, where Labour took control of the borough council for the first time in 20 years, ousted Tory council leader David Renard blamed "the cost of living and the performance of the government in the last 12 months" for his party's woes locally. Mr Renard said although the prime minister had "started to stabilise things", for voters in Swindon "what had gone on before that was something that they didn't like". David Renard, Swindon's former council leader, who lost his own seat The Conservative mayor of the Tees Valley, Ben Houchen, who is up for election next year, said the poor Tory performance was a partly a result of "the turmoil and upheaval of the last 12 months". He said Labour had been "successful in making this a referendum on the government", adding "people don't feel like they can vote for us". Nigel Churchill, a former Tory councillor who lost his seat on Plymouth Council - another Labour target - said "I think we can safely say" the Conservatives will lose the next general election. "The general public do not trust them at the moment," he said. But Education Minister Robert Halfon said this year's local elections were always "going to be difficult" for his party. He said internal party divisions "didn't help", but claimed the losses were down to external factors, such as the cost-of-living crisis and problems in the NHS. "Every government during the mid-term, especially a government that has been in power for 13 years, always suffers losses in local elections," he said. Other Tory MPs told the BBC that apathy - Conservative voters staying at home - was also a big problem for the party. The seats up for grabs were mostly on district councils, responsible for services including bin collections, parks, public housing and planning applications. The rest of the elections were for a mixture of metropolitan and unitary councils - single local authorities that deal with all local services - and for four mayors. The elections were the first in England to see voter ID checks at polling stations. Some voters told the BBC they were turned away from polling stations, prompting critics to call for the ID rules to be dropped.

The latest episode of Bluey shown in Australia showed Bluey's father weighing himself in their bathroom An episode of a popular children's television programme has been edited amid claims of "fat-shaming". The latest instalment of Bluey, which was broadcast on ABC in Australia, showed the title character's parents complaining about their weight. Critics said the show could lead to young viewers developing worries about their own bodies. An ABC spokesperson said the episode had been edited and the new version would be distributed globally. Bluey, about a puppy and her family, is shown on ABC, Disney+ and BBC children's channel CBeebies. The episode, Exercise, begins with Bluey's father, Bandit, weighing himself while Bluey is in the bath. "Oh man ... I just need to do some exercise," Bandit says. "Tell me about it," Bluey's mother, Chilli, replies. Bandit looks at himself in the mirror, holding his sides. "Why don't you just do some exercise?" Bluey asks. The edited programme goes on to show Bluey's father exercising in the garden That section of the show has now been cut after some parents and health experts raised concerns on social media about body-shaming. Some said they did not want their children to see adults being dissatisfied with the shape of their bodies, and only using exercise to lose weight. But others said it was an over-reaction to an episode that promoted the value of exercise. A spokesperson for ABC told the BBC: "The recent episode of Bluey, Exercise, has been republished by the ABC following a decision by the makers of the programme. The new version provides families with the opportunity to manage important conversations in their own way. "As the home of Bluey, the ABC supports the decision to re-edit the program and we have updated the episode on our platforms. "BBC Studios will use this revised version for global distribution and also support this decision." This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The decision was welcomed by Dr Laura Renshaw-Vuillier, a senior lecturer at Bournemouth University and an expert on eating disorders and mental illness. "I think it's extremely important that we have discussions around healthy eating and exercise, but more from a health perspective rather than from a fat-shaming perspective," she told BBC News. "I did not see that episode, but I like how Bandit is so playful with his kids, and I think that if they can promote a way of doing exercise for fun rather than to lose weight it's great." Dr Elina Telford, a child and adolescent clinical psychologist, said it was not possible to predict how the Bluey episode could affect children. But she added: "It is reasonable to conclude that it is likely to have been unhelpful to at least some children and young people who internalise such messages and use their body weight and shape as a way to measure their own self worth. "It is important to add that out relationship to body image, food, exercise and health are highly complex, and simplification of these difficulties maintain unhelpful and often derogating narratives about what it means to be different shapes and sizes." She added: "I am pleased that ABC heard the concern of the public and acted accordingly. In my opinion, their response isn't censorship, it's responsible and responsive broadcasting and that at least, is one thing to be celebrated." The Emmy-award winning Bluey is a huge international success and is broadcast in more than 60 countries including the UK, the US and China. It was streamed for more than 20 billion minutes on Disney+ in the US last year, putting it in the country's top 10 streaming programmes for minutes viewed. Bluey was co-commissioned by ABC and BBC Studios - the commercial arm of the BBC - in 2017 and is made by Australian production company Ludo. The ABC has broadcast rights in Australia and the BBC has broadcast and commercial rights internationally.

The court heard that Mr Afriyie's arms had been folded when he was Tasered A youth worker Tasered after being stopped by police while driving through central London in April 2018 has lost a High Court damages fight. Edwin Afriyie, who is in his mid-30s, said he suffered head, back and leg injuries during the incident in King William Street. Mr Afriyie took legal action against the City of London Police and made a misfeasance allegation. Police disputed his claims and a judge ruled against him on Friday. A barrister representing Mr Afriyie, who lives in Hayes, west London, said the Tasering was not in response to any "identified threat". David Hughes said the police's use of Tasers should be proportionate and lawful and suggested that their authority had been wrongfully exercised. Mr Afriyie is black, but the judge said he had not "advanced a claim" under equality legislation nor sought to argue that officers' treatment of him was "motivated by his race". She had watched police bodycam footage showing Mr Afriyie being Tasered after officers said he was being arrested for not providing a breath sample. Mr Afriyie, who has not been charged with a driving offence arising from the incident, was standing with his arms folded when he was hit and footage, available online, showed him falling backwards, landing with his head on a step and his body on the pavement. She said police had proved that a police constable "honestly believed" that the use of the Taser was "necessary". The judge added that the belief was "objectively reasonable". "Mr Hughes submitted that I should find as a fact that nothing was about to happen that necessitated the use of force," she said. "He may be right that nothing would, in fact, have happened had the Taser not been discharged. "However what matters is whether [the officer's] belief in what might happen, so as to justify the use of the Taser, was objectively reasonable." Mrs Justice Hill had also overseen a trial of the same case at the High Court last year but fell ill and was unable to complete it. It was reported elsewhere that Mr Afriyie is considering an appeal. Follow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk

David Goodwillie has said he would be willing to face a criminal trial Prosecutors have been asked to consider re-opening criminal proceedings against David Goodwillie. The Crown Office dropped rape charges against the former Scotland international in 2011 after it said there was "insufficient evidence". Goodwillie was ruled to be a rapist in a civil case but said recently he would be willing to face a criminal trial. A lawyer representing victim Denise Clair told BBC Scotland they have asked prosecutors to re-examine the case. Thomas Ross KC, who has written to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said he would also explore options for a private prosecution. Goodwillie would be able to object to a future criminal case because he was given an assurance he would not be prosecuted again after the case was dropped in 2011, according to Mr Ross. But speaking out earlier this month for the first time since the 2017 civil case, the footballer told the Anything Goes podcast he would be willing to go to a criminal court to clear his name. Mr Ross told BBC Scotland that the case was one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in the last 12 or 13 years. "A woman feels she was really badly let down by the Crown Office in 2011. "We also on the other hand have a young man who says his career has been blighted because of that decision and all I'm saying to the Crown Office is well let's have a look at it. "If she wants to go to the criminal court and he wants to go to the criminal court, why don't we go?" A COPFS spokesperson said: "We understand that the decision not to prosecute continues to cause great upset to Ms Clair. "The solicitor general, on behalf of the law officers, will consider the points raised by Ms Clair's legal representatives." Goodwillie's podcast appearance was released days after he turned out for ninth-tier side Glasgow United FC in a friendly match. Rape Crisis Scotland said the club had sent a "clear message of disregard" to survivors of rape and sexual violence, while Glasgow City Council has threatened to bar the club from its training facility if it signs the former Dundee United, Aberdeen and Blackburn player. Glasgow United FC has not confirmed if Goodwillie has been signed. The club told BBC Scotland they would not walk away from the player and said there had been a "witch hunt" against him. Glasgow United FC have been warned by the council over access to their training facility In 2017, Goodwillie and former Dundee United teammate David Robertson were ordered to pay £100,000 in damages after a judge ruled they raped Ms Clair at a flat in Armadale, West Lothian, in 2011. Neither faced a criminal trial over the rape accusation after prosecutors said there was not enough evidence. Robertson retired from football aged 30 in the days after the ruling, while Goodwillie left English side Plymouth Argyle by "mutual agreement". However, the forward soon signed with Scottish League One side Clyde, who he played for more than 100 times and captained before leaving in 2022. Raith Rovers sparked outrage by signing Goodwillie in January 2022 and a loan move back to Clyde also collapsed. Rape Crisis Scotland described the Raith Rovers move as another "clear message of disregard" to survivors of rape and sexual violence. The forward was released without playing a game in September 2022, with Raith Rovers admitting it "got it wrong" by signing him. In February this year, Northern Premier League side Radcliffe FC, based in Bury, Greater Manchester, released the striker after one game following a public outcry. Four months later, Goodwillie's contract with Australian semi-professional club Sorrento FC was rescinded. The club apologised to anyone "that may have been caused offence by his signing".

Partygate investigator Sue Gray was offered a job as Keir Starmer's chief of staff in March Sir Keir Starmer says he is confident that former senior civil servant Sue Gray has not broken any rules in talking to Labour about a role. Ms Gray was offered a job as the Labour leader's chief of staff in March. Sir Keir also said he did not have any discussions with Ms Gray while she was investigating former PM Boris Johnson. The Cabinet Office will update MPs later on its investigation into the circumstances around her resignation with a written statement. The report is not expected to be the final judgement on Ms Gray's departure, which will come from the independent Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba). The watchdog is to recommend how long Ms Gray, who probed lockdown gatherings in Downing Street, should wait before being allowed to take up the job with Labour. Sir Keir accused the government of using the issue to try and deflect from the local election campaign, saying it should be focusing on the cost-of-living crisis instead. "[The public are] not sitting at their breakfast talking about Sue Gray, they're talking about their bills," he told BBC Breakfast. Asked whether Ms Gray had broken any code of conduct, Sir Keir said: "Firstly I had no discussions with her whilst she was investigating Boris Johnson whatsoever." He added: "I'm confident she hasn't broken any of the rules." Under the civil service code, officials of Ms Gray's seniority must wait a minimum of three months before taking up outside employment. Senior civil servants, as well as ministers, are expected to check with Acoba about any employment they wish to take within two years of leaving government. The body provides advice and can recommend a delay of up to two years in starting a new job, but it has no power to block appointments. However, Labour has said the party and Ms Gray will abide by its recommendations. A long delay could hamper attempts to have Ms Gray in place well before the next general election, which is widely expected next year, to help Labour prepare for government if it wins power. Cabinet Office Minister Jeremy Quin has previously said Ms Gray's talks with Labour may have breached civil service rules, including the requirement to inform Acoba before a job offer is announced, and to clear contact with opposition parties with ministers. Ms Gray became well known after she was chosen to look into the Partygate scandal last year. She has held a number of senior positions, including head of the government's propriety and ethics team, since joining the civil service in the 1970s. Ms Gray resigned from the post of second permanent secretary in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in March, after it emerged she had been offered a job with Labour. Labour has insisted it did not approach Ms Gray until after her Partygate report was published. Bur Mr Johnson and his allies have seized on Labour's job offer to claim Ms Gray's investigation when he was in power was an attempt to smear him. Her report was critical of the senior political and civil service leadership, saying they "must bear responsibility" for the culture at No 10 during Covid lockdowns. It contributed to Mr Johnson's downfall as prime minister, prompting numerous Conservative MPs to call on him to resign.

The Duke of Sussex has told a court he is suing the publisher of the Daily Mirror to stop "absolute intrusion and hate" towards him and his wife. Prince Harry was giving evidence against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) over illegal newsgathering claims, including phone hacking. He was choked-up as he finished giving evidence for a second day, and said it had been "a lot". MGN denies it used illegal methods to gather stories about the prince. At London's High Court, the prince explained he started discussions about possible legal action after a chance-meeting in France in 2018 with David Sherborne, now his barrister. The prince said before then he had no concerns over any particular newspaper stories due to unlawful activity because it "was all contained in the Palace". When asked about his discussions with lawyers after that chance meeting with Mr Sherborne, Prince Harry said he had wanted to put a stop to the "absolute intrusion and hate that was coming towards" him and the Duchess of Sussex. He said he also wanted to "see if there was any way to find a different course of action, rather than relying on the Institution's way". But in cross-examination, Andrew Green KC, the lawyer representing the publisher of the Mirror, Sunday Mirror and The People, suggested Harry had not found a single story that came from phone hacking. Harry replied "there is hard evidence to suggest an incredible amount of suspiciousness" over how stories were sourced and he believed burner phones were used "extensively", referring to phones that can be disposed of so no records are kept. Prince Harry alleges about 140 articles published between 1996 and 2010 - from his childhood into early adulthood - contained information gathered using unlawful methods, with a sample of 33 stories written about him being considered by the civil court. Many of the stories the prince claimed were obtained illegally concerned his relationship with his ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy. In a 2006 Sunday People article Ms Davy was said to have been "screaming for half an hour" at him on the phone and "blew her top" over his visit to a Spearmint Rhino lap dancing club in Berkshire. Chelsy Davy and Prince Harry were in an on-off relationship between 2004 and 2010 Asked where he thought the information on her screaming had come from, the prince said: "At this point, knowing that my girlfriend's number was bizarrely in the hands of Mirror journalists, that they probably looked through her call data and saw missed calls, late calls… and managed to put together a story based on that." "It was very suspicious that they had her number," he added, and he did not believe she would have given the Mirror Group or any journalists her phone number. The prince told the court he once found a tracking device on Ms Davy's car at a time when the press were reporting on what was described as a "make-or-break" holiday for the couple. He also highlighted another article in The People in 2007 which reported a "Palace source" saying the couple had been having "monumental" rows and their relationship was "in crisis after a string of bitter bust-ups". Again he said it was "incredibly suspicious" as he had never discussed his relationship with the Palace. Mr Green responded by saying we are in the "land of total speculation about where this information might have come from". The couple broke up in 2010 after a six-year on-off relationship. She attended the prince's wedding to Meghan in Windsor in 2018. The prince was also asked about The People publishing photographs of the prince, a friend Mark Dyer and the late TV presenter Caroline Flack meeting up. At the time he suspected one of his friends had leaked the details after they were confronted by photographers. In turn this led him and his brother William to stop talking to Mr Dyer for some time afterwards. However he said: "I now believe the information came from our voicemails… Even those I trusted the most, I ended up doubting." Asked how he would react if the court concluded that he had never been hacked by any MGN journalist, Harry said that he had been hacked on an "industrial scale" and he would "feel some injustice" if he did not win the trial. After Prince Harry's evidence concluded, he stayed to see the Daily Mirror's former royal correspondent Jane Kerr give her evidence. She had been a royal reporter for the newspaper and later royal correspondent for a decade up to 2007 and wrote a number of the articles under scrutiny in the case. In her written witness statement, she denied voicemail hacking or using private investigators to carry out unlawful information gathering. Asked about her use of private investigators, Ms Kerr told the court she had "no reason to believe" details for stories had been obtained unlawfully. "These were people who were well known to the news desk, I did not think there was anything wrong with using them," she said. Three other people are also bringing claims against MGN in this case - Coronation Street actors Michael Turner, known professionally as Michael Le Vell, and Nikki Sanderson, as well as Fiona Wightman, the ex-wife of comedian Paul Whitehouse. The claimants allege unlawful methods were used to obtain information for stories and say senior executives must have known about it and failed to stop it, which MGN denies. The publisher has either denied or not admitted each of the claims. MGN also argues that some of the claimants have brought their legal action too late.

A major multi-agency search is under way for Ausra Plungiene who was last seen on Tuesday morning More than 60 rescue team volunteers have resumed the search across Eryri for a missing dog walker. Ausra Plungiene, 56, from Prestatyn, Denbighshire, set off with her black Swedish lapphund in the mountains above the Conwy Valley on Tuesday morning. The search was paused at 20:00 BST on Wednesday, but resumed on Thursday. Two possible sightings were also being investigated, North Wales Police said, with a senior officer adding that the search area was almost 14 sq miles. The force said Ms Plungiene is an experienced mountain walker who was well equipped for the conditions. Specially trained officers are supporting her family as the search across the national park - also known as Snowdonia - continues. Supt Owain Llewellyn said: "We are desperately concerned about Ausra's wellbeing, as are her family. "A large search involving several organisations has been taking place all day in the mountains above Rowen until we lost the light in the evening. "Sixty-five volunteers, including members of the RAF Mountain Rescue Service, had been out on the hills "in some extremely challenging conditions. "The search area now extends to 36 sq km, a huge area which is providing a real challenge to the team. "The search is focusing on the mountain area south of Rowen in the Conwy Valley sort of heading towards Llwellyn and encompassing a number of mountain peaks there. "It's an absolutely horrendous situation for the family." Video posted on Twitter showed snow and ice on the ground and strong winds in the area on Wednesday. This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Gareth Wyn Jones This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Farmer Gareth Wyn Jones, who captured the video of a search helicopter over the mountains on Wednesday, said: "The last few days has been pretty bad, the night the lady went missing was cold and wet, with hailstones, but the morning after I was taking the lambs onto the heft and this almighty storm storm came. "I had to look for shelter and the snow that was landing on me was freezing on me. So the conditions up there, even higher up where she was missing, would be even worse," he said. "It does make people worry for her safety even [if] she is well prepared. This place is massive - it's 27,000 acres of open mountain, and it is literally like looking for a needle in a haystack." "This place is massive - it's 27,000 acres of open mountain, and it is literally like looking for a needle in a haystack," farmer Mr Jones said Local residents in Prestatyn said they hoped Ms Plungiene would be found soon. "It's a long time to go missing, it was so cold and windy last night. I hope and pray they find her, bless her," Joan Castle said. Mal Edwards said recent bad weather and high winds had added to the concern for Ms Plungiene. "The last couple of nights have been quite stormy. I do know it does get to minus zero temperatures with the wind chill factor, so that is quite worrying," he said. A car believed to be that of Ausra Plungiene was found by police near Rowen, Conwy on Wednesday Ausra Plungiene's car was found in a mountain car park in Bwlch-y-ddeufaen shortly after midnight on Wednesday. Police are investigating two possible sightings of her and her dog, called Eyora, in the Carneddau mountains on Tuesday. "The thoughts of all the teams are with Ausra's family and friends at this very difficult time." It is believed Ms Plungiene may have been wearing a dark pink or purple padded jacket, black leggings and blue shoes. Officers are appealing for anyone who may have been walking in that area on Tuesday with a dog to get in touch, so they can can rules these sightings out of their enquiries. Ms Plungiene left her home in Prestatyn, Denbighshire with her Swedish lapphund on Tuesday morning The team is also investigating possible leads from a hillwalking app Ms Plungiene often uses to log her mountain routes. Supt Llewellyn urged people not to conduct their own searches due to the poor weather conditions.

Harvey Evans, 15, and Kyrees Sullivan, 16, died in a bike crash on Monday A police watchdog has appealed for witnesses who saw the moments before a fatal crash involving two boys in Ely. The crash sparked a riot in the Cardiff suburb on Monday leading to nine arrests and 15 officers being injured. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it had already carried out "extensive" house-to-house enquiries in the local area. The IOPC also said its investigation would be impartial and independent of the South Wales Police force. The exact circumstances of the deaths of Kyrees Sullivan,16, and Harvey Evans,15, have not been established. Reports on social media suggested the police were chasing the pair, who were riding together on an electric bike shortly before the collision. CCTV footage later released showed a police van following the boys minutes before they died on Snowden Road at 18:00 BST. On Wednesday, South Wales Police confirmed its officers had been following the teenagers prior to their deaths, but refused to answer further questions about it, citing an ongoing IOPC investigation. A riot broke out in the Cardiff suburb shortly after the boys died in a collision So far, CCTV is being gathered and the investigating officers are reviewing initial accounts from the police officers involved. They will also investigate: Director of the IOPC David Ford said: "Our investigators have been conducting enquiries and securing evidence in the immediate vicinity of where the events took place, speaking to local residents, distributing leaflets and gathering as much relevant information as possible. "I am truly grateful for the co-operation and assistance we have received from people within the local community. "We would welcome anyone we haven't yet spoken to yet, who believes they have footage or witnessed anything relevant between 5.35pm and 6.10pm on Monday, to come forward to us. Cars were set on fire on Monday evening "We are working hard to establish the exact circumstances of what took place in the period leading up to the collision. "I would like to reassure everyone in the community that our work will be thorough, impartial, and independent of the police." The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Last updated on .From the section European Football Kylian Mbappe scored a club record 201st goal for Paris St-Germain in an entertaining 4-2 win over Nantes. He had to wait until the 92nd minute but was clinical as he turned to finish left-footed and go clear of Edinson Cavani at the top of the PSG goal list. The France forward, who turned 24 in December, has established himself as a footballing superstar. "I play to make history," said Mbappe, who joined in 2017 initially on loan from Monaco before a 180m euros move. "I have always said I wanted to make history in France, in the capital of my country, in my city, and I am doing that. It's magnificent, but there is still a lot to be done." Mbappe finished the game as captain and told Canal Plus: "For me, as a native Parisian, this is special. If someone had said to me I would score the goal to beat the record while wearing the captain's armband, I would not have believed it." The Frenchman has played at two World Cup finals, winning the trophy in 2018 and earning the Golden Boot as top scorer in 2022. Mbappe, who also won the 2021 Nations League with his country, scored a hat-trick in December's World Cup final against Argentina, which France lost on penalties after a 3-3 draw. Since joining PSG from Monaco in 2017 for a world-record fee for a teenager, Mbappe has won four Ligue 1 titles and topped the division's scoring charts for each of the past four seasons. This season, the forward has now scored 30 goals and made eight assists - taking his total to 85 for the club in 247 games. PSG went 2-0 up at the Parc des Princes with Lionel Messi opening the scoring before Jaouen Hadjam's own goal. However, Nantes came back to level before half-time thanks to goals from Ludovic Blas and Ignatius Ganago, with PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma caught out at his near post for the first and making a fumble that led to the second. Mbappe crossed for Danilo Pereira to head the home side back in front on the hour mark before his crowning moment came late in the game. • None Attempt saved. Mostafa Mohamed (Nantes) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top centre of the goal. Assisted by Fabien Centonze. • None Goal! Paris Saint Germain 4, Nantes 2. Kylian Mbappé (Paris Saint Germain) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Timothée Pembélé. • None Attempt blocked. Lionel Messi (Paris Saint Germain) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. • None Attempt blocked. Kylian Mbappé (Paris Saint Germain) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Carlos Soler. • None Attempt saved. Kylian Mbappé (Paris Saint Germain) right footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Vitinha. • None Attempt saved. Kylian Mbappé (Paris Saint Germain) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top right corner. • None Attempt missed. Ignatius Ganago (Nantes) left footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Fabien Centonze with a cross. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page

Nigel Lawson was synonymous with the economic boom of the 1980s - but also some of the pain that followed Nigel Lawson, who has died at 91, presided over the economic boom of the 1980s that came to define the Thatcher government. A reforming chancellor, he set out to reduce taxation and encourage growth which saw him leave office with the country's budget in surplus. He was a leading figure in the drive to privatise a number of state-owned companies. In later life, he caused controversy with his outspoken attacks on the concept of man-made climate change. Nigel Lawson was born on 11 March 1932 into a non-orthodox Jewish family in Hampstead, north London, the son of a tea merchant. His grandfather, Gustav Leibson, had emigrated from Latvia, becoming a British citizen in 1914. He anglicised the family name to Lawson in June 1925. The young Nigel followed his father's footsteps to Westminster School before going to Oxford from where he graduated with a first-class honours degree in philosophy, politics and economics. After completing his national service in the Royal Navy, where he commanded a fast patrol boat, he went into journalism. He began on the Financial Times, where he wrote the Lex column before moving to the Sunday Telegraph where he became City editor. In 1966, Lawson became editor of the Spectator magazine. He trod a fairly liberal line, including opposition to the war in Vietnam. He also made regular appearances as a pundit and interviewer on BBC television. He unsuccessfully contested the Labour seat of Eton and Slough in the 1970 general election, eventually entering Parliament as member for the Conservative stronghold of Blaby, now known as South Leicestershire, in February 1974. With Ted Heath losing that election, Lawson found himself on the opposition benches. As a Conservative whip, he struck up an unlikely alliance with Labour left-wingers Jeff Rooker and Audrey Wise, to amend the 1977 budget to index-link tax thresholds to prevent them being eroded by the then high rates of inflation. When Margaret Thatcher entered Downing Street in May 1979, Lawson was appointed financial secretary to the Treasury. He worked with Geoffrey Howe before replacing him in the Treasury He quickly demonstrated his energy and thirst for reform, playing a leading part in the government's abolition of exchange controls, which led to a free movement of currency to and from the UK. In September 1981, he was promoted to energy secretary, where he was immediately thrown into conflict with the miners' unions. Losses in the coal industry, due to uneconomic pits, were rising but he was aware that any attempt to tackle this would see a repeat of the miners' strike that had brought down the Heath government Under Lawson's leadership, the government stockpiled coal and converted some coal-burning power stations to oil, moves which were crucial in the government's eventual victory over the mining unions. Lawson also laid the foundations for the privatisation of British Gas, British Airways and British Telecom. "We are seeing the birth of people's capitalism," he said. Following the Conservative election victory in 1983, Lawson replaced Geoffrey Howe as chancellor and immediately set out on a wide-ranging programme of tax reform. There were changes to corporate tax in the 1984 Budget, while a year later he signalled a move from direct to indirect taxation by reducing national insurance contributions for the lower paid and increasing the scope of VAT. During his period in office, the basic rate of income tax was lowered to 25% while the top rate came down from 60% to 40%. Lawson also turned a budget deficit of £10.5bn when he took office to a surplus of £4.1bn when he resigned in 1989. On 27 October 1986 came the deregulation of London's financial markets, dubbed the Big Bang. While this strengthened the City of London as an economic powerhouse, Lawson later conceded that it did pave the way for the global financial crisis of 2007 by loosening the restrictions on the ability of banks to lend. During Lawson's time at the Treasury, unemployment continued to fall but inflation began to rise, due, as Lawson later admitted, to his failure to keep a tight grip on interest rates, "I should have tightened monetary policy at an earlier stage," he later said. He was a fierce opponent of the European Economic Community's move towards monetary union. "It is clear that implies political union," he said. "The United States of Europe. That is simply not on the agenda." But despite his success, his relationship with the prime minister was deteriorating. He opposed the introduction of the community charge, or poll tax as it came to be known, but was over-ruled by Thatcher. He also fell out with the prime minister's financial guru, Sir Alan Walters. Margaret Thatcher turned to Sir Alan Walters for economic advice - putting strain on her relationship with her chancellor When a public row erupted over his continued support for the exchange rate mechanism Lawson finally resigned in October 1989 and was replaced by John Major. His was the second longest tenure of a chancellor in the 20th Century after David Lloyd George. His sudden departure, followed closely by that of Walters, raised questions about the government's financial policies and was seen by many as the beginning of the end of Margaret Thatcher's term in office. In 1992, he was created Baron Lawson of Blaby. By this time, he had gone on a crash diet, his familiar portly figure reduced by five stone, and published the Nigel Lawson Diet Book. In 2004, he re-emerged as a fierce critic of the concept of man-made climate change. He was one of six signatories to a letter condemning the Kyoto Protocol, which committed countries to reduce carbon emissions. He followed this up in 2008 with a book entitled, An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming, a work which one critic described as "largely one of misleading messages". In later years he became a fierce critic of the concept of man-made climate change "There is a lot in this debate that is about playing the man not the ball," he complained. He went on to form a think tank, the Global Warming Policy Foundation, to continue to challenge the widely accepted scientific consensus on the issue. "The policy of this government," he said in 2010, "is crazy and damaging. It is complete nonsense to say that carbon dioxide is a pollutant - it is not." Always a Eurosceptic, Lawson backed the UK leaving the European Union in the 2016 Brexit referendum, serving on the organising committee of the Vote Leave campaign group. Lawson, who lived in France for many years, insisted that the UK was not turning its back on Europe but reasserting sovereignty that had been given away by successive governments, including the one he served in. In what turned out to be his last speech in the Lords in April 2019, he suggested Parliament's "refusal to accept the people's judgement" was causing a damaging rift in the country. "There is a real danger that undesirable but very often understandable insurrectionary forces will feel that they cannot trust the British Parliament or the British constitution, and a very ugly situation could well arise," he warned. Lawson married Vanessa Salmon, whose family owned the Lyons Corner House firm, in 1955 and the couple had four children, including Dominic, who became a journalist, and Nigella, who found fame as a TV cook and food writer. The couple divorced in 1980 and Lawson subsequently married Commons researcher Therese Maclear. The couple, who had two children together, separated in 2008.

The US government has ordered all non-emergency staff to leave the island An American nurse and her child have been kidnapped in Haiti, according to a Christian aid charity she worked for. Alix Dorsainvil was working in a community ministry near Port-au-Prince when she was taken, El Roi Haiti said in a statement. The US State Department is aware of reports and is in "regular contact" with Haitian authorities. Officials in Haiti have appealed to the international community to help break the grip of armed gangs on the country. Ms Dorsainvil is understood to be the wife of El Roi Haiti's director and founder, Sandro Dorsainvil. The age and gender of the child is not known. "Alix is a deeply compassionate and loving person who considers Haiti her home and the Haitian people her friends and family," the statement from El Roi Haiti added. The charity also said it was working to secure the pair's safe return. The organisation has asked people to "refrain from speculating on social media about this situation in order to protect Alix and her child during this time". The incident comes days after the US issued a level-four "do not travel" advisory because of kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and 'poor health care infrastructure' on the island. The US State Department ordered all non-emergency government personnel and their family members to leave Haiti. Project Dynamo, a US veteran-led non-profit that evacuates American civilians from risky situations abroad, has said it will go to Haiti to evacuate Americans. The poorest country in the Americas has been in political crisis since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021. Gangs control around 80 percent of the capital, and violent crimes such as kidnappings and armed robbery are common. Earlier this month, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, called for the creation of a multinational force for Haiti. Kenya has offered to take the lead, by offering 1,000 police officers to help train local law enforcement. Any mission will be subject to a mandate from the UN Security Council, and formal authorisation from the Kenyan authorities. Kenya's Foreign Minister Alfred Mutua said any potential multinational force's job would be to stabilise the situation on the ground and empower local authorities, as the people of Haiti have "suffered enough". Speaking to the BBC's Newshour programme on Sunday, he added Kenya's main aim would be to train Haitian police to help reduce violence and allow humanitarian aid to reach civilians being "held hostage by gangs". "We have decided to lead this process because we don't want to wait for others," Mr Mutua said.

The government does not want Sats tests to be "too hard for children", England's schools minister has said - after claims a Year 6 reading paper was so difficult it left pupils in tears. Nick Gibb said the assessments had to "test a range of ability" but he would look at the paper because of the concerns. He said he looked at the tests each year once they were publicly available. There is no suggestion there will be any kind of formal review. Last week, one head teacher said the reading test included some "GCSE-level" questions. It has fuelled a debate among teachers and parents about the purpose of Sats. The Department for Education (DfE) previously told BBC News that Sats were "designed to be challenging". Ministers will not have access to the reading paper before it becomes publicly available next week. Mr Gibb said the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) - which is part of the DfE - tested the paper last year "with a large group of children". "They monitored the response of those children to the test, to the questions, they found that 85% [enjoyed] taking the test," he said. He said Sats "do have to test a range of ability to make sure that we can show what proportion of children are exceeding the standard". "But we don't want these tests to be too hard for children. That's not the purpose," he said. "The purpose is to test the range of ability and the Standards and Testing Agency is charged with making sure that these tests are appropriate for this age group." He added: "I will certainly look at this because I know that there has been concern expressed by some schools." Standard Assessment Tests, or Sats, are tests that children take in Year 6, at the end of Key Stage 2. They are national curriculum assessments in English grammar, punctuation and spelling, English reading and maths. The government's Standards and Testing Agency says the purpose of Sats tests are to: Children also sit Sats in Year 2, at the end of Key Stage 1. Last year, 59% of Year 6 pupils met the expected levels in reading, writing and maths - down from 65% in 2019. The national curriculum tests were cancelled in 2020 and 2021, during the pandemic.

No service is running on any of the Tube lines Londoners are facing widespread transport disruption as strike action halts the Underground. Transport for London's (TfL) website shows no services are running on any Tube lines. RMT and Aslef members are involved in a dispute over job cuts, pensions and conditions. The RMT said cuts were a "political decision". TfL's chief operating officer Glynn Barton urged the unions to call off the action. TfL says all Tube lines are affected but there is a good service on the Elizabeth Line, the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) and the London Overground. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. There is no service on the tube today due to strike action However Tube station closures mean these services "will not be able to stop at those stations", and passengers intending to use some interchange stations may not be able to do so either. Tram and bus services are also reported to be busier than normal. Passengers are advised to allow more time for their journeys and check the latest information. People are also being encouraged to walk or cycle if they are able to. Aslef are warning that more strike action could go ahead if negotiations fail Aslef district organiser Finn Brennan told the BBC outside Brixton station that he is "genuinely sorry for the people affected." "We are prepared to negotiate and talk about changes, but our members are rightly not prepared to accept change being imposed. He added that further strikes are "very likely". There have been seven London Underground strikes in the past 12 month, according to TfL. Buses and trams were busier than usual Tube and Elizabeth line services are expected to start much later than normal on Thursday morning due to the previous day's strike. National rail strike action is also expected to have an impact in the capital on Thursday and into Friday morning, with an amended Elizabeth line timetable and possible further disruption to DLR, Elizabeth line and London Overground services. Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions, Conservative MP for Harrow East, Bob Blackman asked Rishi Sunak if he would join him in condemning the strikes which he said "have brought misery to the travelling public", and also condemning London Mayor Sadiq Khan "for his failure to address this". The prime minister said: "[Mr Blackman] is absolutely right about the misery being inflicted on Londoners by the incompetent running of TfL." He said the mayor had received £6bn in additional funding for transport services, adding: "So for us to be in a situation that we find ourselves in today is simply unacceptable." A spokesperson for the mayor of London said: "No one wants to see strikes and the disruption across the country this week is particularly bad news for many of the capital's businesses who are struggling with inflation and the cost of doing business. "The mayor has repeatedly made clear that the government's insistence on including a review into pension reform as part of the emergency funding deal for TfL was unwarranted and had the potential to lead to this kind of industrial action." The Elizabeth line is running with a good service but it is not stopping at every station TfL's chief operating officer Glynn Barton apologised to customers and urged trade unions "to call off this action and continue to engage with us to avoid disruption to our customers". But Mick Lynch, the RMT's general secretary, said: "Our members will never accept job losses, attacks on their pensions or changes to working conditions in order to pay for a funding cut which is the government's political decision." He added staff "deserve decent pensions, job security and good working conditions, and the RMT will fight tooth and nail to make sure that's what they get". A Department for Transport spokesperson said: "This government has committed over £6bn since the start of the pandemic to support London's transport network - how that money is spent is a decision for the mayor". The Tube strike that has halted the network isn't about pay. The roots of it actually lie in the pandemic and the loss of passengers. Then the government bailed out Transport for London (TfL) financially but there were strings attached. Broadly TfL has to make £900m savings. Some 600 posts are being closed - the unions say that will leave stations with fewer staff which they say isn't safe. TfL says passenger safety is always a priority. And the crucial issue: TfL has had to carry out a pension review. Even carrying out the review has sparked the strikes, even though proposals for any change haven't been outlined. Changes will have to be agreed with the government. Pensions are a red line for the unions and it is difficult to see how this will be resolved unless they stay as they are. Follow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

The airport suffered major disruption in 2018 after drone sightings Operations at Gatwick Airport were disrupted after a suspected drone was seen close to the airfield. A spokesman for the airport in West Sussex said operations were suspended temporarily just before13:45 BST but resumed about 50 minutes later. He said 12 inbound aircraft were diverted to other airports during the incident but many were expected to return to Gatwick on Sunday. Gatwick was shut for more than a day in December 2018 after drone sightings. No-one was ever prosecuted over the incident that caused chaos for travellers, affecting more than 1,000 flights and about 140,000 passengers. Since then, experts have been working on systems to prevent drones disrupting operations at major airports. A spokesman for Gatwick said: "Passenger safety is the airport's absolute priority and - following established procedures - operations at London Gatwick were suspended temporarily at 13:44, while investigations into the sighting of a suspected drone close to the airfield took place. "These investigations have now completed and the airfield reopened at 14:35." British Airways said the disruption affected one of its flights, which landed at Stansted before refuelling and returning to Gatwick. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: A definitive timeline of the Titan's last moments An investigation into the causes of the Titan submersible disaster has been opened by the US Coast Guard. Chief investigator Cpt Jason Neubauer said its priority would be recovering debris, and precautions would be taken in case human remains are found. Speaking on Sunday, he also said the investigation would be able to recommend civil or criminal charges. The Titan was on a dive to the Titanic wreck on 18 June when it imploded, killing all five people on board. Cpt Neubauer told reporters in Boston that the US Coast Guard had convened its highest level of investigation. He said it would would try to establish what caused the disaster, and make recommendations to prevent future tragedies. He added that it would be run jointly with Canadian, UK and French authorities. The investigation is currently in its initial phase and efforts to recover the wreckage of the sub are ongoing. So far, five major pieces have been found 3,800m (12,467ft) below the surface in a large debris field near the bow of the Titanic. Cpt Neubauer said investigators would be taking "all precautions" if they discover human remains. He said the investigation could lead to tougher regulations and safety recommendations for submersibles, but could not confirm how long it would take to complete. Once all evidence has been collected, Cpt Neubauer said investigators would likely hold a formal hearing to get witness testimony. He added that interviews were already being conducted in the Canadian city of St John's, where the Titan's support vessel, the Polar Prince launched and towed the submersible into the North Atlantic Ocean. Canadian investigators boarded the support ship on Saturday as part of their own investigation into the disaster. US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger, who also spoke to reporters, was asked about the cost of the search and rescue operation but declined to answer. He said it was not policy to charge for search and rescue and the service does not put a cost on human life or rescuing people in the "dangerous environment" of the ocean, adding "we always answer the call". "We conduct disciplined operations with warranted risk to put our resources and lives at risk to save others. That's who we are."

Mr Yousaf said he would struggle to see how the scheme could go ahead without glass Humza Yousaf has said it is "very difficult" to see a future for Scotland's deposit return scheme if glass is not allowed to be included. The first minister's deadline for UK ministers to remove the condition on its scheme for recycling cans and bottles is due to expire later. He set the deadline in a letter to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Saturday. But Circularity Scotland, the firm set up to run the scheme, has said it should still go ahead without glass. Last week, the UK government approved a partial exemption to the Internal Market Act for the deposit scheme, but stipulated glass could not be part of it. Circularity Scotland's programme director, Donald McCalman told the BBC "we absolutely believe the scheme is viable to launch" with aluminium and plastic containers only. Mr McCalman said that if it was not delivered in Scotland it could make drinks producers think twice about backing a later UK-wide scheme. The first minister said no final decision would be made until his cabinet met on Tuesday. Mr Yousaf said he "would struggle to see how the scheme could go ahead if it doesn't include glass". Speaking to a Scottish business forum event, he said he was "annoyed as well as upset" that the scheme had become a point of disagreement between the Scottish and UK governments. And he told BBC Scotland he had yet to receive "even an acknowledgement" of his letter to Mr Sunak. The Scottish government wants to include glass bottles in its plans On Sunday, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack insisted the exclusion of glass remained a condition of their support. But SNP deputy leader Keith Brown told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme that the scheme had been "sabotaged by the UK government." He said: "The first minister will be hoping Rishi Sunak can bring some pressure to bear on Alister Jack to see some sense." He added: "I think people are bemused at why the UK government is taking this approach. "We know action has to be taken. It reduces by around a third the effectiveness of the scheme if you take out glass, so let's just get some common sense on the table." Mr Brown accused the Scottish secretary of "scandalous" mis-representation for stating that the scheme would not be recycling glass, but crushing it and using it as aggregate for filling roads. Circularity Scotland said a target of 90% for the remelting and reuse of glass would rise to 95% once the scheme was launched. If it goes live as planned in March 2024, the deposit return scheme would see a 20p charge placed on drinks containers which would be refunded to consumers upon their return in a bid to increase recycling levels. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. In an interview on the BBC's The Sunday Show, Mr Jack strongly defended the UK government's position The UK government has said deposit return schemes should be consistent across the UK. Mr Jack said he had received more than 1,000 letters of concern from businesses about the Scottish DRS. He said: "It's those concerns that we've taken into account when we've come to our conclusion because we believe the deposit charge should be the same and reciprocated across the UK. "If I get off the train in Carlisle and buy some recyclable material and it's 10p in Carlisle and 20p in Dumfries, I double my money. That makes no sense." In his letter to the prime minister, Mr Yousaf cited concerns raised by C&C Group - one of the country's biggest brewers and the company behind Tennent's Lager. In correspondence Mr Jack received from the firm, seen by the BBC, the company said it had been "misrepresented" in passages from the letter that appeared in the media. C&C added it was "actively seeking and supports a UK-wide scheme introduced at the same time across the four UK nations". Keith Brown denied any knowledge of C&C's letter being leaked to the media. Scottish Greens environment spokesman Mark Ruskell said on Monday that the DRS was now "on the brink" and there needed to be negotiation around the detail of the conditions set down by the UK government. He said: "If the UK government continues to require the exclusion of glass, then clearly that will have an economic impact on the viability of the scheme. "It will also have a very damaging impact on the environmental benefits of the scheme as well." Scottish Conservative MSP Maurice Golden said the Scottish government had "made a dog's dinner of DRS from day one by refusing to heed the warnings of businesses and recklessly ploughing ahead with an unworkable scheme".

Michelle Rodriguez and Chris Pine star in the latest Hollywood adaptation of the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons Northern Ireland's epic and ancient scenery made it the perfect location to shoot a huge Hollywood blockbuster, one of the film's producers has said. Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves, based on the role-playing board game, is another addition to the long list of productions filmed here. Jeremy Latcham said Northern Ireland had a timeless quality that was ideal. Eagle-eyed, or rather dragon-eyed, viewers will be able to spot some familiar locations on the big screen. The fantasy epic was filmed in Belfast's Titanic Studios throughout 2021 and in areas like Tollymore Forest, Carrickfergus Castle, Clandeboye Estate, Ballintoy Beach, Fairhead and Dunseverick Castle. The film follows in the footsteps of television hits like Game of Thrones and Line of Duty, as well as other big screen blockbusters like The Northman - all of which which were shot in Northern Ireland. Boasting a star-studded cast including Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez and Hugh Grant, the film depicts a charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers undertaking an epic heist to retrieve a lost relic. As well as showcasing the beauty of Northern Ireland to a global audience, the production generated an estimated £43m for the local economy, Northern Ireland Film has said. More than 500 people worked behind the scenes on the movie. "Northern Ireland has a film credit that is really incredible," producer Jeremy Latcham told BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra programme. "The fact that big movies and big productions have shot here shows that this is a place that is welcoming of big movies. "We were invited to come and check it out and consider it for the film, but it didn't take much convincing." He said he had the privilege of living in Belfast for seven months during filming. "It had everything we needed and everything we would could ever dream of needing in terms of filming locations and scenery. "You needed something that really feels timeless and epic and Northern Ireland just has this ancient feel to it, like everything feels like it has been there for millennia." Mr Latcham says one of his favourite experiences was seeing the Giant's Causeway from above on a helicopter trip Mr Latcham said he was fortunate enough to take in the epic views on frequent helicopter trips to and from multiple shoot locations. "We got to fly along the countryside and even fly over the Giant's Causeway from the air and it's one of the most beautiful sights you could ever imagine." However, Mr Latcham told Evening Extra he got a little too close to some of the scenery while filming in a County Down forest. "Tollymore Forest as well was amazing, there is a shot in the movie of this absolutely gorgeous light coming through the trees - but I remember I actually fell into a river there which was unfortunate. "The film crew were actually quite worried because it looked like I had banged my head on the rocks, but I just jumped up, smiling and laughing because of my idiocy." Tollymore Forest Park in County Down was one of the locations used on the production Despite the unexpected swim, Mr Latcham said he thoroughly enjoyed his time in Northern Ireland. "It was wild, it was a lot of fun and what a beautiful country - we just had the most fun filming there, and the people were so welcoming," he said.

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dozens of protesters gathered outside Stradey Park Hotel on Saturday The UK government has "lost control" of the asylum system, a councillor has claimed. On Friday, Carmarthenshire council failed in a High Court bid to stop Stradey Park Hotel, in Llanelli, being used to house up to 241 asylum seekers. The Home Office said the plans were necessary and that the asylum system was under "incredible" strain. It comes as dozens of protesters, for and against the plans, gathered outside the hotel on Saturday. Local councillor Martyn Palfreman called on the UK government to "get a grip" of the asylum system - saying it had lost it. Former racial equality commissioner Aled Edwards also said more work needed to be done in the community to to allay "irrational fears" and "address legitimate ones". Maxson Kpakio, 45, is originally from Liberia but has lived in Swansea for 20 years, and came to Wales as an asylum seeker. "I am an activist who advocates for social justice and peace. Where I see a group talking about peace and love, I am part of them," he said. Maxson Kpakio said "asylum seeking is a right for everybody" He was confronted at one point by protesters who oppose the asylum plan. "I don't think it was necessary for any confrontation. It was the group from the other side who came to me, and asked me why I'm here, and I told them," he said. "We had a frank conversation where I tried to educate them as well. Asylum seeking is a right for everybody." Resident Helen Thomas, who is against the plans, said a lot of people in the community are scared, partly by how the issue has divided locals. Ms Thomas said some people against the plan have been labelled racist, but said she has friends from many different backgrounds, adding: "I am not racist, I never have been." Dozens of protesters gathered outside Stradey Park Hotel on Saturday "My plea would be with the UK government to get a grip on an asylum system, which they have clearly lost the grip of," councillor Martyn Palfreman told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast. "In terms of what happens next and the asylum seekers arrival in Llanelli, the honest answer is I don't know." Police were called to the hotel on Friday after protesters blocked vehicles entering the site "We've been told previously they will be arriving next week, we don't know any more details in terms of the composition of the group that will be arriving or exactly when they will be arriving," added Mr Palfreman. The Labour councillor for the Hengoed ward of Llanelli added that his "real concern" is that the asylum seekers themselves will have anger directed towards them, which he hopes "doesn't happen". Llanelli MP Dame Nia Griffith said she was very disappointed with the outcome of Friday's hearing. "I think it's particularly upsetting for the residents who live closely to the hotel and whilst people have a right to their opinion I would actually beg them to be very considerate," she said. "We need to work together with other countries to find solutions that will last... there has to be a really concerted effort to work internationally with partners so there are proper agreements." Following Friday's hearing, council leader Darren Price said he was disappointed and that the authority would consider the judge's reasons on Monday. The hotel has faced local opposition since it first announced the plans Aled Edwards, the former commissioner for racial equality in Wales, said a conversation was needed with people in the community to allay "irrational fears" and "address legitimate ones". "If we spend the time explaining to people what people's backgrounds are, what they can offer us, what they can bring us... I think it could become much better," he said. "But there is a toxicity to the debate around the globe that is not good." The Home Office said the number of people arriving in the UK in need of accommodation had reached record levels. "The Home Office is committed to making every effort to reduce hotel use and limit the burden on the taxpayer," a spokesman said.

Victor Lee died from stab wounds, the Met Police said A teenager who was fatally stabbed and then found in the Grand Union Canal in north west London has been named by police. Victor Lee, 17, from Ealing, was pulled from the water near Scrubs Lane after police were called to reports of a stabbing on Sunday. He was pronounced dead at the scene and a murder investigation was launched. On Friday the Metropolitan Police arrested three teenagers, all on suspicion of murder. The trio - aged 14, 15 and 17 - remain in custody at a south London police station, the Met added. Police said a post-mortem examination held on Wednesday gave the cause of Victor's death as stab wounds. Det Ch Insp Brian Howie continued to appeal for information and dashcam footage of anyone driving near Scrubs Lane between 17:15 and 18:15. He added: "We are continuing to provide Victor's family with support during this traumatic time and our thoughts remain with them." Follow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

The invading Russian forces damaged some 90% of residential buildings in Mariupol Finding people willing to speak to me from Mariupol was never going to be easy. After 10 months of Russian occupation, fear and distrust are the two most frequent responses I encountered when looking for someone who could tell me how things really are in Mariupol, in Ukraine's south-east. "I think you are a Russian journalist. You won't like what I've got to say. People like you kill if you tell them the truth," said one social media user who claimed to be from the port city. Russian forces put the people of Mariupol through a horrific months-long siege, before finally capturing it last May. I eventually found three residents willing to speak to me at length: a local city councillor, a retired pensioner and an engineer. All spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals from the local authorities installed by Russia (who block access to occupied Ukraine by Western journalists). They paint a picture of a massively expensive campaign conducted by Russia to win over the hearts and minds of the people of Mariupol, and rebuild a city damaged beyond recognition by Russia's own troops. The purpose of this campaign is to assimilate Mariupol and make it Russia's own. Their accounts corroborate each other, and are confirmed by social media posts about recent developments in Mariupol. Before this war began about half a million people lived in the city. According to UN estimates, 90% of residential buildings were damaged or destroyed, and 350,000 people were forced to leave after Russia attacked in February 2022. Your device may not support this visualisation It is difficult to estimate the exact number of people killed as a result of the relentless shelling of Mariupol, but Ukrainian authorities say more than 20,000 died there. Russian-installed authorities in Mariupol say some 300,000 people are now living there. The people who spoke to me from Mariupol said their city had been inundated with labourers from across Russia, as well as from Central Asia. Oleg Morgun, the Russia-installed "mayor" of Mariupol, says some 70,000 of those currently in the city are construction workers and members of the Russian military. New buildings have appeared and many buildings damaged during the bombardment have gone. For example, the Russian military has built a whole new district comprised of a dozen apartment blocks in the western part of Mariupol. It is called Nevsky, after the River Neva, on which President Vladimir Putin's home city of St Petersburg stands. According to Russian state media, St Petersburg is the main sponsor of the reconstruction of Mariupol. Russia is building new housing to replace what it destroyed "It says on the bus: St Petersburg and Mariupol are twinned cities. There are slogans everywhere telling us that we're part of Russia now," pensioner Maria (not her real name) told me. "I liked things the way they used to be. Now we live in fear. We have no idea what to expect." In the houses that escaped relatively unscathed after months of fierce fighting, the Russians are replacing windows, radiators and sometimes heating and sewage pipes. Heating, running water and electricity supplies have largely been restored. Buses are running and full of passengers again, although the electric trolley bus and tram networks are still out of action. Many schools, hospitals and shops have reopened as well, although numerous traders are selling their wares straight from the pavement. Maria was particularly impressed with one school rebuilt under Russian rule: "It's so beautiful, covered in multi-coloured squares." According to her, the number of children in Mariupol now is greater than schools can currently accommodate, so they have classes in two shifts: one in the morning, and another in the afternoon. Russia has imposed its own Russian-language curriculum in occupied areas - complicating efforts to get children back to school. Shops have reopened and power is back, but many traders are selling their wares on the pavement The fast-paced rebuilding of Mariupol has provoked envy in Donetsk, the regional capital occupied by pro-Russian forces since 2014, which has been neglected by comparison. The Russia-installed head of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin, has even had to deny rumours that the capital will be moved to Mariupol. There are other important ways in which Russia is putting its stamp on Mariupol. For example, local residents are under pressure to obtain Russian passports. Ivan, the Mariupol city councillor I spoke to (not his real name), said locals often formed "huge queues" trying to get Russian passports. They were required if you want to find formal employment, especially with government agencies or in the public sector, he explained. Also, they made it possible to travel to Russia without additional stringent checks known as "filtration", he added. Ukraine believes 20,000 people died during the siege of Mariupol "So they have deliberately created a situation where you get problems if you have Ukrainian papers, you have to deal with red tape, you have to wait. On the other hand, if you get a Russian passport, that's where your problems end: 'You're one of us now'. Things get simpler if you receive a Russian passport," Ivan said. Mariupol is also becoming part of Russia's financial system. The Ukrainian currency, the hryvnya, has been phased out, and now the Russian rouble is the only currency accepted in shops. Russia is channelling huge amounts of money into pension payments for residents of Mariupol, raising them in many cases compared with what they received from the Ukrainian authorities before the war. So residents of Mariupol are able to draw two pensions - one from Russia, another from Ukraine. Naturally, it is a situation many local pensioners are happy with. Russian pensions are another reason why elderly residents are queuing up to get Russian passports - many pensioners believe the documents will be required in the future to continue receiving payments from Russia. The media currently operating in Mariupol are also hard at work promoting a uniformly pro-Russian agenda. Many current residents of Mariupol are there because they were unable to leave the city when the Russians attacked, due to illness or old age, or because they welcome Russia's presence. "We've suffered enough under Ukraine. Now we can breathe again," one social media user told me, before breaking off all contact. New signs for the city are decked out in the colours of the Russian flag The fast-paced campaign of reconstruction and the resulting sense of restored normality, the generous pension payments and the intensive media campaign targeting the people of Mariupol, all stimulate the spread of pro-Russian sentiment in the city. "I'm sick of all the propaganda in the papers. They started publishing it from day one, telling us how well things are going," said Yuri, the engineer (not his real name). "I feel out of place in my own city now. People are different, my city feels different now." City councillor Ivan said: "It's become difficult for me to say pro-Ukrainian things to my voters. It's tough being pro-Ukrainian in a pro-Russian environment. Unfortunately, Ukraine is losing the hearts and minds of people in Mariupol." Those who are still in Mariupol may be happy to see a degree of normality return to their city, but there are those who suspect Russia of pursuing ulterior motives. Popular Ukrainian journalist Denys Kazansky argues that Russia uses the new houses it has been building in Mariupol to distract attention from all the destruction it caused in the city and elsewhere in his native Donetsk region. "If they destroyed 10 hospitals and then rebuilt one - this isn't reconstruction. It's not something they can be thanked for," he said. "You can be happy as much as you like about a school being rebuilt, but what do you do with the thousands of people Russia has killed?" he said. "You can't rebuild them. You can't bring them back."

It is the third critical inspection report in a year for Glan Clwyd Hospital's A&E department A third inspection in a year failed to find any major improvements at a north Wales hospital's emergency department. Staff at Glan Clwyd Hospital's A&E were said to be working tirelessly to give the best care possible, but the service still requires significant improvement. Inspectors said poor sepsis screening and triage and pain relief delays were putting patients at significant risk. Health Minister Eluned Morgan admitted there were still "very, very serious problems" at the department. Inspectors' concerns about standards in the department were classified as the most significant, with minimal improvements since their two previous visits. The report comes a month after the health board was placed back in special measures following a damning audit report, and 11 independent board members were told to quit by the Welsh government. Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) visited the emergency department of the hospital in Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire, in November after previous visits in March and May of 2022. Their report again highlights an "incredibly busy department, struggling with shortages of staff, high numbers of seriously unwell patients and a lack of space to treat them". The same could be said of emergency departments across Wales, but the fact that so little has been done to improve things since two previous visits means it remains under HIW's highest level of scrutiny. Some speciality doctors refused to review patients in the emergency department, inspectors found HIW chief executive Alun Jones said: "This inspection found evidence of a department struggling to cope with the day-to-day demand of providing a safe service to patients. "It has highlighted areas such as poor team working between the ED [emergency department] and other departments within the hospital which, in turn, is compounding nationally recognised challenges around patient flow. "The health board will need to take strong and decisive action to tackle the issues identified in our inspection. We will continue to engage with the health board to ensure sustained action is taken in relation to our findings. "Inspectors found the standard of patient notes had improved, however rotas were challenging as there was a heavy reliance on bank and agency staff because of recruitment and retention issues. "While waiting times to see a doctor had improved since May, the flow of patients through the department was still extremely challenging. "Waits to see a specialty doctor varied and inspectors found on some occasions those doctors refused to review patients waiting in the ED, leading to further delays." HIW said it would continue to monitor the response of the health board very closely. The health board has apologised to patients who may not have received "the level of care they deserved". Dr Nick Lyons, executive medical director and interim deputy chief executive of Betsi Cadwaladr health board, noted improvements highlighted by inspectors but acknowledged "we still have some way to go" to improve care for all patients." "It is true staff within the ED at Glan Clwyd Hospital have been under enormous strain for the past three years and this has increased since restrictions eased," he said. "Attempts to attract permanent members of staff to support the ED's work continues and another recruitment open day is planned within the next few weeks. "However, the fragility in staffing and the volume of acutely unwell people we receive each day means we remain a service requiring significant improvement. "The vast majority of our colleagues are a credit to our organisation and we value their hard work and professionalism. We will continue to strive to make sure they feel supported by colleagues in other specialties and their hospital management teams." Dr Lyons said he noted "with pride" inspectors' comments about the commitment of staff, and the satisfaction of the "majority of patients" with their care. He added: "Despite the issues raised in the report inspectors acknowledged progress has been made but we know this needs to accelerate. "Our colleagues within ED, and in other areas of the hospital, are fully focused on driving this change forward and we are pleased to see the proportion of patients moving through the department within four hours continuing to rise." Following publication of the inspection report, Health Minister Eluned Morgan agreed there were "still very, very serious problems" at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd and its emergency department "in particular". Eluned Morgan: "There seems to be a specific problem with the emergency department in Ysbyty Glan Clwyd" Answering questions in the Welsh Parliament, the minister said there had been "serious discussions" with Dr Lyons "to ask about what exactly has been put in place" to improve the situation. "There seems to be a specific problem here with the emergency department in Ysbyty Glan Clwyd," she said. "We've got to encourage" the department to learn from the other emergency departments within Betsi Cadwaladr health board that are "working better", the minister said. There had been "some encouraging improvements after the previous inspection" but it was "very disappointing that many of the issues have still not been fully resolved". Ms Morgan was answering questions from members including Vale of Clwyd Conservative MS Gareth Davies, who later urged Ms Morgan to "get a grip on the situation" and "stop passing the buck". "Patients, along with the people of North Wales, deserve better," he added.

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Rescue efforts are under way in Mississippi and Alabama after a tornado tore through the two states on Friday night killing 26 people, including a baby and her father. Emergency services will have to dig through the debris left behind by the tornado, which flattened one town and obliterated homes and businesses. A state of emergency was declared in Mississippi on Sunday. As Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) staff arrived in Mississippi to tour the damage, senator Roger Wicker tweeted: "Today recovery efforts across our state began in earnest". Friday's tornado has been classified as "violent" and given a preliminary EF-4 rating - the second-highest rating possible. Meanwhile, the National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for large sections of both Alabama and Georgia for Sunday, ending at 13:00 ET (18:00 BST). In Rolling Fork, crushed cars, bricks and glass litter the streets - the town has been almost entirely wiped out. One resident told the BBC he was lucky to survive after seeking shelter in his bath tub. Approaching the neighbourhood in western Sharkey County, there is little indication of anything unusual. The lush farmland that surrounds it is completely untouched, the trees aren't even bent out of shape by wind. Then, suddenly, you see the houses that were in the tornado's path. They have been totally obliterated. The tornado seen near the town of Rolling Fork In this rural town of only 2,000 people, where one fifth of residents live below the poverty line, dozens of buildings have been flattened by the fury of the tornado. Homes where family and friends had gathered less than 24 hours before, ready for the weekend, have been reduced to rubble. Timber frames have been snapped into pieces. There are upturned washing machines, but it is impossible to identify anything that might have been a kitchen. Amongst the rubble, there are vehicles that have been tossed around. There is the occasional children's toy and other signs of the lives that were lived here just hours earlier. One Rolling Fork local tries to salvage items from a car The tornado hit in the middle of the night - people had been sleeping and had not heard the alerts. For many the first indication that something terrible was happening was the noise. Francisco McKnight told the BBC it was a miracle that he is alive. The only warning he had was the sound, he said - he had never heard anything like the noise of the wind on Friday night and never wants to again. He took one look outside and then ran into his bathroom and got into the bath tub. He said that was what saved him. The only part of his home that is still standing are parts of two of the bathroom walls. The tornado lasted just five to 10 minutes he said, and he sat in the tub as the rest of his home was ripped away. For now, he is staying in one of the shelters that have been set up in the area. He does not know what he will do next, but he says somehow he will rebuild his life. Mississippi state governor Tate Reeves visited Silver City and Winona on Saturday to meet affected residents who had been hit by the tornado's fury. Sharing an update on Twitter, Mr Reeves described the situation as a "tragedy", writing: "We are blessed with brave, capable responders and loving neighbours. Please continue to pray." Mr Reeves requested an expedited disaster declaration for the region and said: "We're going to fight like hell to make sure that we get as many resources to this area as possible." This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Trucks piled on buildings as tornado flattens town of Rolling Fork Are you in any of the areas affected by the tornado? If it is safe to do so, share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways: If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.

Williams talked openly about his struggles with addiction A man charged in the drug-related death of Wire actor Michael K Williams has been jailed for two-and-a-half years. Prosecutors sought a four-year term for Carlos Macci but the actor's nephew and show's co-creator asked for leniency. Macci, 72, one of four men charged with selling Williams heroin laced with fentanyl, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute narcotics in April. Williams, who starred as robber Omar Little in the HBO crime drama, died of an overdose aged 54 in 2021. The three other men have been charged with directly causing Williams' death and face harsher sentences. One of them, Irvin Cartagena, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and will be sentenced in August. Two others have pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors wrote in court papers that "for decades the defendant has been selling deadly narcotics: heroin and now heroin laced with fentanyl". Sentencing judge Ronnie Abrams told Macci that selling the drugs "not only cost Mr Williams his life, but it's costing your freedom", the Associated Press news agency reported. But it is thought that Macci may have avoided a tougher sentence in part because of a three-page letter filed earlier this month. In it Wire co-creator David Simon asked for mercy for the defendant because Williams "believed in redemption". "No possible good can come from incarcerating a... soul, largely illiterate, who has himself struggled with a lifetime of addiction," the letter said. Mr Simon added that Williams himself "would have fought" for Macci. Williams' nephew Dominic Dupont also told the judge he thought Macci could turn his life around, adding that it "weighs heavy on me" to see someone in that situation. As overdose deaths in the US continue to rise, some prosecutors have charged victims' friends who helped obtain such drugs, as well as the dealers. Several states have passed laws in recent years allowing prosecutors to charge overdoses as homicides in an effort to discourage people from selling or sharing fentanyl. Williams, who talked openly about his struggles with addiction, won critical acclaim for his role in The Wire, a series that ran from 2002-08 and explored the narcotics scene in Baltimore from the perspective of law enforcement as well as drug dealers and users. Prosecutors say that on 5 September 2021, Macci and other members of a drug-trafficking organisation sold Williams heroin laced with fentanyl and continued to sell the substance even after they knew the actor had suffered a fatal overdose.

Twitter has laid off at least 200 staff in another round of cuts, according to reports in the New York Times. It said the tech giant had cut 10% of its current workforce, which it estimated at 2,000 people. This is the latest round of job losses at Twitter since chief executive Elon Musk sacked about 50% of its 7,500 employees when he took over in October. As staff learned of their fate, Mr Musk tweeted: "Hope you have a good Sunday. First day of the rest of your life." Esther Crawford, chief executive of Twitter Payments, who oversaw the Twitter Blue verification subscription model, said she was "deeply proud of my team" in a tweet after being among those released. And senior product manager Martijn de Kuijper, who founded newsletter tool Revue which Twitter acquired in 2021, said he found out he had lost his job after being locked out of his work emails. This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original tweet on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Martijn This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. It's been a while since my phone blew up on a Sunday because of news about Twitter - not because there hasn't been any, but because we've all got used to it. More divisive user-experience changes to the platform, more provocative tweets from its owner Elon Musk... we are familiar with that drill. But nobody was expecting Esther Crawford, who had established herself as an influential figure in so-called Twitter 2.0, to be laid off. In November, she shared a picture of herself lying down inside a sleeping bag and wearing an eye mask on the floor at Twitter HQ. She has tirelessly cheerleaded the firm's path under Mr Musk. Some thought the product manager might even become the company's next chief executive. Mr Musk said weeks ago that he would stand aside in the role as soon as he found a replacement. It demonstrates once again this new brutal environment in which even the most loyal are unprotected. It will be familiar to many in the commercial sector and it's increasingly the way big tech is going as budgets start to bite. Esther herself tweeted that it was "a mistake" to think that her "optimism and hard work" had been a bad decision. "I'm deeply proud of the team for building through so much noise and chaos," she wrote. She probably wouldn't have called it "noise and chaos" this time last week. The Twitter cuts are the latest in a long line of lay-offs in the tech industry over the past few months. Amazon, Microsoft and Google-owned Alphabet announced tens of thousands of lay-offs between them, but the cuts across the industry are wide-reaching. At the end of January, more than 10,000 jobs were lost in eight days across six large tech companies including Spotify, Intel and IBM. The Twitter cuts come a month after Reuters reported the firm had made its first interest payment on a bank loan used by Mr Musk to finance the purchase. He paid $44bn (£37bn) to take control, with $13bn - a third of the total amount - covered by loans from banks including Morgan Stanley and Barclays. These loans are leveraged against Twitter - in other words, the tech company itself is responsible for the loan repayments, not Mr Musk. Reuters reported Twitter paid about $300m to the banks in January. Meanwhile, there are further indications that the tech company is struggling with financing. It is being sued by the Crown Estate in the UK over alleged unpaid rent for its London headquarters, and faces a similar lawsuit in the US over unpaid rent at its San Francisco HQ. And a lawyer representing more than 100 former employees sacked by Twitter told the BBC in February the number of staff launching legal action against the company "goes up daily". Mr Musk told this month's World Government Summit in Dubai: "I think I need to stabilise the organisation and just make sure it's in a financially healthy place. "I'm guessing probably towards the end of this year would be good timing to find someone else to run the company, because I think it should be in a stable position around the end of this year."

Temperatures in the final stages of the campaign have hit 40C and millions of voters will be on holiday Spain is holding a highly unusual election on Sunday at the height of a scorching summer, after four years of left-wing rule. Current Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the vote in response to a dismal performance at the May local elections in which his Socialist party came second to main rival, the conservative Popular Party. No general election in Spanish history has ever been held so late into the summer, with temperatures topping 40C in this country of 48 million people. The timing of the vote has been criticised when so many in Spain are on holiday, but 2.6 million voters have chosen to cast their ballot by post. The Popular Party (PP) under Alberto Núñez Feijóo have their eye on victory but may struggle to form a government on their own. To win a majority they need to secure more than half the 350 seats in the lower house of parliament. Spaniards will also vote for their upper house. The conservatives may need the support of far-right party Vox, while Mr Sánchez will be able to look to left-wing grouping Sumar. LGBT and gender issues have become prominent campaign issues in the run-up to this election. Opposition parties PP and Vox have staunchly criticised the left-wing government's new laws on transgender rights - including making it easier for people to change their legal gender - and abortion. They have also attacked Spain's controversial "Only Yes Means Yes" law on sexual consent. It was passed only last August but created a loophole that cut jail time for over 1,000 convicted rapists - and Mr Sánchez ended up having to apologise and push through changes. The very existence of gender violence has been questioned by some Vox party officials, causing tensions with their potential conservative partners. Nationalism has been a hot issue too. The PP and Vox have labelled Mr Sánchez a "traitor" for pardoning jailed pro-independence leaders and downgrading the crime of secession. One highly effective right-wing tactic has involved targeting the prime minister with a slogan for relying on separatists to pass key reforms. He has been denounced for his pact with Basque separatist party Bildu, led by Arnaldo Otegi, who was jailed for crimes by the Eta militant group. The slogan "Let Txapote vote for you" accuses Pedro Sánchez of relying on the support of separatist killers The slogan Que te vote Txapote, meaning "Let Txapote vote for you", refers to another Eta militant who carried out a number of deadly terror attacks. As Spain experiences worsening droughts and heatwaves, most parties have measures to fight climate change. Only Vox's electoral programme fails to mention the issue entirely. The biggest issue for most voters is the economy, even if much of the campaign has focused on other issues. Spain is enjoying a period of growth and inflation slowed to below 2% in June, one of the lowest levels in Europe. But dismal jobless figures are one of the opposition's most frequent lines of attack against the current government. In May, Spain had the highest unemployment rate (12.7%) of all EU countries. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (L) called the snap election but Alberto Núñez Feijóo is favourite to win He became the first politician in Spain to snatch power from a sitting prime minister through a no-confidence motion in 2018. Then he narrowly won a confidence vote in January 2020 to form Spain's first coalition government since democracy was restored in the late 1970s. Pedro Sánchez, 51, is seen as a passionately pro-European integrationist and speaks English fluently; he has lectured in economics in Spain and had a spell working for the UN high representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina. His brand of governing has been labelled Sanchismo, and his opponents have styled the election as a choice between Sanchismo or Spain, suggesting he is a threat to the country, its traditions and values. He has spearheaded a law to bring dignity to victims of dictator Gen Francisco Franco, backed a rule giving workers the right to menstrual leave and laws expanding abortion rights. But this snap election could be a gamble too far, as his party trails his conservative rivals. He has accused the PP of seeking to put Spain in a "sinister time machine" with the support of far-right Vox and take the country back to "who knows where". Mr Feijóo has been less than enthusiastic about the prospect of a coalition with the far right The Popular Party leader has knowingly cultivated a low-key image, saying recently that "what for some may be boring, I think for the majority of citizens are qualities that a prime minister should have". He was seen to have won the only head-to-head TV election debate with Mr Sánchez, telling him he had no right to give lectures on governing pacts because the Socialist leader had relied on separatists. But Mr Feijóo was later criticised for skipping the final televised debate before the election, which was attended by both his opponents, Mr Sánchez and Ms Díaz, and his potential coalition partner, Santiago Abascal. A former civil servant born in Galicia in Spain's north-west, he has led the conservatives since 2022. He has gained a reputation as a safe pair of hands, serving as president of the former national health service and of the postal service. However, his rivals have highlighted 10-year-old rumours that he had a close friendship with a Galician drug trafficker and money launderer called Marcial Dorado. Photographs of the two on holiday together on a yacht in 1995 were unearthed by Spanish daily El País in 2013. Mr Feijóo says he was unaware Dorado was a criminal when the two became friends because "back then we had no internet or Google". Mr Sánchez has accused Mr Feijóo of lying, but the PP leader has hit back accusing him of using "rubbish" to seek to discredit him. Santiago Abascal's party takes a hard line on gay marriage, adoption by gay couples, abortion, euthanasia and transgender rights He has led the far-right Vox party he helped found in 2014, and he is known for his controversial declarations. He has said he does not believe in climate change and he has criticised the "totalitarian law of gender ideology", which he claims criminalises men. Last month, he used the riots in France to call for tougher immigration policies. "Europe is threatened by mobs of anti-Europeans… who are unwilling to adapt to our way of life and our laws," he said. "Europe cannot continue to accept immigrants from Muslim countries." Vox has already reached coalition deals with the conservatives in dozens of cities and three autonomous regions - Extremadura in the west, Valencia in the east and Castille and León, north of Madrid. In the Balearic Islands, Vox have reached a pact with the PP but have no positions in government. Now Mr Abascal is looking for a share of national power too. He has cultivated strong ties with other European far-right and nationalist groups, from Hungary's ruling Fidesz and France's National Rally to the Brothers of Italy party of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Ms Meloni has given Vox's election campaign her backing, recording a video to reaffirm the parties' "great friendship". Yolanda Díaz has gained popularity in Spain for her headline-grabbing policies If Vox are the potential kingmaker for Alberto Núñez Feijóo, then for the Socialists it would be Yolanda Díaz's Sumar (Unite) alliance of 15 left-wing groups. A former Communist, she has been Spain's second deputy prime minister as well as labour minister and she is keen to be Spain's first female leader too: "because women's time has come, and women want to be the ones who make history". Sumar have made a big pitch for the youth vote, pledging €20,000 (£17,139) of funding to help 18-23 year-olds to kick-start their lives. Ms Díaz is a popular politician who has helped increase the Spanish minimum wage to €1,259 and scrapped unpopular labour laws. Sparks flew between Ms Diaz and Mr Abascal in the last televised debate before the election as the two clashed over issues of gender violence, while she and Mr Sánchez appeared to form a united front. While opinion polls have narrowed, the conservatives and Mr Feijóo are favourites to win. But they may need to form a coalition with Vox to form a majority and avoid repeat elections. The last opinion polls published in Spain put the PP on 33%-36% of the vote and the Socialists on under 29%. Vox and Sumar are almost neck and neck on 12.5-13.5%. To win an absolute majority a party needs 176 seats, so no party would win outright with these results. Vox has made great strides in securing power-sharing deals with the conservatives in three autonomous regions, and lesser alliances have been reached in Murcia, Aragon and the Balearic Islands, But Mr Feijóo is less than enthusiastic at the prospect of governing with the far right. The PP leader has seemed rattled by his rival's accusations of a "shameful" pact with Vox. In their TV debate Mr Feijóo said Vox's Mr Abascal would not be a member of a prospective PP government "if I don't need the votes". He even offered the Socialists' Mr Sánchez a pact for the losing party to support the winner so that neither would need to rely on either the hard right or left. But Vox could be the only option. Last month Maria Guardiola, the PP president of the western Extremadura region, said she would never govern with a party that "dehumanises immigrants" and that "rubbishes" LGBT rights. She later changed her mind and welcomed Vox into her government, stating that "my word is not as important as the future of Extremadura". As well as taking a hard line on gay marriage, adoption by gay couples, abortion, euthanasia and transgender rights, another big issue that has driven support for Vox is its unequivocal stance on opposing Catalan nationalism. It has also taken a dim view over the status of Gibraltar, a British overseas territory at the southern end of the Iberian peninsula. Last year Vox objected to reports of talks between the UK and Spain by warning that "any agreement that does not go through the recognition of the Spanish sovereignty of Gibraltar is an act of treason against Spain".

Kyiv involvement in alleged Kremlin drone attack would be astonishing - think tank Following on from the White House's denial of involvement in the alleged attack on the Kremlin, Prof Michael Clarke from the London-based Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) has been discussing the likelihood of Ukrainian involvement. "I would be truly astonished if yesterday’s drone attack on the Kremlin was down to Kyiv," he tells BBC Radio 4's World at One programme. "It would be a monumentally stupid thing for them to do and the quickest way for them to lose the war," he says. "If Ukraine is seen to conduct a strategically significant attack inside Russia, then it will lose Western support. And if it loses Western support, it loses the war." He says it is possible it is a false flag attack, saying this is an area Russia "has form" in. But Clarke says he believes it is more likely to have been carried out by a separate "freelance" operative. A false flag is a political or military action carried out with the intention of blaming an opponent for it.

The parents of a cyclist killed in Glasgow say their daughter would still be alive if Scotland had safer road infrastructure for bikes. Emma Burke Newman, 22, from Paris died after a crash with a HGV in January. Her parents, Rose Marie Burke and John Newman, said there should be better separation between cyclists and other road traffic in the city. They are backing Pedal on Parliament this weekend - an annual ride to Holyrood campaigning for safer roads. Thousands of cyclists are expected to attend the event in Edinburgh later. Glasgow City Council said it had "extensive plans" to improve road safety. Ms Burke and Mr Newman visited the scene of their daughter's accident in Glasgow Emma was studying at Glasgow's Mackintosh School of Architecture and working part-time in the city when she died. Her parents said she was a "strong and experienced cyclist" who had cycled in cities including Paris, London and Berlin. They said in a statement: "Only three months into living in Scotland, she was roadkill at that deadly junction. "There is more than enough space at the intersection where Emma died to accommodate every traveller. "There is more than enough space, we just have to commit to making it safe for all who use it." The annual event attracts a large amount of cyclists, all campaigning for better road safety The Scottish government said that road safety and investing in infrastructure were high priorities. Minister for Active Travel, Patrick Harvie, said: "As someone who cycles every day, I know how much more we need to do to keep all road users safe. "I can give an assurance that the Scottish government will continue to do what's needed to make cycling safer right across the country." Pedal on Parliament said Emma's death was a "stark reminder" of why it campaigns. Speaking to BBC Scotland's the Nine, Pedal on Parliament's Iona Shepherd said Scotland was "lagging behind" other European countries on cyclist safety. And she said the roll-out of cycle lanes was not happening quickly enough in Glasgow. A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: "The death of Emma Burke Newman while cycling in Glasgow was a terrible tragedy and our thoughts remain with her family and friends who are grieving her loss." He said the council could not comment further on the case as it was under investigation. He added: "We are also fully committed to delivering a City Network for active travel that will provide almost 600km of segregated infrastructure for safer walking, wheeling and cycling. "Our work to create liveable neighbourhoods across Glasgow also aims to provide significant improvement to the active travel experience in all local communities." "We are working closely with the Scottish government to unlock the funding needed to ensure the delivery of our plans to transform the active travel experience in Glasgow." The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Last updated on .From the section Football Jess Fishlock inspired Wales to a 4-0 win over Croatia as their bid to qualify for a first major tournament got off to a dream start in Wrexham. Fishlock scored within four minutes of the start of both halves on a night where Wales underlined their status as group favourites. The Seattle Reign player also turned provider for Rachel Rowe who added a third goal for Wales on 51 minutes on a dream night for Wales' new boss, Rhian Wilkinson. Angharad James' volley from an acute angle added gloss to the finish as Wales enjoyed a victorious return to the Stok Racecourse after a four-year hiatus. There is little doubt that Wales will rely on the brilliance of their most-capped player, Fishlock, who made her 149th Wales appearance in Wrexham, as they bid to reach a first major finals. Still one of the world's elite players at the age of 37, Fishlock says this will be her last qualification campaign and it took a matter of minutes for her to make her mark as she bids to drag Wales to unchartered territory. The opening goal was a vindication of the more fluid system, with Rowe - now in an attacking central midfield role - producing a driving run and expertly timed pass to allow Fishlock the time and space to calmly slot the ball under Doris Bacic. Fishlock was central to Wales' attacking play as they dominated possession and restricted Croatia to defending extremely deeply with 10 players behind the ball at virtually all times. Wales were restricted to half chances after going ahead, with Rowe firing wide and captain Sophie Ingle seeing a shot blocked, but they almost doubled their advantage just before the interval when Hayley Ladd's floating cross picked out Elise Hughes, but she headed over from close-range. Fishlock was not to be denied though and she doubled Wales' lead on 49 minutes, heading home after her initial lobbed effort struck the crossbar - a player so good, she even does one-twos with the woodwork. The goals, Fishlock's 41st and 42nd in her 149th game, puts her ahead of Gareth Bale as Wales' second-top scorer, just two goals behind Helen Ward. "I think she will break my record by the end of this campaign if not sooner," Ward said. "She has been an absolute superstar for Wales for so many years. She is making history all the time. If anyone is going to take that record I would be delighted to see Jess do it." Wales' new boss Wilkinson had promised pre-match that she was looking to implement her own coaching ideas slowly, favouring a "evolution rather than revolution" approach with a side she says are "on a mission" to qualify for a first major finals. She was as good as her word as she opted to make just one alteration to the Wales side that impressed in a friendly win in Dublin, with Ella Powell replacing Josie Green who missed out through illness. Wilkinson, capped 183 times by Canada but who has a Welsh mother, has spoken about her desire to fully embrace her heritage and she did an impressive job of singing Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau before kick-off. It remains a little early in her tenure to assess exactly what a Wilkinson team is going to look like, but certainly it appears Wales will continue to try and play a more expansive, possession-based game. Wales had 79% possession in the first half as they controlled the contest, while she also made an attacking change at half-time, introducing Ffion Morgan to replace Powell at right wing-back. Wales' increased attacking impetus was obvious after the interval especially and after Fishlock's close-range header doubled Wales' lead, it was a matter of how many goals Wales would score. Fishlock turned provider for Wales' third goal, crossing to Rowe when she could have shot, with Rowe firing into the bottom corner to make the result safe. There was still time for Wales to push for more and they showed a clinical touch in front of goal with James spectacularly volleying home from an acute angle after Gemma Evans' cross-field pass caught out goalkeeper Bacic, who also saved to deny Mary McAteer a first Wales goal. Substitute Ceri Holland struck the crossbar with a long-range effort as Wales pushed on, with Wilkinson even afforded the luxury of giving Fishlock, Rowe and Ingle a rest ahead of Wales' visit to Kosovo on Tuesday. • None Attempt blocked. Ffion Morgan (Wales Women) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Ceri Holland. • None Attempt missed. Lois Joel (Wales Women) left footed shot from outside the box is too high. • None Attempt saved. Mary McAteer (Wales Women) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Ffion Morgan with a cross. • None Attempt saved. Lois Joel (Wales Women) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Angharad James. • None Attempt saved. Tea Vracevic (Croatia Women) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. • None Attempt missed. Lois Joel (Wales Women) right footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Lily Woodham with a cross following a corner. • None Attempt blocked. Lily Woodham (Wales Women) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page

A mother-of-three has been jailed for more than two years for inducing an abortion after the legal limit. Carla Foster, 44, received the medication following a remote consultation where she was not honest about how far along her pregnancy was. The "pills by post" scheme, introduced in lockdown, allows pregnancies up to 10 weeks to be terminated at home. However, Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard the woman was between 32-34 weeks pregnant when she took them. Abortion is legal up to 24 weeks. However, after 10 weeks the procedure is carried out in a clinic. Prosecutors argued Foster had provided false information knowing she was over the time limit and had made online searches which they said indicated "careful planning". The court heard between February and May 2020 she had searched "how to hide a pregnancy bump", "how to have an abortion without going to the doctor" and "how to lose a baby at six months". Based on the information she provided the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), she was sent the tablets because it was estimated she was seven weeks pregnant. The woman was initially charged with child destruction, the court heard Her defence argued that lockdown and minimising face-to-face appointments had changed access to healthcare and so instead she had to search for information online. "The defendant may well have made use of services had they been available at the time," said her barrister Barry White. "This will haunt her forever." On 11 May 2020, having taken the abortion pills, an emergency call was made at 18:39 BST saying she was in labour. The baby was born not breathing during the phonecall and was confirmed dead about 45 minutes later. A post-mortem examination recorded the baby girl's cause of death as stillbirth and maternal use of abortion drugs and she was estimated to be between 32 and 34 weeks' gestation. Foster, from Staffordshire, already had three sons before she became pregnant again in 2019. The court heard she had moved back in with her estranged partner at the start of lockdown while carrying another man's baby. The judge accepted she was "in emotional turmoil" as she sought to hide the pregnancy. Foster was initially charged with child destruction, which she denied. She later pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of section 58 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, administering drugs or using instruments to procure abortion, which was accepted by the prosecution. Sentencing, judge Mr Justice Edward Pepperall said it was a "tragic" case, adding that if she had pleaded guilty earlier he may have been able to consider suspending her jail sentence. He said the defendant was "wracked by guilt" and had suffered depression and said she was a good mother to three children, one of whom has special needs, who would suffer from her imprisonment. She received a 28-month sentence, 14 of which will be spent in custody with the remainder on licence. Ahead of Monday's hearing, a letter co-signed by a number of women's health organisations was sent to the court calling for a non-custodial sentence. However, the judge said it was "not appropriate" and that his duty was "to apply the law as provided by Parliament". He told the defendant the letter's authors were "concerned that your imprisonment might deter other women from accessing telemedical abortion services and other late-gestation women from seeking medical care or from being open and honest with medical professionals". But he said it also "has the capacity to be seen as special pleading by those who favour wider access to abortions and is, in my judgment, just as inappropriate as it would be for a judge to receive a letter from one of the groups campaigning for more restrictive laws". The sentencing has sparked outcry among women's rights organisations and campaigners. BPAS said it was "shocked and appalled" by the woman's sentence which they said was based on an "archaic law". "No woman can ever go through this again," said its chief executive, Clare Murphy. "Over the last three years, there has been an increase in the numbers of women and girls facing the trauma of lengthy police investigations and threatened with up to life imprisonment under our archaic abortion law," she said. "Vulnerable women in the most incredibly difficult of circumstances deserve more from our legal system." She said MPs must do more to offer protection so "no more women in these desperate circumstances are threatened with prison again". Labour MP Stella Creasy said "no other patient group would be treated this way" "The average prison sentence for a violent offence in England is 18 months," she said in a tweet. "A woman who had an abortion without following correct procedures just got 28 months under an 1868 act - we need urgent reform to make safe access for all women in England, Scotland and Wales a human right." The Crown Prosecution Service said: "These exceptionally rare cases are complex and traumatic. "Our prosecutors have a duty to ensure that laws set by Parliament are properly considered and applied when making difficult charging decisions." When asked whether the prime minister was confident criminalising abortion in some circumstances was the right approach, Rishi Sunak's official spokesperson said the current laws struck a balance. "Our laws as they stand balance a woman's right to access safe and legal abortions with the rights of an unborn child," he said. "I'm not aware of any plans to address that approach." Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Trails of condensed water vapor created by jet engines have given rise to 'chemtrail' conspiracy theories Tennessee lawmakers have passed a bill banning the release of airborne chemicals that critics say is inspired by "chemtrails" conspiracy theories. The bill forbids "intentional injection, release, or dispersion" of chemicals into the air. It doesn't explicitly mention chemtrails, which conspiracy theorists believe are poisons spread by planes. Instead it broadly prohibits "affecting temperature, weather, or the intensity of the sunlight". The Republican-sponsored bill passed along party lines on Monday. If it is signed by Tennessee's governor, Republican Bill Lee, it will go into effect on 1 July. The bill's backers were spurred on by a government report released last year on solar geoengineering, which is the idea of cooling the planet by reflecting sunlight back into space. The White House, though, has said that there are no plans "to establish a comprehensive research programme focused on solar radiation modification." Several witnesses who testified before the Tennessee legislature cited debunked conspiracy theories or speculated about secret government geoengineering programmes, according to Scott Banbury, conservation director of the state's branch of the Sierra Club, an environmental organisation. Their claims were troubling, he said. "As a serious environmental organisation, if what was in the bill was actually going on we would be calling for a stop to it," he said. "It's not happening." The legislation focuses on geoengineering, a very broad category which includes mostly theoretical large-scale action to mitigate climate change. Geoengineering is controversial even among legitimate climate scientists, because of uncertainty around its usefulness and the possibility of unintended outcomes. Planet-wide climate engineering is distinct from more routine weather modification, such as cloud seeding, which increases rainfall over specific areas and is used in several US states. "Chemtrails", meanwhile, is a separate, pseudoscientific idea that governments or corporations are spraying chemicals from planes to kill, control or poison people. Conspiracy theorists point to white plumes of water vapour trailing behind passenger aeroplanes, commonly called contrails, as proof of sinister and secret plots, but lack evidence for their claims. The most common claim of proof is "simply that aircraft contrails look 'different', without any comparative analysis," according to a report from a Harvard geoengineering group. "This as convincing as saying that alien beings walk among us in disguise as people because some people act very strangely," it said. In recent decades speculation about chemtrails has risen as the number of airline flights - and thus the number of contrails - has surged. In the debate over the Tennessee bill, lawmakers and witnesses cited a range of both reliable and debunked facts about geoengineering and weather modification, and at least one witness said she believed the White House was engaged in climate experiments but could not provide definitive proof. The legislation's sponsor, Monty Fritts, called it "a very common-sense thing to do". Although several lawmakers mentioned chemtrails while the bill was being discussed, during Monday's session Mr Fritts focused on cloud seeding. "Everything that goes up must come down, and those chemicals that we knowingly and willingly inject into the atmosphere simply to control the weather or the climate are affecting our health," he said. In a joking response, John Ray Clemmons, a Democrat from Nashville, introduced an amendment that would protect fictional beasts. "This amendment would make sure that we are protecting yetis, or Sasquatch or Bigfoot, from whatever this conspiracy is that we're passing in this legislation," he said during debate. John Ray Clemmons introduced an amendment designed to poke fun at the bill "This legislation is not to be taken seriously," he said. Mr Clemmons told the BBC that several of his fellow lawmakers believe in QAnon theories and conspiracies about vaccines being hidden in food. "This is unfortunately nothing new," he said. "There's a lot of things we could be doing to reduce living costs for our working families, but we are wasting time with this." A spokesperson for Mr Fritts said: "Nothing that helps ensure that our air, water, and soil are cleaner could be a waste of time." "We cannot change what people believe," the spokesperson said about the persistent conspiracy theory allegations. "We can only present the information and let them make up their own minds." Although the Tennessee bill appears to be the first of its kind to pass a state legislature, lawmakers in several other states including Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Kentucky, Minnesota and New Hampshire have introduced similar legislation. Mr Banbury, the Sierra Club official, noted that witnesses supporting the bill travelled from outside Tennessee, and several have testified in favour of similar laws in other states. "As a grassroots organiser I'm impressed that a cadre of the same people have had such influence, and that they can muster up so much power," he said.

Jennifer Lawrence, pictured in late 2022, is the producer on a new documentary called Bread and Roses, which explores the day-to-day lives of three women in Afghanistan "You only oppress women," the young woman says to the Taliban fighter. "I told you not to talk," he shouts back, "I will kill you right here!" "Okay, kill me!" she replies, raising her voice to match his. "You closed schools and universities! It's better to kill me!" A camera phone has secretly, and shakily, captured this direct confrontation inside a car between the woman and the militant. She had just been arrested following a protest and was about to be taken to a holding cell in Kabul. It is a scene from the documentary Bread and Roses, which explores the day-to-day lives of three women in the weeks following the takeover. The producer is the Oscar-winning actress, Jennifer Lawrence, who is telling the BBC why this moment in the film is so significant to her. "My heart was beating so fast watching these women defy the Taliban," Lawrence says. "You don't see this side of the story, women fighting back, in the news every day and it's an important part of our film, and the stories of these women." She says it is devastating to think about the sudden loss of control Afghan women have endured. "They currently have no autonomy within their country. It is so important for them to be given the opportunity to document their own story, in their own way." The film has been made by Excellent Cadaver, the production company Lawrence set up in 2018 with her friend Justine Ciarrocchi. "This documentary was born out of emotion and necessity," says Lawrence, who describes feeling helpless and frustrated about what she was seeing on the news. Ciarrocchi says that Lawrence "had a seismic reaction to the fall of Kabul in 2021 because the circumstances were so dire for women". "And she said, 'We've got to give somebody a platform to tell this story in a meaningful way.'" That somebody was Sahra Mani, a documentary maker who co-founded the independent Kabul production company, Afghan Doc House. (l-r) Director of Bread and Roses, Sahra Mani, editor Hayedeh Safiyar, Jennifer Lawrence and Justine Ciarrocchi. Both Lawrence and Ciarrocchi had watched her critically acclaimed documentary A Thousand Girls Like Me, which profiles a 23-year-old Afghan woman who goes on national television to expose sexual abuse by her father, after being ignored by her family and the police. Ciarrocchi tracked down Mani, who said that she had already begun a project, following three women in the country as they tried to establish some kind of autonomy in the months following the Taliban takeover, as girls and women were barred from universities and schools. Mani filmed using covert cameras, and even asked the women to film themselves at safehouses with their friends and families. Another sequence captures a secret meeting in a windowless basement, off a side street in Kabul. More than a dozen women sit in rows of desks and chairs, arranged like a makeshift classroom. Steam rises from the drinks in their plastic cups. They do not know each other, but all are from different groups who protested after the Taliban retook Afghanistan in August 2021. One of the women, a dentist called Zahra, has led the viewer to this secret meeting. When she speaks to the group, she reminisces about wearing high heels and perfume and going to the park with her friends. The women around her smile. Bread and Roses was secretly filmed with the use of multiple covert cameras in the weeks following the fall of Kabul. "Women must write their own history," Vahideh says passionately to the group, to murmurs of agreement. "Women are not properly celebrated around the world." Mani was well aware of the challenges of filming in such private and dangerous situations. "I understand how to deal with difficulties because I am one of them. "They are not victims," she says, "they are heroes." But getting the balance right between keeping the women safe and telling their story was not easy. She tells the BBC that there were several late-night conversations between her, Ciarrocchi and Lawrence during the production process. "They were there whenever I faced any issues or problems," Mani says. "When women unite, everything is possible." Jennifer Lawrence pictured with director Sahra Mani and producer Justine Ciarrocchi at the Cannes film festival With Mani and the other women featured now all out of the country, the producers felt comfortable submitting Bread and Roses for wider distribution, starting at Cannes. Ciarrocchi and Lawrence say their next challenge is to get the film in front of a large audience - not always easy when the story is a snapshot of an ongoing and devastating conflict. "There's not an end to this story," says Lawrence, "and you feel pretty much helpless when thinking about how to do anything about it. It's a hard thing to market." As women executive producers, Ciarrocchi and Lawrence are still in the minority in Hollywood. A 2022 study from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film showed that women comprised only 24% of directors, writers and producers in the top-grossing films, a decrease from 2021. "I think there's a long, long way to go, but I do feel inspired and positive by the end product when you have more diversity in filmmaking," says Lawrence. "It's what people want. The audiences want it." Ciarrocchi adds: "That's why we take the responsibility of Jen's platform so seriously as a woman who's giving opportunities to other women... to employ women, to tell women's stories, to always employ a diverse body of people." "That's also because I am a woman," replies Lawrence. "I'm lucky enough to not have the biased idea that women aren't as good at things!"

Saudi Arabia cut ties in 2016 after its embassy in Tehran was stormed Middle East regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed to restore diplomatic relations, seven years after severing them in a bitter row. The unexpected announcement came after four days of talks between officials from both sides in China. Saudi Arabia cut ties in January 2016 after demonstrators stormed its embassy in Tehran following Riyadh's execution of a prominent Shia Muslim cleric. Tensions between the Sunni and Shia-led neighbours have since often been high. They regard each other as a threatening power that seeks regional dominance. They also support rival sides across the Middle East, including in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq - and most overtly in Yemen. Iran has supported Shia Houthi rebels who forced out the Saudi-backed government in 2014, while Saudi Arabia has led a devastating air campaign against the Houthis since the following year. Saudi Arabia has also accused Iran of helping the Houthis attack it. In the most serious incident of its kind, drones and missiles struck major Saudi oil facilities in 2019, causing damage and disruption to production. Saudi Arabia and its US ally blamed Iran for the attack - something Iran denied. Previous attempts at reconciliation have been unsuccessful, but on Friday the two countries said they would reopen embassies within two months. They will also re-establish trade and security relations. The US cautiously welcomed the announcement. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the administration supported "any effort to de-escalate tensions in the region". But he added: "It really does remain to be seen if Iran is going to meet their obligations." The secretary-general is ready to help efforts "to ensure durable peace and security in the Gulf region", his spokesman said. Israel, which has called for maximum pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme, has not commented.

Swedish star Loreen is the bookmaker's favourite to win the contest Sweden's Loreen has sailed through to the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest, cementing her position as this year's favourite. The star, who previously won in 2012, clasped her hands to cover her eyes as it was announced she had qualified from the first semi-final in Liverpool. Ireland were less fortunate, with the rock band Wild Youth on their way home after failing to attract enough votes. The country has now failed to qualify on eight of their last 10 attempts. The continuation of that losing streak will cause much soul-searching in the nation that holds the record for the most Eurovision victories of all time - seven in total. The last time they qualified was 2018, when Ryan O'Shaughnessy entered with his song Together. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Night one's most iconic Eurovision performances (UK only) Ireland's Eurovision commentator Marty Whelan could not hide his disappointment. "Everything was absolutely perfect, they were fantastic," he said live on RTÉ One as the news sunk in. "There's things I want to say, there's things I want to share. You can probably get it from the tone of my voice, what I'm thinking, that this is... Ugh, this is just such a shame. "But the votes didn't come. So we are not qualifying again this year from Liverpool when we had great expectations, as the famous book says." Ireland's Wild Youth had been endorsed by Lewis Capaldi and former One Direction star Niall Horan Tuesday's semi-final at the Liverpool Arena saw 15 acts competing for a place in Saturday's grand final. These are the ones who made the cut. Rock bands fared badly in the public vote, with Latvia's Sudden Lights and Malta's The Busker joining Ireland on the chopping block. The other artists whose journey ended on Tuesday were Azerbaijani twins TuralTuranX and the Netherlands' Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper. The show was hosted by Alesha Dixon, Julia Sanina and Hannah Waddingham Ten more acts will progress to the main competition after Thursday's second semi-final. The "Big Five" countries, who contribute the most financially to the competition (France, Germany, Spain, the UK and Italy) qualify automatically, as do last year's winners Ukraine. Liverpool is hosting the competition on Ukraine's behalf, due to the ongoing Russian invasion of their country. The impact of the war was referenced throughout the two-hour show. Songs like Switzerland's Watergun and Croatia's Mama ŠČ! denounced conflict and bloodlust, while the Czech band Vesna sang elements of their song in Ukrainian as a show of solidarity with their near-neighbours. During the interval, Ukrainian star Alyosha performed a mournful version of Duran Duran's Ordinary World, that emphasised the pain of being separated from your loved ones. The singer fled to America with her three children when the war began, but her husband, Taras Topolja, frontman of the rock band Antitila, was required to stay at home. As she duetted with Liverpudlian X-Factor star Rebecca Ferguson, text messages from families fleeing the country flashed up on giant video screens and the arena was lit up in the Ukrainian national colours of blue and yellow. Speaking before the contest, Alyosha dedicated her sobering and beautiful performance to forced migrants around the world. The half-time show also saw pop star Rita Ora performing a medley of her hits, including Anywhere and Praising You. She was joined on stage by 12-year-old Ukrainian refugee Sofiia, who has now settled in the UK. Ora said the youngster's plight reminded her of her own family's experience of fleeing the Balkan War in the 1990s "and how I will be forever grateful to the UK for showing us kindness and compassion". "Sofiia opens my performance this evening playing with a ball, representing the loss of childhood for these poor refugees," she wrote on Twitter. "We love you Ukraine, we all perform tonight, for you." The evening kicked off with a short video featuring famous faces from around Liverpool including Wirral-born TV baker Paul Hollywood, Ukrainian Everton footballer Vitalii Mykolenko and the late Paul O'Grady. The video also contained a surprise cameo from the King and Queen, who unveiled the contest's stage last month. Israel's Noa Kirel gave one of the night's most athletic performances The royal theme continued with the opening act, Norwegian singer Alessandra, whose barnstorming electropop number Queen of Kings featured a costume inspired by Queen Elizabeth I. After that, the audience were treated to ballroom dancers, a Portuguese Moulin Rouge routine, and a re-enactment of a traditional Moldovan wedding ceremony. Co-host Alesha Dixon even recalled her days in the girl band Mis-Teeq, with a rap about the history of the song contest. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Alesha Dixon's Eurovision rap at the first semi-final in Liverpool (UK only) Noa Kirel - Israel's answer to Beyoncé - received an enthusiastic response for her song Unicorn, and its pneumatic dance routine. And Finland's Käärijä raised the roof with his utterly bonkers thrash techno track Cha Cha Cha. The night's most outrageous costumes came courtesy of Croatian shock rockers Let 3, who dressed in leather fetish gear before stripping down to white underwear. Let 3's song was a thinly-veiled attack on Russia's Vladimir Putin Käärijä's rock-pop hybrid Cha Cha Cha is seen as the biggest challenger to Loreen However, Loreen was the artist who had the arena in the palm of her hand, with a soaring performance of Tattoo - a song about a love so deep and intense that it becomes engraved on her heart. Performing in a nude catsuit between two giant LED screens, she threw down the gauntlet to the rest of the 2023 contestants. But over the weekend, the star said she wasn't too concerned about winning. "No, I care about creating something that is real," she replied. "So my fear is compromising, my fear is that it's not authentic."

Deportation flights to Albania from the UK have increased following a joint co-operation agreement in December 2022 Albanian authorities have confirmed that most of its citizens forcibly sent back home from the UK this year were convicted of crimes there. The BBC has spoken to those men sent home, and learnt that some prisoners were offered £1,500 to leave - and some plan to come back. Each week, a small crowd gathers at the razor-wire fence tucked around the back of Albania's Tirana airport. The narrow runway beyond it, pinched between jagged black mountains and the high grey walls of the border police unit, is where UK deportation flights land - closely watched by the families waiting at the fence. It takes hours for the deportees to appear, trickling slowly through the gate to be met with hugs, shy smiles and tears. Deportation flights to Albania have increased since the country signed a joint co-operation agreement with the UK last December, to "deter and disrupt illegal migration". The UK government's Home Office says more than 1,000 people have been returned since then: around half of them voluntary, the rest a combination of failed asylum seekers and foreign offenders. The BBC spoke to dozens of people on several of these deportation flights last month, and found that most came from UK prisons. Some had been offered money in return for agreeing to deportation, and were released from prison before serving their minimum sentence, under an existing scheme used for foreign offenders. Albanian police confirmed that a majority of those forcibly returned this year were convicted of crimes in the UK. One cheerful 30-year-old man said he had been serving a six-year sentence for drug offences, and was released for deportation after serving just two of them - a year before he would have been eligible for parole. He asked us to hide his identity, so we're calling him Mark. The man who we're calling Mark asked the BBC not to identify him "The immigration officer came to see us," he said. "They ask if you want to go back [to Albania] or stay in UK. They explained that if you go back, they take one year off from your sentence." Mark was also offered £1,500 in financial support to return home, under a separate programme called the Facilitated Return Scheme (FRS). A UK government document clearly states that the scheme is "a financial incentive" offered to foreign prisoners "on the proviso that they co-operate with deportation and waive their right to appeal against it". Other prisoners we spoke to on the deportation flights last month had been given the same amount. Mark was deported under the UK's Early Release Scheme (ERS), used for foreign prisoners of all nationalities. ERS does not require the consent of prisoners, but several Albanian deportees we spoke to, including Mark, said their deportation and sentence reduction were presented as voluntary. "It was my choice to come back," Mark told me. "Nobody forced me. They offered it to me. They said, 'You decide if you want to go or want to stay'." We asked the Home Office to confirm how many Albanians had been deported under the ERS since the start of last year, and how many had received financial incentives to co-operate, but it said it did not publish these statistics. A spokesperson said in a statement: "The UK and Albanian governments work together to take every opportunity to intercept the work of people smugglers and speed up the removal of Albanians with no legal right to be in the UK." In March, Edi Rama (right) became the first Albanian prime minister to visit 10 Downing Street Last year, the government's Nationality and Borders Act extended the early release period allowed under the ERS from nine months to a year. One of the aims of that change, according to a Home Office brief, was to increase the number of removals. The same Act also abolished the expiry date for unserved sentences, meaning that prisoners who return to the UK illegally will have to serve the rest of their sentence, no matter how much time has passed - increasing the deterrent for people like Mark. "I'm not going back there again," he said. "I'm not going to prison. Now I'm going to look for work, I'm going to be a good guy." But several of those on the deportation flights last month said they were planning to return to the UK within weeks or even days, despite what many described as a new hard-line approach by police there. "They're rounding up Albanians now," one man said. "It's very difficult for Albanians to stay in the UK because police stop you in the road. They don't want us now." He said he had been sent back to Albania after police stopped the car he was in and found he was undocumented. He is still planning to return. Another man said he had already been back and forth to the UK three times. "It's not a problem for me," he said. "I'll go back whenever I want." For many of those we spoke to, it was economic opportunities that drew them to the UK. Not for Azem, though - a slight man in his late twenties, who seemed lost inside his clothes. Azem - not his real name - talks to the BBC's Lucy Williamson on a disused railway track Azem - not his real name - told us his story on condition of anonymity. He also insisted we meet somewhere remote, where he wouldn't be overheard. On a disused railway track over a pretty river sunk into the rolling landscape outside Tirana, Azem talked, his hands trembling. He showed me documents detailing his removal from the UK, and the rejection of his asylum claim. He told immigration officials he had fled Albania after gang members put a gun to his head and threatened to kill him for his political activities. He was returned back to Albania against his wishes last month. "I'm afraid because the same situation can happen again," he said. "I've stayed quiet, I don't smile, I'm stressed and my body shakes all the time, I don't sleep much." A UK psychologist's report, filed just before Azem's deportation, raised concerns that he may have experienced psychological torture in Albania. A Home Office response said his experiences had already been considered in his asylum application, and that the decision was unchanged. Azem told me he wouldn't hesitate to return to the UK illegally if he was threatened again, despite being blacklisted from entering the UK and EU countries. Albanians have free movement to countries like France and Belgium, which offer an easy springboard across the Channel. Albanian police have recently stepped up checks at the country's border crossings, to catch blacklisted deportees trying to slip across. The increased co-operation between the UK and Albania has coincided with a sharp drop in the number of Albanians arriving in small boats; just 29 were detected in the first few months of this year. Much of that drop is likely to be seasonal and with the winter weather now easing, both governments are facing the first real test of their approach to tackling irregular migration. Albania's Interior Minister Bledar Çuçi said those who return are "free citizens" I asked Albania's Interior Minister Bledar Çuçi what his country was doing to prevent the recent deportees simply returning to the UK. "It's not possible to put a chip in everyone to follow where they go," he said. "If there are people with criminal records, especially in trafficking, then police will be on alert. But in general, the people who return are free citizens in Albania." But alongside work on illegal migration, he said, the two governments needed to work on legal routes for Albanian citizens to reach the UK. "I have suggested to my colleague, [UK Home Secretary] Suella Braverman, that we should also create the immediate legalisation of all Albanians who work in [the UK] at an honest job, and who have no criminal record," Mr Çuçi added. Both Albania and British governments recognise the economic pull of the UK. In the tiny northern-Albanian town of Krumë, 60% of the population has already gone. The first man I meet on the street there speaks English effortlessly, with a London accent. Local politicians say more of the town's voters now live in east London than here at home. Even those who remain here go to a café called "Britain" for their morning coffee; its entrance adorned with a full-sized London phone box. The tiny northern Albanian town of Krumë features a café called Britain, with a red phone box outside The UK is putting more than £8m into training projects and businesses in Kukës - the region where Krumë lies - through an organisation that aims to change what it calls the "cultural norm" of illegal migration to the UK. The Albanian government is also investing in infrastructure here, including a new airport. But locals have so far seen few tangible benefits. We meet local mayoral candidate Miftar Dauti at a campaign rally for young people - his arrival greeted by an enthusiastic crowd of young supporters, and a deafening sound system playing a song called Democracy. "What's the system where people don't dare to say what they think?" the lyrics scream. "Where journalists don't dare to say what's happening? Where the law only applies to you? Democracy, democracy, democracy!" A strange choice for an election campaign, perhaps. Mr Dauti is promising to stop the town's young people leaving for the UK. But even here amongst his own young supporters in the village hall, that promise is struggling to land. "I want to be back in the UK," a lively, baby-faced supporter called Valda told me, as he watched the candidate leave. "This place isn't for me. I've been in the UK for two years and I want to be back there." At a local park in Kukës town centre, grandparents watch young children play football beneath the snow-capped mountains, while single-sex groups of teenagers wander along the paths. Locals say some children here say they want to be migrants when they leave school. In one version of Albania's future, British tourists might flock here, transfixed by this region's stunning landscape. But as so many young people here will tell you, futures don't happen in Kukes. They happen in the UK.

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police in Northern Ireland have described a petrol-bomb attack on officers in Londonderry as "senseless and reckless". Petrol bombs and other missiles were thrown at officers during an illegal republican parade on Monday. They were in an armoured police Land Rover in the Creggan area of the city where the parade began when they were targeted shortly after 14:00 BST. The violence comes on the eve of US President Joe Biden's visit to NI. Mr Biden is due in Belfast on Tuesday, when he will give an address as part of the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday peace agreement. Monday's parade was led by more than a dozen people in paramilitary-style dress. Young hooded men prepare to throw a petrol bomb at police vehicle in Londonderry. "Shortly after the parade commenced, petrol bombs and other objects were thrown at one of our vehicles at the junction of Iniscarn Road and Linsfort Drive," Ch Supt Nigel Goddard said. Masked youths were observed making petrol bombs and participating in the attack. "This was a senseless and reckless attack on our officers who were in attendance in the area in order to comply with our legal duties," Ch Supt Goddard added. He described the violence as "incredibly disheartening". The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said none of its officers had been injured and appealed for calm. The parade ended at Derry's City Cemetery where about 300 people took part in an event to commemorate the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising. Youths wearing masks set fire to bins and blocked one of the main roads leading into Creggan. "As participants at the parade made their way out of the City Cemetery, they removed their paramilitary uniforms under the cover of umbrellas and burnt them," Ch Supt Goddard said. "As the parade was un-notified, police were in attendance with a proportionate policing operation." Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris told BBC News NI it was "very, very disappointing that people have gone ahead with a march that's not been notified to the police". "Hopefully it will calm down very, very quickly and the police can go about their business because they're there to protect all communities across Northern Ireland," he added. Alliance Party leader Naomi Long said it was "utterly tragic" to watch people born after the Good Friday Agreement attack police. "They are being groomed by adults who have nothing to offer but misery and destruction," the former Stormont justice minister said. DUP MP Gregory Campbell called the scenes in Creggan "deplorable" and called for action to catch those responsible. Sinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O'Neill said the disorder had no place in society and that political leaders must "stand united appealing to all those concerned to end these attacks and refrain from further threats of violence". SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said "there are kids with no memory or experience of the violence of 25 years ago and they're being exploited and abused by people with no vision for the future". Last week the PSNI said there was potential for public disorder over Easter, with "very strong intelligence" suggesting dissident republicans were planning attacks in Derry. Chief Constable Simon Byrne had said the disorder could be an attempt to draw officers into gun or bomb ambushes.

Heidi Crowter brought the case against the government over its abortion legislation A woman with Down's syndrome fighting against abortion laws says she is taking her case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Heidi Crowter previously challenged legislation allowing foetuses with the condition to be aborted up until birth. But in November 2022 Judges at the Court of Appeal decided the Abortion Act did not interfere with the rights of the living disabled. The campaigner had argued that the rules were discriminatory. Ms Crowter, 27, from Coventry, said she was taking her case to the Strasbourg court "because it is downright discrimination that people with disabilities are treated differently". "In 2023, we live in a society where disabled people are valued equally after birth but not in the womb," she said. Under legislation in England, Wales and Scotland, there is a 24-week time limit for abortion, unless "there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped", which includes Down's syndrome. In September 2021, High Court judges found the section of the Abortion Act pertaining to the condition to not be unlawful, adding that it aimed to strike a balance between the rights of the unborn child and of women, in a case brought by Ms Crowter and Maire Lea-Wilson from west London, whose son Aidan has Down's syndrome. Posting on social media Ms Crowter said her legal team had sought permission to appeal to the ECHR after the UK Supreme Court refused to hear her case. If successful, a European Court ruling "could not only have implications for the United Kingdom, but also set a legal precedent for all 46 countries that are members of the Council of Europe," said campaign group Don't Screen Us Out. Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk

Journalists have been told to stop stealing souvenirs from US President Joe Biden's official aircraft. An inventory check on Air Force One after Mr Biden's visit to the US west coast in February found several items were missing from its press section. Branded pillowcases, glasses and gold-rimmed plates are among the items that have allegedly vanished from the jet. The White House Correspondents' Association warned that taking items from the plane was forbidden. Last month, the association sent an email to reporters to say that such behaviour reflected poorly on the press pool - the group of journalists who travel with the president - and must stop. Journalists are sometimes given small packages of M&Ms chocolates decorated with the presidential seal as a souvenir. But taking items with an Air Force One logo - including cutlery and towels - has been commonplace for years, reports claim. Misha Komadovsky, White House Correspondent from the Voice of America, has gathered a "subtle" collection of items from his trips on the president's plane. M&Ms from Air Force One pictured in 2016 during Barack Obama's presidency. "I didn't embarrass anyone or commit any wrongdoing to put this collection together," he told BBC News, as he held up a paper cup with the Air Force One logo he "simply forgot to throw away". Mr Komadovsky also has a box of the presidential M&Ms with Mr Biden's signature. "Spoiler alert. They are regular M&Ms in a nice box," he said. Air Force One, which the White House calls the president's "office in the sky", has 4,000 sq feet (372 sq m) of floor space spread over three levels. Its impressive facilities include an extensive suite for the president, a medical station with an operating table, a conference and dining room, two food preparation galleys that can feed 100 people at a time, and designated areas for the press, VIPs, security and secretarial staff. With its advanced avionics and defences, the aircraft is classed as a military aircraft, designed to withstand an air attack. It is also capable of refuelling mid-air, allowing it to fly for an unlimited time - crucial in an emergency. Air Force One is also equipped with secure communications equipment, allowing the aircraft to function as a mobile command centre. There are 85 onboard telephones, a collection of two-way radios and computer connections. The president sits up front, while journalists are stationed towards the rear of the plane. • None Special M&Ms and James Bond - a trip on Air Force One

The Euclid telescope has successfully launched into space on a mission to understand some of the Universe's greatest mysteries. The €1.4bn (£1.2bn) telescope was primed to go up on a Falcon-9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Saturday. Euclid's goal is to make an immense 3D map of the cosmos in a bid to better understand so-called dark matter and dark energy. Researchers know virtually nothing about these phenomena, which appear to control the structure and expansion of the cosmos. Although primarily a European Space Agency project, the mission also has significant scientific and engineering inputs from the US space agency Nasa. Euclid will carry out its work from an observing position on the opposite side of our planet to the Sun.

There have been calls for Orkney to become part of Norway Orkney councillors have voted to investigate alternative methods of governance amid deep frustrations over funding and opportunities. Council leader James Stockan said the islands had been "held down" and accused the Scottish and UK governments of discrimination. His motion led to media speculation that Orkney could leave the UK or become a self-governing territory of Norway. It was supported by 15 votes to six. It means council officers have been asked to publish a report to Orkney's chief executive on options of governance. This includes looking at the "Nordic connections" of the archipelago and crown dependencies such as Jersey and Guernsey. A further change which would see the revival of a consultative group on constitutional reform for the islands was accepted without the need for a vote. On Monday, the prime minister's spokesperson rejected the suggestion the islands could loosen its ties with the union. Mr Stockan urged councillors to back his idea to find new ways to get greater financial security and economic opportunities for Orcadians. Speaking to councillors on Tuesday, he said the motion was "not about us joining Norway". He added: "I say it's time for government to take us seriously and I say it's time for us to look at all the options we've got. "There is a far bigger suite of options here - this could even be that we could get our money direct from the Treasury in London and look after our own future. "We have been held down and we all know most of what I could say today in terms of discrimination against this community from governments. We all know how much less we get compared to other island groups." Council leader James Stockan says Orkney does not get fair funding within the UK Orkney Islands Council previously voted in 2017 to look at whether the islands could have greater autonomy. While councillors wanted to have a "stronger voice", they did not back full independence for Orkney. Currently, most of the island's 21 councillors sit as independents - two are Greens. Mr Stockan has said an ageing ferry fleet is among the issues being faced by islanders. He previously told the BBC the situation was "critical" because the ferries, which are older than the Western Isles fleet, were beginning to fail. His concerns were widely shared by other councillors, however some raised issues with self-governance, such as the cost of carrying out such investigations. Cllr Steven Heddle also mentioned disadvantages including having to buy back the sea bed, and tuition fees for students wishing to study in Scotland. He called Mr Stockan's efforts "politics of grievance" and said that every council felt hard done by, citing roads in Edinburgh that were "worse" than Orkney's despite the council having far more funding. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's official spokesperson said: "First and foremost there is no mechanism for the conferral of Crown Dependency or Overseas Territory status on any part of the UK. "We have no plans to change the devolution settlement we are supporting Orkney with £50m to grow the economic prosperity of the Scottish islands, through the islands deal. "But the government's position is that the UK is stronger united." Orkney was previously held under Norwegian and Danish control until it became part of Scotland in 1472. The islands were used as security for the wedding dowry of Margaret of Denmark, the future wife of King James III of Scotland. The Scottish government said in 2023-24 Orkney Islands Council would receive £89.7m to fund services, with an extra £4.6m from an increase in council tax by 10%. A spokesperson added it was "committed to supporting island communities". The Norwegian government declined to comment on the proposals. Today's vote was never about Orkney becoming part of Norway, or any of the other headlines we've seen over recent days. Rather it was a chance for councillors to express their extreme frustration with what they see as the unfair deal they get from the Scottish and UK governments, with council leader James Stockan saying the islands had been failed by both of them. The successful passing of the motion is the first of many hurdles in Orkney gaining a degree of greater autonomy. Council officials will now be tasked with investigating options. Mr Stockan said that "nothing was off the table" - including of course the much-publicised return to Norway or Denmark. Reaction to the vote on the streets of Kirkwall has been fairly mixed. Some don't want to see any tax-payer money devoted to what one councillor described as "frankly bizarre fantasies". Others feel that the council does get a raw deal from both Holyrood and Westminster, and that anything that gets the two governments to sit up and pay attention is worth looking at. The eyes of the global media have been on Orkney for the past few days. It's now up to the islands council to capitalise on that attention.

The Strangford Lough Ferry service will be suspended for seven days due to the strike Hundreds of schoolchildren who use the Strangford Ferry in County Down face disruption over the next seven days due to strike action by ferry workers. The service will not be operational for a week, meaning commuters will have to find an alternative means of transport. One principal said four of his pupils will be left without any way of getting to school. The trade union Unite said members voted to strike after rejecting a pay offer of £552 extra per year. Its general secretary, Sharon Graham, said the offer was a "slap in the face" for those responsible for the maintenance of vital public services and infrastructure. The strike action began at 00:01 BST on Thursday and will continue until 00:00 on Wednesday 26 April. Unite and GMB union members within the roads service and forestry service have also begun industrial action. With a journey time of 10 minutes, the ferry crossing can save a 50-mile drive around Strangford Lough from Portaferry to Strangford. Among those on strike is skipper Jonathon Brownlee who said any disruption was "regrettable" but staff has come "to the end of the road." "After 15 years of austerity, our pay has now fallen about 15% behind where prices have pushed inflation," he told BBC News NI. "In addition to that we know for a fact that we aren't being paid the market value for the job we do and we are being taken for granted." Strangford Ferry skipper Jonathan Brownlee said he believed workers were "being taken advantage of" by their employers Alan Perry of the GMB union said that the strike would have a huge impact which was "entirely avoidable". "Workers are demanding a fair pay increase to protect themselves and their families from surging prices," he added. One of the affected pupils, Owen, travels on the ferry to St Patrick's Grammar School in Downpatrick. He told BBC News NI on Thursday that he may be more tired than usual but added at least it is only for a week. "I found out on Tuesday; some people found out quicker than me, today it was just awkward getting up that bit earlier and not knowing what is going to happen," he said. St Patrick's Grammar School pupil Owen admits he may be more tired than usual this week The Department for Infrastructure said it would not be able to provide the minimum number of crew needed to safely operate the ferry service and it had no option but to suspend services during the strike period. Speaking about the wider industrial action, the department added: "While contingency arrangements are in place, to limit potential impacts as much as possible, this strike action will affect many of our routine and emergency response functions." It said this will affect the repair of serious infrastructure defects such as manhole collapse or potholes, reduce its capacity to respond to flood emergencies and will also affect the response to incidents on the road such as oil spills. The principal of St Patrick's Grammar said as many as 90 pupils could be affected by the suspension of the ferry service. However, he said the Education Authority and Translink coordinated with the school to make alternative arrangements. Mr McCann said the suspension of the ferry would add an extra 30 minutes each way to their normal journey time. "We are delighted that our students can still get to school whilst still being respectful of the rights of Unite workers," he continued. The Education Authority told BBC News NI that it had established contingency arrangements for 20, 21 and 24 April, which , while it was looking at plans for 25 and 26 April. It added that those plans "may be impacted further by other industrial action taking place during this time". James Hay, principal of St Columba's College in Portaferry, said seven of his pupils take the Strangford Ferry to school. Three of them live in Strangford, the other lives in the countryside but none of them qualify for free transport. "Now because those children don't have a bus pass or provision they are likely to not to have any way of getting into school," he said. Mr Hay heard about the strike happening on Monday evening and said he was taken aback by the short notice. The GMB union says the pay offer equates to an increase of around 28p per hour Road service workers in Northern Ireland are among those striking over pay across Northern Ireland. Aaron McGrotty, of the GMB union, was on the picket line at the Roads Service depot in Londonderry. He said members want to work but have been left with no option but to strike following a "paltry pay offer" aimed at settling the dispute. "It works out to around 28 pence per hour, that is absolutely disgusting for the amount of work a lot of employees do," he told BBC Radio Foyle. "They have been underpaid for a long, long time. Enough is enough."

Labour would give people greater choice over where they receive hospital treatment, the shadow health secretary has pledged. Wes Streeting said organising waiting lists by region would give patients more freedom and help tackle backlogs. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is expected to commit to delivering the idea across England during a speech on Monday. The address is also expected to include new pledges on NHS targets. It will be the third in a series of speeches he is making on Labour's five "missions" for government if it wins power. These missions are likely to form the backbone of the party's manifesto at the next general election, expected in 2024. Speaking on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Mr Streeting said organising waiting lists on a regional basis would give patients "real choice" over where they are seen. The party says this would allow patients to get treatment more quickly if queues are shorter at nearby hospitals. Under Labour's plan, it is understood that waiting lists would be shared across integrated care systems - coalitions of several neighbouring NHS trusts that usually cover populations of between 500,000 and 3 million people. Patients already have some rights to choose where they receive non-urgent care under NHS England's constitution, but the party sees this option as under-used. In his BBC interview, Mr Streeting said many patients were unaware about their rights to choice over treatment, or don't "feel the freedom to exercise that choice". He said that a trial in West Yorkshire, where NHS trusts are sharing waiting lists for conditions affecting blood vessels, showed the approach worked. The change would also "build more capacity in the system", he added, to help tackle waiting lists that have ballooned since the pandemic. Elsewhere, Mr Streeting said Labour also wanted to see a greater share of NHS spending outside of hospitals to tackle health problems earlier. He said that the proportions of spending were "very different" in other developed economies that have "much better outcomes than we have here in the UK". "We under invest in primary care, community services, mental health, diagnostics, and capital, and we've got to shift that focus," he added. "Lots of hospital trust leaders are already doing this. They recognise that the pressure we see in hospitals is in part driven by the clogged front door to the NHS in primary care and community services as well as delayed discharges in social care." Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, former Tory chairman Sir Jake Berry rubbished Labour's approach, saying the party was aiming to "do more of what the Conservative government is already doing". The government says it wants to boost community NHS services. It recently announced plans to let high street pharmacies prescribe a greater range of common prescription drugs, including antibiotics, to ease the pressure on GPs. And as part of efforts to cut waiting lists, ministers say new community "diagnostic centres" opening this year will allow people to access checks and scans for conditions such as cancer, heart disease or lung disease without travelling to a hospital. Labour does not want to make multiple expensive promises. But it might be tricky to translate its ambitions into concrete plans that the public believe will make an immediate difference - and getting voters excited about structural changes to the NHS might be a tall order. Mr Streeting also confirmed that a review of social care policy carried out for the party will be published next month. The report, by a Labour-affiliated think tank, is expected to inform the party's position on social care ahead of the next election. He did not offer details of what will be in the blueprint, but said Labour has previously stressed the need to improve pay in the sector, as well supporting people more in their own homes.

The Walt Disney Company has scrapped a plan to invest nearly $1bn (£806m) to build a new corporate campus in Florida, it announced. The reversal comes amid an escalating feud between the entertainment giant and the state's Republican-led government headed by Ron DeSantis. The plan would have seen about 2,000 employees relocate to a Disney-owned complex at Lake Nona, near Orlando. The cancellation was announced in an internal email to employees on Thursday. The email, seen by BBC News, said the company's decision was the result of "considerable changes" that have taken place since it was first announced. In the email, Josh D'Amaro, the head of Disney's theme park division, also referred to "changing business conditions". While the email does not mention politics or Mr DeSantis, it has been interpreted as alluding to mounting tensions between Disney and Florida lawmakers. "Disney announced the possibility of a Lake Nona campus nearly two years ago. Nothing ever came of the project, and the state was unsure whether it would come to fruition," Mr DeSantis' office said in a statement. "Given the company's financial straits, falling market cap and declining stock price, it is unsurprising that they would restructure their business operations and cancel unsuccessful ventures." The internal Disney email noted that the decision to scrap the project comes after "new leadership" at the company, referring to the sudden departure in November of ex-CEO Bob Chapek. The Lake Nona campus, which had not been built, would have been a new home for employees at the firm's secretive theme park research and development arm, known as Imagineers, who were asked to move from California to Florida. Mr D'Amaro's email said relocation would no longer be required and it would discuss next steps with those he said had already done so. Many of the jobs that were supposed to relocate to Florida were higher paid, white collar and tech-focused positions. The Orlando Business Journal reported the project was valued at about $867m and that the average annual wage for the positions was $120,000. Bob Iger, the former chief executive who made a stunning return to replace his successor, Mr Chapek, has announced sweeping changes to boost the firm's business, which has come under pressure as the traditional movie and television industries decline. Disney launched a streaming offering, Disney+, in 2019, but it remains loss making. Unlike other media companies, Disney has been shielded by the popularity of its theme parks, which have kept the firm profitable. But the value of its share price has halved since peaking in March 2021, as investors predict a tough road ahead. Earlier this year, Mr Iger announced a plan to save $5.5bn, involving a sweeping reorganisation of the company's operations and roughly 7,000 job losses. Among the cuts, announced separately on Thursday, was the closure of a 100-room Star Wars-themed immersive hotel experience at one of its Florida theme parks. The relationship between Disney and Florida - where it employs more than 70,000 staff - began deteriorating last year after Mr DeSantis condemned the company for opposing a state law banning discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in public schools. In April, Florida also moved to take control of the Reedy Creek Improvement District - covering the 25,000-acre area known as Walt Disney World - a self-governing zone, with utilities and a fire department. State lawmakers voted to give Mr DeSantis the power to appoint members to the district's governing board, removing that authority from landowners, of which Disney was by far the biggest. The move prompted a lawsuit from Disney, accusing state officials of conducting "a relentless campaign to weaponise government power against Disney in retaliation for expressing a political viewpoint unpopular with certain state officials". Disney's parks in Florida have long been one of its most-popular attractions, bringing in about 50 million visitors each year. In a call with investors a week ago, Mr Iger questioned Florida's interest in having Disney grow in the state. "Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people and pay more taxes, or not?" Mr Iger asked. Aubrey Jewett, a politics professor at the University of Central Florida, said he believed Mr DeSantis and his allies "did not think about the longer-term ramifications of their actions" when they moved to "punish Disney for speaking out". "They weren't going to move the Disney World complex someplace else. But as Disney has just shown, that's not the only investment and jobs they were talking about creating in Florida." Erin Huntley, the chair of the Republican Party in Orange County, where Disney World is located, said "it's a different ballgame" now compared to when Walt Disney first realised the area's potential in the 1960s. "People are still wanting to come here, no matter what battles are going on," she told the BBC. "Central Florida is more than just Disney." Mr DeSantis is expected to announce a 2024 presidential bid next week. His likely rival, Donald Trump, said in a statement that Mr DeSantis was being "absolutely destroyed by Disney" and that his "political stunt" of battling them was "all so unnecessary". This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Additional reporting by Natalie Sherman in New York. CORRECTION: The headline in the initial versions of this story misstated the value of Disney's investment in billions rather than millions.

Last updated on .From the section Motorsport Dutch racing driver Dilano van 't Hoff has died after a crash at a race in the Formula Regional European Championship. The 18-year-old MP Motorsport driver was competing in the second race at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium, organisers announced. French driver Anthoine Hubert lost his life at the same circuit during a Formula 2 race in 2019. The race organisers said: "We want to express our sincere condolences to the family, team and friends." They added: "Royal Automobile Club of Belgium, the Circuit of Spa-Francorchamps and SRO Motorsports Group join Alpine and ACI in expressing their sincerest condolences to the driver's family, team and friends." Organisers of the headline GT race, the 24 Hours of Spa, said on social media: "All start line entertainments for the 24 Hours of Spa have been cancelled and there will be a minute's silence before the start of the race to honour the memory of Dilano." The Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine is a European Formula Three racing series intended to be a stepping stone to the FIA Formula Three Championship. Formula 1 boss Stefano Domenicali said on Twitter: "We are so sad to learn of the passing of Dilano van 't Hoff today at Spa-Francorchamps. "Dilano died in pursuit of his dream to reach the pinnacle of motorsport. Along with the entire motorsport community, our thoughts are with his family and loved ones." McLaren also added: "The McLaren Racing Team are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Dilano van 't Hoff in a Formula Regional race at Spa-Francorchamps today. "Our thoughts are with his family, friends, and the entire MP Motorsport team at this difficult time."